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Leftwords
Web site: www.leftwords.com
Awarded $10,000 - 2011
Leftwords will provide background resources, analyses, educational material, and advice and assistance for anyone needing help to support and ‘frame’ an argument against the dominant conservative discourse in the public arena.
The concept of framing comes from the work of George Lakoff, the University of California linguist. As Lakoff shows in his books and articles, frames are so powerful that they can overcome facts, because "facts are only assimilated into the brain if there is a frame to make sense out of them."
Lakoff observes that "it is impossible to think or communicate without activating frames, and so which frame is activated is of crucial importance." For example when right-wing politicians talk about taxes they refer to the "tax burden" or "tax load" or "tax grab". Their solution...? "Tax relief!"
Leftwords uses framing to test whether your language is helping your side, or "scoring on your own net" by setting off the frames of your opponents in the minds of the people whose support you need.
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