Differences in journalism culture or is there more to it? Comparing news on the European refugee issue in Western Europe and China

Abstract

This study explores the country-specific, regional and cultural differences and similarities between China and two European countries in their coverage of the European refugee issue and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the various political interests, social values, and journalism cultures in the countries under study. It analyzed and compared 2,368 news articles in Belgian, Swedish, and Chinese newspapers from 2015 to 2017. The analysis demonstrated that Chinese newspapers put less emphasis on welcoming the refugees by politicians and citizens, but are more prone to report on Islamic religion in their coverage of the refugees than the Belgian and Swedish newspapers. The empirical evidence suggests that the differences in reporting are not only a representation of different political interests and social engagement of the three countries, but, to a large extent, a result of different journalism cultures across nations.

Building network agenda in China-U.S. trade conflict news: Transnational comparative study across China, the United States, Singapore and Ireland

“…The cultivation of journalism culture is often intertwined with specific political and media systems (Jiang et al, 2021). The global expansion of media industries, primarily from advanced capitalist countries, notably the United States, has contributed to greater uniformity in media systems and journalism practices (Hallin & Mancini, 2004).…”

“…The ethical ideologies point to how journalists respond to ethical dilemmas. Previous comparative studies indicated journalists sharing similar professional beliefs and practices tend to construct comparable media agenda, news framing and news sourcing (Jiang et al, 2021). The reason could be that journalists who are amid comparable news culture tend to adhere to similar journalistic norms and values, undergo analogous media education and training, and work in industries with similar ownership structures and political proximity.…”

A ‘New Arms Race’? Framing China and the U.S.A. in A.I. News Reporting: A Comparative Analysis of the Washington Post and South China Morning Post

“…Hepp et al (2012) argue that news media are situated in distinct discourse cultures, which are integral for the formation of (national) public spheres. Language, the dominant political system and its ideological foundation, the structure of the media system and level of access to media technology, the legal framework and prevailing cultural norms give discourse cultures their forms (Jiang, d'Haenens, & Zhang, 2021;Hanitzsch, 2009). Discourse cultures differ along linguistic-cultural and political lines (e.g.…”

Moving people: Proper distance and global news coverage of migration in 2019

“…Chouliaraki and Zaborowski, 2017;Sakellari, 2021;Vollmer and Karakayali, 2018), newspapers and websites (e.g. Cooper et al, 2021;Fengler et al, 2020;Greussing and Boomgaarden, 2017;Jiang et al, 2021;Tong and Zuo, 2019;Zaman and Das, 2021), and social media sites and user-generated content (e.g. Abid et al, 2017;Bennett, 2018;Creta, 2021).…”