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2009 Domesticating Chien-Ming Wang: A Comparative Study of the Media Coverage of Sports Performance Hsing-Ju Chang
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COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION
DOMESTICATING CHIEN-MING WANG:
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF SPORTS
PERFORMANCE
By
HSING-JU CHANG
A Thesis submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts
Degree Awarded Summer Semester, 2009 The members of the Committee approve the Thesis of Hsing-Ju Chang defended on April 10, 2009.
______Stephen D. McDowell Professor Directing Thesis
______Steven McClung Committee Member
______Jennifer M. Proffitt Committee Member
Approved:
______Stephen D. McDowell, Chair, Department of Communication
______Gary Heald, Interim Dean, College of Communication
The Graduate School has verified and approved the above named committee members.
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ACKNOWLEGEMENT
My deepest thanks and appreciation are given to Dr. McDowell. He provided the perfect complement of analytical reasoning, encouragement, constructive criticism, and expediency throughout this process. You have been a wonderful mentor. Thank you for reading all those drafts and editing my work so willingly. There could not have been a better chair for my thesis. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. McClung, for providing keen insight throughout this project. Your advice has been and will always be invaluable. Dr. Proffitt, thank you for serving as the methodological expert of my committee and helped immensely throughout the difficult stages of finalizing a prospectus. I thank you all for your continuous assistance in helping me complete this project.
Without you this thesis would not have been possible.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….vi I. INTRODUCTION...... 1 Introduction………………...... 1 Chapter Organization...... 2 II. LITERATURE REVIEW...... 4 Introduction...... 4 Sports Journalism vs. News Journalism...... 4 Media Framing...... 6 Defining Domestication...... 11 Positivity Bias...... 14 Cultural Comparisons...... 16 Two Research Questions & Two Central Hypotheses...... 20 III. METHODOLOGY...... 23 Introduction…………………...... 23 Media Selection...... 24 Sampling and Data Collection...... 26 Coding Procedure……………………………………………….27 Qualitative Framing Analysis...... 29 Inventory Variables...... 29 Content Variables...... 29 Tone Variables...... 29 IV. FINDINGS...... 32 Introduction...... 32 Dominant Themes & Frames from Qualitative Data Analysis..35 1.1. How to Domesticate and Frame...... 35 1.2. Emphasizing Traditional Country Traits……………….38 1.3. Non-task Relevant Commentary……………………….39 1.4. Issue-specific frames...... 41 1.5. Exemplars...... 43 1.6. Catchphrases.……………………...... 45 2.1. Face-enhancing Bias…….…...... 47 2.2. Creating National Heroes and National Identities……..49 2.3. Coverage of Wang in an Appropriate Sporting Role…..51 2.4. Face-protecting bias...... 53 2.5. Invisibility of Wang’s Losing Games……………….…55 iv
2.6. Communicating Pain, Anguish, and Sacrifice in Sport.57 3.1. Metaphor…………………………………...... 59 3.2. Generic Frames………………...... 62 3.3. The Trivialization of Wang’s Accomplishments in Sport…64 3.4. Cultural Strategies………………………………...... 64
V. SUMMARYAND DISCUSSION……………………………….....67 Summary...... 67 Hypothesis1a &1b...... 67 Hypothesis 2...... 68 Research Question 1...... 69 Research Question 2...... 71 Discussion...... 72 Limitations...... 74 Contribution...... 76 Future Research...... 76 APPENDICES...... 77 A: Protocol, Framing of Chien-Ming Wang’s Articles………………………...... 77 B: Newspaper Sources Used…………………………………...... 79 C: Open Letter from Chien-Ming Wang to the Taiwanese Media...... 89 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH…………………………………………………………98
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ABSTRACT The purposes of this study are three-fold. The primary goal is to examine the narratives that two mainstream newspapers in Taiwan and America, Li-Tai Sports Newspaper (LT) and The New York Times (NYT), used when covering the performance of the athlete Chien-Ming Wang. The second purpose is to see how the presence of news frames varies in the two countries. That is, this research provides an examination of newspaper sportswriters’ use of distinct framing points when covering Wang’s performances. Finally, this study analyzes the coverage employed by reporters who wrote about Wang. This study examines how Wang’s performance has been framed and domesticated by both countries’ newspaper coverage in the same time period. The cross-cultural perspective adopted in the study draws upon ideas about the construction of social reality. A review of original articles on framing, such as the work of Scheufele and Goffman, provides the basis for the analysis. The analysis considers LT’s and NYT’s construction of the news about Wang as a way to understand how sports news is framed within t globalization. The methodology used in this study is a framing analysis of the stories prepared by sportswriters commenting on Wang. The findings are discussed with regard to domestication, positivity bias, and cross-cultural differences.
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction The mass media portray the dominant images in societies of the industrialized world and depict life in our society (Creedon, 1998). Coakley (2004) cites agenda-setting theory, noting that mass media may not be able to tell people how to think, but they definitely tell individuals what issues are important to think about. This study aims to uncover how Chien-Ming Wang is portrayed by two leading newspaper organizations in Taiwan and America. Chien-Ming Wang is a 28-year-old Taiwanese pitcher for Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Yankees. Signed for the 2005 season, he soon became known as the Yankees’ ace pitcher. Wang is a celebrity in Taiwan, whose prominence resides not only in sports, but also in his extended influence. Until 2008, he has been a spokesperson for numerous advertisements: five Nike, two Ford, one Taiwan-Image, one Youth-baseball, two Public-ads, three McDonalds, one Bank, one Acer Notebook, one Milk, one Easy Card, and The World Games 2009 Kaohsiung ads. Wang has not endorsed any products in the United States. We can see the great emphasis Taiwan has placed on Wang by looking at the numbers of products he endorses. A poll in Taiwan shows that people easily recognize him and connect Wang to the products he endorses. There is a significant relationship between media attention on him and the salience of his relationship to the public. This paper examines a period of time in which Wang was given intensive newspaper coverage. The development of technology and news systems has expedited sports news communication in the world. The connection and exchange of information form a cultural reflexive mirror and make every sports news choice a conscious or unconscious cultural effort. “The American style of sports has become the international example for corporate sport around the world” (Bernstein, 2000, p. 355). This American style of sports coverage often characterizes what is considered to be “good” newspaper coverage and is widely influential. In this study, a qualitative analysis of the stories on Chien-Ming Wang in both Taiwan and the United States will 1 describe and introduce how news media interpret sports news, and help place this coverage within a cross-cultural context. This study explores the characteristics of the relationship between Taiwan and America and the media descriptions of Chien-Ming Wang. Undeniably, there is a growing tendency for Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States to hire East Asian baseball players. People are generally patriotic and see players from their own countries in a favorable light. This spirit is aroused especially when the player is domesticated in another country. This pattern of framing attribution is known as the positivity bias, which “benefits the images of the people whose behaviors are being explained; internal attributions for positive behavior confer personal credit for successful outcomes and external attributions for negative behavior deflect personal blame for negative outcomes” (Hallahan, Lee, & Herzog, 1997, p. 769). The effort of this project is to elaborate on the usefulness of framing. It explores the way frames work and, how, as part of culture, they are embedded into media content. The purpose of this study is to investigate and to discuss the existence of media frames in the texts. It is hypothesized that specific news frames, such as domestication, positivity bias and cross-cultural differences are reflected in the ways Wang is portrayed in sports news coverage. This study’s importance extends to several areas. Numerous researchers have studied coverage given to sports at nearly all levels of competition in various countries. However, no research has ever examined the online media coverage narratives used by print sportswriters to describe Wang. This study looks specifically at framing strategies in two different contexts. Second, this research examines specifically the narratives and types of descriptors used by sportswriters on Internet websites. There has been little published research on sports coverage via the Internet. To explore these possible differences, we set the initial goal of gaining insight about national sports news coverage and social construction relating to news frames.
Chapter Organization There are five chapters in this study. Chapter Two will discuss the key concepts 2 of media framing, domestication, positivity bias and cross-cultural comparisons. This thesis endeavors to uncover the news frames, domestication and positivity biases by analyzing the inclinations of two newspapers’ coverage (LT and NYT) of Wang’s performance in MLB. It will focus in particular upon the terminology used to describe Wang and the language and images used to portray his performances and the procedures used to domesticate an international sports news event. The positivity bias phenomenon and the cross-cultural issues in both countries’ news coverage will also be examined. The third chapter introduces the methodology adopted. Because framing is presented as an interpretive tool, qualitative framing analysis is adopted to analyze Wang’s news coverage. This project uses qualitative framing analysis to examine news stories about Wang and mainstream news coverage. The stories relating to Wang are posted on both LT and NYT websites and will be examined individually and also compared with each other. All materials chosen were published from 2005 to 2008, from the date that Wang joined the New York Yankees to the 2008 season. In chapters Four and Five, we will explore LT and NYT news stories in Taiwan and in the United States. The findings will be summarized and discussed in chapter Six. The newspaper protocol is displayed in Appendix I.
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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Literature Review The thesis seeks to examine some of the complex variables surrounding the media coverage of Wang’s performance in MLB by analyzing the similarities and differences in the framing of sport in Taiwan as compared to the United States. This literature review opens by outlining how sport journalism news frames differ from those of other news stories. Then it proceeds to give a brief discussion of media framing theory. Next will follow a discussion of the roles of domestication in sports media, followed by an overview of research on positivity bias. Finally, this literature review will conclude with a summary of the cross-cultural studies that will help guide the comparison of the media coverage of Wang in the two countries.
Sports Journalism vs. News Journalism The coverage of sports has increased in the media. This illustrates the public’s thriving interest in sports, and also the increasing opportunities for people to watch, listen to and read about sport news. “Sport is a transmitter of values, an agency for socialization, and a reflector of social problems for the larger society. Similarly, the mass media also serves as a mirror of society” (Valgeirsson & Snyder, 1986, p. 131). That is, “these two institutions rely on each other- sport sells the media and media sells sport” (p. 131). In addition, sportswriters play a significant role in constructing and representing national identity (Wanta, 2006, p. 109). Most of the time, sportswriters frame the outstanding athletes as a pride of their own country and results in country solidarity. Still, careful comparison of overall news and sports news shows some important differences. First, news is primarily concerned with matters of life or death, while sports news is related to losing or winning games. Compared to other news, sports news presents an uncritical approach, with little interest in questions of politics or economics. The 2005 International Sports Press Survey, in its Australian component, indicates that “most sports journalism concentrates on anticipating, describing and 4 reflecting on sports events, eschews problematic social issues, and consults prominent (especially celebrity) sportspeople” (Rowe, 2007, p. 400). That means, they are inclined to leave aside intensive critical inquiry into sport and its relationship with society and culture. “Sport is often manifest as its own microcosm–a world within a world, insulated from the mundane demands of everyday life and struggle” (p. 391). Some people even say that sports news is dedicated to fun and frivolity, rather than to the serious functions (Rowe, 2004). Sport reporters struggle with the idea that “they are rarely imagined to meet the journalism profession’s standards of social or political importance” (Oates & Pauly, 2007, p. 332). Such remarks result in insulting remarks about sports journalism as being the toy department of news media. Sometimes there are comments that sports journalists do not have to be able to speak grammatically, such as “when coaches being interviewed after games say things like ‘we tackled good’” (Ayres, 2004, p. 4). In other words, most sports stories are “likely to be run-of-the-mill ‘sports talk’ rather than incisive, critical analysis” (Rowe, 2007, p. 391). Second, as McChesney (1989) explains, “sports coverage is almost always much less controversial than coverage of political economic issues” (p. 65). Previous research claims that “the sports pages focus mainly on the previewing and descriptive reporting of sports events (58% of all articles), but are little interested in money (3%), politics (5%), or sport’s social impact (2.5%)” (Rowe, 2007, p. 387). Instead, the coverage might be trivial or individualized—like a player’s injury, condition or a team’s performance (Rowe, 2007). Third, “when sources are used, they tend to be drawn from the ranks of celebrity athletes, coaches and administrators…” (p. 400). Furthermore, “a heavily gendered sports world is revealed, with the women focus of only 14 percent of sport coverage and constituting only 5 percent of sports journalists with by-lines” (p. 387). Fourth, it is often that the significance of a sports story “would have been understood in any home, either in that region or anywhere else in the country” (Ayres, 2004, p. 4). Most of the baseball lingo in sports stories is not unintelligible to the lay mind of the non-fan audiences. In contrast, most of the time, to comprehend life news, 5 one must realize the context of the specific country (e.g., the way of counting in the Presidential elections in the United States). As for sports news, each kind of tournament shares the same rules across the country. People can easily steep themselves in a sports game only by knowing the rules. Fifth, “sports are so culturally ingrained that they can have direct and powerful media effects, such as civic or even national celebration, that most programming cannot” (Bellamy, 2006, p. 67). In addition, “even when sports coverage does not offer citizens crucial information, it may offer them cultural narratives that frame and shape their understandings of the group identities and relations of democratic society” (Oates & Pauly, 2007, p. 336). In addition, readers should be aware that “sport journalism has a different degree of cultural and occupational status in different national and institutional contexts” (Rowe, 2004, p. 386). Therefore, the differences in the coverage of Wang in two countries can probably in a large part be attributed to “managerial decisions, traditions, long-established work routines, and the perceived interests of media consumers” (Kian, 2006, p. 17). Even given these contrasts with more general news, sportswriters, however, are increasingly taken seriously by the journalism profession. Still many more practices need to be improved in an attempt to gain more respect from other journalism professions. As Rowe (2007) mentioned, if sports media seek to “counter an often unfavorable professional reputation, then their textual product and practices must be assessed in the light of available research data and analysis” (p. 386). However, “clearly, attitudes toward the sports department have improved over the years” (Rowe, 2006, p. 113). In sum, these contrasts open the door to examine the media coverage dealing with news framing, domestication, positivity bias and cross-cultural comparison of those dynamics at sporting events.
Media Framing The idea of framing orients the whole paper; it enriches this study by serving as a tool to examine the three concepts under investigation. The concept of framing does not apply exclusively to communication. In fact, it has been adopted by other 6 disciplines. Its origins lie in the fields of cognitive psychology (Bartlett, 1932) and anthropology (Bateson, 1955/1973). Framing refers to, on the one hand, the typical manner in which journalists shape news content within a familiar frame of reference and according to some latent structure of meaning and, on the other hand, to the audience who adopt these frames and see the world in a similar way as the journalists do (McQuail, 2005). Accordingly, “news frames, as a result of framing, refer to the generic ways to present certain issues” (Zhou, 2008, p.119). For example, in Zhou’s paper, which concerns cultural dimensions and framing of the Internet in China, “a frame in this context is an interpretive tool that journalists use to make sense of the Internet of China” (p. 119). Framing in this context can also be treated as a process of highlighting. Based on Entman’s (1993) idea, highlighting draws “attention to some aspects of reality while obscuring other elements, which might lead the audience to have different reactions” (p. 55). Based on Gamson’s (1992) statement, frames are an “organizing theme,” and they “define problems” (Entman, 1993). Entman (1991) also believes that the essence of framing is sizing, the magnification or reduction of elements within a story that makes them more or less pronounced to an audience. In accordance with Altheide’s (1996) notion that “themes are general definitions or interpretive frames”, he provided some tangible examples: “e.g., Cities are more dangerous than ever, the most corrupt administrations in history, or modern life is sick” (p. 30). Altheide (1996) also argued that themes are “general meanings or even ‘miniframes’ for a report” (p. 30). In order to be consistent with the idea of framing in this study, we treat themes as miniframes. A gendered sports formula developed by Harris and Clayton (2002) examines articles in the Sun and Mirror by employing an interpretative approach to uncover eight dominant themes (miniframes) within newspaper coverage of athletes: (1) invisibility of female athletes; (2) emphasizing traditional male traits; (3) communicating pain, anguish, and sacrifice in sport; (4) creating national heroes and national identities; (5) coverage of women in appropriate sporting roles; (6) non-task relevant commentary and the female athlete; (7) the trivialization of female accomplishments in sport; (8) eroticizing the female body. In this research, because frames and miniframes are 7 inextricably interwoven, we employed the above formula in an attempt to decipher prevalent meanings lying in the texts. It is useful to distinguish between “issue-specific news frames and generic news frames” (de Vreese, 1999) in the present study. According to the definition given by de Vreese, Peter and Semetko (2001): Issue-specific frames pertain to specific topics or news events……An issue-specific
frames approach to the study of news frames allows for investigation of the framing
of particular events in greatly specificity and detail. It may capture specific aspects
of selection, organization, and elaboration that are present in news coverage and
pertain specifically to a well-defined issue (p. 108). Generic news frames, on the other hand, can be portrayed as follows: …generic frames are broadly applicable to a range of different news topics, some
even over time and, potentially, in different cultural contexts…..generic frames
offer less possibility for examining the framing of an event in fine detail, but they
allow comparisons between frames, topics, and potentially, framing practices in
different countries (p. 108-109). The research direction here covers these two dimensions of frames. An example of an issue-specific frame would be “an investigation of U.S. press and television network coverage of two international airline accidents” (Entman, 1991). As for a generic frame in the news, it “emphasizes the games aspects of politics and focuses on winning and losing” (de Vreese, Peter and Semetko, 2001, p. 109). Since the aim of this study is to observe the characteristics of both frames, these dimensions provide some directions to explore the core dynamics of framing. Frames can be related to both presenting and comprehending news. According to Scheufele (1999), “two concepts of framing can be specified: media frames and individual frames” (p. 106). First, the concept of media frames provides that they “serve as working routines for journalists that allow the journalists to quickly identify and classify information” (Scheufele, 1999, p. 106) and “to package it for efficient relay to their audiences” (Gitlin, 1980, p. 7). Gamson (1989) also claims that the concept of media framing can include the intent of the sender, but the motives can 8 also be unconscious ones. Take, for instance, Han’s study (2007) of the existing frames underlying news coverage in Mainland China’s news websites about the 2004 presidential election in Taiwan. The Chinese website (People), “might have paid more attention to the election result and the crucial political positioning of the two regions (i.e., Mainland and Taiwan) across the Strait” (p. 34). The Taiwanese website (Sina) “emphasized more the conflicts….regarding the situations inside Taiwan…The differences may have resulted from different journalistic practice in organizing and presenting similar news coverage, as well as their different target audiences and different operational models” (p. 34). This paper keynotes the concept of media frames by emphasizing sports coverage and the ways Wang has been framed and domesticated by newspapers in Taiwan and the United States. Second, the concept of individual frames is defined as “mentally stored clusters of ideas that guide individuals’ processing of information” (Entman, 1993, p. 4). Framing studies also divide framing into media and audience frames, and explore the linkages between them. Frames connect both the media makers and the audiences in interpreting the messages. “The media provides the public not only with information on the event itself but also on how it should be interpreted” (Gorp, 2007, p. 65). Such interpretation helps an individual to evaluate social issues. The essence of framing is rooted in society. Journalists interact with the public by providing reporting that caters to the receivers, and the audiences interact with media content and are affected by it as well. News frames offer a template that guides journalists in assembling facts and other story elements into a news report, as well as an interpretative orientation for the readers. While serving as a template for journalists to quickly classify and sift through the mass of information and package it for the audiences, “media frames are also moderated by such variables as ideology, attitudes, and professional norms” (Han, 2007, p. 42). This means, media makers have an influence on how news stories are formed. Mass media have a strong impact on the construction of social reality. “Mass media actively sets the frames of reference that readers or viewers use to interpret and discuss public events” (Tuchman, 1978, p. ix). This illustrates a close relationship 9
between framing and social constructivism. Audiences interpret reality by relying on media framing to interpret issues. Entman (1993) provides a clear explanation of framing: “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” (p. 52). In addition to focusing on media or audience frames, framing research can be broken down into dependent and independent variables. Studies in which frames serve as independent variables are typically more interested in the effects of framing (Scheufele, 1999, p. 107). Media framing of an event may be affected by several social and ideological variables. Frames may also be seen as dependent variables that “have examined the role of various factors in influencing the creation or modification of frames” (Scheufele, 1999, p. 107). For the audiences’ need, framing is a direct outcome of the way in which mass media treat events. While Scheufele (1999) has theorized that framing can be used both to understand how the media present information and how readers interpret meaning, the current study concentrates on the text, not on the reaction of audiences. Thus, the attempt of this paper is to uncover the meanings embedded in the ways in which Chien-Ming Wang’s performance is constructed by the two leading newspaper organizations in Taiwan and America. Based on previous research, at least five factors may influence how journalists frame a given issue: social norms and values, organizational pressures and constraints, pressures of interest groups, journalistic routines, and the ideological or political orientations of journalists (e.g., Shoemaker & Reese, 1996). Social norms and values, journalistic routines and ideological orientations of journalists are of great importance. A single news story can be framed from several perspectives to shape different interpretations. Based on Edelman’s research (1993), journalists’ choices of frames are often “driven by ideology and prejudice” (p. 232). Editors of daily newspapers will likely be apprehensive about changing their content strategies, because they already have work routines and sources related to coverage of the more popular topics (Lowes, 1997). Therefore, on the daily coverage written by sportswriters can probably 10 in large part be attributed to managerial decisions, traditions, long-established work routines, and the perceived interests of media consumers (Kian, 2006). Of interest in this study are the types of journalistic frames in the news coverage of Wang by media in the two countries. Guided by this conceptualization of the news framing process, this study undertakes an exploratory effort by using framing as a tool to investigate the similarities and differences of sports news between the different cultures. The following analysis intends to observe elements associated with sports, news domestication and positivity bias that overlap in mainstream articles, and use these observations to allow for a cross-cultural comparison.
Defining Domestication This study examines the impact of national influences and national culture upon sports news coverage. “Toward the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, local newspaper sports coverage became increasingly oriented towards profiling individual players” (Walker, 2006, p. 458). In this sense, this study proposes an analysis and assessment of sports news and the coverage of one player. The concept of domestication was brought into the study of news production by Gurevitch, Levy and Roeh (1991) in their European study of international news. Gurevitch et al. define domestication as follows: Media maintain both global and culturally specific orientations – such as by casting
far-away events in frameworks that render these events comprehensible, appealing
and relevant to domestic audiences; and second, by constructing the meanings of
these events in ways that are compatible with the culture and the dominant ideology
of societies they serve. (Gurevitch et al., 1991, p. 206) Domesticating is enhanced in the mediation of international information. As described by Clausen (2004), “events are framed according to particular frameworks of interpretation shared by national audiences (or audience segments)” (p. 27). He also claims that “international news is presented within frames of interpretation of local audiences in each nation, which makes global news particular to each country” (p. 27). This concept can be also supported by international sports news of the 11
Olympic Games. Overall, the mediation of international discourse is dynamic and influenced by several variables at the international as well as the local level. In Bernstein’s (2000) paper, he mentions that “although the Olympic Games are global events, reported worldwide, they retain an important rooting in the local (national)” (p. 358). Graber (1993) mentions that one of the basic criteria a news story should meet is that it deals with issues having a strong impact on the audience. Underlying journalistic preferences for local events may be assumptions that they are generally of greater consequence and interest to audiences (Price, Tewksbury and Powers, 1997, p. 3). News senders think it is their responsibility to make issues and events relevant to the audiences; thus, they domesticate articles “by relating the issues to concerns presumably held by ordinary people” (Gamson, 1992, p. 163). These values offer editors and reporters a repertoire of story slants or news hooks they can employ in presenting any particular issue or event to readers or viewers (MacDougall, 1982). However, domestication is not always an easy job. The difficulties of handling international news for the national newsrooms are twofold. “On the one hand, efforts were made to make international news a mirror on the world; on the other hand, efforts were made to ‘domesticate’ international information for national audiences” (Clausen, 2004, p. 42). Various national influences on news reporting are featured in the literature. There is a widely accepted idea that since international news coverage aims at a home audience, it naturally contains some sort of national bias (McQuail, 1999, p. 195). Take Olympic Games coverage, for example: “most of the large headlines of the analyzed items were about the nation’s own athletes….the people reading the paper will want to know what happened to ‘our boy’ or ‘our girl’.…the local—in this case national—perspective of this global event prevails” (Bernstein, 2000, p. 361). In an environment in which global and electronic media cover sports, it is not surprising that the mass media are also structured by the national elements. Domestication in this project focuses on sports news domesticating and aims to examine the texts which convey information comprehensible to audiences in a 12 specific country. It refers to the idea that news “domestication” is a universal phenomenon and that global news remains particular to each country (Clausen, 2004, p. 27). Specifically, it leads to the tendency of Taiwan’s media to domesticate Chien-Ming Wang’s news stories at a local level. Domesticating explores the fact that “media professionals (and the audiences) counterpull the globalizing forces” (Bernstein, 2000, p. 354). This is similar to sports reporting in Taiwan which, “switched from the macro to the micro level: from attempts to offer readers extensive coverage of the newly developed national sports scene to in-depth coverage of sport in the locally” (Walker, 2006, p. 461). Since Wang is considered sufficiently significant to be featured in the international sports news agenda, it is intriguing to investigate how he is covered by two different countries’ press systems that have different national involvements in his performance. “Within such a context, the local press became able to raise readers’ awareness of key local sporting figures” (Walker, 2006, p. 458). Insights into domestication can be approached from two points in this study. First, we anticipate that the analysis will show how news media domesticate issues in an effort to make information comprehensible to viewers. Second, it exemplifies the specific ways in which news content differs. For instance, the Taiwanese media may produce more positive news reports about Wang relevant to Taiwanese audiences. What does framing mean when used to examine domestication? Within the field of global communication, the manner of framing events becomes important because it enhances viewers’ comprehension. Since this paper does not study audience views of the texts in sports coverage but focuses instead on media frames evident in news coverage, the result will provide a model of how international news is domesticated by the local media in Taiwan. As Novais notes (2007), media “preferred to stick to the assumption that the media constantly reflect national interest as a routine procedure….with national interest playing a determinant role on a standard and permanent basis” (p. 570). Generally, the Taiwanese media would therefore be expected to treat the theme of Wang’s success from a domestic perspective. The interpretation of issues by 13
Taiwan’s sports reports would shift from an American perspective to a customized news report that is familiar to Taiwan audiences. Both the intentional effort to make information understandable to national audiences and the contextual differences at global and domestic levels that result in different news content facilitate the practice of domestication. The current approach uses two points to explore the insights of domestication. Domesticating processes may possess distinct characteristics in different countries.
Positivity Bias A positivity bias has also been demonstrated in the coverage of sports achievements. “The positivity bias—is the tendency to make internal attributions for others’ success and external attribution for others’ failures” (Hallahan, Lee, & Herzog, 1997, p. 768). In other words, it refers to taking “personal credit for successes and denying responsibility for failures by ascribing them to internal and external causes, respectively” (Hooghiemstra, 2008, p. 618). At a local level, “sports reporting was oriented towards the supposed demands of newspaper readers” (Walker, 2006, p. 461). As Wenner (1989) mentions, this means, “placing the game and its hero into a ‘fantasy world’ that both sportswriters and readers have a hand in creating” (p. 15). This concept leads to an inclination to over-assign causality to internal traits and under-assign it to external situations. This tendency would occur in other countries as well. Usually, “people view members of their own group favorably and/or members of a group other than their own unfavorably” (Weiner et al., 1972, p. 3). The success/failure bias in attribution to sport performances generally conform with the hypothesis that success will be internalized and failure externalized. Studies on attribution theory often adopt Weiner et al.’s (1972) model that ability and effort are internal factors, and luck and task difficulty are external factors. His model is useful for this study. “The positivity bias has two distinct components: a face-enhancing bias, where internal attributions are made for others’ successes and a face-protecting bias, where 14 external attributions are made for others’ failures” (Hallahan, Lee, & Herzog, 1997, p. 770). In this study, the literature review leads us to explore whether both components are evident in Taiwan and in the United States and whether the positivity bias drives Taiwanese media to portray a confident picture of Wang’s performance. Moreover, Grove, Hanrahan and McInman (1991) note that winning outcomes were indeed attributed to more stable and controllable causes than losing outcomes (p. 93). In the case of success, positivity bias would imply that “winning was due to a relatively stable factor that was under personal control” (p. 96). Thus, future success would be expected, and persistence as well as intensity would be maintained in subsequent practice sessions and games (Weiner, 1985). Conversely, in the case of failure, “the use of unstable, uncontrollable attributions would imply that success was possible in the future and would minimize negative emotional reactions (e.g., feelings of shame and /or hopelessness)” (Grove et al., 1991, p. 96). American-Taiwanese dissimilarities in framing tendencies may explain cross-cultural differences in the types of presentation of positivity bias. “The cross-cultural consistency of the positivity bias is consistent with the idea that it is based on a universal motivation to protect and enhance other people’s face” (Hallahan et al, 1997, p. 770). For instance, the “observed size of the positivity bias was similar in the U.S. and Hong Kong newspapers, which is consistent with the idea that the positivity bias stems from a universal motivation to maintain others’ face” (p. 774). In Taiwan, it would be expected that greater emphasis would be placed on enhancing Wang’s wins (making internal attributions for successes) and on explaining Wang’s losses (making external attributions for failures). Taiwanese media coverage of Wang may focus predominantly upon his performance and success with little or no comment on his experiences of losing. As for the United States, we would anticipate that the focus of the news stories would be placed solely on the performances of Wang since the United States would not treat him as a pride of their country. The explanations made for Wang’s winning or losing games in the U.S. sports news will be examined. Although the positivity bias has been found in worldwide cultures, the bias may 15
not be manifested in the same way in different countries. The reason may be due to distinctions among the methods of attribution in Taiwan and America. This leads us to a discussion of the influences on framing practices that are internal and external to journalism and the value of a comparative cultural approach.
Cultural Comparison Since Wang played an important role in Taiwan (e.g., the first Taiwanese baseball pitcher joins MLB) and received considerable media attention, coverage of his performance provides an ideal opportunity to investigate framing in cross-cultural settings. A cultural comparison allows us to detect patterns within and between the selected two countries and cultures. The cultural comparisons in the present research include Taiwan and the United States, and focuses on the qualitative aspects of sports reporting and news framings of an international athlete. These two countries provide examples of sports media similarities and differences. The study’s comparative perspective, which explores the convergences and divergences between sports coverage in the two countries, is also critical. The findings will help explore the interrelationships between media and sport. Frames are part of culture and relate to cultural phenomena. As Goffman states, “frames are a central part of a culture and are institutionalized in various ways” (1981, p. 63). For example, in one of the Ghanem’s (2005) studies, he compares Al Abram’s and The New York Times’ pre-war coverage. He discovered that Al Abram relied more on Arabic sources, and NYT used more U.S. sources. Comparing the coverage of a specific topic from different countries further substantiates that each country has its own way of framing. Culture refers to an organized set of beliefs, codes, myths, stereotypes, values, norms, frames and so forth that are shared in the collective memory of a group or society. For the purpose of this study, “it is referred to in terms of shared values that symbolize a society and thus the thinking, feeling and acting of members of that society” (Zhou, 2008, p. 121). This also fits with what Srikandath (1991) calls “cultural values,” that is “the governing ideas and guiding principles for thought and action in a given society” (p. 166). Because culture is seen as “a primary base to 16 constitute knowledge, meaning, and comprehension of the world outside” (Hall, 1997), it presents a broad exploration of media framing and points to the linkage between news production, media content, and media consumption. Gamson (1992) argues that journalists present public issues within certain story frames. These news frames often reflect broader cultural themes and narratives. Frames can be encountered at several locations in the communication process, in the minds of media makers and the audience, in media content, and in culture (Entman, 1993). Therefore, journalists cater to their audiences by applying cultural phenomenon in producing media content. Our central question is whether the ways in which international athletes’ performances are reported vary from country to country. Watkins (2001) notes that “framing, then, is an active process, a distinct mode of cultural production informed by a system of professional repertoires, values regarding what constitutes news, and access to sources that enable journalists to routinely construct and process news discourse” (p. 84). Indeed, some particularly enduring and notable themes in American coverage continues to be the tendency for athletes be characterized by an overall understanding of their life and performance, while at the same time there is a growing tendency by the media in Taiwan to report the achievements of athletes by focusing more upon their winning performances and less on the games they lose. Tucker (1998) explains that “at issue in a sport is the power of media frames to define particular aspects of reality in ways that support specific social interests within the field of public discourse” (p. 143). “Frames are embedded in cultural and symbolic systems and communicate values and beliefs that are meaningful in those systems” (Connolly-Ahern & Broadway, 2008, p. 366). When cultural themes form the central dynamic of framing, it is obvious that cultural forces external to news organizations shape the degree of journalistic autonomy and journalists’ interpretation to some degree. Topoushian (2002) compared newspaper coverage of the first Gulf War in an Arab newspaper and in U.S. and Canadian newspapers. She discovered that the Gulf War from 1990 to 1991 was covered differently in Arab and North American media. Also, the media 17 coverage reflected the foreign policy of each country. Cultural divergence can relate to frames and serves as a pivotal factor affecting media frames. One example of possible cultural divergence is that behavior is usually best regarded as reflecting personality traits or other internal attributes. Another example of cultural divergence between Westerners and East Asians is in perceptions of dishonesty. Westerners believe that an actor’s behavior reveals something about that actor’s personality, regardless of the presence of situational constrains on the actor’s behavior (Choi, Nisbett & Norenzayan, 1999, p. 60). Eastern Asians, in contrast, realize that people behave differently under different circumstances (p. 60). Another notion that relates to cultural divergence is inherent cultural bias, which “is evident in the choice of topics and opinions expressed as well as in the view of the world portrayed” (McQuail, 1994, p. 255) and can be said “to permeate news media or organizations” (Novais, 2007, p. 555). Cultural bias is a form of self-censorship described throughout the article as “public patriotism” (p. 555). That means it is, “set at going beyond that which can be justified by news values alone, taking account of the relative significance of events and the likely political and other interests of the readership” (McQuail, 1999, p. 42). In this sense, it is not beyond our understanding that some reports are ignited by patriotic fervor, showing media loyalty to the national interest rather than to the normal professional journalistic point of view. Taiwanese press media typically practice patriotic journalism. For instance, most of the times when Wang loses a game, Taiwanese media incline to attribute the losing game to teammates or coaches, in order to show their patriotism. This happens in the United States as well. The Persian Gulf War in 1991 gives an example of patriotic journalism that it was largely supportive of the U.S. mission there (Kellner, 1992), especially from CNN (Newhagen 1994). Another example is to be found in Aday et al.’s (2005) paper, which claims that “American news organizations, and especially Fox News Channel (and perhaps the Lou Dobbs Show on CNN) will be less likely than AI Jazeera to run stories on civilian or U.S. troop casualties, while Jazeera will be more likely than its American counterparts (especially FNC) to air stories on protest and international diplomacy” (p. 11). 18
The possible absence of equal reporting given to negative stories about Wang does not prove that Taiwanese newspapers prefer a positive version of the issues. This is because the use of sources largely depends on the framing of the declaration content (i.e., the space, position and frequency attributed to it) and on the comment and tone (i.e., the conscious use of irony and sarcasm) (Novais, 2007 p. 561). The local press often tackles all the possible topics and endeavors to seek items of national interest to feature in their coverage. The stories exhibited by Taiwanese newspapers are likely to be the result of the media’s institutional customs or cultural divergence. The differences, which reflect some tendencies regarding the orientation of the presentation, can also be related to relevance and cultural characteristics of local media. Moreover, given the fervor with which Taiwan has been eager to become sovereign in spite of China’s demands for control, Wang’s performance is bound to mean more than simply a game for Taiwan. One and only China, One China, One Taiwan and Two Chinas are key phrases not only in the love-hate relationship between Mainland China and its alleged administrative province, Taiwan, but also in Sino-U.S. diplomatic issues since 1949, the year the KMT (the Nationalist Party), the then ruling party, withdrew from Mainland China and entered Taiwan (Han, 2007, p. 40). After 50 years of separation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, the possible reunification of the two countries has been fueled by heated topics relating to distinct political systems, economic structures and ethnic backgrounds. Taiwan is eager to get rid of China’s persecution and makes full use of every opportunity to claim its independent status. Thus, strategies to portray Wang as the Yankees’ game-saver from Taiwan are understandable. Previous investigations of frames in the news have a strong ethnocentric bias, both in terms of the issues examined and the geographic focus of the studies (de Vreese, Peter & Semetko, 2001, p. 108). In general, research on the contents and effects of the news media are often based on national studies, suffering somewhat from “naïve universalism” by offering general theoretical propositions based on single-country data (Gurevitch & Blumler, 1990, p. 308). In an issue-comparative 19
perspective, comparisons of news frames analysis attempt to compare the framing of specific events or issues across different media and news organizations in one country. For example, Aday, Livingston, and Hebert (2005) examined 1, 820 news stories on ABC, Al-Jazeera, CBS, CNN, NBC, and FNC in order to determine whether or not these popular media outlets have a bias when they try to deliver objective news. They argue that “such an examination must look at the overall picture of the war offered by the various news organizations” (p. 8). This is where people might see cultural differences. “Two networks may each cover different things, thereby offering a much different portrait of the war to their respective audiences” (Aday et al., 2005, p. 8). This notion of Wang’s news coverage are considered by diverse cultural contexts. Two newspapers in different countries follow the tradition of emphasizing events of significance that their audiences want. This provides a route for us to investigate how journalists cover sports news. Figuring out how to embrace journalism's regard for construction could stretch the cultural space of this paper into further degrees of maturation. In sum, this study will explore the value of the cross-national comparative approach. The points include not only assessing the presence of particular frames, but also the content of news about specific issues. There might be some meaningful intercultural comparisons found in Wang’s news coverage in these two countries. The goal of this study is to look at the concepts of news frames, domestication, and positivity bias and to provide a cultural comparison. This leads us to highlight the content and the coverage of media studies. This research is to gain insight about ways national news coverage and social context are reflected in news frames. With these perspectives, the findings will enrich the understanding of news frames and acknowledge that frames are the result of interactions between journalists, culture and the media system.
Two Research Questions & Two Central Hypotheses From the literature review, we expect that within the field of global news, the manner of framing events becomes important because it enhances readers’ and 20 viewers’ comprehension. The Taiwanese media thus would be expected to treat the themes about Wang from a domestic perspective. The interpretation of issues by Taiwanese news media would shift from an American perspective to a customized news report that is familiar to Taiwan audiences. Chien-Ming Wang’s special qualities of character, his international identity and the global scale of his prominence identify him as one of the greatest pitchers in MLB. It is intriguing to investigate his coverage by the press systems of two different countries with different national involvements. Therefore, in Taiwan, one would expect that greater emphasis would be placed on enhancing Wang’s wins (making internal attributions for successes) and on explaining Wang’s losses (making external attributions for failures). Taiwanese media coverage of Wang may focus predominantly upon his performance and success with little or no comment on his experiences of losing. And the U.S. media might simply discuss and analyze the whole game, without stressing the attribution of winning or losing for a specific person. “Frames are embedded in cultural and symbolic systems and communicate values and beliefs that are meaningful in those systems” (Connolly-Ahern & Broadway, 2008, p. 366). When cultural themes form the central dynamic of framing, it is obvious that cultural forces external to news organizations shape the degree of journalistic autonomy and journalists’ interpretation to some degree. The way Americans report Wang’s performance in a baseball game might be framed differently than in Taiwan. In other words, “a topic may be framed in several ways, and a frame may be applied to various topics” (Gorp, 2007, p. 66). Thus, we anticipate differences between Taiwanese and U.S. media coverage. Set in this context, this paper poses two research questions and two central hypotheses concerning the four concepts mentioned above: RQ1: What are the similarities and differences between newspapers’ frames, topics, and framing practices in their coverage of Wang’s performances in each country? H1a: “Domestication”—The Li-Tai Sports newspaper will select, organize and 21
elaborate events upon information that is related to Taiwanese audiences. H1b: “Domestication”—The New York Times will select, organize and elaborate upon information that is related to the U.S. audiences. H2: “Positivity bias”— Taiwanese media coverage will exhibit more internal attributes (face-enhancing bias) and external attributes (face-protecting bias) in reporting on Wang’s performances than the U.S. media. RQ2: “Cultural Comparison”— What type of cultural strategies do Taiwanese and the U.S. sport journalists use to write about the performance of Wang?
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CHAPTER III METHOD Introduction At its best, qualitative analysis is more flexible than the quantitative kind; it aspires to a level of complexity (I do not claim it is bound to achieve it) that remains true to the actual complexity and contradictoriness of media artifacts. (Gitlin, 1980, p. 303). This proposal uses qualitative framing analysis as a central method approach to focus on the range of themes and meanings in the text. Framing analysis is an unobtrusive or non-reactive method used by social scientists that has been applied to nearly every form of communication, such as newspapers, television and radio broadcasts, speeches, literature, etc. (Krippendorff, 2004). This research applied framing analyses to sports coverage in daily newspapers and Internet sports coverage. Framing analyses are unobtrusive and non-reactive because they have no effect on subjects studied and the content has already been written or spoken (Babbie, 1995). People depend on news media for information about the world. Frames can be defined as “conceptual tools which media and individuals rely on to convey, interpret, and evaluate information” (Neuman, et, 1992, p. 60). As noted, “media frames organize the world for journalists and those who rely on their reports for understanding the world around them” (Turner, 1997, p. 889). A critical step of frame analysis is to deal with the reconstruction of frames. Frames appear in media content in several ways; through metaphors, word choice, descriptions and arguments. In terms of media messages, frames can be a way to synthesize and simplify complicated information; that is, frames personalize. The media’s packaging of events and public figures in presentations results in a powerful shaping of people’s understanding. One emphasis in framing analysis is to examine news frames or media frames to see how issues are presented and covered in the news (de Vreese, Peter, & Semetko, 2001). Using frames as an analytical method, we look specifically at five elements of framing used by Gamson and Modigliani (1989, p. 2): metaphor (comparisons), 23
exemplars (historical examples from which lessons are drawn), catchphrases (buzzwords or words or phrases commonly used to describe a quality or phenomenon), depictions (characterizations of people or events), and icons. Gamson and Modigliani use the term “icon” to denote visual images in their analysis of brochures and pamphlets. However, the two newspapers offer very few visual images, except for the New York Yankees’ logo and a photo of Wang when he is pitching in a game. Therefore, we are not going to include visual images or icons. “Framing examines printed and electronic text to determine how the presence or absence of information creates meaning. Framing illustrates that perception can be crafted through a speech or a news story” (Perkins, 2005, p. 66). This research applies frame analysis to undertake a media analysis of Wang. Qualitative framing looks at not only what is included in the frames but what is excluded (Entman, 1993). By comparing the media in each country, the absent or excluded themes will be revealed. Several coding categories are incorporated in this analysis refer to the Appendix. Analysis of the newspapers aims to gauge different aspects of the actual news treatment, the potential coverage and what remained unreported. These include Inventory Variables (Date and Context), Content Variables (Topic, Theme, Action, Expert and Message) and Tone Variables (Frames, Positivity Bias, Domestication and Cross-culture) (Attachment1). According to Connolly-Ahern and Broadway’s (2008) paper, “qualitative framing involves repeated and extensive engagement with a text and looks holistically at the material to identify frames” (p. 369). They claim that the advantages of qualitative framing are that it “(a) examines the key words, metaphors, narratives, and so on, in context of the text as a whole; (b) identifies what was left out of the frames as well as what was included; and (c) recognizes that the words repeated most often in a text may not be the most important” (p. 369). Due to these advantages, the frames and themes in the texts can be unveiled.
Media Selection Newspapers are a tangible localized media tool and more approachable than 24 are other media. In addition, the reputation and image of both LT and NYT newspapers signal factuality and trustworthiness by creating a sense of immediacy and proximity. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, The New York Times has now become known as “America’s paper of record” (Eastman & Billings, 2000). It is an all-English-language daily regional newspaper that circulates several hundred thousand copies a day. It is selected for the United States because it possesses comparability, ranks among the top newspapers in the nation, covers international news widely, and geographically represents the East and West Coast. In addition, both the USA Today and the New York Times are the two traditional newspapers, and their statuses are the only two traditional U.S. newspapers that provided expansive sports coverage. But the NYT includes more feature angles in its game stories than USA Today (Kian, 2006). Moreover is the uniqueness of NYT. Headquarter of the NYT is in New York, and the New York Yankees’ roots in New York as well. Being in the same city leads us to expect that the NYT might frame the Yankees’ in a favor way. “Newspapers with larger circulations typically employ larger staffs of writers and have more travel money to cover national events. The United States has only three newspapers with average weekday circulations of 1 million 38 or more” (Kian, 2006, p. 49). And the average daily circulation figures for the NYT in the U.S is 1,118,564 (Kian, 2006). In addition, “many Associated Press (AP) and Reuters articles carried by the online version of the NYT were carried by other newspapers throughout the United States” (Zaharopoulos, 2007, p. 37). With its excellent reputation, mentioned earlier, The NYT serves as a leading and careful sports media source. The other site examined for this research is LT. The LT sport newspaper is a local newspaper that circulates daily and is specialized in sports games reporting. It is the biggest Taiwanese sports newspaper cooperation which has more than five hundred thousand unique visitors log onto its Web pages daily. LT is chosen because of national readership and its reputation in Taiwan as an elite press. LT operates the official sports news organization in Taiwan and is known for its sports reporting. Therefore, it seemed logical and fair to choose this website from the network. 25
Sampling and Data Collection The samples include the two newspapers relating to Wang. To compare the portrayal of Wang by the Taiwanese and American media, this research focuses on three years of data from Taiwan’s LT and NYT. Although there are several forms of public discourse, the newspapers’ story is one of the most accessible. These newspapers, available in paper and electronic format, offer a three-year (February 26, 2005-February 26, 2008) baseline for the study. The focused data of this study is used to explore media coverage of Wang in both countries since his arrival in America. For the newspapers published in both countries, the reliable Newslink list of newspapers, (http://www.ltsports.com.tw/main/wang1.html) and
(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/chienming_wang/index.html), were used. Newslink contains links used to locate national and international daily news. LT and NYT are selected for Taiwan and the United States on the basis of their large circulations and strong reputations. They both rank among the leaders of their national media sector. The reason for selecting online publication is because the goal of this research is to compare content published on online-specific publications that covers a vast array of sports. It is important to note the both newspapers offer online sports coverage. Practical considerations also played a role because of the availability of these stories in an electronic database format for the full study period. This study establishes a baseline of media coverage to build a three-year time series of media data. Data begins from the date that Wang joined the New York Yankees to present. This represents a significant period of time for determining the important attributes of the reports and the sports news treatment by two different presses. The sampling procedure resulted in a total population of 261 news stories with Wang as primary subject: 206 for Taiwan, and 55 for the United States. The yield data are used to create this study’s database of texts. In this study, the researcher used the keywords Chien-Ming Wang in the headline, lead paragraphs, and terms. No effort will be made to further refine this sample on the basis of relevance or story category, since the purpose of the study is to determine how Wang might have been framed in overall news coverage. This method requires the need to sample news articles for 26 coding, and analysis.
Coding Procedure The entire population of articles published in these two media outlets is examined in this research. The units of analysis and of coding are the individual news articles. Essentially, the qualitative approach here takes the form of identifying, and then analyzing, all of the reoccurring words and phrases—that is, all the different kinds of “units of analysis” (Bryman, 2001, p.183) to be found in the articles. The information is noted with a coding sheet based on the protocol. Each newspaper’s headlines are reviewed; then Wang’s stories alone are selected for further study in order to support the discovery of dominant themes in the qualitative framing analysis. There is no precise methodology used by the majority of researchers conducting qualitative analyses of texts (McKee, 2001). Therefore, it is important to adopt coding schemes from prior research for qualitative framing analysis. A coding sheet is designed here based on two main research purposes. In order to discern article frames, a protocol adopted from two protocols by Altheide (1996) and Barnett (2006) is used to investigate newspaper articles’ context, content, and underlying messages (Appendix 1). “A protocol is a way to ask questions of a document; a protocol is a list of questions, items, categories, or variables that guide data collection from documents” (Altheide, 1996, p. 26). It serves as a tool to scrutinize each story carefully, examining how language is used as a tool to construct frames in this analysis. By using this defined, standard coding protocol throughout the data-gathering process, similar questions about the content and meaning in the texts were explored for every item. After completing the coding process, the researcher wrote theoretical and definitional memos on reoccurring concepts that emerged from the coding sheets. Using a coding sheet that included specific categories, the researcher immersed herself in the coding protocol and the actual articles, writing memos on the dominant themes and frames that might portray Wang in a certain light emerging from the articles. After taking notes, the notes were fit into the categories described in the protocol. The following step of the analysis made comparisons within and across 27 categories to track words, themes, and issues over time (Altheide, 1996). It is illuminating to make comparisons within the two countries by comparing narratives over time data to reveal or focus on changes in the meaning. The coder must be diligent in combing through each of the articles, because frames lie within them. Thus, the primary researcher read through the news stories several times, making notes on patterns and frames on the protocol. The articles were read and notes made to identify frames. Furthermore, the two media outlets have distinct ways of highlighting certain phrases. LT frequently used square brackets or quotations with a normal font to emphasize a special name or phrase. In contrast, the NYT did not normally use any marks or symbols to stress words, though brackets were sometimes used to specify the statistics of baseball players. In this study, the researcher converted the square brackets or quotations in LT to italics, for the researcher translated the articles and this is the usual way of highlighting words in the United States. Italics are added in other places to emphasis the themes and frames. If the italics appeared in the original articles, this would be noted in square brackets. Lastly, the coder looked back to the hypotheses and revisited the notes, and examined the stories more specifically in order to see what was different and worthy of discussing. The quotations used in articles are important to analyze. Writers may choose to employ quotations supporting their personal views, which may help advance the three topics highlighted in this analysis. It is also important to note that statistical sports information was not coded unless it included a descriptor. Kian (2006) gives the example that “even though it may seem impressive that a player scored 30 points in a game, this stat line was not included for examination unless a writer used a descriptor to describe the stat line such as ‘an impressive 30 points.’ Depending on the team and player, someone scoring 15 points in a game could be considered a career night or a poor performance” (p. 56). Thus, this study examined how the writers quoted describe specific events and performance. There are three variables included in the analysis: Inventory, Content and Tone 28
Variables. Qualitative Framing Analysis-- Inventory, Content and Tone Variables: Inventory Inventory variables offer general background information for data to be investi gat ed. This variable is modified from Altheide’s (1996) newspaper protocol. It offers the background information: date and context. The first purpose surrounds the issues related to ways press coverage of Wang in both Taiwan and the United States are mentioned or discussed in given articles. The second set of purpose covers the extent to which the articles from the two countries framed a given event in specific press coverage. The date of publication for every article is retained in the text database, providing a way to evaluate trends over time in news coverage. Comparing the stories from the same dates in both countries will reveal the differences more easily.
Content variable This variable is also modified from Altheide (1996), and it includes topic, action and experts. The primary goal of this study was to decipher the narratives that sportswriters use when covering the performance of Wang. The frames are subsequently arranged into categories of meanings. This forms the basis for us to analyze the underlying themes found within the texts.
Tone The three main topics are domestication, positivity bias and cross-comparison. According to the theory of Gamson and Modigliani (1989, p. 2-3) five elements of framing are central: metaphor (comparisons), exemplars (historical examples from which lessons are drawn), catchphrases (buzzwords or words or phrases commonly used to describe a quality or phenomenon), depictions (characterizations of people or events) and icons. Barnett (2006) offers some practical examples of the five elements. While studying how women’s magazines frame medical news and feminism, she specifies 29 metaphor in the protocol as comparisons or something that represents something else. She also explains that “health itself became a metaphor for liberty and illness a metaphor for women’s failure” (p. 6). In this analysis, not only simile tone will be noticed, but any words that infer positive or negative comments about Wang will be compared and recorded. As for exemplars, catchphrases and depictions, they are examined under cross-cultural category to explore the framing strategy. Exemplars are “historical examples from which lessons are drawn” (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989, p. 2-3). In another work, Barnett (2005) provides an example for catchphrases. “NOW developed the deviance frame by casting its opponents as contemptuous, irrational, dishonest, and radical. Words such as ‘equality’ and ‘justice’ became catchphrases in NOW releases (NOW refers to the National Organization for Women)” (p. 353). Depictions are the words or sentences used to characterize people or events. Gamson and Modigliani used the term “icon” to denote visual images in their analyzing brochures and pamphlets. However, as noted above, two newspapers we are going to examine offer very few visual images, except for the New York Yankees’ logo and a photo of Wang when he pitches in a game. Therefore, we are not going to include visual images or icons in this analysis. One of the tone variables—theme, needs further explanation for we need to distinguish it from frame. Altheide (1996) argues that themes are miniframes. In an attempt to identify themes in the sports coverage, this research borrows a gendered sports formula developed by Harris and Clayton (2002). They examine articles in the Sun and Mirror by employing an interpretative approach to uncover eight dominant themes within newspaper coverage of athletes. However, according to the topic of this proposal, the sports formula will be adopted to fit more on the performance of Wang: (1) invisibility of Wang’s losing games; (2) emphasizing traditional country traits; (3) communicating pain, anguish, and sacrifice in sport; (4) creating national heroes and national identities; (5) coverage of Wang in an appropriate sporting roles; (6) non-task relevant commentary; (7) the trivialization of Wang’s accomplishments in sport. In essence, these seven miniframes can be categorized along with the main focuses of this study in order to interweave them with the frames: the second and the sixth 30 miniframes are put into the Domestication frame, the first, third, fourth and fifth miniframes are arranged in the Positivity Bias group, and the seventh miniframe is classified as a part of the Cultural Comparisons. Kian’s (2006) research explores several gender-related themes that have emerged in textual analyses of print coverage of men’s sports and women’s sports. The first example of the themes is: “She must have been a tomboy.” It means the “repeated references to how star women’s players developed their basketball skills, physical toughness, and mental fortitude by playing against boys or adult men as youths. Thus, an implication is made that males are physically dominant of females” (p. 112). The second example is : “Parents are newsworthy, especially athletic fathers.” According to Kian (2006), “this theme emerged due to writers’ proclivity to include references of the parents of athletes and coaches, particularly fathers who had noteworthy athletic accomplishments. In addition, fathers were occasionally credited with assisting the basketball development of their sons or daughters. In contrast, only one mother mentioned in any of the 508 articles examined…” (p.113) Therefore, any theme emerging from the texts based on the seven formulas are recorded. If the Taiwanese media produce Wang’s news reports relevant to Taiwanese audiences, it is included. For example, when Wang gets hurt, the Taiwanese media will compare Western medical therapy with the Eastern and claim that if Wang is treated with Eastern medical therapy, he will get well sooner than with Western treatment. Framed coverage like this will be coded as a domestication strategy. Weiner et al. (1972) offer a useful model to examine positivity bias, arguing that “ability” and “effort” are internal factors, and “luck” and “task difficulty” are external factors. We will also code any coverage that refers to taking “personal credit for successes and deny responsibility for failures by ascribing them to internal and external causes, respectively” (Hoohgiemstra, 2008, p. 618). The analysis uses two components of positivity bias to approach the coverage: a face-enhancing bias, where internal attributions are made for others’ successes and a face-protecting bias, where external attributions are made for others’ failures” (Hallahan, Lee, & Herzog, 1997, p. 770). 31
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS Introduction This study analyzes the types of sports news framing produced by newspaper sports writers who covered the performance of Chien-Ming Wang from 2005 to 2008. A qualitative framing analysis is used to examine framing strategies and the dominant themes emerging in print media coverage of two media outlets. Results from the analysis of the coverage in these newspapers in two countries are presented in the following chapter. The implication of these results will be discussed in greater detail in chapter five. This section will discuss the three variables concerning the framing strategies that emerged from the qualitative data analysis. The researcher used the completed coding sheets and the actual articles from the population to begin the qualitative data analysis process. Working alone, she wrote theoretical and definitional memos, and used comparative methods to search for the underlying framing from the 261 articles examined in this study. This is an individualistic, subjective and interpretive work (Patton, 2002). The three variables are Inventory, Content and Tone variables. In an attempt to identify themes in the sports coverage, this research borrows a sports formula developed by Harris and Clayton (2002). They examine articles by employing an interpretative approach to uncover dominant themes within the newspaper coverage of athletes. However, in order to fit the topic of this thesis, the sports formula will be changed slightly. There are seven themes examined with regard to the Tone variable: (1) the invisibility of Wang’s losing games; (2) emphasis on traditional country traits; (3) communication of pain, anguish, and sacrifice in sports; (4) creation of national heroes and national identities; (5) coverage of Wang as an appropriate sports model role; (6) non-task relevant commentary; and (7) the trivialization of Wang’s accomplishments in sports. The framing strategies are discussed in terms of (1) domestication, (2) positivity bias, and (3) cultural comparison aspects. Overall, most of the themes highlight the ways of framing in the articles published in the Taiwanese 32
sports newspaper. In some articles, the researcher uses an italic font to indicate a special name or phrase. Italics are added in other places to emphasize the themes and frames. If the italics appeared in the original articles, this will be noted in square brackets. As we can see in Table 1, in 2005, Wang was called up from the Yankees' AAA affiliate. In May, he became the fourth major league start since coming up from Class AAA Columbus to replace the injured Jaret Wright. In 2006, Wang developed into one of the game's elite starters by winning nineteen games, tied for the most in the majors along with Johan Santana, and posted a 3.63 ERA (LT, October 3, 2006). At the end of
the season, he finished second to Santana in voting for the Cy Young award (NYT,
April 1, 2007). Wang collected 15 second-place votes, and 51 points. He also received a ninth-place vote, in the AL (American League Trophy Committee) MVP balloting, won by Justin Morneau. This year in Baseball Awards, he was chosen as the top starter in 2006 season with more than 47% of the fan vote. Although he began the 2007 season on the disabled list, having injured his right hamstring during spring training, Wang pitched several perfect innings. He pitched for an ERA of 3.7 and got nineteen wins two years in a row (LT, January 17, 2008). He recorded back-to-back seasons with 19 wins in 2006 and 2007, got the highest number of wins (38) in the Majors (LT, January 22, 2008).
Table 1: The pitching statistics of Wang
2005 Win Lose ERA Innings Hits Runs Earned Home Base Strike-
18 appearances (W) (L) Pitched (H) (R) Runs Runs on outs
17 games (IP) (ER) (HR) Balls (SO)
started (BB) 8 5 4.02 116.1 113 58 52 9 22 47
2006 34 appearances Win Lose ERA Innings Hits Runs Earned Home Base Strike-
33 games (W) (L) Pitched (H) (R) Runs Runs on outs
33
started (IP) (ER) (HR) Balls (SO) (BB)
19 6 3.63 218 233 92 88 12 52 76
2007 Win Lose ERA Innings Hits Runs Earned Hom e Base Strike-
30 appearances (W) (L) Pitched (H) (R) Runs Runs on outs
30 games (IP) (ER) (HR) Balls (SO)
started (BB) 19 7 3.7 199 .1 199 84 82 9 59 104 To summarize the salient data of Wang’s record: 1. Wang won 38 tot al g ames in 2006 and 200 7. In th e Joe To rre era of the New York Yankees (1996-2007), only one Yankee pitcher, Andy Pettitte with 39 wins in 1996 and 1997, had more than 38 wins over a two-year period. 2. Wang's .719 career-winning percentage is the highest in Yankees history among pitchers with at least 60 decisions. 3. Wang threw a complete game in June 2007 against the Chicago White Sox. No other Yankees pitcher threw a complete game in the 2007 season. 4. Wang pitched a road game (the game when an athletic team plays games for which it is not the host) in 2007 that drew an estimated more than 8,000 Taiwanese fans to a San Francisco stadium packed with over 50,000 people. 5. The only pitcher in MLB with more wins than Wang in 2007 was Josh Beckett with 20 wins. 6. Wang earned the lowest ERA (1.13) of his career against the Chicago Cubs. 7. Wang had five wins from August 19 to September 9 in 2007, Wang’s longest winning streak in his career. 8. In 2007, from August 13 and September 9, there were six Yankees’ wins, the team’s longest winning streak when Wang started the game. 9. Wang was either first or second for the Yankees in 2007 in every major pitching category for a starting pitcher.
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10. Wang's 38 wins during 2006 and 2007 were the most by a pitcher in MLB during those two seasons.
Dominant Frames & Th emes from Qualitative Data Analysis From 2005 to 2008, LT and NYT witnessed Wang becoming a Major League Baseball player. News releases reflected the two media outlets’ concern with how sp ort s media framed stories on Wang by using different strategies. Three frames emerged in the focus of this analysis: The Domestication Frame, The Positivity Bias Frame and The Cross-Cultural Comparison Frame. Each is discussed in depth. In addition, in accordance with Altheide’s (1996) notion, the researcher treated themes as ‘miniframes’ for a report. When journalists present public issues within certain story frames, these news frames often reflect broader cultural themes and narratives. This forms the basis for us to analyze the underlying themes found within the texts. The following analysis offers several concrete examples in explaining the dominant themes. Because this is a qualitative analysis, excerpts from news articles will be presented and added to the information from the Content variables so that readers can understand how frames were constructed and readers can make their own comparisons. Each frame is supported by several sub-themes which are elaborated upon as follows.
The Domestication Frame— How to domesticate and frame The sports sections in the case of two newspapers presented themselves as specialized sports newspaper institutions and corporations. The contextual differences between the two nations caused story contents to differ. Therefore, an intentional effort was made to make information about Wang understandable to national audiences. The news content in the two countries exemplified elements of both global and local factors of influence on sports news production. The strategies and factors of influence listed in each article served to illustrate news domestication. A typical how-to-domesticate script looks like this: Wang improves a lot this season. He not only pitches great with the two-seam sinker, 35
but does an awe-inspiring change-up, and the way he controls the direction with his
fingers is excellent. This becomes a matchless skill to retire left-handed hitters (LT,
July 29, 2006). In order to make Wang’s story comprehensible to the Taiwanese public, the commentator used two dialects. The Chinese of “awe-inspiring” (虎虎生風) is a four-w ord idiom which has the word “tiger” in it, and Wang’s English name is Tiger; while “matchless skill” 必殺技 in Chinese refers to a special skill to bring an end to someone. As for NYT, it also frames Wang through a domestication strategy to help Americans know him better. In the beginning of its coverage of Wang, the NYT put out general background information to introduce him to U.S. readers:
On the mound, Wang shows as much emotion as someone taking a nap. Instead
of strikeouts, he produces grounders almost as steadily as a coach tapping them
to infielders…Wang has become a hero in his native Taiwan. No Taiwanese player
had played in the major leagues until outfielder Chin-Feng Chen joined the Los
Angeles Dodgers in 2002. He attended a sports college, Taipei Ti Wu University,
and was signed by the Yankees for about $2 million in 2000, with a hard, straight
fastball as his primary weapon…by 2004 he was a star for the Chinese Taipei
Olympic team…In the minors, Yankee coaches convinced him to concentrate on
the sinker. To throw it, Wang holds the ball with his index and middle fingers
along the seams framing the ball’s sweet spot (NYT, February 26, 2005). Another example shows how the NYT made Wang’s story comprehensible to its read ers:
Wang spent his boyhood in southern Taiwan and attended a baseball-powerhouse
high school here in the capital in northern Taiwan, so his popularity spans the
island… But Wang's popularity could help the island's league in the long run, as
more people become interested in the game and as Taiwan becomes more important
as a recruiting ground for the major leagues in the United States… As more
Taiwanese players head to the majors, more of their countrymen may cross the Pacific
and watch them play (NYT, September 10, 2006). 36
It is interesting to note that NYT is more likely to discuss Wang’s English ability. The reporters included phrases like, “Wang said through an interpreter” at least seventeen times, while less often referred to such phrases as, “not through an interpreter.” It might be due to the fact that the interpreters are not only translating but are helping foreign players assimilate into their new culture. As the internationalization of major league baseball continues and more foreign players come here to play, teams have been increasingly hiring interpreters to help ease their transition. Unlike Latin American players, who can usually find teammates, coaches and club officials who speak Spanish, Asian players rarely have this option. Even Wang said that, “last year the other players didn’t talk to me very much. They figured I couldn’t speak English. In my second year, more people are talking to me, chatting with me” (NYT, August 13, 2006). A NYT story on February 25, 2007 said that: “In this evolving aspect of the game, the interpreters are becoming a more visible presence in the daily routines of numerous teams.” The coaches need to know their instructions are being understood, while the players expected to express themselves as well. The general manager of the Yankees said that: “These [foreign] players have a lot of needs and are important to us, so the people who translate for them are very important. You have the right people in place to support them” (NYT, February 25,
2007). In fact, not only did the two newspapers domesticate the news, in an effort to make Wang’s story comprehensible to audiences, interpreters are doing the same thing—working to let foreign players get used to American culture. They need help with routine tasks such as acquiring a driver’s license, renting an apartment and opening a bank account. In other words, the job of an interpreter includes some off-the-field responsibilities. Matsui, a Japanese player with the Yankees, said: “Obviously, on the field, the communication and having an interpreter to help is very important. Beyond that, what’s more important is the way the interpreter helps away
from the field. An interpreter, to me, becomes a really good friend” (NYT, February 25,
2007). American reporters need to make sure there is nothing missing in the 37 conversation, so they can make an effort to make Wang’s story comprehensible to Americ ans. One of the articles noted, “the Taiwanese-born Wang took reporters’ questions in English near his locker with the Yankees’ media relations director, Rick Cerrone, …Wang was doing this without an interpreter.” The reporter goes on to say, “Still, this showed progress, for Wang, who in spring training, politely declined to be interviewed in English because he said he was not comfortable” (NYT, July 29, 2006). “Wang, who is Taiwanese, no longer has an interpreter. The Yankees said his interpreter was inconsistent and they dismissed him. Now Wang says he speaks English well enough to handle himself” (NYT, February 25, 2007). By 2006, the NYT commented, “Wang’s English is improving, and he speaks well enough to convey basic points to the news media after games” (NYT, August 13, 2006). For Wang, the general advantage of not being good at reading or speaking English is that, “I do not understand most of the sports reports in English; this helps me not to pitch under pressure. But I still need to learn English to click with my teammates; this will absolutely do well for our team” (LT, November 2, 2005).
The Domestication Theme— Emphasizing traditional country traits The cultural stereotype of Asians is that they are taciturn; and Wang is even quieter than the average Asian. Therefore, not only LT but also the NYT refer to Wang in terms such as “talk-less,” “silent giant,” “quiet.” NYT once covered him, saying “speaks softly with reporters” and “he speaks some English, but he is a better listener, off the field and on.” NYT reported an interesting incident on one of Wang’s first trips in the majors when he and teammate Phillips had rooms on the same floor: When they got there, Wang sheepishly [italics added] asked Phillips, “Where’s my
luggage?” Phillips explained that a bellman would bring the bags. Any rookie could
have asked the same question, but it reminded Phillips of the adjustments Wang still
has to make (NYT, August 13, 2006).
However, Wang had a good sense of humor. His teammates said, “Wang parrots phrases, but he usually knows whe n he is being set up, and he has keen comic timing. ” Phillips said about Wang: “He’s very, very funny. He’s pretty quiet, and then 38 all of a sudden he’ll say something or ask a question at a random time, and it’s just hilarious.”
Beyond his abilities, Wang’s personality endeared him to teammates. “Reliever Mike Myers, who sometimes runs with Wang before batting practice around the concourse level of road ballparks, said Wang’s smile drew people in, and the language barrier fell later. “Once you get him to open up, he’s fine. But you’ve got to
get him to open up” (NYT, August 13, 2006). It is interesting to note that the NYT discovered a traditional Taiwanese cultural trait: In the off-season, Wang and his wife, Chia-Ling, live with the parents who raised him.
He loves his mother’s cooking, he said, but the overriding reason is cultural. . . . In
Taiwan, Wang explained, it is customary for sons to stay at home and take care of their
parents. Long after learning his personal background, Wang remains very close with the
parents who raised him. In Taiwan there’s a saying: “Raising a child is more important
than giving birth.” “Raising a child is greater,’ Wang said (NYT, August 13, 2006). It seemed that although he was quite, Wang enjoyed fine popularity whether with teammates, in the media, or with the readers. The particularities of Wang’s personality traits commanded both newspapers’ attention, producing several interesting framing themes presented below.
The Domestication Theme— Non-task relevant commentary Any coverage that does not relate to Wang’s pitching is considered here to be a non-task relevant commentary. In comparison to the NYT, LT pays much closer attention to whatever relates to Wang. For example, the story may cover the weather conditions as a factor of a specific game in which he is playing; “when he plans to have a child”; “Wang’s new hair-cut,”’ and “that he likes to sit near the drinking urn when he sits and watches the game in the dug-out.” Wang’s origins have incited much interest. He discovered that his biological parents were the people he had known as his uncle and aunt. Wang’s biological parents had no money to raise him, so they sent him to relatives who had no children 39
of their own and who offered to raise him. Whether Wang was adopted or not was a private matter and would have no bearing on his status or his reputation in either Taiwan or the United States. His origins are truly non-task relevant commentary. The NYT asked about this issue in an interview with Wang that was published on August 13, 2006. During the interview, Wang revealed that he had been adopted. In the following days, Taiwanese media began intensively covering Wang's family, with numerous television and print reporters heading to his hometown and stalking family members for interviews, which enraged Wang. According to the NYT story, Wang said that he found out that his biological parents were in fact the relatives he had known as his uncle and aunt. They later had a daughter, who is two years younger than Wang. “I didn't feel anything in particular,” he said. “I felt it was all right, like I
had two fathers” (NYT, August 13, 2006). An interesting point is that NYT mentioned only the biological father without asking about the biological mother, raising the question of whether the U.S. media approached this issue in a patriarchal manner. Or was it because the U.S. media thought of Taiwan as a patriarchal country, which motivated them to ask only about the father? In Taiwan, the mania of curiosity about Wang’s adoption turned out to have a dark side:
. . . obsessive media attention, notably by tabloid and television journalists . . . have
besieged Wang's family members in Taiwan. The sight of his relatives being harried
by squads of reporters and photographers has produced a popular backlash against
the news media (NYT, September 10, 2006). It was believed in Taiwan that in this case the media were way over the line. Wang had not suspected that the revelations about his personal life would result in so much attention from the Taiwanese media. He wrote an open letter to the Taiwanese media, an excerpt of which follows: … I love Taiwan and I love my entire family. I am very disappointed about the
way the Taiwanese print and television media has (have) recently handled the
personal issue about my background. The invasion of my entire family's privacy 40
caused tremendous stress and discomfort. Due to the stress suffered by my family in
Taiwan, I have made the difficult decision of not accepting any more interviews by
members of the Taiwanese media until further notice. I hope going forward, you will
focus your coverage on my performance on the field. Please stop harassing my family
members about this private issue. I will continue to work hard to get better in the
Major Leagues. I need to concentrate on helping my team to win the World Series and
prepare for my next start. Thank you for your understanding… (Open Letter from
Chien-Ming Wang to the Taiwan Media August 15, 2006). What about the other side of the story? What had LT said? LT is a sports newspaper, so it did not cover the gossip of Wang’s origins or go to Wang's hometo wn to harass his family members for interviews. Based on LT’s commentary, it felt sorry about the abuses of the local tabloid media: The people involved in covering this piece of news have misjudged. The readers have
not changed their fondness for tabloid journalism. But the media did not anticipate
that following up on the New York Times report did not give them a legitimate
excuse or that Wang's reaction would generate such a huge response. On this affair,
we must apologize to the general public as a medium. And hope the readers will be
rooting for him and still put the focus on Wang’s performance on the field
(LT, August 18, 2006). Some of the Taiwanese media are accustomed to indulging in celebrities’ private matters, especially Wang’s. From the games to the players, there has to be an added attraction, which is unrelated to the sport, in order to attract baseball fans to willingly pay money to watch the games. Sometimes it is interesting to cover the non-task relevancy of Wang, but when such attention exceeds the limits of propriety, it becomes a bad thing. After a month, Wang accepted interviews from the Taiwanese media.
The Domestication Frame— Issue-specific frames Issue-specific frames pertain to Wang’s sports news. Its approach to news frames allows for any content that describes details that pertain to his performances in 41 a selected, organized way. At the beginning of 2006, Wang was not yet among the top three pitchers. The team's senior vice president f or baseball operations, Blakeley, said in March that Wang c ould be a number two starter. He guessed that they would see in the next six months. However, in February, the LT newspaper covered this with the following words: Wang has been regarded as one of the three greatest Yankee pitchers besides Randy
Johnson and Mike Mussina. Their health condition is the major determinant of the
Yankees’ record this year (LT, February, 14, 2006). The Taiwanese media had placed much of their hopes on the first top MLB pitcher from Taiwan. Based on the researcher’s investigation, Wang’s record in 2005 showed that he was not a superb pitcher. He did not become one of the three most important pitchers for the Yankees until the end of 2006. Although the U.S. press did comment on Wang as one of the most important pitchers in the Yankees and stated that he presumably would become even more valuable in the future, LT did some specific framing in selecting, organizing and elaborating the coverage pertaining to Wang. Moreover, the following excerpt proves that LT did make some specific framing choices in this content:
According to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), the most cut-throat
competition is the pick of Jaret Wright or Wang as the fifth spot. …But things
change all the time; the third, fourth and fifth spots are fluid according to the
pitchers’ condition. …Wang has to beat three tough candidates, Jaret Wright, Shawn
Chacon and Carl Pavano, to settle into the Yankees’ No. 3 slot; while Randy
Johnson and Mike Mussina are the top two starters (LT, February 24,
2006).
Although LT mentioned the CBS report, the commentator still framed Wang as the candidate for the third slot. Interestingly, the headline of February 27 was “The injured Pavano cannot make it in the opening, but Wang still has to strive to take the fourth spot (帕瓦諾開季 不了，但王建民仍須 力爭第四席 ).” (LT, February 27, 2006). This coverage was written by the same commentator, and it was obvious 42 that he made some specific framing choices in presenting the news on Wang. Another noticeable issue-specific frame difference can be found in the LT article. Most striking is the framing of the story that conveyed the news that Torre celebrated his 1000th win when the Yankees beat the Rangers on May 8, 2006. This story has a strong tie to Wang and Torre. The commentator used the headline: “Escorted by Wang” to give Torre the 1000th win (王建民穩健護航,托瑞笑擁執教洋 基千 ). In the lead paragraph, he used the sentence “Escorted by Wang, our powerful pitcher who resides in America, Yankees won in an 8-5 victory over the Texas Rangers that stretched their winning streak to a season-high five games.” He went on to say that Torre, who took over for the 1996 season, had a 1,000th win-645 loss record with the Yankees, following Joe McCarthy (1,460 wins), Casey Stengel (1,149 wins) and Miller Huggins (1,067 wins). But within the next four paragraphs, there was no content about the performance of Wang and how he “escorted” Torre to gain the 1000th win. If Wang gave Torre the 1000th win, there should have been some description of his performance. Actually, Wang allowed three runs and seven hits in six innings, while Hideki Matsui hit a three-run go-ahead home run in the fourth inning against the Texas Rangers. The way LT molded Wang as the builder of Torre’s victory serves as a framing example in selecting and elaborating the content of the news.
The Domestication Frame—— Exemplars (Historical references) The exemplars appear in a context where the press uses another person or an example to compare with Wang. By using the exemplars, media are domesticating Wang’s image for their own readers and building concrete proof of his outstanding performance. One way in which to recognize exemplars would be to reference any content that draws historical examples. One story mentioned the comparison between Wang and a former Taiwanese pitcher. The game on July 18 serves as a template for exemplar frames. LT starts the story with one paragraph praising Wang for earning the 10th win and mentioning Chin-hui Tsao (曹錦輝) (a Taiwanese pitcher, who used to be with the Kansas City Royals): 43
Since Wang has more game appearances than Chin-hui Tsao [italics added], Wang
is the first Taiwanese pitcher to achieve the most winning games in a single season;
he becomes a byword for Taiwan (LT, July 18, 2006). Another example appears when Wang pitched a two-hit shutout in a 6-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on July 29. LT quoted the coach of the Devil Rays, Joe Maddon: “Wang’s two-sinking fastball keeps the balls to the center of the strike zone. The fast speed for the ball to crash down is unbelievable. It seems like seeing Roy Halladay pitching.” Roy Halladay was the ace pitcher of the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the American League Cy Young Award with a 22-7 record. LT drew Halladay as the exemplar to frame Wang’s excellent performance. The other example about the game on September 28, 2006, when LT used an excellent Korean pitcher, Chan Ho Park 朴贊浩 , as an exemplar:
His nineteenth win today is very meaningful to his fans everywhere but especially
to those in Taiwan. With his 19th win he leveled the most wins in a single season
excelling over an East Asian pitcher, a record set by Korea’s Chan Ho Park [italics
added]. In comparison to Park, Wang has less experience at this level, which is
reflected in his yearly salary of US$350,000--much less than Park’s US$1.3 million.
Wang even achieved his 19 wins slightly faster than Park by getting there in his 33rd
start, while Park did it in 34 (LT, September, 28, 2006). Still, there is one more exemplar that is Wang’s childhood idol, Roger Clemens, and the statement that “Wang’s pitching and personal styles are equally remove d from those of previous Yankees aces, like Roger Clemens…. Though Wang idolizes Roger Clemens --hence the splitter and slider--his windup is more like Hideo Nomo's. Wang pauses at the top of his delivery with his hands high and twists back, though not as substantially as Nomo” (NYT, May 18, 2005). The NYT uses other athletes—Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Hideki Matsui and Yao Ming—to serve as exemplars:
It is all part of Wang mania. Pitchers Hideo Nomo of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Hideki Irabu [italics added] of the Yankees made Major League Baseball a hit
in Japan in the mid-1990's, and Yankees left fielder Hideki Matsui has helped extend 44
that run. Center Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets popularized the National
Basketball Association in China in 2002. Now, Wang has turned America's pastime,
already fairly popular here, into Taiwan's passion [italics added] (NYT,
September 10, 2006). Still, LT made more comparisons between the records of Wang and several outstanding pitchers: “Wang's 46 career wins place him in the top five all-time wins by an Asian pitcher. Hideo Nomo is in first place with 123 wins; Chan Ho Park has 113; B yung-Hyun Kim made 54; and Tomo Ohka reached 50 career wins. . . . On the list of most career wins by an Asian pitcher, Wang's 46th wins surpassed the Japanese relief pitcher, Shigetoshi Hasegawa ( 茂英雄), who finished his career in 2005 with 45 wins” (LT, August 31; October 4, 2006). It is interesting that both NYT and LT chose to frame Wang’s achievement by using exemplars of Asian pitchers, and the comparisons help readers understand the examples drawn from history. As always, LT takes great pains with Wang’s record. Thus, it is evident that LT endeavors to glorify Wang’s performances.
The Domestication Frame— Catchphrases (Buzzword) If there is any word or phrase commonly used to symbolize a particular subject (Wang), it will be treated as a catchphrase or buzzword. It is interesting to note that several catchphrases are closely related to domestication. Giving Wang a Taiwanese nickname makes him more accessible and comprehensible to Taiwanese readers. With certain variations, the catchphrases related to domestication that had appeared several times in sports articles of the two newspapers. And the Taiwanese media always added square brackets to emphasize the catchphrases. The most frequent catchphrases used by the Taiwanese media describe Wang or his performances as: “The pride of Taiwan 灣驕傲 [italics in original],” “The glory of Taiwan 灣之 [italics in original],” “Chienny 建仔 [italics in original].” A catchphrase that has a direct bearing on the demand to make the stories comprehensible to Taiwanese readers is “Wu-Song 武 [italics in original].” “Wu-Song” is a figure in a Taiwanese fable, who is so brave that he once hunted a 45 tiger with his bare hands. One commentator used it as a metaphor for Wang’s winning against the Detroit Tigers on August 31, 2006. Another domesticated frame used to describe Wang is the catchphrase “top guy 一哥 [italics in original].” “Top guy” in Taiwanese refers to the leading-actor/host:
Guess who is the top guy [italics in original] among the Yankees pitchers? The answer is very obvious after coach Joe Torre announced the rotation list for the
playoffs. It is really amazing that Wang is to be settled into the Yankees’ No. 1 slot. Mussina and Randy Johnson will take the second and third spots (LT, September,
28, 2006). On the other hand, “left-handed-fear syndrome 恐 症 [italics in original]” is frequently used and serves as a buzzword example. Being a right-handed pitcher, Wang used to have problems dealing with left-handed hitters. Thus, the Taiwanese media a dopted the term “left-handed-fear syndrome” to illustrate this phenomenon:
Wang, the Pride of Taiwan [italics in original], has been postponed to the game on the16th, but he seems to lose his tempo when pitching, and the Left-handed-fear
Syndrome [italics in original] relapses.… (LT, September 17, 2006). As for the United States, there are several regular occurrences of catchphrases as well. For example, in a game in which the Yankees scored a victory, Alex
Rodriguez said that, “the story of our year in a nutshell [italics added] has been Wang and Cano….They've brought a fountain of youth to our ballclub that was very much
needed” (NYT, July 4, 2005). Another catchphrase appeared when Wang prepared to
start in an opener, Fox network needed Wang for a “promo [italics added]” (NYT, September 29, 2005). In the same article, a special thing to note is the tradition that the Yankees usually make their rookies wear some embarrassing outfit on the team plane as they head out for their last road trip of the season. The story mentioned that
“he [Wang] is still subject to rookie hazing [italics added]; after his start last Sunday, the veterans made him dress in a female cheerleader's outfit.” It is truly amazing to see the photo of Wang wearing a Yankee cheerleader’s outfit. This traditional ceremony helped bring American audiences closer to Wang.
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Other catchphrases are seen in the following statements: “Wang has given the Yankees a sense of humility and a spark that may very well catapult [italics added] them p ast the Red Sox” (NYT, September 30, 2005). “‘Wang and Chacon are touch-and-feel [italics added] pitchers,” Torre said, “and they need regular work to stay sharp’” (NYT, April 1, 2006). “‘Wang was terrific,” Cashman said. ‘I'll take our three starters the way they're throwing. If we can continue that, it should be a heck of a run [italics added]’” (NYT, April 18, 2006). “For gallows humor [italics added], Wang was not the pitcher in the worst shape Saturday morning” (NYT, March 25, 2007). “He [Wang] supplied smelling salts [italics added] for the Red Sox. For the past seven games of this rivalry, the Red Sox looked like a team experiencing mental atrophy after a season with a comfortable division lead” (NYT, September 16, 2007). There are still two other catchphrases that attract attention. One of them
occurred when the commentator described the sinker Wang pitched: “Electric [italics
added] is a term sometimes applied to Wang’s sinker, when it darts down and away from left-handed hitters” (NYT, May 22, 2007). The second example occurred when the media used Wang’s ranking for the Cy Young Award as an example to explain his record to American readers: “His record is 9-4, and his earned run average, 3.36, is lower than it was last season, when he was the runner-up for the American League Cy
Young Award [italics added]” (NYT, July 9, 2007). In the above stories, it is obvious that both countries borrowed several interesting description to shorten the distance between Wang and readers. The difference between the two countries lies in the fact that Taiwanese media coin catchphrases to personify Wang; while the U.S. media use catchphrases to describe his performances.
The Positivity Bias Frame—Face-enhancing Bias Some articles in the newspapers also construct a positivity frame by emphasizing the positivity bias phenomenon. One recurring theme in LT’s coverage of Wan g is to provide an internal attribution for Wang’s successes and an external attribution for his losses. Face-enhancing bias refers to any internal attributions for positive behavior 47 which confers “personal credit” (personality, skill, hard-work, etc) to explain successful outcomes. This phenomenon can easily be seen in LT’s coverage of Wang. Whenever NYT praised an outstanding performance by Wang, they also mentioned that his win resulted from hits by his teammates. For example, the commentator would say, “He’s winning because of that hard sinker,” but writes of how many hits or runs the teammates achieved. NYT rarely attributes a win solely to Wang, or any other player strictly on his merit. After all, a baseball game is not a one-person game. A typical face-enhancing bias in LT presented itself in this manner: His nineteenth win is meaningful in the sense that he is no longer a light of Taiwan, but
a light of Asia because his win surpasses the Korean pitcher Chan Ho Park. Although
the Korean press does not submit willingly to this view, and they think Wang’s wins are
due to the Yankees’ batting line-up, which delivers much in the way of support for his
successes. However, they ignore the fact that ‘the slugging percentage of MLB is
really high,’ which results in difficulty scoring…Besides, compared to Park, who is
already 33 years old, Wang is a 26-year-old young pitcher who still has good career
prospects [italics in original] (LT, October 3, 2006). Another article appeared in LT when Wang held the Detroit Tigers scoreless over seven innings. Wang won away from Yankee Stadium, as he held the Detroit Tigers to five hits and
no runs over seven innings…He was never in serious danger.…While he has not been
an overpowering strike-out pitcher, his calm and strong sinker [italics added]
helped him to keep the ball on the ground…. After the game, Jeter said, “We did not
score much, but having Wang to pitch is enough (LT, July 4, 2005). NYT also reported on this game; however, the win seemed not to be attributed to Wang alone: His [Wang’s] final line on Sunday was terrific: five hits, no runs, one walk, two
strikeouts. But Wang also hit three batters, and he retired the side only once, in his
final inning…they [the hitters] scored in the fourth inning, when Robinson Cano led
off with a double to left-center and scored on a single by Gary Sheffield. It was an
impressive display by Cano. “Left-handers cannot be taught to hit high pitches so far 48
to the opposite field,” Manager Joe Torre said…"The story of our year in a nutshell
has been Wang and Cano," Alex Rodriguez said [italics added] (NYT, July 4, 2005). It is predictable that Taiwanese media would attribute the win mostly to Wang. This finding is consistent with the idea that LT made internal attributions to Wang, which can be explained by a motivation to enhance his self-esteem.
The Positivity Bias Theme — Creating national heroes and national identities Wang is a national hero in Taiwan for playing professional baseball in the U.S. Major Leagues and for residing in America. He has been a consistent performer since stepping up to the big leagues in 2005 and has become the best performer in his team’s starting rotation. Without a doubt, the Taiwanese treat Wang as a national hero. One NYT article reports:
“He's like our national hero, he's like the only good thing going on for us,'' said Hsiao Bi-Khim, a senior la wmaker from the president's Democratic Progressive Party in
Taiwan (NYT, September 10, 2006).
Wang has endorsed an Easycard in Taiwan which can be used to pay for public
transportation and parking in the Taipei area, which is similar to the metro card in New
York. People lined up for almost three days to get their hands on one of the 200 limited
edition Easycards featuring Taiwanese baseball star Wang. Many of those lining up
said they don’t have the chance to go to the United States to cheer Wang on personally
so they wanted to buy a card to express their support (LT Sep 05, 2006). Taiwanese media usually use several terms to praise Wang as a national hero. One such term, “the hope of Taiwan,” showed up in a LT article:
Wang, the hope of Taiwan [italics in original], made his second start for the Yankees.
It was the Yankees’ opening game of the season at home. Wang didn’t do as well as he
would have liked, giving up five runs over six innings, and was looking at taking the
loss. It was not one of Wang’s better performances (LT, April 12, 2006). Although Wang did not do well in that game, LT still expected much of him. Another example was when Wang gave up thirteen hits and five runs as the Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Angels: 49
Wang, the pride of Taiwan [italics in original], only pitched five and one-third innings
as the Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Angels, bringing an end to his nine-game
winning streak at Yankee Stadium…. Wang was looking for his sixth win in a row
when he took to the mound at Yankee Stadium but things didn’t go well right from the
beginning… (LT, August 14, 2006). Of course, most of the time Wang put on a good show against the competition. When he earned his sixteenth win of the season, LT gave rave reviews in the newspaper:
The pride of Taiwan [italics in original], Wang earned his 16th win of the season
against the Detroit Tigers, tying him for the major league lead in wins. Wang did not
give up a run over seven-and-two-thirds innings as he led the Yankees to a 2-0
win.…In the first inning Wang’s sinker was clocked at over 96 miles an hour and the
batters were only able to manage soft ground balls…Most batters met the same fate.
One by one they were thrown out at first base. Looking at that play again, Wang
grabbed the ball out of the air in the manner that has people in Taiwan talking about
him as a candidate for a gold glove….(LT, August 31, 2006). The most commonly used term mentioned for Wang is “the light of Taiwan”; it appeared about 32 times. The following report is an example of how the Taiwanese media praised Wang:
Yankees pitching ace Wang, also known as the light of Taiwan [italics in original],
took a no-hitter into the seventh inning as the New York Yankees completed a series
sweep of the Boston Red Sox with a 5-0 victory. Wang now shares the lead for most
wins after he only gave up one hit throughout his seven innings…. Wang kept the Red
Sox hitless through six innings before he finally gave up a single to Mike Lowell in the
seventh. At the time, the Yankees only led by two runs when Wang induced a ground
ball from J.D. Drew that saw Alex Rodriguez throw to first to complete the out…. (LT,
August 31, 2007). It can be seen from the stories above that the Taiwanese media were in a craze of excitement over Wang’s impressive performances. Even the president of Taiwan met wi th him and promised that if he had the chance he’d like to go to the United 50
States to see Wang play. And even the Government Information Office planned to ask him to put his fame to use as a representative of the country in marketing Taiwan abroad. Moreover, the exploding popularity of Wang in Taiwan was made apparent when 1,000 limited edition bobble-head dolls were given away in less than five minutes. That these dolls were snatched up in a record time, showing how much his popularity had grown. In addition, whether Wang returned to or left Taiwan, the police department had to send almost twenty police officers to shield him from hoards of reporters and other travelers. He was molded into a veritable Taiwanese hero. In contrast, almost all the NYT stories mentioned about Wang would only cover his performance and the record of the game. The NYT rarely had any coverage talking about Wang’s popularity in the United States, not to mention the passion and excitement of his fans. However, the NYT noticed the great popularity of Wang in Taiwan and promoted his unique national identity. A front page cover story indicated: At 26, he is a national hero in his home country, where he endorses computers
and potato chips. “When I used to go back to Taiwan, there weren’t that many
events to go to,” Wang said through an interpreter before a game in Chicago last
week. “Starting last year, there have been more events, and going out is not as
convenient” (NYT, August 13, 2006). In sum, the common thread of LT articles is to ascribe honor to Wang, for he was the first Taiwanese player to play in the US Major League Baseball playoffs. By contrast, articles in NYT simply give a running commentary on the ball game without stressing attribution. The papers in two countries adopt quite different strategies when framing the theme that Wang is a Taiwanese hero.
The Positivity Bias Theme— Coverage of Wang in an appropriate sporting role It is not surprising to see the LT covered Wang played an appropriate sporting role. The following coverage showed up frequently: Wang’s performance kept the Yankees in with a chance of winning the game
when little-used reserve Bubba Crosby came to the plate to lead-off the bottom
of the ninth inning (LT, September 20, 2005). 51
Taiwan’s Wang Chien-ming is scheduled to start for the Yankees in the all-important
first game on Saturday morning. If his fastball and sinker work well, then he is
has a good chance of helping his team to a very important victory and, putting
the Yankees on the road to the play-offs (LT, October 1, 2005).
Last year, Wang won 19 games for the Yankees, setting a new record for an Asian
pitcher in Major League Baseball…Wang currently has an ERA of 4.13… the
best of any Asian pitcher and ahead of Matsuzaka (LT, May 28, 2007).
In general, these are common occurrences of compliments in recognition of his success in LT. Whether he had winning games or losing games, the Taiwanese media always treated him as acting in an appropriate sporting role and fostered the hope of great performances in next game. Wang’s notable trademark is known as the “sinker” or “two-seamer.” On May 22, 2007, NYT said the following in the lead paragraph for that game: “Hitters usually know just what to expect from the Yankees’ Chien-Ming Wang: heavy sinkers begging to be topped into the dirt.” When NYT interviewed Jeter, he said, “He’s going to confront you. It’s not like he’s nibbling around the strike zone. He’s throwing his pitch, and it’s tough to hit the ball in the air.” Another superb pitcher, Writer of the Yankees, was also impressed by Wang’s trademark pitch: “Wang’s sinker is exceptional…we started playing catch, and he had the heaviest ball that I’ve ever played catch with, as far as sinkers…That’s such a valuable pitch, and he throws an absolute bowling ball.” The scout for the Mets, Lambe, said about Wang: I’d like to say I never saw him, but I did, maybe for a game or at least a part of a
game. He pitched well, but not like now. He didn’t have that velocity or that kind of
sink. Natural maturity took care of the velocity, but somebody fine-tuned him,
because that sinker is as good as anybody’s. He’s winning because of that hard sinker.
You can hit it on the screws, and if it’s sinking, you’ve hit a nice, hard ground ball. It
takes a lot of ground balls to win (NYT, August 13, 2006). Another NYT commentary states: For the first time in a complete season, the major leagues had no 20-game winners. 52
Last season, Johan Santana of Minnesota and Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees
each had 19 victories (NYT, April 1, 2007). Another LT report on the game of May 27, 2007 mentioned the crowd’s reaction to Wang’s performance that night: “Mixing more sliders and changeups among his sinkers, Wang held an early lead and worked six and a third strong innings, guiding the Yankees to a 6-2 victory before 55,078 fans. The crowd gave Wang a standing ovation as he left the mound [emphasis added].” Since the end of 2006, Wang has received consistent recognition of his excellent pitching. Two of the major leagues’ pre-eminent sinkerballers faced each other at Yankee
Stadium last night in Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chien-
Ming Wang of the Yankees. The result was predictable: a steady flow of ground
balls and another victory for the surging Yankees [italics added] (NYT, June 13,
2007). This positive response of the media supports the idea that Wang’s value has been confirmed. Moreover, for two days, NYT continuously complimented Wang’s performance:
Most damning, though, was the performance of the Yankees' ace, Chien-Ming Wang.
The major league leader in victories over the past two seasons, Wang was 0-2 with a
19.06 earned run average against Cleveland (NYT, October 09, 2007).
Wang's 19.06 earned run average was the highest by a pitcher who made two starts in
a postseason series since Kevin Brown had a 21.60 E.R.A. for the Yankees in the
2004 American League Championship Series (NYT, October 10, 2007). Wang is a source of great pride to Taiwan. He won the most games of any Yankee or any Major League Baseball pitcher during the years 2006 and 2007. In addition, his performances were very stable. His well-earned role in his sport is an example of the rewards that can be reaped from hard work.
The Positivity Bias Frame— Face-protecting bias The face-protecting bias means that external attributions for negative behavior 53 deflect personal blame for negative outcomes. Not surprisingly, LT stressed external attributions for Wang’s failures more than NYT did. Articles in the United States usually point out the persons who should take responsibility for losses. The most frequently face-protecting bias model is to blame the lineup. One of the games offers a schema for this bias. The headline was, “The failures belong to lineup, leaving Wang to take the loss.” In Wang’s highly anticipated comeba ck from a hamstring injury, he suffered a loss:
At the top of the second inning, he got a boost from Hideki Matsui who hit a leadoff
homer off Scott Kazmir to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead… At the bottom of the sixth,
Ty Wigginton smashed a line drive against Wang’s left thigh. He managed to play
on, however, even running to first base to complete a double play later in the inning…
With the Yankees leading 3-2 in the seventh, Wang began to tire, allowing a single
and a double. With runners on second and third, Wang was replaced by Luis
Vizcaíno…. The Yankees’ lineup failed to bail out Wang, leaving him to take the loss,
having allowed four runs and nine hits in six-and-one-third innings (LT, April 25,
2007). The NYT article reviewing this game was a little different. The commentator said at first that:
The team had looked forward to the return of Chien-Ming Wang, but by the time he
took the mound, another injury had dampened the mood. Derek Jeter was hit on the
left thigh by a pitch from Scott Kazmir in the top of the first.…Hideki Matsui, in his
second game off the disabled list, hit a 438-foot homer off Kazmir in the second
inning and later drove in a run with a single. His home run gave Wang a lead, and the
Yankees liked their chances…. Wang was still throwing hard, striking out Jonny
Gomes with a 93-mile-an-hour pitch to start the bottom of the inning. But a single
and a double chased Wang…(NYT, April 25, 2007). In fact, both newspapers covered Hideki Matsui, who hit a leadoff homer to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. However, the summary for LT was that the batting line-up failed t o deliver much in the way of run support. It seems obvious that LT thought the lineup did not do their best to help Wang succeed, and even the relief pitcher the 54 coach summoned had something to do with Wang’s loss, while NYT mentioned that the loss might have been due to Jeter’s injury and Wang’s tiredness. Another example can be seen in this headline: “The Yankees batting line-up failed to deliver much in the way of run support.” Interestingly, the NYT has never covered any contest blaming a losing game on the Yankees lineup. The following serves as a good example of face-protecting bias:
Yankees pitching ace Wang made his seventh start of the 2007 season…Wang picked
up his fourth loss of the season even though he kept the Los Angeles Angels scoreless
for seven of the eight innings that he pitched. However, he gave up three runs in the
first inning and the Yankees’ batters were only able to score one run as the Angels took
the game 3-1…Although Wang was good for so long the Yankees batting line-up failed
to deliver much in the way of run support…With the batters unable to get on top
of the Angel’s pitching, the final score was a 3-1 win for the Angels, with Wang being
given his fourth loss of the season [italics added] (LT, May 27, 2007) As for the coverage by the NYT, it excerpted Wang’s comment for that day’s game: “My pitches had no speed and my control was poor. Most of the hits were slightly higher pitches. Posada reminded me to lift my pitching hand a little higher.” The reviews of this game that appeared in the two paper outlets apparently make different attributions to the negative outcome. Other terms that LT is inclined to use are “the Yankees batting line-up failed to deliver support (缺少隊 火力支援),” “with the batters unable to get on top of the opponent’s pitching (隊 的 備失誤連連),” “the lineup is really disappointing (隊 不幫 ),” “the Yankee bats did not wake up (隊 火力不開張).” and “the batters proved to be unworthy (隊 救援失敗).” It is not surprising that people are inclined to look at the same thing in a different way or to find excuses for the person they favor. That is why the Taiwanese media endeavors to vindicate Wang’s honor.
The Positivity Bias Theme— Invisibility of Wang’s Losing Games In Taiwan, even when writing about Wang’s losing games, sportswriters frequently attributed the loss to anything but Wang. Sometimes, LT even chose not to 55 cover these games. This kind of invisibility, or denial, of Wang’s losses was obvious, for there were usually massive reports on Wang in LT. By contrast, NYT recorded any game that was worthy of discussion at great length. The following discussion explains how LT ignored Wang’s losing performances, while NYT chose to report them. The game on September 15, 2007 serves to illustrate the point. In the rivalry between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, which the Red Sox won 10-1, Wang suffered his seventh loss of the season. While Red Sox starter Josh Beckett only allowed three hits for the Yankees over seven innings, Wang had trouble with the Red
Sox, giving up nine hits over five-and-two-thirds innings. LT gave a preview of the game, saying that this was the game in which Wang, who was the front-runner for the American League’s Cy Young Award, could take his nineteenth victory. Fans look forward to the coming face-off at Fenway Park of two of the Major
League’s pre-eminent sinker-ballers. It will not only be a keenly contested game, but
one between the two most winning pitchers in Major League baseball…. As long
as Wang poises himself to launch an attack against the Red Sox, he can continue his
recent string of successes (LT, September 15, 2007). However, LT did not do a post-match review of the game. As for NYT, the headlin e for the game was: “Errant Pitch by Wang Jolts Red Sox Awake.” In his lead paragraph, the sportswriter stated: “the usual nonplussed facade of Chien-Ming Wang revealed an extra layer of bewilderment yesterday as he watched Kevin Youkilis writhing in the batter’s box.” In the next two paragraphs, he wrote: He [Wang] supplied smelling salts [italics added] for the Red Sox. For the past
seven games of this rivalry, the Red Sox looked like a team experiencing mental
atrophy after a season with a comfortable division lead. . . . It doesn’t matter if Wang
made a mistaken pitch or a purpose pitch or a pitch that Youkilis spun into as he held
up his swing in the fifth inning. Suddenly, the Red Sox were with it again, fully
engaged and on the way to a 10-1 victory…. Wang, of all placid pitchers, snuffed
out the make-believe peace pipe. . . . (NYT, September 16, 2007). Compared to NYT, LT chose not to cover Wang’s seventh loss of the season. The reason LT made this game “invisible” might have been their fear that Wang’s 56 failure would chill the hopes of Taiwanese fans. Another LT article, “Yankees fall to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” on October 6, 2005, also provides an example of the dominant theme. The best headline for this game was “Wang’s smooth delivery in the opener as the Yankees’ ninth-inning rally fell short.” At first, the story mentioned that Wang tossed six superb innings, allowing four runs on six hits. But he gave up three runs in seven-plus innings. In the rest of the article, the commentator reported that as a rookie, Wang’s personality is “so staid that he doesn’t let those challenges frighten on him when pitching.” And the sub-heading even said, “the characteristics of the powerful pitcher Wang made him the toast of the match.” The article focused on Wang’s excellent performance in the first six innings, without mentioning his pitching after the seventh inning. The commentator also quoted from captain Jeter’s and coach Torre’s attempts to support the view of Wang’s outstanding performance. Jeter said: “Wang’s performance is higher than the average of usual rookies; don’t be too critical of him.” And Torre praised him, saying: “Except for the high sinker he threw in the seventh inning, Wang really did a good job. He relieved the coaches that he was not overawed by the occasion and still played nicely.” The last paragraph conveyed the idea that we should await an outstanding performance from Wang. Thus, it can be seen that LT emphasized the good side of Wang’s performance by ignoring his losing game. As for NYT, the missing coverage of this game does not mean they treated Wang’s losing game as invisible, but it might have made the editorial decision that the game was not important enough for extensive commentary.
The Positivity Bias Theme— Communicating pain, anguish, and sacrifice in sport Being a contact sport, baseball carries with it the risk of injury. Most of the players suffer pain from the sport, including Wang. Since July, 2005, he had missed two mo nths because of a right shoulder inflammation. Wang was afraid his shoulder injury would turn into a nightmare, because it sidelined him for all of 2001 and part of 2003. Luckily, he did not need surgery and required rehabilitation for only two weeks. Wang also hurt his right knee on March, 2006. In 2007, he strained his right hamstring 57
late in spring training and was ruled out of contention to start on opening day. He was running sprints following fielding practice at the Yankees’ Legends Field complex when he felt a “pop" in his right hamstring. A month after hurting his right hamstring, he fractured one of his nails, and there is still “a dark callus to the right of the nail on
his index finger….” (LT, May 3, 2007). By July, he was still suffering from it: “Wang said he was bothered by the nail on the index finger of his right hand. He also said he has made adjustments by throwing from a higher point to get more sink on his two-seam fastball” (NYT, July 4, 2007). Wang suffered not only physically mentally, but also felt a sense of economic sacrifice to the sport. He recorded back-to-back seasons with 19 wins in 2006 and 2007, becoming the first Yankee to win as many games in each of two consecutive seasons since Tommy John in 1979-80. Wang developed into one of the game's elite starters in only his second season in the Majors. Speculation over the exact salary that the New York Yankees would offer pitching ace Wang became an object of frenzy for baseball fans. According to LT, in January, 2008, Wang’s agent, CSMG (CSMG represents several elite athlete clients and provides media and marketing services to both new and established sports property brands), asked the Yankees for a US$4 million annual salary for him. Wang’s record over his first three seasons in the majors was similar to that of Andy Pettite, an outstanding starting pitcher for the Yankees. Pettite had won 51 and lost 24 when he went to arbitration, after which his annual salary jumped from US$600,000 to US$3.8 million. With player salaries having risen greatly since then, Wang’s comparable performance could easily have put him in the US$4 million bracket. However, as shown in the NYT headline on February 16, 2008—“Wang to Earn $4 Million After Arbitration Loss”—the Yankees submitted $4 million while Wang and agent Alan Nero countered with $4.6 million. This article starts with the paragraph: Chien-Ming Wang experienced his first loss since a forgettable postseason Friday
when he lost his arbitration case to the Yankees. Wang, who had been seeking $4.6
million this season, will earn $4 million, the amount the Yankees offered him….. 58
“There was no reason to go higher than four,” Cashman [General Manager of the
Yankees] said. “Settling at the midpoint because of an inflated file number would
have made no sense.” Wang’s agent Nero said: “The disappointment here is the
Yankees made little or no effort to settle. We move on and now it’s time to play
baseball” (NYT, February 16, 2008). He may have led the majors with 38 wins in 2006 and 2007, but his performance wasn't enough for him to beat the Yankees in arbitration. Wang also expressed his thoughts to Taiwanese and America media: Before Wang knew that he had lost his case, he told Taiwanese reporters that he
viewed going through arbitration as a “learning process” because he would hear
about the areas in which the Yankees thought he needed to improve. “If we lose,
I’ll have to move on and concentrate on the season,” said Wang (NYT, February 16,
2008). Taiwanese media used the words “Cheap labor (廉價 ),” “more bang for the buck ( 優股),” and “super blue chip which only cost 1/10 of the market price (只 值市價 1/10 的潛力股)” as themes to express their opinion of the unreasonable salary Wang had sacrificed for to accept. Although Wang lost the arbitration battle at that time, the most important thing for him was to make steady progress. As far as this researcher knows, the Yankees recentl y avoided arbitration and signed Chien-Ming Wang to a one-year contract of $5 million for 2009. His sacrifice for his sport has finally brought a return. It is understandable that positivity bias was employed to favor Wang in the Taiwanese media. But for NYT, this phenomenon cannot be seen so clearly. The findings further explain and support the relationship between the wishes of people in Taiwan and positivity bias.
The Cultural Comparison Frame— Metaphor If a word or phrase is used as a non-simile to describe somebody or something else in order to make the description more powerful, it can be treated as a metaphor. Metaphoric findings are presented below so that readers can make their own 59 judgments. One of the comments had an insulting tone when covering whether Wang would stay or be traded by the Yankees.
Wang is the seventh starter, and if he continues his progress with Columbus, he
would be trade bait in July (NYT, February 26, 2005).
Although the Yankees thought Wang was progressing, they still thought of trading him. That means Wang’s potential was not regarded as important enough to keep him. Until 2006, reports on NYT coverage proved Wang’s outstanding place on the team: They [the New York Yankees] never mentioned Wang to Lambe [a scout], and the
teams did not make a deal until after the season. Wang was not in the trade [italics
added] (NYT, August 13, 2006). A three-page story on September 16, 2007 provides a metaphorical framing strategy. In this game, Wang was given his seventh loss of the season as the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees. It was also a game between the two most outstanding pitchers in Major League Baseball. The Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett suffered the first blow when Derek Jeter hit a high pitch hard at the top of the first inning. But Wang ran into trouble after the sixth inning, when David Ortiz signaled the end for him and took Wang out. The final score was Red Sox ten, Yankees one, with Wang taking his seventh loss of the season. The article in NYT was obvious in digging at Wang: He [Wang] supplied smelling salts for the Red Sox. …Wang, of all placid pitchers,
snuffed out the make-believe peace pipe…Wang did enough. He ignited Boston’s
verve. The Red Sox’ revival meant more than ensuring that they’ll exit tonight’s
game with the Yankees with a solid lead intact with little time remaining. It meant
restoring the oomph to their season as the team in the top bunk of the division…
Wang got their attention— inadvertent as it may have been. What has he done?
[italics added] (NYT, Sept 16, 2007). These reviews offer opportunities to explore the metaphors that appeared in the stories. When the criticisms are founded on facts as well as convictions, it is quite reasonable. Not surprisingly, the NYT stressed size as a metaphor frame more than LT 60 did. Loyalties demonstrated the patriotism of LT for Taiwan. The above frames are clearly informed and active. Outside the game, the most favorable term LT used to describe the boss of the Yankees is “the arrogant man owing to great wealth ( 大氣粗).” This phrase appears in LT m ore than six times. As everyone knows, the Yankees are the wealthiest team in Major League Baseball. Even the NYT said: “Nothing will ever stop fans outside the
Yankees' empire from resenting a franchise that buys everything it wants” (NYT,
September 30, 2005). It is not surprising that in 2009, the Yankees signed superstar C.C Sabathia to a seven- year contract worth 161 million dollars. This is simply another example of what the Yankees have done for years. This huge deal matches the highest paying contract ever for a Major League pitcher. The new Yankee Stadium is the most luxurious of all Major League Baseball stadiums today. In other words, the Yankees do not need to worry about cutting back on franchise spending in fear of losing money due to the economic slowdown. Since the Yankees have the ability to sign players and spend money in a way that no other team in baseball can even compare with, Wang’s relatively low pay seemed unfair. LT expressed their opinion that the Yankees were displaying their financial monopoly and they had the opportunity to spend basically whatever they wanted to pay, but they chose not to raise Wang’s wage. An article about Wang’s low salary offers us an opportunity to explore the metaphor that lies in the text. LT used the following sentence in its lead paragraph: “The arrogant and wealthy team got cheap labor from someone who gained the most wins for the Yankees, and his salary is not even over 1 million” (LT, August 3, 2006). By using satiric words to describe the Yankees, LT was digging at them for not showing their appreciation of Wang, who had become the Yankees’ most reliable starter, by offering him an annual salary of less than one million. The Yankees only said, “it’s not the time [to raise his salary] because pitchers have to stay healthy.” LT gains an extra advantage by describing Wang as being treated like cheap labor (廉價 ). Both media tend to use metaphors in their stories, which give people reflection. Taiwanese articles are inclined to be metaphoric about everything about Wang, 61 including his salary. The U.S. paper prefers to resort to metaphor when every player’s performance plummets, include Wang’s. By using metaphors in coverage, the descriptions of Wang became more powerful and attractive.
The Cultural Comparison Frame— Generic frames Any comparison of other frames, topics, and framing practices in two countries will be included as generic frame. The most obvious generic frame was the different strategies of highlighting certain terms in two newspapers. It is Taiwanese tradition to use square brackets or quotations to emphasize a special name or phrase. Therefore, LT more frequently used the marks than the NYT. This raises a question: “Does the Taiwanese media like to remind the readers about the certain phrases as seen through the journalist’ lenses?” In contrast, the NYT did not normally use any mark or symbol to stress words, though brackets were sometimes used to specify the records of players. This interesting comparison offers a chance to know the special framing practices in the two different countries. LT’s story on July 3 offers an opportunity to explore the differences between frames in the two countries. The Yankees had succumbed to the Indians, 5-2. Wang allowed 11 hits, a career high, and five runs over five-and-a-third innings. A day before the match, the commentator made mention of Torre’s “absolute confidence” in Wang and said that, “although Wang is only a second-year starter, his calm demeanor
and steady personality allows him to take on heavy responsibility for this game.” The writer then further quoted Torre: ‘You have to keep telling yourself that he [Wang] is only a 26-year-old kid, who
might need some time to learn, but at this moment, we cannot play without him
[italics added] (LT, July 3, 2006). After the match, LT elaborated on Wang’s loss by referring to “the loss of support from teammates (缺少隊 火力支援).” By contrast, Torre said of Wang’s loss in the article, “Rookie’s Seasoned Repertory and Strike Zone Bewilder the Yankee Batters”: 62
He takes on a great deal of responsibility, and we count on him probably more
than we should, although we have no choice [italics added]. He’s certainly earned
that trust from us (NYT, July 4, 2006). In succumbing to the Indians, catcher Kelly Stinnett said that Wang pitched fine, but Wang still made three mistakes: hanging sliders to two opponents that led to hits in the Indians’ three-run inning, and a changeup in the sixth that was hit for a two-run homer. It is obvious that Wang did not do well in this game and these stories offer a chance to explore the different framing strategies used in the two countries. Another example would be the game of July 18. Interestingly, the LT commentator did not mention which opposing team the Yankees faced. And within the paragraphs, he pointed out that, “Wang pitched with an extraordinarily calm (異常冷
靜) [italics added], only allowing two earned runs over 7 innings, using heavy sinker to get 15 groundball outs.” The commentator made further mention of Wang’s success: The sizzling temperature of 93.2 in New York today did not distract Wang’s attention.
He tossed seven innings by allowing opponents to collect seven hits against him, and
only allowed two earned runs when the teammates made four errors. He made the
lead stand. Torre spoke highly of him: “Whenever the error brought on a crisis in our
team, Wang can always turn peril into safety. He’s something! [italics added]” (LT,
July 18, 2006). Wang really did pitch great in that game. The NYT covered Torre’s compliment: “He [Wang] bailed everybody out tonight,” which was similar to LT’s coverage. Jason Giambi also praised Wang:
That’s the thing Wang does so great—you can make some mistakes behind him and
he’ll get a double play. He’s a ground-ball pitcher, so he can constantly always work
himself out of some situations (NYT, July 18, 2006). The NYT framed Wang’s win by including in their commentary quotes from the coach and his teammate’s compliment, while LT chose to frame the win by mentio ning the sizzling weather, emphasizing that external conditions could not defeat Wang. The difference in framing suggests that the two newspapers presented quite different tales of the same game. 63
The Cultural Comparison Theme— The trivialization of Wang’s accomplishments in Sport If any coverage reports that Wang’s accomplishment seems less important, serious, difficult, etc. than it apparently is, this is categorized as trivialization. However, there are no actual findings to demonstrate that such is the case. Neither the Taiwanese nor the U.S. media tended to trivialize Wang’s accomplishments in sports. It is not surprising to learn that LT does not underestimate Wang, but it is meaningful that the American media has credited him as an outstanding figure. Although in the beginning the NYT questioned the appropriateness of Wang as a starter for the Yankees, this researcher believes that they have given him adequate coverage, whether in pre-season games or for breaking into the starting rotation. No matter Wang took a winning or losing game, the NYT would offer the statistics to justify his performances. Sometimes, the NYT even quoted a compliment from Wang’s coach or teammates. Therefore, the NYT did not incline to trivialize him. And adequate coverage is acceptable, because fans were not familiar with Wang, who was a rookie pitcher from another country. In fact, there is no need for the NYT to trivialize any athlete, for all it wants is to bring the latest and the most detailed sports coverage to its audiences. In sum, the respect given Wang is an indication of the maturity of sports media in both countries.
The Cultural Comparison Frame— Cultural strategy The cultural strategy in this study refers to the cultural applications in newspaper texts. In the World Baseball Classic 2006, the MLB delegate, Jim Small, was interviewed because the Taiwanese media were eager to know whether Wang could join the game or not. Small stated: WBC is not only a baseball game, but a chance for the players to show their
pride, respect and patriotism. I’ve been to several countries, and everyone is very
excited about the game. But I’ve never seen the media like the Taiwanese, putting so
much attention and focus on WBC and their own player [italics added] (LT, January,
16, 2006). 64
This excerpt presents the Taiwanese media as paying greater attention to their own players than any other countries. This kind of cultural implication is more obvious when seen from a foreigner’s perspective. In addition, LT gave reports as long as they related to Wang, which made Wang’s stories appear almost every day, while the NYT did not. Whenever Wang pitched, LT usually provided coverage for three days in a row: the preview of the game, the record of that game, and the after-game review. The preview article also included the time and the channel broadcasting the game. Every game in which Wang participated could be seen live on a terrestrial channel. There was a controversy between two Taiwanese channels over broadcasts of Wang’s games. It was a great honor for a television channel to secure broadcast rights for Major League Baseball. In other words, whether pre-season, regular season, or the play-offs, the Taiwanese media tried hard to get the rights to show the games. While the NYT reported the general information of the games related to Wang, LT counted how many wins he achieved in a row. LT also completed an annual summary and detailed analysis of a particular game on Wang, also collecting his records, pointing out his achievements, progress, and what records he had broken. The NYT also noted the different cultural strategies when Taiwanese media covered Wang. When a local convenience store chain sold a limited edition of subway fare cards
bearing Wang's picture, people lined up for two days, fights broke out and the police
had to be called…Yankees games have some of the highest ratings on Taiwanese
television, even for broadcasts that start at 1 a.m. because of the 12-hour time
difference…..At a time of street protests and even brawls between supporters and
critics of President Chen Shui-bian, supporting Wang is one of the few things that
Taiwanese from across the political spectrum can agree on.…An auction of Wang
memorabilia in late August saw a baseball card of him fetch almost $3,000….Even
the reruns, the ratings are very high, especially if he won, said Ching Swen, the
network's executive vice president. If he lost, the ratings are a little lower [italics
added] (NYT, September 10, 2006). Enjoying successful seasons with the New York Yankees, Wang’s popularity at 65 home skyrocketed and the positive publicity he brought for Taiwan was welcomed by many w ho basked in his triumphs. It is believed that he has also united the Taiwanese people behind him. It might be hard to imagine the Taiwanese craze for Wang, but even if the Taiwanese fans are unable to go to the United States, they watch the game live to enjoy the big-crowd atmosphere. Crowds gather, and many buy thundersticks and posters to show their support for Wang. Sometimes Taipei Arena is used to show a game on its big screen and the fans seemed to enjoy it. Although they are unable to cheer Wang on in person, fans want to do anything they can to express their support. Lastly, the sampling resulted in a total population of 261 news stories with Wang as primary subject: 206 for Taiwan, and 55 for the United States. A markedly differen t approach to reporting Wang unveils the finding that Taiwanese media is more concerned with Wang than is the United States sports media, and it just goes to show how much his popularity has grown in his native country. From the above examples, it is evident that the cultural strategies are quite distinct when framing Wang. In other words, LT (and the Taiwanese) choose to focus not only on the game, but on everything related to Wang, while the NYT is inclined to place most of it attention on the field.
66
CHAPT ER V Summary and Discussion Summary The analysis yielded a total 261 articles from the NYT and LT online news sites. To answer the research questions and the hypotheses, a qualitative framing analysi s was used for each of the pertinent variables. The results show some interesting differences as well as some similarities in the coverage of Wang.
Hypothesis 1a: The LT will select, organize and elaborate events upon information that is related to Taiwanese audiences. Hypothesis 1b: The NYT will select, organize and elaborate events upon information that is related to the U.S. audiences. The contextual differences of the two nations is related to differences in news content. In order to present Wang’s story comprehensibly to readers, the two media did make i ntentional efforts to make information on Wang understandable to national audiences. The strategies and factors of influence listed in each article served to illustrate news domestication. LT newspapers used dialects and idioms to describe to Taiwanese readers how great Wang’s performances were, while the NYT provided a general background on him to make Americans more familiar with the foreign pitcher, a result consistent with the findings of Clausen (2004). In particular, NYT liked to report on Wang’s English abilities by annotating what Wang said, whether through an interpreter or by himself. The recognition was that the interpreters were not only translating but helping foreign players assimilate into a new culture. In addition, one of the themes refers to the non-task relevancy commentary in the two news outlets. Wang’s origins were categorized here as non-task relevant commentary. Both media reported the chain of events as the Taiwanese media (not including LT) besieged and harassed Wang's family members in Taiwan. The next frames relating to domestication are issue-specific frames. Compared to the NYT, LT was much more likely than the NYT to select, organize and elaborate the pos itive contents that pertain of specifically to Wang. There were not many 67 significant findings in the NYT coverage. A story written by the same commentator mentioned that Wang could be settled into the Yankees’ No. 3 slot; then the headline of the next article said that Wang strived to take over the fourth spot because Pavano was hurt. This latter headline expressed the idea that if Pavano had not been injured, Wang would still be the fifth starter instead of destined for the third spot. Also noteworthy was the finding that LT attributed Torre’s 1000th win to Wang. These are obvious indications that the commentators made some specific framing choices here in presenting news on Wang. The third strategy connects framing and domestication in the use of exemplars. The exemplars appeared when the papers compared a person or a typical example to Wang, whether an outstanding athlete who owned a record, or a childhood idol of Wang. In this way, media made Wang’s image understandable to national readers and built concrete proof of his outstanding performances. The fourth strategy was the most interesting finding in this paper, for it included several forms of a language that is spoken in one nation with words and meanings that differ from the other country’s. Not surprisingly, both newspapers commonly used buzzwords or phrases to describe Wang’s performances; LT even coined some catchphrases to praise Wang as “the Light of Taiwan.” Through the use of distinct frames and different themes of sports coverage, both Taiwanese and American media essentially constructed two different sets of coverage in order to appeal to their local audiences. For Taiwan, Wang represents their hope and glory, but for Americans, he is only an international pitcher. The wide-spread praise in LT was also reflected in other national mass media. The above findings all support Hypotheses 1a and 1b, and those catchphrases not only made Wang’s stories friendlier to national audiences but shortened the distance between Wang and his potential fans.
Hypothesis 2: Taiwanese media coverage will exhibit more internal attributes (face-enhancing bias) and external attributes (face-protecting bias) in reporting on Wang’s performances than the U.S. media. The positivity bias in attributional behaviors may reflect people’s underlying 68
motivation to protect and enhance another’s face (Hallahan, Lee, & Herzog, 1997). Consistent with Hypothesis 2, the present data show a strong positivity bias. In Taiwan, more internal attributions were made about Wang’s wins and more external attributions were made about his losses. Attributions for his winning and losing games were analyzed separately to examine cultural differences in the expression of a positivity bias. According to the findings, the tendency to explain Wang’s wins in terms of internal causes was more obvious in LT. The Taiwanese media liked to address Wang’s calm personality and ability not to panic (internal attributions), as well as his strong sinker (his practicing-hard skill) that resulted in his winning games. The comment about the Yankee bats offering support in the innings was seldom expressed. This finding is in accordance with the study of Hammahan, Lee and Herzog (1997). Not surprisingly, LT addressed Wang as a national hero and national identity figure much more often than did the NYT, and made it more salient by frequently making his national identity the main point of a story. The NYT also noticed this phenomenon in LT coverage. Besides, following Wang’s steady progress, both newspapers gave much coverage to the idea of Wang as an appropriate sports model based on his superior record. The only difference in the two media was that Wang received far more awards in Taiwan than in the United States, and he was received as an honored guest at the office of the president of Taiwan. On the contrary, the tendency to explain Wang’s losses in terms of external attributional causes was easily seen. The framing sentences that appeared most frequently in LT were “the Yankees lineup failed to bail out Wang” or “the Yankee bats did not wake up.” In addition, the newspaper in Taiwan paid less attention to or even treated Wang’s losing games invisibly. Compared to the Taiwanese press, the NYT was much more likely to give the games detailed commentary as long as it was a keenly contested game. These patterns of results well support Hypothesis 2, which predicts that the positivity bias was exhibited more in Taiwan.
Research Question 1: What are the similarities and differences between newspapers’ frames, topics, and framing practices in their coverage of Wang’s performances in 69 each country? Research question one is an overall question, and it can be answered after examining hypotheses one and the seven miniframes. The illustration of seven themes above exp lains the similarities and differences between newspapers’ frames, and the framing practices in their coverage of Wang’s performances in the two countries. By using the sports formula developed by Harris and Clayton (2002), the researcher examined articles by employing an interpretative approach to look for certain themes within the newspaper coverage. The themes included in the Tone variable are: (1) the invisibility of Wang’s losing games; (2) emphasis on traditional country traits; (3) communication of pain, anguish, and sacrifice in sports; (4) creation of national heroes and national identities; (5) coverage of Wang as an appropriate sports model role and (6) non-task relevant commentary. The seventh theme is categorized in the cultural-comparison dimension and used to answer research question two. While investigating the themes which journalists emphasized, it is possible to see the similarities and differences among frames in two contexts. In general, there are similarities and differences between the newspapers’ frames, topics, and framing practices in their coverage of Wang’s performances in the two countries. This can be seen when comparing the coverage in the two countries, or only by examining the content of stories. One of the themes concerns the issue of pain, anguish and sacrifice of Wang in sports. The most typical pain and anguish comes from injury, which was given similar prominence in the newspapers of both countries. Another issue on which attention was highly focused was the economic sacrifice arising from salary arbitration. The two newspapers were paying close attention to Wang’s salary arbitration process. Furthermore, the second most frequently reported issue in both newspapers is Wang’s country traits. Being taciturn is characteristic of Wang and this fits the typical representation of Asians. Therefore, both media liked to mention this trait and highlighted it as the primary subject of a story. The NYT also paid attention to the Taiwanese custom that sons stay home and take care of their parents, and was interested in the fact that Wang remained very close to his parents. On the contrary, differences are found in terms of both the salience of themes 70
and the use of news frames. For example, LT would cover a preview of a game in which Wang was the starting pitcher, but would not do a post-match review of this game if he lost. In terms of generic news frames, this study finds that some frames are presented more often than others and are more often evident for certain issues in a given society. For example, Taiwanese media was inclined to glorify Wang’s performance, even if he did not do well; they always supported him with eager anticipation. The NYT usually served as the third-person observer, which reported the ball game without personal passion. Moreover, when Wang got into trouble after the seventh inning, LT would briefly mention his taking the loss for that game, but kept talking about his great pitching for the first six innings for the rest of the article.
Research Question 2: What type of cultural strategies do Taiwanese and the U.S. sport journalists use to write about the performance of Wang? The media in Taiwan and in America are inclined to write about Wang by using certain cultural strategies such as metaphors, generic frames and cultural strategies. First w as the use of metaphor, using a non-simile to describe Wang’s performance or a game in order to make the description more powerful. It was interesting to note that the NYT liked to use metaphors when they placed expectations on him or when he did not pitch well, while LT tended to use metaphors when Wang faced unfairness. Once when he did not do a good job, the NYT commentator said Wang supplied smelling salts for the opponents. On the other hand, LT had some satiric words to express the perceived unfairness of Wang’s treatment in salary negotiations. Generic frames and cultural strategy are two things that are represented as an overall sketch of this study. As the findings illustrate, there are many comparisons between frames, topics and framing practices in the two countries. The most interesting finding would be the last theme concerned the trivialization of Wang’s accomplishments in sports. However, there are no actual findings for this theme. This proved that the respect given Wang is an indication of the maturity of sports media in both countries. Simply put, the NYT framed Wang’s wins by offering a specific quotation by 71 the coach and his teammate’s compliments, but LT chose to frame them by mentio ning the external conditions (weather) that could not defeat Wang. Even in the same game, the news content from the two media differed through the use of distinct framing strategies. Cultural strategy is represented by cultural implications in the newspaper texts. Generally, Taiwanese media paid much greater attention to Wang than did other countries. LT tends to produce any report that relates to Wang, including coverage for three days in a row (preview of the game, record of the game, and after-game review). This can be used to explain why Wang’s stories appeared almost daily in LT, and why there are so many Taiwanese stories than in the NYT. Taiwanese media has provided an annual summary, collected his overall record, pointed out his achievements, and reported his progress and the records he has broken. The NYT also noted the different cultural strategy when Taiwanese media covered Wang. These special framing strategies appear to be more obvious when seen from the point of view of foreigners.
Discussion This research set out to determine whether certain news frames were consistently presented in news articles from Taiwan and America within the context of Wang’s performances in Major League Baseball. Its aim was to offer a more thorough understanding of the different framing strategies used in sports news construction in the two countries. The divergent frames used by the Taiwanese news site and the U.S. news site were generally consistent with the national cultural environment. This suggests that media framing of issues is influenced by the national culture. The most likely reason is rooted in the differences in points of view of each country. One implication is the different focuses on Wang by two media outlets. In the United States, MLB is one of the sports that holds a high percentage of international athletes. Only the best athletes can be creamed off from their home country and invited to MLB, and most of the time they perform really well. Therefore, the U.S. media could regard Wang’s great performances as a common thing among foreign athletes, and would not give undue prominence of his story. In contrast, the athlete as 72 excellent as Wang is rare in Taiwan. Wang represents not only an international pitcher, but also a pitcher for Taiwan. Thus, the Taiwanese media gave Wang “wall-to-wall” coverage. A further practical notion relates to the growth of sports markets. Since Taiwan tends to have a Wang craze, franchises could use the results of this study to get a handle on the market situation they face. There is a huge possible sales outlet for Wang-related products. If sports investors find out that there are similar interests in or excitement about an international athlete in their home country, this might be a shrewd investment. Take Wang as an example. His craze swept Taiwan which has 23,000,000 people. That means, when the products related to Wang are sold in Taiwan, there is a market that holds about 23 million people. Thus, if investors undertake a market analysis, it could ensure success in the market. The results of this thesis also have implications for framing and agenda setting theories, and show a strong presence of news frames within two online news sources. It is not surprising that sports news, as a recreational interest, can generate many different framings. On the one hand, people may root for their own teams and simply visit news sites to see what is being written about those teams. Sports draws out emotions and many people spend a significant amount of time learning about a team’s history (Ayres, 2008). The public’s perceptions of those issues may also be shaped by blog postings from fellow consumers. It is not known whether readers are using news articles to frame important issues to develop their own viewpoints. But the news about Wang’s biological parents, for example, served as an example that the work of professional journalists might lead audiences to consider issues important within the frame offered by the professional. The most important thing is that the public may respond to the media when they feel a sense of connection with the frame. This may increase the public’s honor or fulfillment, and people may consider themselves part of a great nation. For example, after seeing the outstanding record of Wang in MLB, the Taiwanese people felt success in sports was a source of national pride. We may ask if the notion of having one’s thoughts about the world published for everyone else to see may be enough to boost self esteem. 73
It’s possible that journalistic values, promoted as the characteristics of “objectivity” can at times create very subjective coverage— coverage biased not by political or ideological positions, but by routine news practices and cultural conventions (Zaharopoulos, 2007). When covering cross-cultural stories, domestication and cultural strategies are included in cultural conventions. For example, a traditional news practice in LT was to provide back-to-back coverage for celebrities who presented a positive image for Taiwan. This is why the Taiwanese media provided the preview of Wang’s games, Wang’s record in those games, and the after-game review. Sometimes, the objectivity or subjectivity of framing strategies was affected by unconscious cultural conventions. While reporting Wang, the Taiwanese media would address Wang’s unique national identity. In contrast, almost all the NYT stories mentioning Wang would only cover his performance and the record of the game. Therefore, the comparison of two newspapers in two different cultures offers an understanding of framing strategies affected by deeply rooted routine news practices and cultural conventions. When more than one cultural context was significantly involved, the presence of a given type of news frame depended to a great degree on the interaction between the different cultural dimensions. Actually, not only did the Taiwanese favor Wang, some Americans did as well. Three American sportswriters teamed up to write a book, called Ace in America, about Wang’s rise to stardom with the Yankees. This book chronicles Wang’s stay in the United States from the time he started in the minor leagues in 2000 to his breakthrough season in 2006. The book also gathered many memorable pictures of the Taiwanese native, portraying him in many different settings. One of the authors, Mark Feinsand, predicted that Wang would have another good season in 2007 (LT, April 29, 2007). The book’s Chinese version is being sold in Taiwan, giving many Taiwanese fans the chance to learn more about Wang’s early struggles in the American minor leagues.
Limitations It was clear that in the study of social phenomena, some things would be 74 revealed, some suggested, and some others left unexplored. The same is true of this research which revealed some aspects of Wang, suggested some, and left some unexplored. These limitations to this study are worthy of consideration. Among these, the most critical limitation is that the qualitative methods are subjective in nature (subjective sampling and subjective analysis, etc.); thus, this research should be considered as a single attempt to uncover meaning embedded in newspaper articles about Wang. It should be noted that this process was more subjective and interpretive than quantitative, content analysis would be particularly since a second coder was not involved in the search for dominant themes and frames (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Secondly, the results of the present study were based on the online coverage of a limited number of news media (two newspapers). However, this scope of research would allow us to go further in future research to consider media coverage from a diverse sample of newspapers, in terms of both geography and circulation size. Thirdly, the articles were downloaded from online archives; therefore, the prominence of an article’s exhibition is not determined. Fourth, the study is also limited by its use of a Chinese-language daily newspaper. The use of a partial English translation of the Chinese data is not optimal. Connor -Linton (1999) claims: “Cross-cultural communication through interpreters and translation complicates and limits any discourse analysis” (p. 29). “The idiosyncratic language style of individual translators may also affect the sentence structure and word choice in the translated data” (Jiang, 2006, p. 255). Fifth, it is also possible that the outlets chosen for study here were not indicative of the overall national media coverage in the countries studied. Although previous research has used The New York Times to represent the U.S. media, there was no similar guide post for Taiwan. The often-cited Lei-Tai newspaper was therefore chosen for the analysis; however, it is unclear how representative this source is of the broader Taiwanese media. The last limitation is the use here of ready-made texts instead of making use of the audio or audio visual versions of media coverage. A revolution in information technology is taking place, and the data selected for this research is limited only to newspapers. Therefore, some subtle information conveyed through intonation and 75 body language in audio visual is lost. Despite these various limitations, it is hoped that this research will contribute to the literature on media content and framing by introducing a case of cultural dimens ions of sports news frames in different countries into media research.
Contribution One contribution of this study is to emphasize the important role of cultural factors. It also expands the sparse cross-cultural literature on framing analysis. It is interesting to see certain frames and themes from a cultural perspective.This also presents the need for further in-depth analysis of the impact of local and international media framing of a national athlete, particularly using comparisons of coverage between newspapers employing different framing strategies to cover the same person. Another contribution is to enrich our understanding of online sports reports in two countries and add to prior communication research by showing how the coverage of an athlete differs in countries with different cultural and media systems. It is hoped that this research contributes to the literature on media content and framing by introducing cultural dimensions into cultural comparisons of the different patterns of using news frames across countries.
Future Research Although addressing the issue of frames, this study nonetheless demonstrates how varied the focus on Wang’s performance can be within local and international scenes and indicates the need for future study of the media frames choices at both reportorial and editorial levels of various countries. Since the samples are drawn from a limited number of media in the two countries, future studies should include additional news outlets as well as news outlets from other countries. In addition, research design could compare how media frames are reflected in the online presentation press coverage by newspapers from different cultures. Furthermore, instead of making broad generalizations about Wang’s performance, future scholars should examine over a longer time period the development of Wang’s career. 76
APPENDIX A PROTOCOL, FRAMING OF CHIEN-MING WANG’S ARTICLES
Inventory Variables:
-- Date What date is the data?
Is the article under the heading of special feature, regular -- Context feature, column, etc?
Content Variables:
-- Topic Is this article about Wang's performance? Winning a game or losing a game? -- Action Does the article explain a specific event? (e.g., Spring Training) -- Expert Who are quoted as the sources? (e.g., Coach)
Tone Variables:
-- Domestication
How does the news media make efforts to
make Wang’s story comprehensible to How to domesticate and their readers? frame Theme: Are Wang’s traditional country
traits emphasized? Theme: Is there any non-task relevant
commentary?
77
Are there any specific aspects of selection,
Issue-specific frames organization, and elaboration that are
present in news coverage and pertain
Exemplars Are there historical examples from which
(Historical references) lessons are drawn?
Are there any buzzwords or words or Catchphrases phrases or symbols commonly used to (Buzzwords) describe a quality or phenomenon? -- Positivity Bias Are there any internal attributions made for
(contributing to) a player’s success? Theme: Are there any comments about Face-enhancing bias creating Wang as a national hero and his
ilidi? Theme: Is there any coverage about Wang
in an appropriate sporting role? Are there any external attributions made
for (contributing to) a player’s failure? Theme: Is there any invisibility of Wang’s Face-protecting bias losing games? Theme: Is there any coverage about
communicating pain, anguish, and sacrifice
it? -- Cross-Cultural Comparison
Are there any comments about Metaphor comparisons found in the articles? Are there any comparisons between
frames, topics, and potentially, framing Generic frames practices in different countries? Theme: Is there any trivialization of
Wang’s accomplishments in sport? Are there any cultural implications in the Cultural strategy newspapers text? 78
APPENDIX B NEWSPAPER SOURCES USED ID# Date Source / Title Writer ______1. 02/26/05 NYT Chien-Ming Wang 2. 04/28/05 LT 蔡明樺 藍鳥 前 王建民搶頭采希望大增！ 3. 05/01/05 LT Joe Wong 初 Good Job！教頭托瑞贈王建民攻 單 4. 05/05/05 LT Joe Wong 洋基又敗 明天看王建民 5. 05/06/05 LT 蔡明樺 王建民無力止敗 洋基美聯東 墊底！ 6. 05/17/05 LT 蔡明樺 國 棒球熱再起 就是要王建民！ 7. 05/18/05 NYT Pat Borzi Wang Making Himself Comfortable With Yanks 8. 07/04/05 NYT Tyler Kepner Yanks' Wang Proving That Talking Is Overrated 9. 07/04/05 LT 李弘斌 王建民 局無失分，洋基1分力克老虎 王建民心臟超強，隊 、教練讚不絕口 10. 09/07/05 NYT 蔡明樺 王建民 返洋基 9日 迎戰魔鬼魚
11. 09/09/05 LT 蔡明樺 魔鬼魚啃食洋基 王建民傷癒首戰吞敗！ 94體育精英獎 最佳男 動員獎：王建民 12. 09/10/05 LT 李弘斌 王建民、鄭韶婕分獲最佳男、女 動員 79
13. 09/20/05 LT 李弘斌 王建民好投無關 敗 柯斯比再見 壘打 王建民 容出色 續留 輪值利多！ 14. 09/29/05 NYT Tyler Kepner Yanks Count on Wang's Cool Amid Heat 15. 09/30/05 NYT William C. Rhoden Young Blood Makes Yankees Rush Into First 16. 10/01/05 LT 蔡明樺 洋基第二戰誰投？ 托瑞就是要王建民！ 17. 10/06/05 LT 蔡明樺 王建民沉著應戰 前 局洋基 2 比 1 領 ！ 王建民致命失投 洋基 誤 掉江山！！
王建民強投特質 隊 、教練都說讚！ 18. 10/08/05 LT 蔡明樺 夏康冷靜特質 托瑞：近似王建民！ 19. 11/02/05 LT 蔡明樺 王建民凱旋 國 明 朝 邁 ！
20. 11/26/05 LT 蔡明樺 空中飛人 趕場 王建民表達參賽意願！ 21. 01/16/06 LT 李弘斌 世棒經典賽 大聯盟代表 莫：參 經典賽是王建民的權利！ 22. 02/14/06 LT 王翔 世棒經典賽 王建民在坦帕春訓基地表態，恐 出經典賽 王建民被譽和基特、李維拉 級， 為洋基隊 級新人 LT 蔡明樺
世棒經典賽 王建民婉拒徵召 遺缺林岳 遞補！ 23. 02/24/06 LT 王翔 洋基 投手卡位凶，王建民面對 部強烈競爭 24. 02/27/06 LT 王翔 帕瓦諾開季 不了，但王建民仍須 力爭第四席 80
25. 03/07/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民初 局掉3分！ 26. 03/12/06 LT 蔡明樺 局 無失分 王建民首 到手！ 27. 03/17/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民第 度 四局無關 ！ 28. 03/21/06 LT 蔡明樺 萊特背部痙攣 王建民 輪值 啦 ！ 29. 03/28/06 LT 蔡明樺 膝受創 王建民：感覺比昨天好多了！ 30. 04/01/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Wang and Chacon Secure Their Spots in the Rotation 31. 04/05/06 LT 蔡明樺 動家主場開胡 王建民明晨 點初 ！ 32. 04/06/06 LT 蔡明樺 不滿 局 王建民無關 敗！ 33. 04/12/06 LT 李弘斌 基特 分彈救洋基 王建民6局失5分無關 敗 34. 04/17/06 LT 李弘斌 洋基 4 轟 王建民 7 局 8K 奪首 35. 04/18/06 NYT Pat Borzi Yankees May Go as Far as Back of Rotation Takes Them 36. 04/26/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民戰魔鬼魚 視明晨七點直播！ 37. 04/27/06 LT 蔡明樺 洋基貧打 王建民七局好投 ！ 38. 05/01/06 LT 李弘斌 火爆洋基射落藍鳥 王建民2日 戰 襪 39. 05/02/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民5局失3分 場 無關 敗 81
王建民無關 敗 歐提茲大棒敲翻洋基 40. 05/08/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民 局無保 第二 終於落袋 王建民穩健護航 托瑞笑擁執教洋基千 41. 05/12/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民戰 動家 對決塞 投席托！ 42. 05/13/06 LT 蔡明樺 局無失分 王建民首 動家！ 43. 05/18//06 LT 蔡明樺 連續1 局無責失 王建民第四 到手！ 44. 05/22/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民挑戰 襪魔咒 視明晨七點直播！ 45. 05/23/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民 6局失7分吞敗 襪席林200 聽牌 46. 06/01/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民尋求第 視明晨七點直播！ 47. 06/04/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民首場救援 洋基延長賽告捷！ 48. 06/14/06 LT 蔡明樺 七局無失分 王建民笑納第七 ！ 49. 06/07/06 LT 蔡明樺 帝 手 力挺 王建民破 襪魔咒！ 50. 06/24/06 LT 蔡明樺 主場神 護體 王建民 到手！ 51. 06/29/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民好投連連 托瑞：別 了他才26歲！ 52. 07/03/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民單挑印地 人 挑戰第九 ！ 53. 07/04/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Rookie's Seasoned Repertory, and Strike Zone, Bewilder the 82
Yankee Batters 54. 07/09/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民捕魚 9 落袋創個人新高 55. 07/18/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民 到手 灣第一人！ 56. 07/18/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Yanks Overcome Rough Night by Rodriguez 57. 07/27/06 LT 蔡明樺 二度挑戰四連 王建民捕 魚 急 鋒！ 58. 07/29/06 NYT Joe Lapointe Wang’s Two-Hit Outing Solidifies the Rotation 59. 07/29/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民吃定魔鬼魚 生涯首場完封 ！ 斯文殺手 變 巨人 王建民硬是要得！ 60. 08/03/06 LT 蔡明樺 王建民擒 鳥 1 並列 隊之冠！ 61. 08/08/06 LT 蔡明樺 洋基、 襪 連戰 王建民打頭 ！ 62. 08/09/06 LT 蔡明樺 戴伊棒打洋基 王建民無關 ！ 63. 08/13/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Yankees’ Wang Finds His Place on the Mound and in the World 64. 08/13/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Yankees’ Wang Finds His Place on the Mound and in the World 65. 08/14/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民一局症復 投不滿 局失 分吞敗 66. 08/18/06 LT 蔡明樺 保護家人隱私 王建民向 灣媒體說 o！ 67. 08/19/06 LT 李弘斌 洋基 威痛宰 襪 王建民拿 第14 83
68. 08/31/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民打虎零失分 16 追 茂英雄 69. 09/04/06 LT 李弘斌 A-Rod雙響攻克雙城 王建民銜命戰皇家 70. 09/05/06 LT 李弘斌 洋基大逆轉 皇家 王建民提前 場無緣17 71. 09/10/06 NYT Tyler Kepner Foes Realize That Wang, With 17 Wins, Is That Good BASEBALL; Baseball Before Breakfast in Taiwan 72. 09/10/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民 局達 奪 17 灣 3 強投 日 威 73. 09/15/06 LT 李弘斌 洋基臨 王建民 16 日掛帥戰 襪 74. 09/17/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民恐 症復 局失 分吞 第 敗 75. 09/22/06 LT 聿晨 王建民 捕魚 再度挑戰亞洲紀錄
76. 09/23/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民 7局僅失1分 18 追 亞洲紀錄！ 77. 09/28/06 LT 李弘斌 洋基打線大爆 王建民19 新亞洲天王 78. 10/01/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民打虎 奪亞洲投手季後賽 首 79. 10/04/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民打虎 奪亞洲投手季後賽 首 王建民感謝隊 幫 托瑞笑稱建仔 奮過度 80. 10/03/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民 B第二季 體檢 王建民 B第二季 體檢 中 王建民 B第二季 體檢 84
81. 10/04/06 LT 李弘斌 王建民打虎 奪亞洲投手季後賽 首 王建民感謝隊 幫 托瑞笑稱建仔 奮過度 去 失手今 再來 王建民 亞洲第一人 82. 02/25/07 NYT Jack Curry Interpreters in Baseball Making Sure Nothing Is Lost in Translation 83. 03/03/07 LT 聿晨 B王建民熱身賽初 局小試身手獲 84. 03/08/07 LT 聿晨 B王建民春訓再 主投 局挨轟失 分 場 85. 03/12/07 LT 聿晨 B 王建民熱身賽 度 主投四局飆四 失一分 86. 03/25/07 NYT Tyler Kepner BASEBALL; Wang on Disabled List; Pavano May Start Opener 87. 03/26/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Yankees Add Elbow to Injury Report 88. 04/01/07 NYT Murray Chass Of Rocks and Apples and the Disappearance of 20-Game Winners 89. 04/05/07 LT 李弘斌 王建民周 模擬投球 戴蒙腿傷觀察中
90. 04/10/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Cold Possibly a Factor in Key Leg Injuries in the Bronx 91. 04/15/06 LT 黃 人 去 失手今 再來 王建民 亞洲第一人 92. 04/19/07 LT 聿晨 MLB王建民明晨二度模擬賽 小曹中繼初 望 播 93. 04/24/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明晨七點首度 捕 魚 奪 機率大 94. 04/25/07 LT 黃 人 85
洋基牛棚砸鍋 王建民 投變敗投 95. 04/25/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Yankees Find Themselves in Last Place They Expected 96. 04/29/07 LT 黃 人 就在明天凌晨一點 王建民第二次 戰 襪
97. 05/03/07 LT 黃 人 王建民是否 提前出賽 今天早 就見分曉 98. 05/05/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明晨 點 分 尋求 季首 開胡 99. 05/08/07 LT 黃 人 王建民暫定 戰 騎兵 川慶 放小聯盟 100. 05/17/07 LT 黃 人 王建民穿襪豪奪第二 主投七局僅失一分 3K 101. 05/21/07 LT 黃 人 王建民提前一天 明晨七點戰 襪 102. 05/22/07 NYT Tyler Kepner For at Least a Night, Wang and the Yanks Have Control 103. 05/22/07 LT 黃 人 王建民復仇 刺穿 襪勇奪第
104. 05/27/07 LT 黃 人 洋基打線不捧場 王建民黯然吞 第四敗 105. 06/02/07 LT 黃 人 豪華打線強力捧場 王建民穿襪奪第4 106. 06/07/07 LT 黃 人 王建民生涯第二次完投 笑納個人第 107. 06/13/07 NYT Tyler Kepner On Sinkerball Night, Yankees Keep Rising 108. 06/18/07 LT 黃 人 王建民單場10K 輕鬆笑納第7 109. 06/29/07 LT 黃 人 86
七局崩盤大失血 王建民幸 躲敗投 110. 07/04/07 NYT Joe Lapointe Rodriguez and Wang Give Yanks Needed Lift 111. 07/04/07 LT 黃 人 洋基豪華打線 威 王建民第 8 112. 07/09/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Ending on Positive Note, the Yankees Still Have Work Cut Out for Them 113. 07/14/07 LT 黃 人 王建民挑戰第 10 明早 7 點客場捕 魚 114. 07/15/07 LT 黃 人 王建民 入袋 創造生涯新高 連
115. 07/24/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明早 點戰皇家 再拚個人第
116. 07/30/07 LT 黃 人 王建民射鶯奪第 12 洋基中止 3 連敗 王建民第 13 入袋 暫居 亞洲 投王 117. 08/08/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明晨 7 點捕鳥 形 王牌 對決 118. 08/14/07 LT 黃 人 瑞 拉 放火 王建民第 14 飛了 119. 08/19/07 LT 黃 人 王建民再挑戰第 14 明晨 1 點打老虎 120. 08/20/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Yanks’ Latest Victory Is Another Inside Job 121. 08/25/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明晨再度打虎 目標 季第 15 122. 08/26/07 NYT Tyler Kepner Wang Gives Weary Yankees Exactly What They Need 123. 08/31/07 LT 黃 人 87
卡諾雙響砲相挺 王建民1 榮 美聯 投王 124. 09/05/07 LT 黃 人 洋基打線大爆 王建民輕鬆拿17 125. 09/09/07 LT 黃 人 王建民明晨 點拚皇家 目標第1 連 126. 09/10/07 LT 黃 人 王建民 18 穩居大聯盟 投王 127. 09/15/07 LT 黃 人 王牌對王牌 王建民明晨硬拚貝基特 128. 09/16/07 NYT Selena Roberts Errant Pitch by Wang Jolts Red Sox Awake 129. 10/10/07 NYT Tyler Kepner YANKEES NOTEBOOK; Postseason Struggles Leave Wang With Plenty to Ponder 130. 01/17/08 LT 吳育 王建民 洋基隊談 薪 觸礁， 提出薪資仲裁 131. 01/19/08 LT 吳紹寧 王建民向洋基隊要求 薪 1 億 4885 萬元新 幣 132. 01/22/08 LT 吳紹寧 洋基 投派提特說：王建民是 們的王牌 133. 01/25/08 LT 特 記者Greg 王建民 薪 情 美職 家態度保留 134. 02/16/08 NYT Jack Curry Wang to Earn $4 Million After Arbitration Loss
88
APPENDIX C OPEN LETTER FROM CHIEN-MING WANG TO THE TAIWANESE MEDIA
August 15, 2006
I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to you and all my fans for your continued support all these years. Thank you for covering my games in the United States.
I am a baseball player doing the job that I love, pursuing my childhood dream of playing in the Major Leagues. I love Taiwan and I love my entire family.
I am very disappointed about the way the Taiwanese print and television media has recently handled the personal issue about my background. The invasion of my entire family's privacy caused tremendous stress and discomfort.
Due to the stress suffered by my family in Taiwan, I have made the difficult decision of not accepting anymore interviews by member of the Taiwanese media until further notice.
I hope going forward, you will focus your coverage on my performance on the field. Please stop harassing my family members about this private issue.
I will continue to work hard to get better in the Major Leagues. I need to concentrate on helping my team to win the World Series and prepare for my next start. Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Chien-Ming Wang
89
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Hsing-Ju Chang
In the summer of 200, Hsing-Ju Chang completed her Bachelor’s degree in English literature at Province University. Under the advisement of Prof. McDowell, Stephen D., she obtained her Master's degree in summer of 2009 from the Department of Communication at Florida State University. Hsing-Ju’s research interests include framing, media effects, and cultural comparisons.
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