What type of communication is central to framing in media studies?

Framing in media studies revolves around the concept of how media content is presented and interpreted, and contextualization plays a crucial role in this process. Contextualization refers to the way in which information is situated within specific settings or circumstances that influence the audience's understanding. This includes the broader social, political, and cultural contexts that the media uses to shape narratives.

When the media frames an issue, it does so by providing a context that can steer public perception and interpretation. This involves selecting certain aspects of a perceived reality while omitting others, thus guiding the audience’s understanding and emotional response to the information being presented. By emphasizing particular details and downplaying others, the media creates a context that can significantly affect how the audience engages with the content.

In contrast, while visual representation, textual analysis, and prioritization are all important elements of media studies, they do not encapsulate the core process of framing in the same way that contextualization does. Visual representation pertains to images and graphics that can influence understanding but may not inherently involve the broader contextual layers of interpretation. Textual analysis examines the language and structure of messages but may not necessarily consider how they fit within real-world contexts that shape those messages. Prioritization involves the ranking or significance given to certain