Framing Chinese migrant workers: A comparison of media coverage in Mainland China and Hong Kong

Abstract

This study investigates the framing of Chinese migrant workers in articles published in two Mainland Chinese newspapers and two Hong Kong newspapers from 2004 to 2009. The content analysis reveals significant differences in the news frames between the two regions. Attribution of responsibility and morality are the most frequently used frames in Mainland newspapers, while human interest and responsibility frames dominate coverage in Hong Kong newspapers. Government officials are the most popular sources cited by the four newspapers, followed by migrant workers. Media in both regions portray this issue with a fairly neutral tone but have different attitudes towards the Chinese central government. Mainland news articles show a positive attitude, while Hong Kong journalists hold a neutral stance. The usage of frames, sources, and tone have changed over the six-year period examined. Possible explanations and implications of the differences in framing among Mainland and Hong Kong newspapers are discussed.

Framing 2014 Hong Kong Protest

“…News media has an intimate bond with framing, which is expected to fulfill its functions: "To frame is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation" (Entman, 1993, p. 52), which can be summarized as: define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies (Chu, 2010). McQuail (2005) pointed out the default of framing that since framing is involved in the interpretation process, it is likely inevitable for a journalist to "depart from pure 'objectivity' to introduce some (unintended) bias" (p. 379).…”

“…In regards to how U.S. media covered and framed China, Chang (2008) examined was examined (Chu, 2010). In terms of frames, sources, and tone, Chu (2010) found that the Mainland Chinese newspapers shed light on attribution of responsibility and morality frames with a positive stance, while Hong Kong newspapers emphasized the human interest and responsibility frames by presenting neutral side.…”

“…The two coders separately recorded data for 21 randomly chosen units, which accounted for 20% of the 105 filtered news articles. As previous researchers have done (Chu, 2010;Xu, 2013;Gottlieb, 2015), Cohen's kappa was utilized to calculate intercoder reliability, which determined "the degree of agreements between two raters is higher than would be expected by chance" (Sun, 2011, p.146). As a result, the reliability for dominant frame (.66), overall tone (.84), conflict (1.00), human interest (.76), attribution of responsibility (.64), morality (.82) and economic consequence (.74) were tested.…”

“…Unlike the conflict frame was rarely presented in the coverage of social problem (e.g., Chu's (2010) Firstly, as mentioned before, Hong Kong media enjoys a lower government interference and the media ecology has been directed by the "businessmen-acquired professional press" (Rober, 2003). Previous research on news framing has suggested that politicians, issue advocates and other stakeholders manipulate reporters and editors to deliver their favorable meanings via news media (D'Angelo & Kuypers, 2010).…”

Framing Comparison of The Li Gang Incident and The Diaoyu Island Dispute between Social Networking Sites and Mainstream Media in China

“…The government regulates the news media through the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China. The agency has the right to issue or revoke news media licenses (CCEC.GOV, N.D.), establish press regulations and laws, and appoint or remove chief editors (Chu, 2010).…”