participation framework media n. the possible configuration of parties or roles in communication. The term derives from the work of American sociologist, Erving Goffman (1922-1982), who used it to distinguish different kinds of footing which can be adopted in the production or reception of an utterance. Hearers, for instance, may include over-hearers as well as ratified participants. And the act of speaking itself may refer to not merely to the one who utters the words (for Goffman, the ‘animator’), but also the to one who composes them (the ‘author’) and the one who bears responsibility for them (the ‘principal’). mmo
