The Identifying & Describing Arguments (IDEA) project.

This project focuses ‘framing’ (i.e. the use of ideas and arguments) in population-level public health policy debates. Framing analysis can be understood as a term used to describe a variety of approaches to identify and interpret the ideas, values, beliefs and arguments (or ‘frames’) used in a particular arena. Policy-making in public health is seen as a battleground of ideas, where progress is most likely to be made when arguments for particular policies can be presented or ‘framed’ in ways that align with or shape policy-makers beliefs and values. This study aimed to systematically identify, describe and develop a typology of the frames (ideas and arguments) employed in population-level alcohol policy debates reported in the peer-reviewed literature and in so doing to contribute to methodological developments in conducting framing analysis.