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About the Reframing U.S. Global Engagement Project
Thank you to the many individuals and organizations involved
in this collaborative process, along with the ConnectUS Fund who sponsored this
research. With your help, we are working to better understand how to make
all of our communications with Congress on all of our issues even stronger, and
hopefully reinforce all of our efforts.
U.S. in the World: Talking Global Issues
with Americans gives us a strong foothold in the best practices for messaging on
global issues to the American public. By couching our arguments in “big ideas”
or frames that connect with values most Americans hold dear – practical,
comprehensive approaches, the right thing to do, etc. – people are more likely
to hear our messages and support the kinds of principled, cooperative, engaged
U.S. foreign policies that we would all like to see.
Throughout the Reframing Engagement project we have focused on finding the
“frames” or as in US in the World speak – the “big ideas” – that resonate best
when making arguments to Congress about global issues. Much of the previous
research showed that while the public tends to perceive the world as a truly
interdependent place which we can make better for everyone, foreign policy
experts tend to see the world as a competitive game, where to yield gains for
some necessitates losses for others. With this in mind, we set out to discover: 1) if Congress thinks like the public, like foreign policy experts, or a mixture
of both, and 2) what this means for effective messaging on global issues to this
particular audience.
During the research, Congressional staffers were presented with a variety of
frames about global issues. The survey results show their relative affinity for
each of these frames. If you choose to share this research beyond those familiar
with the project, we ask that you emphasize that the research only shows how
Congressional staff responded to frames, not their policy stances, etc.
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CLICK HERE
to read final messaging memo, Talking with Congress. (PDF)
+ CLICK
HERE to view the PowerPoint presentation, developed by Purnima Chawla
of the Center for Nonprofit Strategies, that presents the results of our survey
research. (PPT)
+ CLICK
HERE to read the report on in-depth interviews with Congressional
staff. (PDF)
Updated January 27, 2006
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