Elisabeth Wehling

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elisabeth Wehling at re: publica 2017

Eva Elisabeth Wehling (born April 30, 1981 in Hamburg ) is a German linguist specializing in cognitive linguistics , an author and consultant . Your framing - Manual for the ARD led to a public controversy.

Life

Wehling grew up in Hamburg in a social democratic home with her parents Uta and Gerd Wehling. During the reign of Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt, her father was legal advisor to the SPD parliamentary group and later the presiding judge at the Hamburg Administrative Court .

She completed a bachelor's degree in sociology , journalism and linguistics at the University of Hamburg . They focused on the propaganda of the Nazi era and the influence of money and power to the media coverage. She completed a semester abroad at the La Sapienza University in Rome and took a course in communication psychology at the Schulz von Thun Institute for Communication. At the University of California, Berkeley , she completed a master's degree in linguistics and was at 2013 George Lakoff Doctor of Philosophy ( Ph.D. doctorate in linguistics). She worked there as a postdoc until 2019, and as a visiting researcher since May 2019.

With her book Political Framing , published in 2016 , she reached a wide audience and was regularly interviewed by the media on the subject of political communication and invited to talk shows. After the controversy over their framing manual for ARD in spring 2019, their public presence fell sharply.

The science journal Moral Cognition and Communication that she had announced was not published. In 2017 and 2018 she was a member of the jury for the German Reporter Award . In 2020, her article “The Great Communicator” about Donald Trump , written for the Süddeutsche Zeitung , was shortlisted for the Nannen Prize in the documentation category.

Berkeley International Framing Institute

Wehling works as a freelance consultant for politics and business and used the Berkeley International Framing Institute brand for this . In the course of the debate about her framing manual for ARD in spring 2019, Wehling was accused of being misled because there was no connection to the University of California, Berkeley and the website had no legal notice. Wehling replied that she only used Berkeley International Framing Institute as a trademark and that it was not a scientific institute. She wanted to separate her scientific work from her consulting work. After the controversy surrounding the framing manual, Wehling took the website offline.

Publications

Since 2008, Wehling has published texts on framing in a political context and on how the inevitable setting of selective emotional frames of interpretation can develop a debate in a certain direction, but can also be consciously steered. According to its own statements, it works to the progressive political scene and the Democrats after mainly conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation had invested millions in the development of frames. In elections, most people base their decision on their “moral gut feeling”, which is related to the fact that only 2 percent of the thought processes are conscious.

Quietly into the brain (2008)

In the work published by Wehling and George Lakoff with the subtitle Political Language and its Secret Power , it is shown that 80 percent of our thinking, despite our conviction that we are free to decide, is in reality unconsciously shaped by metaphors and frames of interpretation. Our thinking and feeling can therefore be manipulated by actors who shape metaphors and introduce them to the public domain, for example via the media, in order to evoke a certain idea of ​​reality in the minds of the recipients. The thinking structures of people would be changed and shaped not only psychologically, but also physically, more precisely neurologically. The republican party in particular had succeeded in making its political objectives appear acceptable through successful framing. The most spectacular case of a successful political metaphor with devastating effects is the term “war on terror”.

Dorothea Horst describes the approach of Wehling and Lakoff as fatalistic, insofar as they both regard politics as essentially irrational, which is why they concentrated on labeling and image cultivation rather than on rational content . In this sense, the authors recommended that the Democrats give voters a different image of themselves, that of the caring father and the values ​​that go with it, in clear contrast to the image of the strict father associated with the Republican Party. Horst assesses the hypothesis of unconscious control through manipulation as empirically insufficiently verified.

The Little Blue Book (2012)

In the English-language publication, subtitled The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic , Wehling and George Lakoff gave the Democratic Party advice on how its representatives in the 2012 presidential election could represent their own positions more clearly and effectively, so that they could face the Republican Party would have success. The starting point is the view that voters chose a party on the basis of their value system, not on the basis of factual criteria. Therefore, a strategy is presented how the democratic party can connect its political goals with the moral convictions of the voters through political framing in the electoral fields of economy, health care, women's issues, energy and the environment, education and nutrition and consolidate and strengthen this connection. Two of the communication rules are (see p. 43):

  • Always use your own language, never that of your opponents! (“Use your own language; never use your opponent's language”) and
  • Be aware of your beliefs, repeat them over and over again and with great clarity; Never repeat the beliefs of your opponents, even if you argue against them! ("Be aware of what you believe and repeat it out loud over and over; never repeat ideas that you don't believe in, even if you are arguing against them.")

The publication contains laudatory comments from George Soros , Van Jones , Joan Blades and Robert B. Reich and received positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal , among others .

Political Framing (2016)

Her book Political Framing , published in 2016, received extensive media coverage, while it met with praise and criticism from experts. In the first part, Wehling presents the cognitive science fundamentals of the theory, which have been verified experimentally. The role of language, the facts of framing and the function of political metaphor are presented in three chapters. Wehling explains basic terms such as cognitive simulation and conceptual metaphor. In the second part, in a practice-oriented manner, she analyzes the largely unconscious effects of a selection of current linguistic-metaphorical frames of political rhetoric on recipients, which are activated and stabilized by neologisms such as the flow of refugees , minimum wages , climate change or tax havens . Overall, she examines the topics of taxes, the welfare state, society, social benefits, work, abortion, Islam and terrorism, immigration and asylum, and the environment, to which she devotes a chapter to each.

Anatol Stefanowitsch points out that cognitive linguists do not like to contribute to public discussions about language when politics is involved, and mentions Wehling as an important exception.

criticism

In his review in the Annotated Bibliography of Political Science , Jan Achim Richter criticizes that Wehling only offers a few “alternative semantics” to the problematic terms because the use of frames and metaphors cannot be avoided. The work must also be supplemented by a "critical look at the achievements of cognitive research and a discussion of the general question of how great the influence of semantics is compared to other factors - such as content or person - on the political decisions of citizens". In his review on social.net, the political scientist Günter Rieger emphasizes the importance of the topic and the memorability of the examples, but criticizes that Wehling always only selects examples that are suitable for them and interprets them one-sidedly. He attributes this to Wehling's "all too reductionist [s] mechanical [s] understanding of neurolinguistics". Rieger sees Wehling's “framing trick” in the representation itself: The “science” frame is activated with neurolinguistic term and name dropping, “in order to then make selectively chosen experiments, examples and interpretations appear as generally valid truths and fundamentally new findings”. The philosopher Daniel-Pascal Zorn points out that neither Wehling nor Lakoff could convincingly substantiate their arguments with findings from brain research that have no reliable data on the connection between brain processes and discursive thinking (what is experienced as thinking and can be logically analyzed) .

Framing manual for ARD

From 2017 created Wehling on behalf of ARD as part of workshops an internal framing - Manual , which in February 2019 at Netzpolitik.org was released and generated extensive media coverage. Its purpose was seen on netzpolitik.org in the advice "how to communicate the advantages of public broadcasting through the knowledge of the framing theory." Wehling described private media among other things as "media capitalist locusts" and insinuated that they operated a " ideological monopoly ”and would stand for“ democratic capitalism ”,“ broadcast capitalism ”,“ information capitalism ”or, in contrast to the fee-financed media, even for an“ information anarchy ”.

Criticism was also formulated of the social market economy as such. This represents a "profit economy, which by its nature at least primarily has no special emotional connection to people, but sees them as customers and thus as a means to a financial end".

Claudia Schwartz criticized in the NZZ that the manual does not serve to make better journalists out of ARD employees, "but to manipulate a bit yourself and to sell the topics to your audience all the more effectively." According to Matthias Heine von der Welt it is The manual is about an expert opinion on “how one can use framing to induce the Germans to view the GEZ fees as an aid to building a large common wellness project.” Heine states that Wehling and ARD unintentionally cause “right-wing populist paranoia of 'Newspeak' and that Wehling, instead of arguing with facts and objectivity, is now using the same means that she had previously demonized. According to Jan Schnellenbach, ARD has requested "instructions for the manual that are intended to help manipulate the audience by choosing certain language images."

According to ARD, the costs for creating the manual and accompanying workshops amounted to € 90,000. A further € 30,000 was paid for follow-up workshops at which Wehling had introduced ARD employees to the content. The order for the manual was placed in 2017 by the ARD management provided by the MDR .

Quotes

“Facts are key. But we never think about them purely objectively, we always take a perspective. The glass is either half full or half empty. We can't say the glass is half. Half what? "

- Elisabeth Wehling

“The point is that intellectual diversity should be reflected in the same facts in linguistic diversity. In other words: what you think should be said. This is the only way we can argue constructively. "

- Elisabeth Wehling

“No word can be thought, pronounced or processed outside of frames. Whenever you hear a word, a frame is activated in your head. "

- Elisabeth Wehling

“And then the 3rd, 4th, 5th time there are grinding processes in the brain and a recognition effect, regardless of whether the thing is true or a lie. And then at some point the brain says: It's way too strenuous for me, that's a truth for me now. "

- Elisabeth Wehling

"We work to the progressive political scene and the democrats."

- Elisabeth Wehling

“There are groups that are not good for our society. This includes the neo-fascists of the AfD. I deconstruct language images of such groups. "

- Elisabeth Wehling

“Don't think and speak primarily in terms of lists of facts and individual details. Always think and talk about the moral premises first. "

- Elisabeth Wehling

Publications

Books
  • Political framing. How a nation persuades its thinking - and turns it into politics . Herbert von Halem Verlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-86962-208-8 .
As a co-author
  • together with George Lakoff : Quietly into the brain. Political language and its secret power . 4th, revised edition. Carl-Auer-Verlag, Heidelberg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8497-0141-3 (first edition: 2008).
  • together with George Lakoff: The Little Blue Book - The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic . Free Press, New York 2012, ISBN 978-1-4767-0001-4 (English).
  • together with Carsten Brosda and others: Language. Power. Thinking - Understanding and conducting political discourse . Ed .: Denkwerk Demokratie. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-593-50072-0 .
Other (selection)
  • Political communication that works. A neurolinguistic analysis of the EU election campaign . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Internationale Politikanalyse, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86872-209-3 (8 pages, fes.de [PDF]).
  • The mental dismantling of social democratic values. On the language of social policy in Great Britain, Italy, Austria and Germany . Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Internationale Politikanalyse, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86872-787-6 (12 pages).
  • A Nation Under Joint Custody: How Conflicting Family Models Divide US Politics . University of California, Berkeley 2013 (English, 156 pp., Escholarship.org - dissertation).

Web links

Commons : Elisabeth Wehling  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The linguist Elisabeth Wehling deutschlandfunk.de, January 22, 2017
  2. ^ A Nation Under Joint Custody: How Conflicting Family Models Divide US Politics escholarship.org
  3. ↑ The right is the crown daz.asia, February 26, 2010
  4. ↑ About. Retrieved July 3, 2018 (American English).
  5. ^ Eva Elisabeth Wehling: A Nation Under Joint Custody: How Conflicting Family Models Divide US Politics . 2013 ( escholarship.org [accessed February 18, 2019]).
  6. ^ NDR: After Corona Club - with Elisabeth Wehling. Retrieved August 27, 2020 .
  7. ^ Moral Cognition and Communication benjamins.com
  8. ↑ German Reporter Award 2017 reporter-forum.de
  9. ↑ German Reporter Award 2018 reporter-forum.de
  10. ↑ Nanne Prize 2020 - Shortlists nannen-preis.de
  11. ↑ a b Elisabeth Wehling defends herself sueddeutsche.de, February 23, 2019
  12. ^ The strange institute of Elisabeth Wehling salonkolumnisten.com, February 20, 2019
  13. ↑ Did linguist Wehling lead ARD astray? tagesspiegel.de, February 21, 2019
  14. ↑ Last Archive Site web.archive.org, March 6, 2019
  15. ^ A b Marc Brost , Petra Pinzler : Beware of these words. Die Zeit, March 10, 2016, accessed on September 11, 2016 (interview with Elisabeth Wehling).
  16. ↑ Detlef Esslinger: Caution, poison! In: Süddeutsche Zeitung June 30, 2018, page 45
  17. ^ Dorothea Horst: Meaning-Making and Political Campaign Advertising: A Cognitive-Linguistic and Film-Analytical Perspective on Audiovisual Figurativity . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2018, ISBN 978-3-11-057793-8 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  18. ↑ [1]
  19. ↑ Overview of the media presence (TV / print / radio). elisabethwehling.com, accessed September 11, 2016 .
  20. ^ Anatol Stefanowitsch: A usage-based perspective on public discourse: Towards a critical cognitive linguistics . In: Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association . tape 7 , no. 1 , November 26, 2019, ISSN  2197-2788 , p. 177-200 , doi : 10.1515 / GCLA-2019-0011 ( degruyter.com [accessed on 30 June 2020]).
  21. ↑ Jan Achim Richter: Review of: Elisabeth Wehling: Politisches Framing. Cologne 2016, in: <Portal for Political Science , published on June 23, 2016, accessed on March 2, 2019.
  22. ^ Günter Rieger. Reviewed August 7, 2017 on: Elisabeth Wehling: Politisches Framing. How a nation persuades its thinking - and turns it into politics. Herbert von Halem Verlag, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-86962-208-8 . The book is also available from the Federal Agency for Civic Education. In: socialnet reviews, ISSN  2190-9245 , online , accessed March 2, 2019.
  23. ↑ SprachKritik (4/4) Better to argue. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  24. ↑ beckedahl: We are publishing the ARD's framing report. In: netzpolitik.org. February 17, 2019, accessed on February 18, 2019 (German).
  25. ↑ cdn.netzpolitik.org: Framingmanual - Our common, free broadcasting ARD
  26. ↑ Claudia Schwartz: ARD wants to lather the audience with framing . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed on February 18, 2019]).
  27. ↑ a b Matthias Heine: ARD-Neusprech: The woman because of whom suddenly everyone is talking about framing . February 16, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed February 18, 2019]).
  28. ↑ Jan Schnellenbach: ARD-Framing-Papier: An attempt to defame the free market . February 18, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed February 18, 2019]).
  29. ↑ 120,000 euros for the Newspeak faz.net, February 20, 2019
  30. ^ Clarification on the current debate at elisabethwehling.com
  31. ↑ Kesb: "The debate is ideologically shaped". Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Detlef Esslinger: "Framing Manual" - The power of labels. Retrieved June 30, 2020 .
  33. ↑ Marc Brost, Petra Pinzler: Language: Beware of these words . In: The time . March 12, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed April 7, 2017]).
  34. ^ Elisabeth Wehling: Language and resentment are related; NDR ZAPP . Hamburg December 6, 2018 ( ndr.de [accessed December 7, 2018]).
  35. ↑ "We are still fooling Trump" tagesspiegel.de, February 3, 2017
  36. ^ Counter- clarification nwzonline.de, February 16, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Wehling, Elisabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wehling, Eva Elisabeth; Wehling, E. Elisabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German linguist, author and consultant
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1981
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg