Go out and play, but mean it: Using frame analysis to explore recent news media coverage of the rediscovery of unstructured play

• First frame analysis on news coverage play reveals the spontaneity in play valued by children and endorsed by scholars is absent from recent descriptions by journalists.
• Journalists’ descriptions of play support the “rhetoric of progress” discussed by Brian Sutton-Smith.
• These episodic frames suggest play must be relearned, as if over scheduling of children has eliminated their ability to make up games.
• Journalists cited few sources that favor letting kids go off, unsupervised, and make up their own activities.
• The results of this study may compel journalists to consider presenting play as more than a romanticized activity co-opted by nostalgic adults.

A frame analysis was conducted on newspaper articles, news magazine articles, and the transcripts of broadcast segments on the need for and rediscovery of unstructured play that appeared between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2010. This time frame was selected to coincide with the recent revival of interest in play, both among scholars and the public. The eight frames that emerged from the coverage reveal that the spontaneity in play valued by children and endorsed by scholars is absent from recent descriptions by journalists of play. Journalists did not frame play as a respite for children from daily life, or an “interlude” (Huizinga, 1971, p. 21) undertaken to escape the real world. Play as portrayed through these frames must be productive – a “useful pastime” (Chudacoff, 2007, p. 222). Descriptions of play by journalists support the “rhetoric of progress” discussed by Sutton-Smith. Play is seen as the “optimal state of being for children” (Gentry, 2009, p. 14A), rather than something a child simply wants to do for fun. Few of the sources consulted by journalists favor letting kids go off in an unsupervised fashion. Kids can play, but only if they do so in clearly defined spaces and according to clearly laid out schedules.