How framing of nationally and locally sensitive issues varies? A content analysis of news from party and nonparty newspapers in China

Abstract

This study investigates how party and nonparty newspapers in China frame sensitive political issues differently, depending on their geographic relevance. Extant studies indicate that political control influences how news organizations present an issue. The assumption is that the framing of nationally sensitive issues is similar across Chinese news outlets, while the framing of locally sensitive issues diverges. An examination of the news frames used by six newspapers in Guangzhou in their coverage of a nationally sensitive issue and a locally sensitive issue confirms this assumption. In the coverage of the nationally sensitive issue, all newspapers use more leadership frames and factual information than responsibility, conflict and human interest frames. Contrastingly, the party newspapers use more leadership frames, whereas nonparty newspapers use more conflict frames in the reporting of the locally sensitive issue.

Self-Caging or Playing With the Edge? News Selection Autonomy in Authoritarian China

“…The findings show that party news organizations are more self-censored than the nonparty news organizations as Kuang and Wei (2018) suggest. Indexing (Bennett, 2016) remains a norm for party news media in China, as they set the news agenda and frame news issues in a manner favorable to the political elites.…”

“…Zhang, 2011). In fact, research on the framing of sensitive news in China has suggested that party newspapers are more self-censored than their nonparty counterparts are as they use more leadership frames, which highlight the speeches and actions of political leaders (Kuang & Wei, 2018). Self-censorship is thus one aspect to be studied when comparing the news selection autonomy of Chinese news organizations.…”

Framing international news in China: An analysis of trans-edited news in Chinese newspapers

“…According to existing studies on governmental control in China, the propaganda authorities would request all news organizations in China not to do original reporting on sensitive yet unavoidable issues, such as the Tibet and Taiwan issues, but follow the agenda of the state news agencies like the Xinhua News Agency (Kuang & Wei, 2018; J. Li et al, 2017).…”

“…In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies on how political powers influence the frame use of news media (see, for example, Bolsen, 2010; Dimitrova & Kostadinova, 2013; Ferree et al, 2002; Hänggli, 2012; Snow et al, 2007). Good examples include those situated in the Chinese context, among which Luther and Zhou (2005) investigated the news framing of SARS in China and the United States, and Kuang and Wei (2018) looked into the framing of politically sensitive issues which are detrimental to the legitimacy of different levels of government in China.…”

“…It is, therefore, not clear whether the findings from the framing of domestic issues are replicable to that of the international counterparts. In the case of China, both Luther and Zhou (2005) and Kuang and Wei (2018) found that in the reporting of politically sensitive domestic issues, different newspapers in China, that is, party and non-party papers, show similarity on frame use as the framing of these issues is heavily controlled by the propaganda authorities. However, when it comes to international news reporting, we are not sure how tight the control is.…”