Framing the Chinese baby formula scandal: a comparative analysis of US and Chinese news coverage

Bringing Home the Crisis: How US Evening News Framed the 2011 Japan Nuclear Crisis

“…We argue that the vilification of TEPCO and the Japanese government was based on culturally discrepant news framing (Feng et al., ). Like the US media, the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation, commissioned by the Japanese parliament, declared the disaster ‘man‐made’ and outlined ‘errors and willful negligence … and a flawed response’ by TEPCO and the Japanese government (Wakatsuki & Mullen, : paragraphs 1–2).…”

“…Previous framing analyses of crisis events have been conducted both inductively to determine what frames emerged in the crisis coverage (Feng et al., ; Gamson & Modigliani, ; Joye, ; Littlefield et al., ; Tian et al., ) and deductively using frames that have occurred commonly in news coverage (An et al., ; Li, ; Luther et al., ; Muschert et al., ; Walters et al., ). In this study, we were interested in describing the central themes that were specific to US network evening news coverage of the 2011 Japan nuclear crisis and categorizing these themes into the larger core frames that fundamentally characterized this event.…”

“…In fact, the same event may be understood differently by international audiences depending on the frames used to define it (Tian et al., ). Culturally discrepant news framing reflects different nations' divergent media values and roles, larger cultural themes, economic interests, political contexts and current relationships with the nations affected by the crisis (Feng, Brewer, & Ley, ). For example, although coverage of the SARS outbreaks (Luther et al., ) and the 2008 Chinese baby formula recall (Feng et al., ) by major Western and Chinese newspapers emphasized many of the same frames, Western news criticized Chinese systems for failing to manage the crises to a greater degree than the Chinese news, which focused more on positive initiatives undertaken by leaders.…”

“…Culturally discrepant news framing reflects different nations' divergent media values and roles, larger cultural themes, economic interests, political contexts and current relationships with the nations affected by the crisis (Feng, Brewer, & Ley, ). For example, although coverage of the SARS outbreaks (Luther et al., ) and the 2008 Chinese baby formula recall (Feng et al., ) by major Western and Chinese newspapers emphasized many of the same frames, Western news criticized Chinese systems for failing to manage the crises to a greater degree than the Chinese news, which focused more on positive initiatives undertaken by leaders. How domestic news characterizes crises in other parts of the world can be particularly important because these incidents are not directly experienced and limited information is available from other sources.…”

Analysis of News Coverage of Haze in China in the Context of Sustainable Development: The Case of China Daily

“…Other researchers have also found that negative coverage of China affected the US elections [53]. Further research suggests that China's mainstream media outlet, the Xinhua News Agency, tends to frame the Chinese government more positively [54]. Therefore, this article focuses on the emotional slant of the media (positive, neutral, and negative) and the second research hypothesis is: Hypothesis 2 (H2).…”