Department of Informatics and Media
Master’s Programme in Social Sciences, Digital Media and Society specialization
Two-year Master’s Thesis
Framing analysis of China’s COVID-19 pandemic coverage by the BBC and the People’s Daily
Zheng Yang
June 2020 Abstract
Framing is an important concept for journalism. When a reporter covers a certain issue, the news frame is a key factor to influence what the news article looks like.
At the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic burst out in China
(Wuhan). Some mainstream western media, such as the BBC and the CNN, reported the related news about China’s pandemic situation. Simultaneously, Chinese media, such as the People’s Daily and the CCTV, also reported the pandemic issue frequently.
According to the description of the Western media and the Chinese media, I found that their reporting perspective seemed different which directly influenced people’s judgement towards China’s pandemic situation especially Wuhan’s pandemic situation.
In this thesis, I have researched the news articles of the BBC and the People’s Daily from January 2020 to March 2020, and I have collected 30 news articles of the People’s
Daily and 30 news articles of the BBC. I used the framing theory as the theoretical support and content analysis as the method to identify the frames of the news articles.
With the statistics of the research results, the episodic frame, thematic frame, critical frame and skeptical frame were identified in the news coverage of the BBC. The episodic frame, thematic frame, propaganda frame and positive frame were identified in the coverage of the People’s Daily.
Simultaneously, I found that both the BBC and People’s Daily preferrd to collect information of news from the authority and government instead of the general public.
Key words: framing, frames, BBC, People’s Daily.
2 Acknowledgement
First of all, I want to thank all my teachers and classmates in Uppsala University in the past two years. From all of them, I learned a lot about how to conduct a research, how to write essays and articles in a more logical way and how to handle problems by myself.
Then, I really appreciate my thesis supervisor – Kristin Karlsson. She is such an intelligent, patient and friendly professor. She always gave me exact suggestions which
I needed and also guided me to finish my thesis in a logical way. And she also encouraged me for many times when I was troubled by problems. I have to acknowledge that I have learned a lot about handling problems and writing thesis from this great teacher. I appreciate her help and hard work.
Simultaneously, I also thank another supervisor – Boas Hallgrimsson. He is not only a supervisor, but also a good friend to me. He gave me suggestions on some course assignments as well as the thesis during the past two years. I will always remember that he encouraged me to be creative on thesis and also on music (music is our common interest).
Then, I want to appreciate my director – Ylva Ekstrom. During the past two years in
Uppsala, I sent many emails to her and asked for help when I met some tough problems in my daily life. I appreciate all these things.
In particular, I appreciate my examiner – PG Holmlöv. He is a great professor, when
I first submitted the thesis, he gave me a series of pertinent suggestions which helped me to improve my thesis.
Finally, I thank my parents and my girlfriend. They offer me supports all the way, and
3 encourage me all the way.
4 Table of contents
Abstract------2
Acknowledgment------3
List of tables------7
List of figures------9
1.Introduction ------10
1.1 Background------10
1.2 Research purpose and questions------12
2.Context of the BBC and the People’s Daily and related terms------13
2.1 BBC ------13
2.1.1 Background of the BBC------13
2.1.2 Relevant research about the coverage from the BBC ------14
2.2 People’s Daily------22
2.2.1 Background of the People’s Daily ------22
2.2.2 Relevant research of the coverage of the People’s Daily ------24
2.3 Twitter and Weibo------26
2.3.1 Twitter------27
2.3.2 Weibo------28
5 3. Theoretical framework------30
3.1 Framing theory------30
3.1.1 Framing and frames------30
3.1.2 How frames work------31
3.1.3 Episodic frame and thematic frame------33
3.2 Combination of theory and method------35
4. Methodology------36
4.1 Research design------36
4.2 Content analysis------37
4.3 Sampling------37
4.4 Data collection------46
4.5 Ethical consideration------54
5. Result and analysis------55
6. conclusion ------94
6.1 Discussion------94
6.2 Self-reflection and limitation------98
6.3 further research------100
7. References------101
6 List of tables
Table 1. Clusters from the CNN text
Table 2 Clusters from the BBC text
Table 3 Statistics for the amount of the BBC’s coverage of China (2008-2013)
Table 4 Statistics about themes of the BBC's coverage of China (2008-2013)
Table 5 Statistics on BBC’s reporting attitude to China
Table 6 Source statistics of sample reports
Table 7 Chinese and American news frames of the Chinese Embassy Bombing event
Table 8 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the initial period
Table 9 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the middle period
Table 10 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the final period
Table 11 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the final period
Table 12 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the People’s Daily in the middle period
Table 13 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the People’s Daily in the final period
Table 14 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage
(initial period)
Table 15 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage
(initial period)
Table 16 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage (final period)
Table 17 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily coverage (initial period)
7 Table18 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily coverage (middle period)
Table 19 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily coverage (final period)
Table 20 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target (BBC)
Table 21 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target (People’s Daily)
Table 22 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (initial period)
Table 23 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (middle period)
Table 24 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (final period)
Table 25 Statistics of all the frames identified from 30 coverage of the BBC
Table 26 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (initial period)
Table 27 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (middle period)
Table 28 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (final period)
Table 29 Statistics of all the frames identified from 30 coverage of the BBC
8 List of figures
Figure 1: A chronicle of COVID-19 in China.
Figure 2: China’s latest COVID-19 cases statistics (up to April 7, 24:00).
Figure 3: Information about the name -COVID-19.
Figure 4: The first day of Wuhan’s closure.
Figure 5: Communities in Wuhan are under strict management.
Figure 6: Zero new suspected cases in Hubei province.
9 1. Introduction
1.1 Background
At the end of 2019, the coronavirus pandemic burst out in Wuhan, which is a capital city of Hubei Province and a central city in the middle of China. The coronavirus was spreading quickly in Hubei Province, and then in other cities of China and due to the seriousness of the pandemic situation, the city was shut down on January 23rd, 2020 and reopened on April 8th, 2020. That means the city was totally isolated with other cities during this period. All the expressways and roads were guarded by police. Trains, airlines, and vehicles were all banned. Nobody could leave Wuhan. Nobody could enter
Wuhan. The traffic inside Wuhan city was also stopped including the public transportation, subways, as well as private cars. And the citizens living in communities were forbidden to go out excluding emergency. This was the first time in human beings’ history that a city had been totally shut down. With the instruction of the Chinese government, many medics from all around China came to Wuhan and supported the local hospitals to cope with the coronavirus including taking care of the huge amount of infected people, setting up the mobile cabin hospitals and so forth. The three months long period represents the Wuhan anti-pandemic process, and it can even represent the
China anti-pandemic process since many other Chinese cities were also managed with strict principles during the three months. At the same time, media reported heavily on the pandemic situation in Wuhan, and various reports about Wuhan appeared all around the world.
At the beginning of 2020, some Western media (like BBC, CNN) reported that the
10 pandemic was serious in China while some mainstream Chinese media thought that citizens didn’t need to be anxious about the new virus. For example, Daily People on
January 19th 2020 said that up until January 19th 2020, there were totally 198 coronavirus cases in Wuhan which had been found and reported to the government. But there was another report from an institution of Imperial College London which was called MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, and showed that “there are over 1700 people that have been infected with the coronavirus in Wuhan currently”.
These examples clearly show how Western and Chinese media held totally paradox opinions about this event in the beginning of the pandemic. I am one of the Wuhan citizens, and from my perspective, fact-based journalism is crucial in the coronavirus pandemic. It is a matter of life and death.
During the months when the Wuhan city was shut down, Chinese media often reported that many resources including medical items (face masks, protective suits), vegetables, meat and other foods were donated to Wuhan from other provinces and other countries.
Namely, the daily resources were abundant in supporting the Wuhan citizens’ normal life. However, the fact that my surrounding people and I experienced was that the vegetables’ and foods’ price was much more expensive than before, and meat was always in a “sold out” situation. What confused me was that the truth I experienced was inconsistent with the news reported by the media. Therefore, it would be interesting to research what caused such an inconsistency during the pandemic in Wuhan.
According to the doubts above, it is important and necessary to find out where the news sources came from and which frames the media used in their coverage of the pandemic.
11 1.2 Research purpose and questions
The purpose of this thesis is to research and analyze the news published in the two
media: People’s Daily, which is owned by the Chinese Communist Party and the
British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, which was established and founded by the
British state.
For this purpose, the thesis aims to answer the following research questions:
Research question 1: Which frames can be identified in the news-reporting of the
BBC and the People’s Daily?
Research question 1.1: Who are predominantly interviewed in BBC and the
People’s Daily: Are they members of the general public or representatives of
governments/authorities?
Research question 1.2: Do the frames used in the BBC and the People’s Daily vary
during the different periods?
12 2. Context of the BBC and the People’s Daily and related terms
This chapter will briefly explain the cultural context of two chosen media and explain relevant specific words and terminology.
2.1 BBC
2.1.1 Background of the BBC
The BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation) was set up by Her Majesty’s
Government in 1922. And this corporation was established under successive Royal
Charters. The business and services of BBC are managed by a separate agreement of the Charter, but the BBC has the right of independent edition of news. It offers the services including radio programs, information services and television channels in more than 200 countries and districts in the world. But most of the incomes of the BBC are from the UK license fee. The BBC World News is a platform for its audience to receive worldwide news (Ann-Christin Berg, 2003). And their mission is to “enrich people’s lives with programs and services that inform, educate and entertain”. They also strive towards being the most innovative and creative news service company in the world.
Trust is the base of this news corporation. This company is promoted as impartial, independent and honest one. The BBC is accessible for around 300 million homes in the world (Ann-Christin Berg, 2003)
The BBC has been investing in online journalism since the early 1990s, allowing it to produce one of the world’s most visited websites, and providing a platform for readers to comment on published stories. (Wardle & Williams, 2008)
13 2.1.2 Relevant research about the coverage from the BBC
The BBC is highly praised in the worldwide mainstream media, for its insistence to truthful, objective and fair journalism. (Hermida, 2009). According to the mission statement of the BBC, it is “the world’s most trusted news organization: independent, impartial and honest” (BBC, 2005).
Yan Tian and Concetta M. Stewart (2006) used a computer to analyze the texts from
CNN and BBC Online News. And the texts were related to the reports of SARS. In order to compare how CNN and BBC framed the SARS crisis, samples were downloaded from the websites of both the BBC and CNN. With the keyword “SARS”,
525 reports were collected from the CNN up to October7, 2003, and 425 reports from the BBC. The computer software CatPac (Category Package) was used to analyze the texts. This software can not only analyze the occurrences of each concept, but also can analyze the semantic relationship among the concepts in a news report through clustering the concepts in a text (Murphy, 2001; Popping, 2000; Woelfel & Stoyanoff,
2000). Each of the concepts is treated as a neuron in a network, and the network is composed of concepts and the semantic relationships among these concepts. The clusters indicate the relationships among the concepts within the network. Namely, the concepts in the same cluster mean that these concepts are more semantically relevant than those in different cluster (Murphy, 2001; Woelfel & Stoyanoff, 2000). On the basis of this principle, the authors concluded from the results which were analyzed by the computer that the main themes of the CNN texts and the BBC texts were similar in following aspects.
14
*Table 1 and Table 2 are from Yan Tian and Concetta M. Stewart. (2006). Framing the
SARS Crisis: A Computer-Assisted Text Analysis of CNN and BBC Online News
Reports of SARS. pp. 295-296.
1. They were both worried about the spread of SARS.
The CNN reported issues on “symptoms”, “virus”, “reported”, “patient” and “outbreak”, whereas BBC covered issues on “infected”, “cases”, “virus”, “reported” and “outbreak”.
In the news texts of the CNN, the word “SARS” represented 13.7% of all the occurrences of words, and it accounted for 15.1% of all the occurrences in the BBC news reports.
15 2. They both frame the crisis from a global perspective.
The terms “world” and “countries” were frequent in news reports from the CNN and the BBC. In addition, “WHO” was the third most frequent word in the CNN and the
BBC news reports. The usage of these words is coherent with “SARS” potential to spread in all over the world, and WHO was the most important international organization dealing with this crisis.
3. The position of Hong Kong was special in the two news reports.
Hong Kong was a prominent concept in the news texts of the CNN and the BBC, and the position of Hong Kong is special in both dendrograms. Hong Kong was not close to China mainland or Chinese or Taiwan, in either the CNN news reports or the BBC news reports. In fact, “Chinese” and “Taiwan” were in the same cluster, next to each other, whereas Hong Kong is not in the same cluster. In contrast, Hong Kong and WHO were in the same cluster in the news reports from the CNN and the BBC, which suggested Hong Kong’s special role in the CNN’s framing and the BBC’s framing.
There were also differences of framing between the news reports of the CNN and the
BBC, and they were different in following sections.
1. The CNN had a cluster about SARS’ economic impact, but the BBC did not.
From the texts of the CNN, one of the clusters focused on the economic impact of SARS including the keywords like “case”, “death”, “hit”, “countries”, “Yen”, “higher”,
“down”. It seemed that the outbreak and control of SARS influenced the fluctuation of the Yen and the economy of the whole Asia. In contrast, in the news texts of the BBC,
16 they did not have such a corresponding cluster. But it does not mean that the BBC did not report the economic impact of SARS, it can be identified form the frequency of words and the cluster analysis that the economic impact is not as prominently reported as it was in the CNN.
2. “Control” was a more noticeable topic in the CNN news reports than that in the
BBC news reports.
The CNN mentioned more about what was done in controlling the SARS outbreak.
“Control” was the 29th most frequent word in the news reports of the CNN. However, this word was not on the top 40 list of the BBC texts.
3. The texts of the BBC and the CNN had different treatment and role when reporting
Taiwan.
Taiwan was the 19th most frequent word in the news reports of the CNN, but it was out of the list of the 40 most frequent words in the BBC news reports.
4. The position of Toronto was different in the texts of the BBC and the CNN.
In the news reports of the BBC, the word “Toronto” “China’s” and “Chinese” were in the same cluster, whereas “Toronto” was with “story” in a separate cluster. This inferred that even though Toronto and China suffered heavily from SARS, they were in different positions in the framework of the CNN. In the framework of the BBC, these two were closer to each other when compared to the CNN’s framework (Tian & Stewart, 2006).
The second research was about the BBC’s reports of China’s issue. In order to analyze the amount of the BBC’s coverage about China, Zhu Weijing (2015) collected data from
17 the BBC official website (www.bbc.co.uk/news). She chose “China” and “Chinese” as the keywords, selected the coverage type as “text and image”, and ranked by “most relevant”, to search the BBC’s coverage texts and video sources of China (from 2008 to 2013). The statistics of the results are as following:
Table 3 Statistics for the amount of BBC’s coverage of China (2008-2013)
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
*Table 3 is from Zhu Weijing (2015). BBC’s coverage of China’s national image. p17.
Data of the above statistics are from www.bbc.co.uk/news.
According to her statistics from the data, she found that 2012 was the year that the BBC reported the most news of China (from 2008-2013). (Zhu Weijing, 2015, p18)
She also analyzed the content of the BBC’s coverage of China. She collected the coverage content from the BBC’s official website (www.bbc.co.uk/news). She first set the coverage type as “text and image”, and respectively searched the keywords “China’s politics”, “China’s economy”, “China’s culture”, “China’s military and diplomacy”,
18 and “China’s environment”. The results are as following.
Table 4 Statistics about themes of the BBC's coverage of China (2008-2013) 1000
800
600
400
200
0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Politics Economy Culture Military&Diplomacy Environment
*Table 4 is from Zhu Weijing (2015). BBC’s coverage of China’s national image. p18.
Data of the above statistics are from www.bbc.co.uk/news.
Based on analyzing the coverage content, she noticed that the BBC gave priority to report the Chinese culture and sports due to the Beijing Olympic Games. They focused on the period of preparation for the Beijing Olympic games, especially focused on reporting problems and resistance factors that occurred during the period. Such as the
Tibet independence event, Spielberg dismissed his art consultant, the Olympic torch relay was blocked, the Wenchuan earthquake and so forth.
In 2009, the coverage themes were consistent with the coverage themes in 2008, for instance the Beijing Olympic Games and Wenchuan earthquake in China. However, the difference is that when reporting the Beijing Olympic Games, the BBC’s coverage focused on sports itself, whereas it focused on reporting from a deeper perspective in
19 2009, such as the significance of the event. As for the report of Wenchuan earthquake,
BBC mainly focused on the time-efficient coverage of the occurrence and process of the disaster, whereas it focused on the coverage of the post-disaster reconstruction (Zhu
Weijing, 2015).
In 2012, the coverage focused on economic issues, mainly focusing on the European debt crisis and the currency debate among euro, US dollar and RMB. Food safety issue was another important theme. The melamine scandal spread further and was found in vegetables and seafood. Ecological issues were reported from a comprehensive perspective, including direct reports on China’s ecological issues, as well as indirect critical reports derived from other reports.
In her following research, she explored the BBC’s attitude of their coverage towards
China’s issues. From the perspective of coverage attitude, she concluded that the BBC’s coverage attitude toward China’s issue could be divided into three categories: positive1, neutral2 and negative3.
1 Positive refers to the reporter cover both positive and negative themes, but the overall tone of the report is positive, showing the author’s affirmation and praise for China. 2 Neutral refers that the author’s topics include both positive and negative themes, but the whole report uses objective and neutral language, and basically does not contain the author’s strong personal attitude. 3 Negative means the author selects the negative topic to cover, and strong emotional words and phrases are adopted in the text to criticize China. (Zhu Weijing, 2015)
20 Table 5 Statistics on BBC’s reporting attitude to China
Attitude Cases Rate
Positive reports 2684 12.3%
Neutral reports 13095 60.5%
Negative reports 5936 27.2%
*Table 5 is from Zhu Weijing. (2015). BBC’s coverage of China’s national image. p19.
Data of the above statistics are from www.bbc.co.uk/news.
According the statistics of Table 5, she found that the BBC’s reports on China’s issues were basically objective, and the attitude was different in various aspects.
When covering the Chinese politics, the main coverage attitude is negative. When reporting the Chinese economy, the main coverage attitude is objective but more positive. When covering the Chinese culture, the main coverage attitude is objective, however, when the coverage of culture is related to the issue of Chinese nations, the reporting attitude shows negative. In the military and diplomacy, the BBC showed an objective attitude as well as positive. As for the environment, most of the coverage were objective description to circumstance of the environment as well as the environmental pollution issue. (Zhu Weijing, 2005)
Simultaneously, she noted that the judgement of the BBC’s coverage attitude was subjective in certain degree. Therefore, it was hard to avoid bias. The majority of the coverage contained multiple attitudes instead of single one, and the statistics only selected the predominant attitude in the coverage.
21
Another analysis which is relevant to my thesis is that Zhu Weijing analyzed the source of the news material of the BBC. She used the sampling survey method to collect news samples from 1785 news articles of the BBC.
Table 6 Source statistics of sample reports
Source Times Cited Rate
People’s Daily 12 4.38%
Xinhua News Agency 106 38.69%
China Daily 53 19.34%
State Media 103 37.59%
*Table 6 is from Zhu Weijing (2015). BBC’s coverage of China’s national image. P20.
Data of the above statistics are from www.bbc.co.uk/news.
According to the statistics, she found that the news material of the BBC’s coverage about China could be divided into two categories: the material with definite source label and the material with unclear source label. They preferred to quote the Chinese official information as the main news material, including “People’s Daily”, “Xinhua News
Agency”, “China Daily”, “State Media”. Other materials came from the government leaders’ speech, opinions of the scholars, thoughts of the residents/citizens, online social website and forum. (Zhu Weijing, 2015)
2.2 People’s Daily
2.2.1 Introduction & Background
22 The People’s Daily is the largest newspaper group in China, and it is a kind of official media of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Fish, 2017). It publishes a circulation of 3 million in worldwide. It has editions in English, Spanish,
Japanese, French, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic, Tibetan, Kazakh, Uyghur, Zhuang,
Mongolian, and other minority languages in China. The newspaper provides direct information on the politics and viewpoints of the Chinese Communist Party
(Wikipedia). This newspaper was established in 1948, and it has been under direct control of the Party’s top leadership since it was founded. During the Cultural
Revolution, the People's Daily was one of the few sources of information from which either foreigners or Chinese could figure out what the Chinese government was doing or planning to do. During this period, an editorial in the People's Daily would be considered an authoritative statement of government policy, was studied and reproduced nationwide, and analyzed globally for insight into the Party's plans. The most important editorials were jointly published by People's Daily, People's Liberation
Army Daily and Red Flag, from 1967 to 1978, so called "Two newspapers and one journal", directly representing the highest voice of Chinese Communist Party.
(Wikipedia)
China’s news media play the role of a cooperating partner with the government for the aim of nation-building, therefore, the news was defined as information to serve the government (Lee, 1994). As Chang, Wang and Chen (1994) concluded that the China’s news media built a forced consensus as a basis for communist rule and legitimacy by controlling the flow of social knowledge to the people. In turn, China considers
23 independent media that emphasize skepticism more than partnership to be divisive by its very nature (Hachten, 1992).
Under such a media environment, the party newspaper - People’s Daily is not only a tool for promoting the party’s program, line, and policy, but also a medium for communicating the relationship between the party and the people. Marx and Engels often used “weapons” and “positions” to describe the party newspaper, affirming that it was the party’s political center and organizational center (Tao, 2014). Unlike commercial and entertaining media communication, party newspaper communication has its own unique rigid logic. Its value setting is continuous. Its topic selection content is logical. Its communication production is systematic. Consumption demand has changed its course, and the party newspaper cannot be profitable to transform into a pure business newspaper. (Tao, 2014)
2.2.2 Relevant research of the coverage of the People’s Daily
Paul Parsons and Xu Xiaoge (2001) conducted a research to compare the news framing of the Chinese Embassy Bombing by the People’s Daily and the New York Times. The event is that three satellite-guided missiles from an American B-2 bomber slammed into the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia during the night of May 7, 1999, killing three persons inside. NATO pounded the center of Belgrade that night in one of the fiercest barrages of an air war designed to force a settlement on a Serb government to take responsibility for ethnic-cleansing atrocities in Kosovo. More specifically, one of the missiles hit the top of the five-storey embassy and penetrated to the ground floor.
24 Another directly hit the fourth floor, and the third struck between the building and the ambassador’s residence. NATO and the United States conceded they struck the target on purpose, but said they misidentified the map site as headquarters for a Yugoslav arms agency (Parson & Xu, 2001).
They analyzed the news and commentary from the New York Times about the post- bombing event from May 8 to May 17, and also for the news and commentary from the
People’s Daily from May 9 to May 18, to compare the textual selections used to depict the events and to frame the news. Based on the analysis, they concluded the frames that the New York Times (American) and the People’s Daily (China) used in their own coverage and commentary as following.
Table 7 Chinese and American news frames of the Chinese Embassy Bombing event
Chinese news frames American news frames
Intentional bombing Accidental bombing
Genuine apology not given Apology not accepted
American disrespect Anti-American hysteria
Spontaneous protests Choreographed protests
U.S. media bombs Chinese propaganda
American hegemony Puppet imagery
In their conclusion, they said that the original reason of these contrary frames was the
U.S. military intervention in Bosnia. The China’s government regarded the American interventionism in worldwide as a threat to national sovereignty in a long time, whereas
25 the Americans framed their European involvement as a humanitarian effort (Parson &
Xu, 2001). Because of such a different perception to the issue, the China’s government viewed the missile attack as an intentional action. If the American missiles struck the
British Embassy instead, it would be considered as an accident by the U.S and the U.K because of the allied relationship. Therefore, the People’s Daily reflected that China’s government believed that U.S apologies were superficial and insincere. But the New
York Times regarded China as rejecting the apologies for anti-American hysteria
(Parson & Xu, 2001).
In another research, Chen Yang analyzed the reports about Lei Feng4 of People's Daily from 1963 to 2003, and found that the media framework in different periods changed with the change of the work center of the party and the state, but the purpose of propaganda remained the same. (Chen Yang, 2008)
2.3 Twitter and Weibo
As one of the most popular social media platforms, Twitter has attracted many fans in all around the world. Weibo, which is regarded as “Chinese Twitter”, is a very
4 Lei Feng was a member of the people's liberation army of China. He was born in 1940 and died in the line of duty in 1962 when he was only 22 years old. Lei Feng's greatest influence on later generations is the Lei Feng spirit named after his name, Lei Feng spirit mainly refers to the spirit of selfless dedication. The Lei Feng spirit has influenced generations of Chinese.
26 influential social media platform in China. In this research, all the BBC’s reports about
China’s pandemic will be selected from Twitter. More specifically, from the BBC’s
Twitter outlet---@BBCWorld. At the same time, the reports of People’s Daily will be selected from its Weibo outlet---@人民日报. In order to make this research more distinct, it is necessary to introduce the basic background of the two media. So, this part is a brief introduction about the two social media platforms.
2.3.1 Twitter
Twitter is a microblogging which is from the U.S, and it is a social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. The users can post, like, and repost tweets after they register the twitter account. But those unregistered users can only read the content. Users access Twitter through its website interface, through SMS (Short Message Service) or its mobile-device application software
(“app”). This social media app was launched in July 2006, and gained a worldwide popularity in a short time. There were more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day in 2012, and the service tackled an average of 1.6 billion search queries each day. In 2018, Twitter had more than 321 million monthly active users. (Wikipedia)
Twitter was a new thing for the network society. Some people called it microblogging, but it didn’t replace anything. Therefore, it is difficult to define what it was at the beginning. There is a path of discovery, and over time, you will discover what it is.
Twitter has actually changed what we initially thought of as status updates and social utility. In a way, what we've finally come to understand is that Twitter is actually more
27 of an information network than a social network. (Lapowsky Issie, 2013)
Basically, Twitter has four main functions, the first one is posting tweets. Users can post what you are thinking and what you are doing on Twitter. The second one is retweeting, and it means that users can repost the tweets from other users and even add some of your own thoughts and ideas. The third one is called “Direct message”, that is to say, users can directly send messages to any other personal twitter users. The fourth one is reply. Twitter users can leave comments on any other tweets they meet, and those users who send the tweets can also answer the comments in public or directly send message to the user who gives the comment.
2.3.2 Weibo
Weibo is usually known as Sina Weibo, since there were some other Weibo platforms in China several years ago (for example: Tencent Weibo and Sohu Weibo). After the competition between different platforms, most of other Weibo platforms were weeded out or claimed to shut it down and Sina Weibo was the one which survived in the competition and became the most successful Weibo platform during the past decade. It is a Chinese microblogging website. Sina Weibo was launched by Sina Corporation on
14 August 2009. It is one of the biggest social media platforms in China. There were more than 445 million monthly active users in 2018 (Wikkipedia). Some people may regard Sina Weibo as “Chinese Twitter”, but in addition to the Twitter-like functionality,
Weibo allows rich media uploads into user feeds, providing threaded comments, other applications, games and Weibo medals. (Lixuan Zhang & Lryna Pentina, 2012)
28 There are three fundamental characters of Weibo. The first one is that this social platform offers to make its users become audience or an author. As audience, the user can scan the information that you are interested in. As an author, you can post the content that you want to share with others on such a platform. The second point is that this platform is grassroots compared with those traditional media organizations. For
Weibo and other similar grassroots media, there is no barrier for users to join in them.
Any people who has the civil rights can participate in it. The third point is that, on
Weibo, the 140-character limit brings ordinary people and Shakespeare into the same line, which has led to an explosion of original content being produced. With the advent of Weibo, social media on the Internet has taken a big step forward, and public figures have begun to build their own online images. But on the other hand, such a limitation also causes a consequence that more reports and articles on Weibo and even online are no longer profound. The short information within 140 words forces readers to pay more attention to the headline and the keywords.
29 3. Theoretical framework
In this chapter, an overview of the theories, terms, and concepts which occurred, relevant to the research will be introduced, including framing theory, frame, episodic frame, thematic frame.
How to adopt the theories in the research method will also be explained.
3.1 Framing theory
The core aim of this research is to identify the frames in the news coverage from the
BBC and the People’s Daily. Therefore, it’s important to explain the framing theory including the concepts framing and frames.
3.1.1 Framing and frames
As Robert M. Entman, an associate professor of communication studies, journalism and political science, put forward that “Framing essentially involves selection and salience”
(Entman, 1993). As Entman described that
“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, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item describe.” (Entman, 1993).
From the perspective of Entman (1993), it is clear that frames have four functions:
30 define problems, diagnose causes, make moral judgments, and suggest remedies.
1. Defining problems refers to determining what a causal agent is doing with what
costs and benefits, and it’s generally measured by the common cultural values.
2. Diagnosing causes means identifying what’s the factor that causes the problem.
3. Making moral judgments means the evaluation of causal agents and their influence
given in the text.
4. Suggesting remedies represents the solution of the problems and the possible effects
published in the text from the perspective of the author/media.
At the same time, he notes that a single sentence in a text probably performs more than one of the four functions, although some sentences may perform none of the four functions.
In this research, the four functions can be seen as “four principles” to identify and examine the frames in the news articles.
3.1.2 How frames work
As it has been explained that “Framing essentially involves selection and salience”
(Entman, 1993). By analyzing the connotation of selection and salience, we can know the working principle of the frames.
The term salience can be defined: it means making a certain piece of information to be more noticeable and memorable to the readers. The increase of salience enhances the probability that receivers can receive the information, identify the meaning, process the information and store it in memory (Fiske & Taylor, 1991). Placement, repetition, or
31 familiar cultural symbols of the information can make it more salient in text.
Furthermore, if a concept is consistent with the existing schemata in the receiver’s belief system, the concept also can be highly salient, even if the concept is unillustrated in the text. Simultaneously, an idea emphasized in a text can be hard for the readers/receivers to find, interpret, and remember due to the existing schemata (Entman,
1993).
In order to explore the principle of selection in framing work, Kahneman and Tversky
(1984) held an experiment as following:
“Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assuming that the exact scientific estimates of the consequences of the programs are as follows: If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved. If Program
B is adopted, there is a one-third probability that 600 people will be saved and a two- third probability that no people will be saved. Which of two programs would you favor?
(1984, p.343) The result shows that 72% of the subjects prefer to choose Program A; and only 28% of the subjects prefer to choose Program B. In the next experiment, identical options to treating the same described situation were offered, but framed in terms of likely deaths rather than likely lives saved: “If Program C is adopted, 400 people will die. If Program D is adopted, there is a one-third probability that nobody will die and a two-thirds probability that 600 people will die” (Kahneman & Tversky,
1984, p.343). The percentages choosing the options were reversed by the framing.
32 Program C was chosen by 22 percent, though its twin Program A was selected by 72 percent; and Program D garnered 78 percent, while the identical Program B received only 28 percent.”
The experimental result shows that frames determine whether most of the people notice, understand, and remember a problem, and how they evaluate and choose to act on it. It also shows that frames select and call attention to specific aspects of the reality described, which logically means that frames can direct attention away from some other aspects. Most of the frames are defined by what they include as well as omit, and the omissions to the potential issues, definitions, explanations, and evaluations suggestions are probably the same important with guiding the readers/audience (Entman, 1993).
3.1.3 Episodic frames and thematic frames
Shanto Lyengar, a professor of political science, conducted a series of experiments and proved that in specific topics, the television news frames can influence the audience's attribution of the causes of social problems and the responsibility for solving them.
When the news report of the party presents the poverty issue in a personalized manner
(fragmentary frame), the audience blames the individual for the poverty; while the report presents poverty as a result of economic environment and social politics
(thematic framework and episodic frames), the audience believes that the responsibility lies largely in the society. (S. Lyengar, 1991)
Shanto Iyengar put forward a hypothesis in his book - Is Anyone Responsible? How
Television Frames Political Issues, and his hypothesis is that different ways of framing
33 news stories have different effects on how viewers attribute responsibility to the cause and solution to social problems (Diane Benjamin, 2007). In order to communicate social issues more specifically, he introduced some basic information of these typical media frames and their effects. With the research about the media news coverage, he found that most news coverage of public issues was what he named “episodic” (Ibid).
Episodic news frames are those that apply a telephoto lens to the coverage of the issue
– focusing on individual case studies and discrete events. In contrast, thematic news frames are those that apply a wide – angle lens to the coverage of the issue – focusing on trends over time, and highlighting contexts and environment. In short, the episodic frame focuses more on the details or micro-level of an issue, while the thematic frame focuses more on the entirety or the macro level. The importance of this distinction is that the two types of frames have different effects on how people view a certain issue and whether people will see the need for individual-level or broader social or institutional solutions to that issue. (Diane Benjamin, 2007)
Episodic frames and thematic frames can be compared in many aspects.
1. The episodic frames focus more on an individual story/issue, while the thematic
frames focus more on a social issue/phenomenon.
2. The episodic frames focus on a single event, while the thematic frames focus
on the macro-level tendency of an issue.
3. The episodic frames prefer to focus on the private realm (like an ordinary
individual’s daily life, his/her psychology, or his/her behaviors). The thematic
frames prefer to describe the public (like the surrounding atmosphere, or the
34 social institutions).
4. Episodic frames emphasize how to handle the private problem, while the
thematic frames emphasize how to fix the conditions that lead to the problem.
5. The episodic frame would regard the audience as consumers while the thematic
frames would be more likely to regard the audience as citizens.
6. The solution to problems within an episodic frame is better information, while
the thematic frame, asks for better policies. (Ibid)
3.2 Combination of theory and method
As the framing theory has described some characteristics about what the frame is and how the frame works. Therefore, during the process of identifying the frames in the coverage text, it is crucial to find out what the coverage emphasized in the news text and what the coverage omitted. The headline, hashtag, order of data, and adoption of punctuation in the coverage text are the references to judge which information is salient in the coverage.
All the frames are not predefined excluding the episodic frame and thematic frame, because the result of the research question 1.1 would be matched with the two frames.
According to the interpretation to episodic frame and thematic frame in the previous part, the general public or the authorities/government will be two critical indicators to identify which frame (episodic frame or thematic frame) will be adopted in the news coverage.
35 4. Methodology
In this chapter, the structure of research will be explained including research design, research method, research data and ethical issues. An overview of the research method procedures will also be introduced in this chapter.
4.1 Research design
The most important aim of this thesis is to explore the unknown frames within the news coverage from the BBC and the People’s Daily. Simultaneously, the inductive approach starts with loosely defined presuppositions of the frames, and the aim is to identify the possible frames in the text. In contrast, the deductive approach starts with stronger presuppositions. It starts with the predefined frames and conducts the research to examine if the frames exist in the news text (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). In order to make the research more objective, I will not predefine any frame, and the inductive approach is adopted in this thesis.
Based on the inductive approach, two qualitative methods are adopted with the theories in the previous chapter to answer the research questions.
For the research question 1 – which frames can be identified from the news articles of the BBC and the People’s Daily. I will use the framing analysis method to analyze the news articles.
In order to analyze the certain text of the news articles and to answer the research
36 questions1.1 – who is predominantly interviewed in the two media? Is it the member of the general public or the government/authorities?
4.2 Content analysis
Content analysis is one of the most important research techniques for social science. It aims to analyze the data in some certain text in view of the meanings. And the text includes communications, messages, and symbols which are different from observable events, properties, or the people that they inform of something other than themselves
(Krippendorff, 1989). In this research, the frames of the news articles are contained in the text, however, in order to find out the frames in the text, the content of the text needs to be analyzed in the context of the coverage. Therefore, the content analysis method is necessary and will be adopted to the identification of the frames. At the same time, the content analysis method is also adopted to seek for the target which is predominantly interviewed in the coverage. What is more, content analysis method will be adopted to answer the research question 1.1 and research question 1.2.
4.3 Sampling
Before collecting the sample news articles from the BBC and the People’s Daily, four facts should be explained as following:
1. According to the statement from the Chinese government, an unknown pneumonia
case which was later named as “COVID-19” by WHO occurred in Wuhan, China
（figure 1）.
37 Figure 1: A chronicle of COVID-19 in China
(Figure 1 is captured from the China’s state media – CCTV on Weibo)
2. According to the Chinese official statement (reported by the People’s Daily), up to
April 7, 24:00. there were 81,802 infected cases in China mainland including
67,803 cases (around 82.9%) from Hubei province (50,008 in Wuhan). Namely,
around 82.9% of the infected cases in China mainland were from Hubei province
including 50,008 cases (around 61.1%) in Wuhan – the capital city of Hubei
38 province. (Figure 1)
Figure 2: China’s latest COVID-19 cases statistics (up to April 7, 24:00)
(Figure 2 is from the People’s Daily media outlet on Weibo)
3. This kind of coronavirus is an undiscovered virus for human beings when it first
came to human beings’ sight. And the name COVID-19 was announced by the
World Health Organization (WHO) on February 11, 2020. When the name COVID-
19 was officially announced, the Wuhan city had been shut down for 20 days
(Figure 2).
39 Figure 3: Information about the name-“COVID-19”
（Figure 3 is quoted from
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cdcresponse/about-COVID-19.html ）
4. From January to April in 2020, there were some important time points for the
pandemic in Wuhan. For example, the city was shut down on January 23, 2020. It
means that all the transport entrances to Wuhan and exits to leaving Wuhan were
closed. And all the public transports in Wuhan city including buses, subways were
stopped. On February 14, the Wuhan local government stated that all the Wuhan
communities were under closed management, with only one exit for each
community, and security guards were on duty 24 hours a day at the exit. This policy
referred that the vehicles in Wuhan were stopped, and all the citizens could only
stay at home or in the communities excluding emergencies. On March 13, 2020, it
was for the first time that there was no new infected case that occurred in the Hubei
province including Wuhan city (Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6).
40 Figure 4: the first day of Wuhan’s closure
Figure 5: Communities in Wuhan are under strict management
Figure 6: Zero new suspected cases in Hubei province
41
(Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6 are quoted from the People’s Daily on Weibo https://weibo.com/rmrb?is_ori=1&is_forward=1&is_text=1&is_pic=1&is_video=1&i s_music=1&is_article=1&key_word=%E6%AD%A6%E6%B1%89%20%E5%B0%8
1%E9%97%AD&start_time=2020-02-04&end_time=2020-02-
20&is_search=1&is_searchadv=1#_0)
Based on the above facts/common sense, I started to design the method to collect news articles. First, according to the Chinese official data and statistic about the China’s pandemic situation, around 61.1% of the coronavirus cases in China were from Wuhan, which meant Wuhan was the pandemic center of China. Hence, “Wuhan” was one of the keywords when searching news from the People’s Daily. Simultaneously, the words
“COVID-19”, “coronavirus”, and “pandemic” were also prepared to be the keywords for searching news articles of the BBC and the People’s Daily. However, another fact was that the concept “COVID-19” was first announced by the World Health
42 Organization on February 11, 2020. But the research of my thesis started before
February 11, 2020. Therefore, I used “coronavirus” to replace the “COVID-19” as the keyword in this research during all the three periods when searching news articles. On the other hand, I also considered using the keyword “pandemic” instead of
“coronavirus”, but the fact was that at the beginning of January, 2020, nobody knew what the new virus was, the medics could only identify that this new virus belonged to the category of coronavirus and the medics even couldn’t judge whether the virus was infectious or not. It was after the Wuhan city was shut down that more nurses and doctors were infected, then the Chinese medics and medical scientists realized that it caused pandemic. But this research started before the pandemic became a common sense, therefore I used “coronavirus” in this thesis as a keyword instead of “pandemic” or “COVID-19”. In order to avoid the chaos of “COVID-19, pandemic and coronavirus”, I didn’t use the word “COVID-19” or “pandemic” in news searching, and used the keyword “coronavirus” to replace. When I searched news articles from the
People’s Daily, “Wuhan” and “coronavirus” were the keywords for the advanced search on Weibo.
When I searched news articles from the BBC on Twitter, I used “China” and
“coronavirus” as the keyword instead of “Wuhan” and “coronavirus”. Because as an influential international medium in worldwide, when reporting an important issue in
China, using the keyword “Wuhan” instead of “China” to search the news is parochial.
I also tried to use the keywords “Wuhan” and “coronavirus”, to search the news articles from @BBCWorld from January 1, 2020 to March 30, 2020, but the results showed
43 that there was only one news coverage from the BBC, and this was obviously not enough for the research.
Second, I divided the pandemic in Wuhan into three periods (initial period, middle period, and final period), because one of the aims in this thesis was to research if there was any change of the frames that the BBC and the People’s Daily used during the pandemic. After all, some different policies and decisions for the pandemic had been made by the Chinese central government during the periods. Therefore, dividing periods could be better than selecting one single long period especially when comparing the change of frames during the pandemic. I defined the three periods as January 20 to
January 31(initial period), February 10 to February 21(middle period), and March 1 to
March 30(final period).
The principles division of these three periods is complicated. First, an important time point is January 23, Wuhan city was shut down on that day, and before January 23, the
Chinese medical experts as well as the national government officials had cautiously checked the characteristics of this new virus and confirmed that this virus was infectious to human beings, and then the government decided to shut down Wuhan city.
It was a symbol to all the China and even to the world that this new virus was dangerous and it had caused a pandemic in Wuhan. Therefore, the first period could be the surrounding days, and I defined January 20 to January 31, 2020 as the initial period.
Another time point was February 14, because the communities in Wuhan city were under closed management from that day on. and many other Chinese cities followed
44 the same way. This policy indicated that a new period of anti-pandemic started. And I defined this period as the middle period, from February 10 to February 21, 2020.
The last time point was March 13. It was the first time to officially announce that news case came out in Hubei province including Wuhan city and only 11 new cases occurred in China mainland excluding Hubei province. This result indicated that the pandemic in Hubei province and in China would be ended. Therefore, I defined March 10 to
March 21 as the last period. However, when I searched news with the keywords on the
BBC, only 5 news articles came out and only 2 were relevant to the China’s pandemic issue. Hence, I have to enlarge the period to 30days to ensure that I could collect enough news articles. That’s why the initial period and the middle period are 12days respectively whereas the final period had 30 days.
Third, I collected 30 news articles from the BBC and 30 news articles from the People’s
Daily. According to my statistics of the number of news article from the BBC, there were around 69 news articles totally and some articles were not relevant to my thesis
(for example: on March 20, the BBC posted a news article about the global coronavirus deaths statistics which was not relevant to the research questions). After reading and filtrating these news, I found that there were around 35-40 articles which were relevant to this thesis. Therefore, I selected 30 articles from these news articles, 10 for each of the 3 periods. There were around 1225 news articles from the People’s Daily. In order to compare the news articles from the BBC and the People’s Daily, I also selected 30 news articles from the People’s Daily which is the same amount with the BBC’s news
45 articles.
Due to the huge amount of news articles from the People’s Daily, what often happened was that some relevant news articles were centralized in one day, I would select the most relevant and meaningful one in such a situation (from my perspective). For example, the coverage of policy, event, and individual interview are more relevant and meaningful than the coverage of pure official statistics about new infected/death cases in this research excluding the extraordinary statistics (like the first time with no new case came out in Wuhan/Hubei/China). At the same time, I tried to ensure that these news articles were allocated into each day of the periods, to make the research and analysis more representative than centralize the articles in only several days. (As for the news articles from the BBC, they had only 35-40 news reports which were relevant to this research, and some of the coverage focused on the important days, like the day when Wuhan was shut down. Therefore, it’s hard to ensure that these news articles can be divided into each and every day)
According to these steps and principles, 30 news articles are collected from the BBC and each period includes 10 articles. Also, 30 news articles are collected from the
People’s Daily and 10 articles in each period.
4.4 Data collection
According to the keywords (China, coronavirus), limit to the dates (initial period is from January 20 to January 31, 2020, middle period is from February 10 to February
21, 2020, and final period is from March 1 to March 30, 2020), there are totally around
46 69 news articles from the BBC and 1225 news articles from the People’s Daily after my counting. 30 news articles from the BBC and 30 from the People’s Daily which are relevant to the research questions are selected as following. (It is hard to present an exact number of the account since the news articles could be reedited or deleted, so the data can only represent the amount at that moment I was counting the articles).
10 news articles from the BBC (initial period)
Table 8: Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the initial period
Articles from Date Title
BBC (Period 1)
Article 1 January 21, 2020 New China virus: Warning against cover-
up as the number of cases jumps
Article 2 January 22, 2020 Chinese social media users worry over
virus
Article 3 January 23, 2020 Coronavirus doctor: “Everyone is stuck
here and can’t leave”
Article 4 January 23, 2020 Coronavirus: How do you quarantine a
city – and does it work?
Article 5 January 24, 2020 China coronavirus: the lessons learned
from the SARS outbreak
Article 6 January 24, 2020 China coronavirus: Death toll rises as
more cities restrict travel
47 Article 7 January 26, 2020 China coronavirus spread is accelerating,
Xi Jinping warns
Article 8 January 28, 2020 Coronavirus: Tales of solidarity from
China’s virus – hit Wuhan
Article 9 January 29, 2020 French Asians have taken to social media
to complain of a backlash against them in
response to the Chinese coronavirus
outbreak (this article has been deleted on
BBC News website)
Article 10 January 29, 2020 The “whole world needs to be on alert”to
fight the coronavirus (This article has
been deleted on BBC News website)
(All the ten news articles are quoted from www.bbc.com/news )
10 news articles from the BBC (middle period)
Table 9 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the middle period
Articles Date (period 2) Title from BBC
Article 11 February 10th Coronavirus claims 97 lives in one day – but number
of infections stabilize
48 Article 12 February 10th Coronavirus super-spreaders: why are they
important
Article 13 February 11th Coronavirus: China and the virus that threatens
everything
Article 14 February 14th Coronavirus: Wuhan diary: he got a hospital bed
three hours before he died
Article 15 February 16th Coronavirus: China enacts tighter restrictions in
Hubei
Article 16 February 16th Coronavirus: China announces drop in new cases for
third straight day
Article 17 February 17th Coronavirus: A Cameroon student on how he
recovered
Article 18 February 19th Coronavirus: China expels Wall Street Journal
journalists for article it deemed racist
Article 19 February 20th Sinophobia: How a virus reveals the many ways
China is feared
Article 20 February 21st Coronavirus: Pregnant nurse “propaganda” sparks
backlash
*All the ten news articles are quoted from www.bbc.com/news
10 news articles from the BBC (final period)
Table 10 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the BBC in the final period
49 Articles Date Title from BBC (period 3)
Article 21 March 3rd Coronavirus: China orders travelers quarantined amid
outbreak
Article 22 March 3rd Coronavirus: China’s tech fights back
Article 23 March 4th Coronavirus: Chinese app Wechat censored virus
content since 1 January
Article 24 March 8th Coronavirus: Ten dead in China quarantine hotel
collapse
Article 25 March 17th Trump angers Beijing with Chinese virus tweet
Article 26 March 18th China to restrict US journalists from the three major
newspapers
Article 27 March 20th Coronavirus: Countries reject Chinese-made
equipment
Article 28 March 21st Coronavirus: People in Beijing begin to head
outdoors
Article 29 March 24th Coronavirus: Wuhan to ease lockdown as world
battles pandemic
Article 30 March 27th Coronavirus travel: China bars foreign visitors as
imported cases rise
*All the ten news articles are quoted from www.bbc.com/news
50 The news articles from the People’s Daily are as following.
10 news articles from the People’s Daily (initial period)
Table 11 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the People’s Daily in the initial period
Articles from Date (period 1) Title
People’s
Daily
Article 1 January 20th China will cooperate with other countries for the
anti-pandemic process
Article 2 January 21st The first day of Wuhan’s closure Five new
infected cases in Beijing
Article 3 January 22nd A female doctor in Wuhan: a letter to my
husband
Article 4 January 23rd The first day of Wuhan’s closure
Article 5 January 24th The first infected case in Shanghai was cured
Article 6 January 25th Emergency diffusion! Looking for the
passenger of train No. 4 on K1366 on the
January 18th
Article 7 January 28th 6000 medics in all the country went to support
Wuhan
Article 8 January 29th The “peak” will appear
Article 9 January 30th The couriers in Wuhan are stressful
51 Article 10 January 31st Wuhan Union Hospital has received medical
supplies
10 news articles from the People’s Daily (middle period)
Table 12 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the People’s Daily in the middle period
Articles from Date Title
People’s Daily (period 2)
Article 11 February First mass discharge from Wuchang cabin Hospital
11
Article 12 February First mass discharge from Wuchang cabin Hospital
12 Doctors and patients dance in a cabin hospital
Article 13 February Xiaogan, Huanggang and other places will take the
13 same measures as Wuhan
Article 14 February The head of the Center for Disease Control and
14 Prevention in Zhangjiajie city has been dismissed
Article 15 February Wuhan Huoshenshan Hospital serious water leakage
15 is fake news
Article 16 February The Wuhan government punished 13 people for
16 negligence in anti-pandemic
52 Article 17 February The medical team from Guangdong province
17 received 10,000 yuan as financial subsidy
Article 18 February Hubei province received a total of 11.543 billion
18 yuan from the public
Article 19 February A recovered nurse donated blood plasma
19
Article 20 February All these data represent the good news!
20
10 news articles from the People’s Daily (final period)
Table 13 Statistics of the 10 news articles from the People’s Daily in the final period
Articles from Date Title
People’s Daily (period 3)
Article 21 March 2 Hubei has three new confirmed cases in addition to
Wuhan
Article 22 March 3 Salute! This is the people’s army
Article 23 March 4 Nine touching news in the anti-pandemic process
Article 24 March 6 No infection has been reported among more than
40,000 Chinese medics that come to support Wuhan
53 Article 25 March 15 Wuhan Health Commission reminded citizens to stay
on high alert
Article 26 March 17 Clinical trials of the novel coronavirus vaccine have
been approved
Article 27 March 19 More than 110,000 non-coVID-19 patients have been
treated in Hubei
Article 28 March 20 Commercial outlets in Covid-19 free communities in
Wuhan are limited to open within a limited time
Article 29 March 25 Raytheon Hospital's first ward cleared
Article 30 March 30 Hubei province has had no new confirmed cases for a
second straight day
4.5 Ethical consideration
The aim of this research is to identify the frames of the coverage from the BBC and the
People’s Daily by analyzing the content of the coverage, and all the coverage texts are open to the public. All the data are legally collected from the media with source notes, therefore there is no copyright dispute for the data collection. Simultaneously, the source notes for the figures are attached. Therefore, there is no ethical issue in this research.
54 5. Result and analysis
First, in order to answer the research question 1.1, I read and analyzed the 30 news articles from the BBC and the People’s Daily to find out who is predominantly interviewed in the coverage. And the results are as following (the article number is consistent with the methodology chapter):
Table 14 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage
(initial period)
News articles from the BBC (initial Predominantly interviewed target period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 1 China’s top leaders (government)
Article 2 Chinese officials (government)
Article 3 A doctor in Wuhan (general public)
Article 4 Professor Adam from the Sydney
University (authority)
Article 5 No interview target, but the information
is from the China’s officials
(government)
Article 6 China’s National Health Commission
(government)
Article 7 Chinese government leader (government)
Article 8 Wuhan citizens (general public)
55 Article 9 French Asians (general public)
Article 10 World Health Organization (authority)
Table 15 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage
(middle period)
News articles from the BBC (middle Predominantly interviewed target period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 11 Chinese president Xi (government)
Article 12 Pandemic professors (authority)
Article 13 Doctor Li in Wuhan (general public)
Article 14 Two ordinary Wuhan citizens (general
public)
Article 15 Chinese authorities (authority)
Article 16 Chinese authorities (authority)
Article 17 A Cameroon student who is studying in
Wuhan (general public)
Article 18 Chinese Foreign Ministry (government)
Article 19 Chinese people in Berlin (general public)
Article 20 CCTV – the state media (authority)
56 Table 16 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the BBC’s coverage
(final period)
News articles from the BBC (final Predominantly interviewed target period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 21 Chinese authority (authority)
Article 22 Chinese authority (authority)
Article 23 Toronto-based research group Citizen
Lab (authority)
Article 24 Government of Fujian province
(government)
Article 25 The US president Donald Trump and the
Chinese government officials
(government)
Article 26 The Chinese Foreign Ministry
(government)
Article 27 Several European governments
(government)
Article 28 The BBC reporter Stephen McDonell
(general public)
Article 29 Chinese government and Wuhan local
government (government)
57 Article 30 Chinese government (government)
The results of the People’s Daily coverage as following:
Table 17 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily
coverage (initial period)
News articles from the People’s Daily Predominantly interviewed target
(initial period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 1 Chinese Foreign Ministry (government)
Article 2 Beijing Health Organization
(government)
Article 3 A female doctor in Wuhan (general
public)
Article 4 Wuhan local government (government)
Article 5 Shanghai Health Organization
(government)
Article 6 Changzhi Health Organization
(government)
Article 7 Chinese government (government)
Article 8 The chief scientist of epidemiology of
Chinese CDC (authority)
Article 9 the National Health Organization
58 (government)
Article 10 Wuhan Union Hospital (authority)
Table 18 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily
coverage (middle period)
News articles from the People’s Daily Predominantly interviewed target
(middle period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 11 Wuchang cabin Hospital (authority)
Article 12 No interview target, but the information
is from a netizen who was working in one
of a Wuhan cabin hospitals (general
public)
Article 13 Leading Group for Epidemic Prevention
of the Central Committee (government)
Article 14 Hunan Provincial Commission for
Discipline Inspection (government)
Article 15 Wuhan Urban Construction Bureau
(government)
Article 16 No interview target, but the information
is from the China’s officials
(government)
59 Article 17 Guangdong Provincial Department of
Civil Affairs (government)
Article 18 The Xinhua News Agency (authority)
Article 19 A nurse from People’s Hospital of Wuhan
University (general public)
Article 20 No interview target, but the information
is from the Chinese officials
(government)
Table 19 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target of the People’s Daily
coverage (final period)
News articles from the People’s Daily Predominantly interviewed target
(final period) (general public/authority & government)
Article 21 Hubei Provincial Health Commission
(government)
Article 22 No interview target, but the information
is from the Chinese officials
(government)
Article 23 No interview target, but the information
is from the Wuhan cabin hospitals
60 (authority)
Article 24 Deputy Secretary-general of the State
Council – Mr. Ding (government)
Article 25 Zheng Yun, the deputy director of Wuhan
Commission (government)
Article 26 Ms. Chen in Institute of Military
Medicine, Academy of Military Sciences
(authority)
Article 27 Mr. Tu, the Deputy director of the Hubei
Provincial Health Commission
(government)
Article 28 Wuhan COVID-19 Epidemic Prevention
and Control Headquarters (government)
Article 29 A leader in Raytheon Hospital (authority)
Article 30 Hubei Provincial Health Commission
(government)
According to the summary of the BBC’s coverage from Table 14 to Table 16, it shows that during the initial period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 3 news articles (article 3, article 8 and article 9). The authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 7 news articles (article 1, article 2, article 4, article 5, article 6, article 7, article 10). In the
61 middle period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 4 news articles (article 13, article 14, article 17 and article 19), whereas the authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed in 6 news articles
(article 11, article 12, article 15, article 16, article 18 and article 20). In the final period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly in 1 news article (article 28) while the authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 9 news articles (article 21, article 22, article 23, article 24, article 25, article 26, article
27, article 29 and article 30).
Simultaneously, according to the summary of the coverage of the People’s Daily from
Table 17 to Table 19, the result shows that during the initial period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 1 news article (article 3), whereas the authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 9 articles (article 1, article 2, article 4, article 5, article 6, article 7, article 8, article 9 and article 10). In the middle period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 2 news articles (article 12 and article 19), while the authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 8 news articles (article 11, article 13, article 14, article 15, article 16, article 17, article 18 and article 20). In the final period, the general public was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in 0 news articles, which means the authority/government was regarded as the predominantly interviewed target in all the 10 news articles.
Hence, it is clear that in all the three periods, 8 of the 30 news articles from the BBC
62 selected the general public as their mainly interview target, and the other 22 of the 30 news articles selected the authority/government as their mainly interview target.
However, for the news articles of the People’s Daily, only 3 news articles gave the priority to the general public when conducting coverage, whereas the left 27 of the 30 news articles mainly focused on the authority/government for collecting information.
Table 20 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target (BBC)
BBC news General public Authority/government
Initial period 3 7
Middle period 4 6
Final period 1 9
Total 8/30 22/30
percentage 26.66% 73.33%
Table 21 Statistics of the predominantly interviewed target (People’s Daily)
People’s Daily news General public Authority/government
Initial period 1 9
Middle period 2 8
Final period 0 10
Total 3/30 27/30
percentage 10% 90%
63 For the research question 1.1 - Who are predominantly interviewed in BBC and the People’s Daily? Are they members of the general public or representatives of governments/authorities?
The analysis and tables of statistics indicate that for the BBC (73.33%) and the People’s
Daily (90%), the authority or government are predominantly interviewed in the coverage during the three periods. Namely, for the BBC and the People’s Daily, the main information source is the government or authoritative person/institution.
Simultaneously, as it has been discussed in the theoretical framework chapter that the
“general public” and “authority/government” are two critical indicators to identify which frame (episodic frame or thematic frame) has been used. The tables of the result show that the BBC and the People’s Daily gave priority to the thematic frame instead of the episodic frame when they covered the news about the China’s pandemic during the three periods. However, the results indicate that although the two media used more thematic frames in their news coverage, the BBC (26.66%) adopted more episodic frames than the People’s Daily (10%).
Based on this group of data, the coverage from the BBC is more objective than the coverage from the People’s Daily about the China’s pandemic during the periods, because the BBC has a better distribution to the information sources than the People’s
Daily.
For the research question 1 - Which frames can be identified in the news-reporting of the BBC and the People’s Daily?
64 Excluding the episodic frame and the thematic frame, there are still some other frames can be identified according to logically analyzing the news content of the BBC and the
People’s Daily.
Analysis to the BBC’s coverage
In the 10 news articles of the BBC in the initial period, critical frame can be identified in 4 news articles and skeptical frame can be identified in 1 news article.
Table 22 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (initial period)
BBC’s Critical Skeptical Evidence (salient information) quoted from the coverage frame frame original text
(initial period)
Article 2 YES 1. “China's tightly-controlled Weibo platform”
(January 2. “Some made comments suggesting that local governments were withholding 22) information about potential cases. But social media users are well-aware within the country that even mentioning the word "government" can make posts more likely to be censored.”
Article 4 YES 1. “Across the country, millions of people are (January heading home to see loved ones. But in China's seventh biggest city - home of the 23) coronavirus - most platforms are deserted. As of 10:00 on Thursday (02:00 GMT), buses, trains, subways and ferries were
65 stopped from leaving the city. Flights were also suspended. Roads are not officially closed, but roadblocks have been reported, and residents have been told not to leave. So the question is - can you quarantine an entire city? And if you can - does it work?”
2. Gauden Galea, the World Health Organization's representative in China, puts it more bluntly.
“To my knowledge, trying to contain a city of 11 million people is new to science," he told the Associated Press. "We cannot at this stage say it will or it will not work.”
3. And - even if it proves possible to shut the stable door on Wuhan - the horse may already have bolted.
Article 5 YES Title “China coronavirus: the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak”. (January 1. Lesson one: Work with other countries
24) 2. Lesson two: Don't cover it up 3. Lesson three: Improve medical response
Article 6 YES “Wuhan - home to around 11 million people - is (January now rapidly building a new 1,000-bed hospital to deal with the increasing number of victims. 24) The project would be "built fast [and] not cost
much.”
66 Article 8 YES 1. "We will get through this. Wuhan jiayou (January (keep up), the whole country is supporting you," said one comment on Weibo. 28) 2. “More than one hundred people - mostly in Wuhan - have now died as a result of the outbreak which has spread across China and internationally.
3. Though there is plenty of fear and anger at the authorities on social media in China, state media has been highlighting kind acts and stories of residents banding together in Wuhan.”
Analysis of the “evidence (salient information)”
Article 2: The author of this article emphasized the words “China’s tightly-controlled”,
“censored” in the news report, however, these sort of words, or behaviors are not acknowledged by the Chinese officials, although they probably existed” (the original text described it as “more likely to be censored” instead of “must be censored”).
Therefore, in the text, the “China’s tightly controlled” and “censored”, which can be seen as the negative judgement from the reporter of the BBC, can be identified as a critical frame that being adopted in the coverage.
Article 4: The author of this article described the background of the pandemic situation
67 in Wuhan, and gave his/her doubt. It’s clear that the doubt is the salient information which can influence the audiences’ attention in the coverage. Although the he/she quoted some comments from other authorities in the following text, he/she gave his/her own judgement again – “even if it proves possible to shut the stable door on Wuhan - the horse may already have bolted”.
In short, although many authorities stated that it was hard to judge whether the shutting of Wuhan was effective to control the spread of coronavirus, the author of this article kept implying and emphasizing his/her own consideration to the audience. Therefore, the skeptical frame can be identified from this text.
Article 5: The headline and subtitles of this news article clearly represent the author’s judgement to the actions that conducted by the current Chinese government as well as the previous Chinese government in 2003. For the previous Chinese government in
2003, the judgement is negative, whereas for the current Chinese government, the judgement is more positive. All these negative and positive judgements are included into the critical frame defined in this text. Therefore, the critical frame is clearly adopted in this coverage.
Article 6: The author of this news article introduced the basic information about the
Wuhan Huoshenshan hospital which was built and finished in 10 days and offered over
1000 beds to patients as the author described in the text, but what he/she implied in the coverage is that “The project would be built fast [and] not cost much” as the original
68 text described.
There also many reports about the Huoshenshan hospital from the People’s Daily during the periods, and most of the coverage focused on reporting that “the project is efficient (built in only 10 days)”, but the articles usually omitted to report the information about the quality and the cost. (as the framing theory introduced that
“omittance is also important for framing”)
Therefore, according to analyzing the text of the article 6 by combining other relevant reports, the critical frame is clear in this coverage, although the propaganda frame is also clear in the relevant coverage of the People’s Daily.
Article 8: “Though there is plenty of fear and anger at the authorities on social media in China, state media has been highlighting kind acts and stories of residents banding together in Wuhan.”
As this paragraph clearly shows that the author of this article is unsatisfied with what the Chinese state media highlight during the periods, so critical frame can be identified by the critical comment.
In the 10 news articles of the BBC in the middle period, critical frame can be identified in 5 articles of them.
Table 23 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (middle period)
BBC’s coverage Critical Evidence (salient information) quoted from the original
69 (middle period) frame text
Article 11 YES Chinese president Xi Jinping visited a local hospital in Beijing that offers treatment to coronavirus patients. He also took part in a video chat with medical workers in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Images from state media show Mr Xi wearing a mask
and having his temperature checked. The president has
largely stayed away from public view during the
outbreak.
Article 13 YES That tiny piece of genetic material, measured in ten
thousandths of a millimeter, has set in train a
humanitarian and economic catastrophe counted in
more than 1,000 Chinese lives and tens of billions of
Chinese yuan. It has closed off whole cities, placing an
estimated 70 million residents in effective quarantine,
shutting down transport links and restricting their
ability to leave their homes. And it has exposed the
limits of a political system for which social control is
the highest value, breaching the rigid layers of
censorship with a tsunami of grief and rage. The risk
for the ruling elite is obvious. It can be seen in their
response, ordering into action the military, the media
70 and every level of government from the very top to the
lowliest village committee.
Article 16 YES Chinese state media published a speech from earlier
this month in which Chinese President Xi Jinping said
he said he had given instructions on 7 January on
containing the outbreak.
At the time, local officials in the city of Wuhan were
downplaying the severity of the epidemic.
This would suggest senior leaders were aware of the
potential dangers of the virus before the information
was made public.
With the government facing criticism for its handling
of the outbreak, analysts suggest the disclosure is an
attempt to show the party leadership acted decisively
from the start.
Article 19 YES In Asia, the shadow of China has loomed large for
centuries in the form of regional disputes, historic
grievances, and waves of Chinese immigration. More
recently, China's claims to the South China Sea aroused
anger and suspicion.
71 Article 20 YES A video featuring a pregnant nurse treating patients in a hospital in the virus epicenter of Wuhan has sparked a backlash across China.
The video by state media outlet CCTV was meant to portray nine-month pregnant Zhao Yu as a hero.
But instead social media users criticized the hospital for allowing a heavily pregnant nurse to work in a highly contagious environment.
One user said the woman was being used as a
"propaganda tool".
Analysis of the “evidence (salient information)”
Article 11: In the selected paragraph (evidence), under the context, what the author of this article emphasized is in the last sentence. He/she said that the President Xi stayed away from the public view during the outbreak, a statement that implied and highlighted to the audience an image of President Xi as an irresponsible leader.
Simultaneously, the author of this article omitted the information about what the
President Xi did when the pandemic was outbreak in the coverage. As it had been discussed in framing theory, the omitting also strengthened the information what the author wanted to highlight. Therefore, the critical framework can be identified in this coverage.
72 Article 13: In this coverage, the author of this article gave a straightforward critical comment to the Chinese political system, as he described “it has exposed the limits of a political system for which social control is the highest value, breaching the rigid layers of censorship with a tsunami of grief and rage. The risk for the ruling elite is obvious”.
The author of this article gave some critical comments with his/her evidence in the text.
However, he/she didn’t mention the fact that the pandemic in China was quickly under control after a series of social control policies published by the Chinese government, whereas the U.S, which has a different political system from China, has had over 6 million infected people since the pandemic burst out in worldwide for around 8 months.
The author of this news article also omitted information in order to highlight the critical comment. Therefore, the critical frame can be identified in this news article.
Article 16: The author of this news article criticized that the local officials in the city of
Wuhan were downplaying the severity of the epidemic. This critical comment is objective with evidence. However, the author omitted the fact that the COVID-19 was an unknown virus for all the human beings at the beginning of the pandemic, and there was no relevant research about COVID-19, even the name “COVID-19” was not existed before the outbreak. Therefore, it was possible to cause social disruption if any uncertain information spread out in Wuhan city. After all, there were over 13 million residents in Wuhan city at that moment. This could also be the reason which caused the
Wuhan local officials to downplay the information.
Although the author of this news article criticized Wuhan local officials downplaying
73 the severity of the epidemic, he/she didn’t try to analyze why they did so. The omitting also strengthened his/her critical comments towards the audience. Therefore, the critical frame can be identified in this text.
Article 19: The author of this news article highlighted the Chinese negative influence on other countries, but ignored China’s contributions to the world. The critical frame can be identified in this text as well.
Article 20: “A video from the Chinese state media CCTV, featuring a pregnant nurse treating patients in a hospital in the virus epicenter of Wuhan has sparked a backlash across China”. The author of this news article kept emphasizing that “many netizens accused the broadcaster of using her story as a form of propaganda”. But the author omitted the fact that there were also many netizens who praised the nurse and regarded her as a hero. Therefore, the critical frame is clear and can be identified.
In the 10 news articles of the BBC in the final period, critical frame can be identified in 4 of them and the skeptical frame can be identified in 1 of them.
Table 24 Other frames in the news coverage of the BBC (final period)
BBC’s Critical Skeptical Evidence (salient information) quoted from the coverage frame frame original text
(final
74 period)
Article YES YES President Xi Jinping has called on the country's tech sector to help battle the epidemic. 22 Healthcare tech is also being used to identify coronavirus symptoms, find new treatments and monitor the spread of the disease, which has so far infected more than 90,000 people worldwide.
But is it up to the job?
“In the battle against Covid-19, emerging technologies have stood out by making immense contributions in an unexpected, creative and amazingly responsive way,” said Lu Chuanying, a senior official at Shanghai-based Global Cyberspace Governance.
They have helped "arrest or contain the spread of the deadly virus, thus becoming one of the most reliable and trustworthy means of combating Covid-19," he wrote in an article for state-run China Daily newspaper.
But is all this just for show?
“The state media apparatus, even under normal circumstances, takes every opportunity to send a message about China’s technological sophistication, even if a story has little substance to it,” notes Elliott Zaagman, who covers China’s technology industry and co-hosts the China Tech- Investor podcast.
75 “I suspect that most of the stories we see about disinfecting robots, drones, etc, are mostly just performative gimmicks. However, tech's 'less- sexy' role in controlling this outbreak should not be dismissed,” he told the BBC.
“If there’s one lesson that Chinese authorities are learning here, it’s where the ‘weak spots’ are in their surveillance apparatus,” notes Mr Zaagman.
“Privacy was already becoming a thing of the past in China. An outbreak like this will only expedite that process”
Article YES It was only on 20 January that Chinese president 23 Xi Jinping publicly addressed the issue of the virus, saying it had to be "resolutely contained".
It's not clear if the social media platforms blocked these keyword combinations based on government directives - or if it was done of its own accord.
However, the report suggests that it could be the result of companies "over-censoring in order to avoid official reprimands".
Authorities have confirmed more than 92,000 cases of the virus worldwide - of which more than 80,000 are in China.
"It's appalling to see the wide range of terms, even including some non-sensitive terms, [being] censored," Patrick Poon, a researcher at Amnesty International told the BBC.
76 "It shows how obsessed and concerned the Chinese government is [in] trying to curb any discussion... that falls outside the official narrative.
"It's totally about social control and deprives citizens of their rights to freedom of information and expression."
Censorship is pervasive in China. Sites such as Google and Wikipedia are banned - and it's not uncommon for social media companies in China to remove content that is perceived to be threatening to social stability or the ruling Communist Party.
Article YES The Chinese embassy in Spain tweeted that the company behind the kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy 27 Biotechnology, did not have an official license from Chinese medical authorities to sell its products. It clarified that separate material donated by the Chinese government and technology and retail group Alibaba did not include products from Shenzhen Bioeasy. Turkey also announced that it had found some testing kits ordered from Chinese companies were not sufficiently accurate, although it said that some 350,000 of the tests worked well. Allegations of defective equipment come after critics warned China could be using the coronavirus outbreak to further its influence. In a blog post last week, EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell warned that there is “a geo-political
77 component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity’.” “China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the US, it is a responsible and reliable partner,” he wrote. "Armed with facts, we need to defend Europe against its detractors."
Article YES China considers itself to be – very nearly – a “post 29 corona” country.
In the last week, we've heard Wuhan medics warning the UK and others that they need to do more to protect frontline health workers, citing the mistakes they made early on when some treated patients without wearing proper protective clothing. But there's also been reporting in state media of the reported death toll in Italy surpassing that in China. This has been combined with some commentary from prominent media figures that has appeared distasteful, almost triumphalist.
Analysis of the “evidence (salient information)”
Article 22 It’s clear that after the Chinese President Xi called on the country's tech sector to help battle the epidemic, what the author wanted to emphasize was whether the robots were competent with the jobs, because in the first paragraph, he/she ended with a question “But is it up to the job”. In the following text, the author quoted a remark from Lu Chuangying, the senior official at Shanghai-based Global Cyberspace
78 Governance. As Lu praised the adoption of robots against pandemic in China, the author presented the second doubt. And he/she quoted some comments from Elliott
Zaagman, who covered China’s technology industry and co-hosts the China Tech-
Investor podcast. All the comments about the robot application in Chinese anti- pandemic process from the Zaagman were ironic and dismissive.
In the coverage, doubt and scorn are salient. Therefore, the skeptical frame and critical frame can be identified through the coverage text.
Article 23 When the author of this article described the Internet censorship system in
China, he/she quoted several critical comments from other people to emphasize his/her opinion that “Censorship is pervasive in China. Sites such as Google and Wikipedia are banned - and it's not uncommon for social media companies in China to remove content that is perceived to be threatening to social stability or the ruling Communist Party”.
And this opinion implied the audience that the Chinese government controlled the
Internet censorship to serve the Communist Party. An obvious critical frame can be identified from the text.
Article 27 The author of this news article wanted to cover the news that some European countries bought some testing kits from China, but some of them met the problem that some testing kits were not up to standard after using them. In order to make it clear, the author found that “the Chinese embassy in Spain tweeted that the company behind the
79 kits, Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology, did not have an official license from Chinese medical authorities to sell its products”. Although the Chinese officials claimed that
“separate material donated by the Chinese government and technology and retail group
Alibaba did not include products from Shenzhen Bioeasy.”, which implied that the quality problem of the testing kits was irrelevant to the Chinese government, the author of this coverage still quoted critical assumptions, like “China could be using the coronavirus outbreak to further its influence” and “a geo-political component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity”. It’s clear that the author intended to highlight the negative image of China towards the audience. The critical frame can be identified from the text.
Article 29: The author of this news article introduced the Chinese government and medics wanted to share the experience of pandemic prevention with other countries, but what he highlighted in the text was that “there's also been reporting in state media of the reported death toll in Italy surpassing that in China. This has been combined with some commentary from prominent media figures that has appeared distasteful, almost triumphalist”.
It is obvious that the author of this news article was unsatisfied with the expression
“death toll in Italy surpassing that in China”. Therefore, he/she highlighted that “some commentary from prominent media figures that has appeared distasteful, almost triumphalist”. The critical frame is apparent.
80 After analyzing the contents of the 30 coverage, the conclusion indicates that episodic frame, thematic frame, critical frame and skeptical can be identified from the text and the statistics are as following:
Table 25 Statistics of all the frames identified from 30 coverage of the BBC
Frames/periods Episodic Thematic Critical frame skeptical of the BBC frame frame news
Initial period 3 7 4 1
Middle period 4 6 5 0
Final period 1 9 4 1
Total 8/30 22/30 13/30 2/30 percentage 26.66% 73.33% 43.33 6.67%
Analysis to the coverage of the People’s Daily (initial period)
In the 10 news articles of the People’s Daily in the initial period, propaganda frame can be identified in 2 news articles and positive frame can be identified in 1 news article.
Table 26 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (initial period)
News articles from Propaganda Positive Evidence (salient information) quoted the People’s Daily frame frame from the original text
(initial period)
81 Article 1 YES At the regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on January 20, a foreign reporter asked what measures the Chinese government has taken to deal with the pandemic. Geng Shuang, one of the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, responded: The Chinese government has been taking measures to actively deal with the epidemic, formulating strict prevention and control pans, and trying its best to rescue patients. With a responsible attitude, China promptly notified relevant national and regional organizations of the world health organization and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions of the epidemic information. We also shared the genetic sequence information of the new coronavirus with the WHO as soon as possible. The Chinese government attaches great importance to maintaining close cooperation with other countries through bilateral and multilateral channels, strengthening cooperation, and making every effort to respond. If there are suspected imported cases in other countries, we welcome the first and four cases to be notified to the Chinese government through official
82 channels to promote joint prevention and control. We will work with all the countries to respond to the epidemic and jointly maintain regional and global health security.
Article 3 YES On January 18, with the rapid development of the pandemic in Wuhan, Zhang Zhan, a female doctor in the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Wuhan University People’s Hospital, wrote a modern version of the “A Letter to Husband” – “I didn’t tell Mingchang about this. Personally, I don’t think I need to tell him. There are always battlefields everywhere.” When writing the application for working with the critical patients, Zhang Zhan requested her workmates not to tell her husband about her application. Her husband – Professor Li Mingchang, is another doctor who also worked in this hospital.
Article 7 YES Up to tonight (January 28, 2020), around 6,000 medical staff from all the country have gone to Hubei province and support the local hospitals. With one heart and one mind, we will definitely defeat the epidemic. For all the medics, please stay safe.
83
Analysis to the coverage of the People’s Daily (initial period)
Article 1: As the selected paragraphs indicate that the Chinese official speech is formal and friendly to other countries. The Chinese official spokesperson attempted to highlight China’s friendly, communicative and generous image. But the spokesperson omitted to talk about the shortage of government’s policies. Therefore, the propaganda frame can be identified from the text.
Article 3: According to the description of the People’s Daily, the doctor Zhang Zhan was portrayed and highlight as a brave, family-loving and dedicated doctor. All these characteristics agree with the Chinese social values. In the text, the description “writing the application for working with the critical patients” implies Zhang Zhan’s self- sacrifice spirit which is advocated in Chinese society. However, the coverage omitted to report how dangerous it was to take care of the critical patients. Therefore, the propaganda frame can be identified on this point.
Article 7: This news was a short statement which aimed to transmit the “positive energy” to the Hubei residents, and encouraged them to be brave and keep up. Simultaneously, the hard situation that the Hubei residents probably faced is omitted in the report and positive attitude stood out in the coverage highlights. The positive frame is obviously.
84 In the 10 news articles of the People’s Daily in the middle period, propaganda frame can be identified in 3 of them and the positive frame can be identified in 2 of them.
Table 27 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (middle period)
News articles from Propaganda Positive Evidence (salient information) the People’s Daily frame frame quoted from the original text
(middle period)
Article 11 YES A group of mildly ill patients were discharged collectively after two nucleic acid tests were negative. This is the first large-scale collective discharge from a cabin hospital in Wuhan.
Article 12 YES A video posted by a netizen (@Luo Taotao) showing the doctors dancing with patients in a cabin hospital became popular on social media. the video shows a doctor from Xinjiang who came to support Wuhan, from dancing alone to dancing with some other patients which coveyed optimism and cheerful power. A netizen said: This is cheerful, Wuhan citizens will not be defeated.
Article 14 YES After investigation, the Hunan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection notified Zhangjiajie City Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Chronic Non-communicable Disease
85 Prevention Section Chief Li Wenjie to leave his position without authorization, fled, and took his family to Thailand to escape the pandemic. Li Wenjie’s resignation and escape without authorization seriously violated political discipline and party’s discipline, so he was given a dismissal sanction, and other relevant issues are under further investigation.
Article 16 YES Both the anti-epidemic and the governance of officials need to be improved together. The virus is cunning beyond experience. We can only hope that scientific research can overcome difficulties; but officials’ dereliction of duty must be punished heavily, because this will inevitably cause man-made disasters. Officials at all levels hold power. Whether they are responsible or not is a matter of the lives of countless people. The fight against the epidemic is not over yet. Please be responsible for the people of the country.
Article 20 YES Several positive news of the anti- pandemic process. 1. Up to February 19, a total of 16,155 infected patients in all the country have been cured and discharged.
86 2. More than 1,000 people have been cured for 8 consecutive days. 3. The number of newly confirmed cases is 0 in 13 provinces and cities. 4. The number of new discharged patients exceeds the number of new confirmed cases for two consecutive days. 5. The number of cured and discharged patients in Hubei Province exceeded 10,000.
Analysis to the coverage of the People’s Daily (middle period)
Article 11: This news article presented a fact that a group of mildly ill patients were discharged collectively after two nucleic acid tests were negative. It seemed like a simple and objective description, but in fact, the policies of treating these patients were made by the government, and the cabin hospitals were also built and funded by the government. Therefore, when the patients were cured and discharged from the hospital, the success should be attributed to the government. And this is one of the reasons why the People’s Daily published such a coverage. Therefore, the propaganda frame can be identified from this perspective in text.
Article 12: The author of this news article kept highlighting that all the medics
87 attempted to cheer up the patients and encourage them to be positive when facing the coronavirus. Simultaneously, this video could also cheer up those netizens who had to stay at home for anti-pandemic. Optimistic attitude to the life was salient in this coverage, and the negative information including the number of death, the lack of resources was omitted. From this perspective, the positive frame can be identified.
Article 14: This coverage was an official statement about the punishment to a government official. Publishing such a statement of punishment could imply the audience that the government was strict in its management of officials and was also responsible for the people, thinking and handling problems from the people’s perspective.
Therefore, the propaganda frame can be identified from this point.
Article 16: The news presented that “officials’ dereliction of duty must be punished heavily, because this would inevitably cause man-made disasters” and “whether they are responsible or not is a matter of the lives of countless people.”, and it indicated the author intended to highlight the positive image of responsible, considering the interests of the people and serving the people. However, the author omitted to report the things that the government was not doing well.
Thereby, the propaganda frame can be identified from the text.
Article 20: This coverage aimed to communicate the positive news to cheer up the
88 people when facing the pandemic. The whole coverage was consisted by positive news.
Hence, the positive frame is obvious.
In the 10 news articles of the People’s Daily in the final period, propaganda frame can be identified in 1 article of them and the positive frame can be identified in 4 articles.
Table 28 Other frames in the news coverage of the People’s Daily (final period)
News articles Propaganda Positive Evidence (salient information) quoted from from the frame frame the original text
People’s Daily
(final period)
Article 22 YES YES More than 10,000 medical staff in the army have been put in front-line treatment. A total of more than 4,000 medics in nationwide rushed to help Wuhan. The helicopter dispatched 4 sorties of transport 6.5 tons of medical supplies.
Article 27 YES Up to March 19, the medical institutions under the Ministry and the Hubei province have all restored normal medical order, and ordinary hospitals can meet the normal medical needs of Wuhan citizens.
Article 29 YES On March 25, it’s the first time that a ward of Wuhan Leishenshan Hospital was cleared, and the last patient was transferred to other wards to continue treatment.
89 Article 30 YES During 0-24:00, March 19, 0 new confirmed cases in Hubei (0 in Wuhan), 703 news cured and discharged cases (624 in Wuhan), and 2 new deaths (2 in Wuhan).
Analysis to the coverage of the People’s Daily (final period)
Article 22: The news article presented the effort of the government for anti-epidemic, and all the numbers that the author used in the text indicated that the government was working hard to protect the lives of the people. The government hoped that people could notice the government’s efforts through the figures, so as to maintain confidence and optimism in the fight against the pandemic.
From this perspective, the propaganda frame and positive frame can be founded in the text.
Article 27: From the chosen paragraph of the coverage, the author of this news article emphasized that some hospitals in Wuhan had restored normal medical order, which implied the public that the achievement of anti-epidemic was obvious, and people did not need to worry about illness and the shortage of medical resources. But the existed problems and negative information about the pandemic were omitted.
Therefore, the positive frame can be identified.
Article 29: From this report, the author of this news article implied the information to
90 the public that there were less and less patients in the hospital, which also meant the achievement of anti-epidemic was remarkable. But the negative information about the existed patients including those critical patients was omitted by the author. Therefore, the positive frame is obvious.
Article 30: From the selected information of the text, the author listed out a series of data about the pandemic situation in Wuhan. According to analyzing the content, it can be found that the author would give priority to report the positive information (like 0 new case and 703 new cured cases), the negative information (like 2 new deaths) would be left behind the positive information. This phenomenon also existed in some other reports of the People’s Daily. The positive information was reported first and also highlighted by the way.
Hence, the positive frame is identified from this point.
Overall, all the frames identified from the text of the coverage of the People’s Daily can be concluded as following:
Table 29 Statistics of all the frames identified from 30 coverage of the BBC
Frames/periods Episodic Thematic Propaganda Positive frame of the People’s frame frame frame
Daily news
Initial period 1 9 2 1
91 Middle period 2 8 3 2
Final period 0 10 1 4
Total 3/30 27/30 6/30 7/30 percentage 10% 90% 20% 23.33%
For the research question 1 - Which frames can be identified in the news-reporting of the BBC and the People’s Daily?
Based on Table 25 and Table 29, the statistics of the results indicates that for the news coverage from the BBC in this research, episodic frames (26.66%), thematic frames
(73.33%), critical frames (43.33%) and skeptical frames (6.67%) can be identified by the analysis.
Simultaneously, episodic frames (10%), thematic frames (90%), propaganda frames
(20%) and positive frames (23.33%) can be identified from the coverage of People’s
Daily in this research.
For research question 1.1 - Who are predominantly interviewed in BBC and the
People’s Daily: Are they members of the general public or representatives of governments/authorities?
It has been discussed in previous part of the BBC and the People’s Daily. The authority and the government were predominantly interviewed. Whereas the BBC would interview the general public more than the People’s Daily.
92 For research question 1.2 - Do the frames used in the BBC and the People’s Daily vary during the different periods?
As the Table 25 shows that the identified frames in BBC News of the three periods is not obvious excluding the skeptical frame. The usage of skeptical frame (6.67%) is much less than other three frames (episodic frame, thematic frame and critical frame).
In the news of the middle period, the skeptical frame was even not found.
For the frames in the coverage of the People’s Daily, the Table 29 suggests that during the three periods, the episodic frames, propaganda frames and positives frames were used less than 30% in the 30 coverage, whereas the thematic frames were used 90% in the coverage. During the final period, the thematic frame could be identified even in all the 10 coverage.
93 6. Conclusion
6.1 Discussion
During all the process of identifying frames, “selection and salience” were the two core principles for me. As Robert M. Entman stated that “Framing essentially involves selection and salience” (Entman, 1993).
When analyzing the content of the BBC’ coverage, I found some of the reports would present several aspects of a fact, and highlighted the one which they want to. However, the People’s Daily would highlight what they wanted to, but omitted what they didn’t want to spread. Although the BBC also omitted some aspects of the fact, but this phenomenon happened less in the BBC than the People’s Daily.
As it has been discussed in the previous chapter that the BBC is highly praised in the worldwide mainstream media, for its insistence to truthful, objective and fair journalism
(Hermida, 2009). However, it seems that not all the BBC’s reports are truthful, objective and fair. For example, within the article 22 of the BBC’s coverage, the main topic is that “President Xi Jinping has called on the country's tech sector to help battle the epidemic”. The author of this coverage presented the topic and put forward his/her doubts. In the following text, what he quoted was critical and disparaging comments from other people, to imply the audience that the Chinese technology was like a joke.
However, in all the reports, he/she didn’t explain to the audience whether he/she had investigated the usage of the technologies in China’s hospitals. All the “facts” that he/she described were based on others’ comments instead of his/her own experience.
94 He/she only needed to show the evidence that he collected which could prove the
Chinese technologies were disappointing, then the coverage could be more convictive, but he/she didn’t.
Simultaneously, among the reports of the People’s Daily, the reports always presented the information which was consistent with the Chinese government benefits or the
Chinese social values, but omitted other information. Influenced by such a communicating way, many Chinese felt it hard to judge a problem independently and also inimical to different voices in society.
For example, in the article 11 of the People’s Daily (middle period), the news described that “A group of mildly ill patients were discharged collectively after two nucleic acid tests were negative. This is the first large-scale collective discharge from a cabin hospital in Wuhan”. It sounded like good news, but after analyzing the text, I found that the author didn’t mention how many patients were still in the cabin hospital and even how many patient had died in the hospital. As a Wuhan citizen, I think both the positive news and negative news are valuable and meaningful, since all these positive news and negative news can assist me to judge the pandemic situation independently.
For the frames that the BBC and the People’s Daily used in the text, I attempted to analyze why they preferred to use the frames identified in this thesis. And here is a possible reason.
The BBC, as an influential media platform in all the worldwide, is an important channel for the world to know about China. On the BBC’s official website, it even has a sector
95 called “BBC China”. The BBC is known as objective and truthful media, when they collect China’s information, they will not collect source from single, because the more sources they have, the more convictive the news is. That’s why the episodic frame can be identified in 26.66% of their reports. To be honest, this percentage could be higher since during the three periods, most of the citizens and ordinary people stayed at home as the government official policies requested, which made the BBC have less chances to interview the general public during the periods.
Furthermore, the ideology and culture are different between China and some Western countries, and the difference between the ideology and culture is easier to be exposed.
They would highlight the weakness of the culture or value when they find that it’s not consistent with their culture or value.
For example, in the article 13 of the BBC, as the author stated that “it has exposed the limits of a political system for which social control is the highest value, breaching the rigid layers of censorship with a tsunami of grief and rage. The risk for the ruling elite is obvious. It can be seen in their response, ordering into action the military, the media and every level of government from the very top to the lowliest village committee”.
The author criticized the Chinese political system by posting its weaknesses, because this political system was not consistent with their ideology and culture.
However, the existence of the weakness does not mean that the Chinese political system has no advantage, it’s just because the author omitted the advantage.
Due to the existence of such cultural differences, the critical frame and skeptical frame existed in their reports about China’s issues.
96
The People’s Daily, as the “mouth” of the Chinese Communist Party, on the one hand, the main function is to propagate for the party. On the other hand, as one of the most important official media, the responsibility is to maintain social stability. For example, during the three periods in the research, the People’s Daily updated the latest statistics about the number of new cases, cured cases and dead cases every day, and all the data were from the government which was convictive. If the People’s Daily quoted information from the general public which was less convictive than the official source, it probably caused a national panic. For a country of 1.4 billion people, any collective panic caused by rumors is fatal to the society. For example, from January to March of this year, I was in Wuhan. When the statement published that the Wuhan city would shut down, many people started to store foods including vegetables, fruits, meats, snacks and so forth. When all the 9 million Wuhan residents started to store foods, almost all the food were sold out immediately. Therefore, those who really needed foods probably would die for starving especially when the city was shut down, and everybody was afraid of meeting others due to the coronavirus. And for those people who stored excess foods, the foods would be wasted.
That’s one of the reason why 90% of the news articles from the BBC adopted the information from the authority or government instead of interviewing the general public.
Also, as I discussed above, maintaining the stability of the society could be regarded as the most important task for the government because there are so many people in China.
97 Only when the government’s credibility is established and the people are willing to trust the government, will the social turmoil be effectively reduced. If the government’s credibility is insufficient and various rumors are circulated in society, social turmoil will be inevitable.
That’s why the propaganda frame and positive frame were used in the reports from the
People’s Daily.
6.2 Self-reflection and limitation
In the research, there are some flaws and inevitable problems that existed.
First of all, when collecting the news coverage from the BBC and the People’s Daily, it’s not difficult to search for the news articles, however, after the articles were collected, and when I wanted to go back to review the original articles, some of them were deleted.
Fortunately, the original texts were copied at the first time I read, therefore it didn’t influence my research a lot, but it would be a problem for readers to check the original texts.
Second, according to the statistics of the data, the chart shows that the authority and the government are predominantly interviewed by the BBC and the People’s Daily.
However, there is a fact that during the three periods in China, especially in Wuhan, almost all the general public or the citizens were forbidden to hang out excluding emergency situations. There were few chances for the media to interview general public.
Therefore, this inevitable fact probably influences the research result.
Third, as a scientific research, I have to acknowledge that the subjective thoughts and
98 ideas exist in some parts of this thesis.
As one of the aim of this research is to identify the frames that existed in the coverage of the BBC and the People’s Daily. In the data analysis part, I need to select the evidence from the news article, and to prove that the frames I identify are valid.
However, the behavior of “selecting the evidence from the news article” itself is a sort of framing. Namely, when I attempt to prove the frames I identify are valid, the proving itself is a kind of framing behavior, as Robert M. Entman stated that “Framing essentially involves selection and salience” (Entman, 1993), the evidences are selected by myself and the content is what I want to highlight to the readers. This is what I cannot avoid during the research.
Fourth, as Robert M. Entman stated that if a concept is consistent with the existing schemata in the receiver’s belief system, the concept also can be highly salient, even if the concept is unillustrated in the text. Simultaneously, an idea emphasized in a text can be hard for the readers/receivers to find, interpret, and remember due to the existing schemata (Entman, 1993).
When I identify the frames of the coverages, my judgement is influenced by the existing schemata in my mind, the formation of the schemata is influenced by my experience, the background of my growth, my culture and so forth. And the existing schemata probably straightforwardly influences my judgement towards the frames. For example, in a certain text, what I think is salient in text is probably different with others.This is also a difficult problem to avoid。
Finally, as I have read many relevant theories which didn’t occur in this thesis, like
99 propaganda model theory especially the “five filters” of this theory. I found that advertisement is also important factor to influence the usage of the frames in news coverage. However, I didn’t find a proper method to connect the propaganda model theory with my thesis. Therefore, this theory is not adopted in the theoretical framework of this thesis. But I still think the advertisement would be an interesting factor for other researchers to explore, especially when they want to analyze the frames of the coverage from American media like CNN.
6.3 Further research
The research about framing analysis could be wider than the content of this thesis. More researches about the usages of frames in news coverage need to be explored by more other researchers. On the one hand, I am looking forward to finding that someone else also do the same research with me, as I mentioned the existing schemata can influence judgement of the researcher. If there is someone who has different background with me, he/she probably have more different findings than mine.
On the other hand, the concept “Western countries” as I used in previous text, can be more explored, snice even in the Western countries, their culture, ideology and political system also have difference with each other. The example that I selected is the BBC and the People’s Daily. although the BBC is famous and influential in worldwide, it still cannot represent all the Western countries. Therefore, comparing the frames between China’s media and American media or other countries’ media could also be a good choice.
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