FRAMING THE “SUPERPOWER SUMMIT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHINESE AND AMERICAN MEDIA COVERAGE OF CHINESE PRESIDENT XI’S U.S. VISIT IN 2015

By

SHIMENG DAI

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MASS COMMUNICATION

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2017

© 2017 Shimeng Dai

To my Dad

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I wish to thank my dad for his unconditional love and encouragement all the time. I could not make it without his support. I am deeply grateful to my thesis committee chair, Dr. Ostroff, for his patient guidance. I thank my committee members. Dr. Roberts and Dr. Wanta’s for their useful advice.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... 4

LIST OF TABLES ...... 7

ABSTRACT ...... 8

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 9

The Significance of the Research ...... 9 The Historical Background of Xi’s American Trip ...... 13

2 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 16

Taxonomies of State Visits ...... 16 Public Diplomacy ...... 17 Differences between Chinese and U.S. Media Systems ...... 22 Framing ...... 25 Framing and Agenda Setting ...... 30 The Changing Portrayal of China in American Media Coverage ...... 31 Research Questions and Hypothesis ...... 32

3 METHODOLOGY ...... 34

Newspaper Selection and Sampling ...... 34 Coding Design ...... 35 Textual Framing Schema ...... 35 Article type ...... 35 Article valence ...... 36 Article frames ...... 36 Visual Framing Schema ...... 38 Article placement ...... 38 Article length (word count)...... 38 Photos and graphs ...... 38 Xi’s appearance in a photo...... 39 Inter-Coder Reliability ...... 40

4 RESULTS ...... 43

Article Type ...... 43 Media Frames ...... 44 Dominant Frames ...... 44 Article Prominence ...... 45

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Article Valence ...... 46 Xi’s Portrayal in Photos ...... 47 Significant Differences ...... 48

5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 57

Discussion ...... 57 Positive coverage by China Daily ...... 57 High Article Prominence in China Daily ...... 59 Highly Adopted Frames: “Economy” and “Cyber Security” ...... 60 Similar Usage of Photos of Xi ...... 61 Frequent Use of the Family Figure Visual Trope in China Daily ...... 62 The Limitations of the Study ...... 63 Small Sample Size ...... 63 Inconsistency of Key Words ...... 63 Multiple Databases ...... 64 An English-Speaking Newspaper in a Non-English-Speaking Country ...... 64 Further Research ...... 64 Conclusions...... 65

APPENDIX

A CODING SHEET ...... 68

Section A: Textual Framing ...... 68 Section B: Visual Framing ...... 69 Article prominence ...... 69 Xi’s appearance in a photo ...... 70

B RESEARCH SAMPLE ...... 72

C EXAMPLES OF CYBERSECURITY AND ECONOMY FRAMES ...... 75

D SAMPLE PHOTOS OF FAMILY FIGURE ...... 79

LIST OF REFERENCES ...... 80

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 87

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LIST OF TABLES

Table page

1-1 The Chronology of President Xi’s American trip in 2015 ...... 12

3-1 Comparison of two newspapers ...... 41

3-2 Number of articles two newspapers ...... 42

3-3 Percentage agreement on important items in textual framing ...... 42

3-4 Percentage agreement on important items in the analysis of Xi’s photos ...... 42

4-1 Sampling of textual and visual framing in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 50

4-2 Article types in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 50

4-3 All media frames in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 51

4-4 Dominant media frames in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 52

4-5 Article prominence in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 53

4-6 Article valence in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 54

4-7 Articles with photos of Xi himself in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 54

4-8 Xi’s appearance in photos in the New York Times and China Daily ...... 55

4-9 Xi’s facial expression in photos from the New York Times and China Daily...... 56

4-10 Camera angle in photos of Xi from the New York Times and China Daily ...... 56

4-11 Xi’s interactions with people in photos from the New York Times and China Daily ...... 56

B-1 List of articles in the research sample ...... 72

C-1 Examples of articles with Cyber security frame in the New York Times ...... 75

C-2 Examples of articles with Cyber security frame in China Daily ...... 76

C-3 Examples of articles with Economy frame in the New York Times ...... 77

C-4 Examples of articles with Economy frame in China Daily ...... 78

D-1 Sample photos using visual trope of Family figure ...... 79

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Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Mass Communication

FRAMING THE “SUPERPOWER SUMMIT”: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CHINESE AND AMERICAN MEDIA COVERAGE OF CHINESE PRESIDENT XI’S U.S. VISIT IN 2015

By

Shimeng Dai

May 2017

Chair: David Ostroff Major: Mass Communication

Guided by framing theory, this study compared American and Chinese media coverage on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s American visit in 2015 in both visual and textual dimensions.

Newspapers chosen for the study were the New York Times and China Daily, both of which are highly influential and representative English newspapers in their own nations. For textual framing, each article was examined according to a list of article frames that were generated from a qualitative evaluation of media coverage. For visual framing, each article was measured by its article prominence and photo content.

The study found that (1) China Daily portrayed the visit in a more positive light than the

New York Times did; (2) China Daily tended to make articles regarding the visit more prominent than the New York Times; (3) “Economy” and “Cyber security” were two highly adopted article frames in both two newspapers; (4) China Daily and the New York Times had similar usage of photos of Xi; (5) China Daily frequently used photos of Xi as a Family figure with Xi appearing with his wife.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The Significance of the Research

As the People’s Republic of China’s economic and geopolitical power has increased, the relationship between China and the United States has become one of the most significant international relationships in the world (Friedberg, 2005; Hao, 2015), and especially important for the stability of the Asia-Pacific region (Pickrell, 2015; Sutter, Brown, Adamson, Mochizuki

& Ollapally, 2013). However, given the widely differing ideologies and interests of the two superpowers, the historical development of their relationship has sometimes been quite rocky

(Hao, 2015).

Head-of-state visits between two countries often exert considerable influence on diplomatic relations, and those between China and the US are no exception. These visits extend back to 1979, the year of the establishment of U.S.-China diplomatic ties, when Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of China, first visited America and ushered in a new era in the superpowers’ relationship ("Establishment," n.d.). Another important visit in Sino-American history was made by Chinese President Jang Zemin in 1997, whose visit marked the re- normalization of relations between the two countries after the Tiananmen Square Massacre

(Tiezzi, 2015; “U.S. relations,” n.d.).

Although the U.S.-China relationship has improved gradually in recent years and is no longer at its chilliest, conflicts still arise. In order to address some of these issues, President

Obama paid an official visit to China in 2014 to meet with the new president there, Xi Jinping

(Office of the Press Secretary, 2014). Later, reciprocating Obama’s visit, Xi made his first state trip to America, from September 22 to September 28, 2015, a visit expected to ameliorate antagonism between the two countries and establish a “new type of great power relations.”

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(During this span, Xi also attended the 70th United Nations General Assembly.) (Hao, 2015;

Perlez & Huang, 2015; Scobell & Shatz, 2015). The visit to America potentially has such great implications for future relations that some have seen it as equal in significance to Deng’s historic visit (Hao, 2015). The chronology of Xi’s visit is shown in Table 1-1.

Given the geopolitical stakes, it is unsurprising that his high-profile, seven-day visit was reported on extensively by both American and Chinese media. This paper will make a contrastive analysis of American and Chinese newspaper reports on Xi’s visit, using The New

York Times and China Daily, respectively, as representative publications, since both are extremely influential in their nations. The New York Times, in fact, is an authoritative newspaper not only in America but across the world (Kunad, 2013), while China Daily, the only national newspaper in China that is written in English, is the Chinese government’s mouthpiece and thus an important “Window to China” (“About China Daily,” n.d.).

Media systems, ideologies, and interests differ widely between America and China, leading their media to report the same issues quite differently (Yang, 2003). Chinese media are seen as one collective organism, operating under severe censorship and extensive government surveillance, their goal being to propagandize on behalf of the Chinese government. American media, on the other hand, are considered relatively objective and democratic (Hachten &

Scotton, 2015). However, since news does not simply reflect the whole truth without distortions

(Shoemaker & Reese, 1996), it is probably impossible to find a truly objective newspaper.

Regardless of national origins, news reporting is more or less influenced by different ideologies, political positions, etc. (Gerbner, 1964). Thus, the so-called superiority and freedom of American media, widely acknowledged though it is, cannot guarantee completely objective and just

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reporting of the news. Thus, this cross-national comparative study will weigh the pros and cons of each nation’s reporting, as seen in their coverage of Xi’s historic trip to the US.

To achieve that objective, this paper will utilize Erving Goffman’s (1974) concept of framing analysis, which provides an approach to analyzing and interpreting the tone and structure of a media report. A news report’s framing unavoidably manifests “the national context in which news is produced” as well as “the foreign policies of countries concerned” (McQuail,

2010, p. 381). In the domain of political communication, frames are a useful and important concept for discerning the political dynamics behind news reports (Entman, 1993). This comparative study will adopt framing theory to contrast the reporting on Xi Jinping’s visit in The

New York Times with the articles in China Daily in order to reveal differences not only between these two newspapers but also between the national political climates that shape the news.

The significance of this research is fourfold. First, Xi’s inaugural state visit to America happened recently enough that very few studies have been done on media coverage of this historic event. Second, previous framing studies have concentrated more on dramatic political events, such as wars and protests, than on diplomatic issues, such as a president’s visit. This study attempts to demonstrate that media coverage of foreign affairs is just as essential in revealing nations’ ideologies, and thus to increase researchers’ attention to foreign affairs in the future. Third, contrasting the news reports from two countries will help to demonstrate the utility of a comparative approach in disclosing the concealed ideologies and values of media coverage, hopefully contributing to future comparative studies of media discourse on political issues.

Fourth, in the field of political communication, frames may be used to highlight some facts while concealing others (Entman, 1993), so an examination of the differences between American and

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Chinese news reporting will help to establish a more holistic, and hopefully truer, account of

Xi’s visit.

Table 1-1. The Chronology of President Xi’s American trip in 2015 Date Location Event Source Sept. 22 Seattle Xi arrived at Paine Field Airport The Seattle Times. (The first of Seattle at 9:30am. Retrieved from day of http://www.seattletimes.c Xi’s trip) Xi attended an evening banquet om/business/chinas- held by the American president-xi-arriving- government at the Westin Seattle this-morning/ Hotel, during which he aired his opinion on some controversial issues between America and China.

Sept. 23 Seattle Xi participated in a roundtable The Seattle Times. conference held by the Paulson Retrieved from Institute, meeting with http://www.seattletimes.c outstanding CEOs from both om/business/xi-meets- America and China. with-top-business-ceos- from-two-nations/

Xi paid a visit to the Lincoln The Seattle Times. High School in Tacoma since he Retrieved from had previously visited it in 1993. http://www.seattletimes.c om/business/xi-meets- with-top-business-ceos- from-two-nations/

Xi and several heads of internet The Seattle Times. giants took part in an internet Retrieved from industry forum for discussion of http://www.seattletimes.c issues related to cybercrime. om/business/technology/ china-us-tech-leaders- show-divergent-views- on-internet-interests/

Sept. 24 Washington, Xi left Seattle and arrived in Reuters. Retrieved from D.C. Washington, DC, later having http://www.reuters.com/a dinner with President Obama at rticle/us-usa-china- Blair House. idUSKCN0RO2HQ2015 0924

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Table 1-1. Continued. Date Location Event Source Sept. 25 Washington, Xi had a joint press conference Newsweek. Retrieved DC with Obama at the White House. from The two heads of state http://www.newsweek.co exchanged opinions on m/chinese-president- contentious issues, such as obama-meet-cyber-376795 cybercrime and the climate problem.

Xi and his wife, Liyuan Peng, The New York Times. attended a state dinner with the Retrieved from Obamas. http://www.nytimes.com/2 015/09/26/world/asia/state -dinner-for-xi-jinping-has- high-tech-flavor.html

Sept. 26 New York Xi landed in New York to attend China Daily. Retrieved a roundtable meeting. from http://www.chinadaily.co m.cn/world/2015xivisitus/ 2015- 09/27/content_21993882.h tm

Sept. 27 New York Xi participated in the Global Newsweek. Retrieved Leaders’ conference on Gender from Equality and Women’s http://www.newsweek.co Empowerment. m/world-leaders-talk- women-rights-united- nations-377221

Sept. 28 New York Xi delivered a speech at the 70th The Nan Fang. Retrieved (The last anniversary of the United from day of Nations and later went back to https://thenanfang.com/chi Xi’s trip) China. na-politics-weekly- september-28-2015/

The Historical Background of Xi’s American Trip

Head-of-state visits are the highest level of diplomatic activities, in which one country’s leader takes an official trip to another country, generally for the purpose of promoting bilateral relations; such visits play a significant role in two countries’ future diplomatic relations

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(Manheim, 1994; Nitsch, 2007). These trips, which are usually heavily covered by media, can serve as important tools in enhancing a country’s positive image, ameliorating hostilities, and strengthening trust between countries (Wang & Chang, 2004).

In China, diplomatic activities are usually conducted in a top-down manner, making head-of-state visits all the more significant (Scobell & Shatz, 2015). China and the US have had established diplomatic ties for more than three decades, during which four top Chinese leaders have paid official visits to America. The Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping’s American trip in 1979 was the first time that the highest leader in China visited America, representing a milestone in the history of Sino-American relations ("Establishment," n.d.). (Although Deng didn’t have the title of president, he was, in fact, the highest policymaker of the Chinese government at the time [Tyler, 1997]). In this unprecedented foreign affair, China and America reached a consensus on the Taiwan issue and, to some extent, on cross-national cooperation

("Establishment," n.d.). Later, in 1985, the Chinese President Li Xiannian met the American

President Reagan to exchange opinions on Taiwan, the Soviet Union, and a nuclear cooperation pact, which was the first time a Chinese president paid a state visit to the U.S. (Lasater, 1985;

Liu, 1985). However, the Sino-American relationship dramatically deteriorated after Li’s visit because of the notorious Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing, in which the Chinese government brutally quelled student-led protests in Tiananmen Square (“U.S. Relations,” n.d.), leading to a 12-year gap in official visits of Chinese presidents to America (Tiezzi, 2015) and to negative impacts on China’s international image (Wang & Chang, 2004). In 1997, however, the

Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited America, which was a sign of a rapprochement between the two countries (Tiezzi, 2015). Though Jiang’s visit did not receive as much positive coverage as Deng’s had (Wang & Chang, 2004), afterwards the frequency of head-of-state visits between

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China and America increased greatly. Jiang Zemin and his successor, Hu Jintao, each made two state visits to America during their tenures as president (Tiezzi, 2015).

The new president of the PRC, Xi Jinping, the son of a high-level official of the Chinese

Communist Party, is well known for implementing an anti-corruption campaign nationwide shortly after gaining office in 2012 (“Profile: Xi Jinping,” 2013). He centralized his power more efficiently than the two previous presidents and was considered as powerful as the famous Deng

Xiaopeng (Buckley, 2016). Xi’s first state visit to the US was of great significance because, despite increasing Sino-American communication and cooperation in recent years, there are still some contentious issues between the two countries, including the South China Sea and cybercrime, which it was hoped Xi’s visit would help to resolve (Beech, 2015; Hao, 2015).

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Taking place at one of the highest levels of government-to-government communication, the first state visit to the US paid by Chinese President Xi Jinping attracted great attention from the public and was heavily covered by both Chinese and American media. This raises the question of why state visits are such important events. Previous scholars have provided explanations of how state visits have evolved in different eras, why they are significant for two countries’ relations, and what ultimate impact they may have on international relations.

Taxonomies of State Visits

As transportation technology has developed, making state visits easier and thus increasing their frequency worldwide, state visits have become one of the most traditional ways of meeting between heads of states (Goldstein, 2008).

Based on the analysis of characteristics of different visits, Goldstein (2008) concluded that there were seven types of state visits: (a) the catalytic visit, (b) the counter-productive visit,

(c) the alliance-building visit, (d) the trade sweetener, (e) status, acceptance, and reconciliation visits, (f) the cover visit, and (g) the theoretic visit (Goldstein, 2008).

Both the catalytic visit, where the visit of a foreign leader catalyzes internal conflict in the host country, and the counter-productive state visit, which is made with the purpose of improving relations between the two countries but unfortunately has the opposite effect

(Goldstein, 2008), can be seen as visits with negative results. On the contrary, the alliance- building visit, the trade sweetener, the status, acceptance, and reconciliation visits, and the cover visit, which all build or strengthen new or pre-existing relationships between two countries

(Goldstein, 2008), can all be seen as visits with positive results. Lastly, the theocratic visit, which

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is concerned with religion (Goldstein, 2008), seldom happens in countries without a shared religious belief.

These types of visits are not mutually exclusive, and a state visit may simultaneously have characteristics of multiple types. For instance, Goldstein (2008) used American president

Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 as an example of both the alliance-building visit and the cover visit.

The typology of state visits summarized by Goldstein is highly useful in examining the properties or nature of Xi’s visit. Since Xi’s visit was aimed at building the relationship between the two superpowers and deepening economic cooperation (Hao, 2015; Perlez & Huang, 2015), his visit may be seen as both the alliance-building visit and the trade sweetener. This hypothesis will be evaluated by carefully scrutinizing relevant news reports from the two countries.

Public Diplomacy

Since a head-of-state visit is a public diplomacy event, it is necessary to review the scholarship of PD, distinguishing PD from other terms that may be easily confused with it such as traditional diplomacy, media diplomacy, and public relations. It is also important to delineate differences between PD in America and China.

Public diplomacy, a term first appearing in 1965 (Cull, 2008), is a relatively new academic area (Gilboa, 2008). Gilboa (2000) defined PD thusly: “where state and nonstate actors use the media and other channels of communication to influence public opinion in foreign societies” (p. 290). PD developed from traditional diplomacy, in which the official representatives of a nation played the most significant role in delivering news to the world and collecting information from other countries because communication systems were less fully developed (Gilboa, 2002; Neuman, 1996; Signitzer & Coombs, 1992). Unlike traditional diplomacy, public diplomacy is not confined to communication between high-level government

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officials, and whereas using communication instruments, such as press, TV, and the Internet, is not a prerequisite for traditional diplomacy, it is necessary for public diplomacy (Gilboa, 2000;

Gilboa, 2002). Here, another term, media diplomacy, needs to be clarified. Although media diplomacy also uses communication instruments, its subject and purpose are different from public diplomacy. Media diplomacy is used by government officials to solve problems, while public diplomacy is used by both governments and grassroots groups to affect “public opinion”

(Gilboa, 2000, p. 290).

Public relations is another term that needs to be differentiated from public diplomacy.

L'Etang (2009) said that public relations is “the occupation held responsible for the

‘management’ or improvement of organizational relationships and reputation” (p. 609). Signitzer and Coombs (1992) said that PR and PD resemble each other in many ways. By using similar instruments, they attempt to achieve similar goals, namely influencing public opinion and establishing favorable relationships with certain groups (Signitzer & Coombs, 1992). Thus, PD may be considered a governmental function of PR (Signitzer & Wamser, 2006). Due to the conceptual similarities between the two spheres, the exploration of PR scholarship can be very helpful for the study of PD.

Although PD as a field of academic inquiry does not have a long history, scholars have already made many and various contributions to its analysis. For instance, Cowan and Arsenault

(2008) stated that there are three layers of PD: monologue, dialogue, and collaboration. Each layer has its own strengths and weaknesses and so may be a helpful diplomatic instrument, if used properly. Monologue, the most basic layer, plays an essential role in PD but prevents the exchange of ideas, so the second level, dialogue, is also required. Since conversation works more efficiently than monologic communication while also helping to bridge cultural gaps and

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promote relations between nations, PD practitioners have appealed for a shift from one-way to two-way communication. The last layer, collaboration, can be seen as a more advanced level of two-way communication. Collaboration is built on the foundation of dialogue but extends beyond it, entailing not only conversation but cooperation (Cowan & Arsenault, 2008). Before

Xi started his trip, the visit could be considered a cross-national dialogue, fitting neatly into the second layer of PD. However, it was possible that the conversation between the two states would facilitate further cooperation and perhaps be upgraded to collaboration. Thus, this study will reflect on which layer of PD Xi’s visit may belong to.

Cull (2008) analyzed PD at a more fine-grained level and suggested PD falls into five categories: listening, advocacy, cultural diplomacy, exchange diplomacy, and international news broadcasting. Among these, advocacy was defined as “undertaking an international communication activity to actively promote a particular policy” (p. 32) and was characterized by its “short-term” time-frame, “outward flow of information,” and “proximity to government” (pp.

35-36). The purpose of Xi’s tour was to persuade America to establish a “new type of great power relations” with China (Hao, 2015), which conforms to the definition and characteristics of advocacy proposed by Cull. Cull (2008) also mentioned the process of PD can lead to either positive or negative effects, depending on how it is conducted, so, using Cull’s framework, this study will examine whether Xi’s visit should be considered successful “advocacy.”

Although the two studies mentioned above analyzed PD from different perspectives, both anticipated that the future of PD would be driven by the growth of new communication technologies. Indeed, PD has been extended from the real world to the virtual world created by digital technologies, such as the internet (Cowan & Arsenault, 2008; Cull, 2008). Cull (2008) further argued that the five types of PD manifest differently in the information era. For example,

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the traditional “exchange diplomacy” requires people physically moving from one nation to another in order to experience different cultures, but in the online world people can accomplish

“exchange” without changing locations. Likewise, the traditional “international broadcasting” replies on newsrooms to collect and choose news, but YouTube enables audiences to be “citizen journalists” (Cull, 2008).

In addition to defining and categorizing the concept of PD, scholars also studied PD from different historical and geopolitical perspectives, revealing that the trajectories of the Chinese and American PD revolutions diverge from each other. The PD history of the People’s Republic of China may be roughly divided into two periods of time: the time before Deng Xiaoping implemented the open-door policy in China, and the time after it. Before the economic reform, the Chinese Communist Party only focused on promoting international relations with socialist nations and some undeveloped countries in order to counter the Western capitalist bloc led by the

United States (Wang, 2008). However, from the end of the 1970s, the rise of China has been inseparably related to its collaborations with the global mainstream (d'Hooghe, 2007; Wang,

2008). The Chinese economic reform obtained great achievements but simultaneously caused panic among the international community, creating a need for skillful PD. Facing the “China threat theory,” the Chinese government created “the peaceful rise strategy” in which China would develop peacefully without intimidating other countries (Wang, 2008, p. 267).

Like Chinese PD, the development of American PD may also be divided into several important time periods, including the First World War period, the Second World War period, the

Cold War period, the post-Cold War period, and the post-9/11 period (Gilboa, 2000; Gregory,

2008; Wang, 2007). In each period, the American government took different diplomatic tacks and employed different major information agencies to deal with international relations. During

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the First and Second World Wars, two information agencies, the Committee on Public

Information and the Office of War Information, were established successively by the American government in order to gain support from its own population and the international community.

During the Cold War, an agency with similar functions was the United States Information

Agency (Wang, 2007). These governmental organs were used to affect public attitudes internationally and export “American-style democracy and freedom” to the world during wartime (Wang, 2007, p. 26). Along with these agencies, overseas broadcasting was also widely adopted as a propaganda instrument, as exemplified by VOA in the Second World War and

RFE/RL during the Cold War (Gregory, 2008). At first, the Smith-Mundt Act of the Cold War era prohibited American audiences from hearing these international propaganda broadcasts, though they later became available domestically as well as internationally due to the alteration of this act in the post-9/11 era (“US ends ban,” 2013).

In the post-Cold War period inaugurated by the dissolution of the Soviet Union, PD came to seem less important. Without the constant threat posed by the Soviet Union, American authorities did not take PD as seriously. International news broadcasting, which had been used to attack the communist bloc, now played a less essential role and received less financial support from the government, and the USIA, the most important information agency in the Cold War, was disbanded (Epstein, 2005; Lord, 1999). Later, though, the 9/11 attacks in New York proved to be another turning point for U.S. diplomacy, triggering a national discussion about whether

PD was receiving enough attention in America. In the following years, the American government again took up PD as an important tool, using it to influence Muslims and people from other countries to form more favorable opinions of America (Epstein, 2005).

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Although the histories of American and Chinese PD vary considerably, their future development will likely be affected by some similar trends, one of which is the growing importance of grassroots participation in PD. Another trend is the shift from one-way, or asymmetrical, communication to two-way, or symmetrical, communication. For instance, diplomacy in China was conventionally conducted by state actors, with non-state actors seldom having a chance to get involved (Wang, 2007). However, recently there has been more and more grassroots participation (for instance, by non-government organizations) in Chinese PD

(d'Hooghe, 2007). Likewise, social media, which offers a platform where state actors and non- state actors can exchange opinions, may lead to the transformation of American PD by making it more transparent (Gregory, 2011).

Differences between Chinese and U.S. Media Systems

The distinctions between American and Chinese news coverage may, to some degree, be attributed to their different media systems, so it is necessary to explore how and why they differ before this study can be undertaken.

The fundamental differences between the two countries’ media systems can be explained by who owns their media. The Chinese media industry is Communist Party-dominated, meaning that it is highly surveilled and controlled by the government and serves to promote the government’s ideological perspectives (Hachten & Scotton, 2015). On the other hand, the

American media industry is largely controlled by several media conglomerates, such as The Walt

Disney Company, Time Warner, and Viacom, rather than by the U.S. government, and thus is motivated by private interests rather than propagandizing for the government (Croteau &

Hoynes, 2013).

One of the most well-known and influential typologies of media systems, the Four

Theories of the Press, summarizes four types of media systems in the world: the authoritarian,

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the libertarian, the social responsibility, and the Soviet Communist (Siebert, Peterson, &

Schramm, 1956). This provides one useful framework for analyzing the characteristics of the

Chinese and American media systems. Historically, the United States first took the libertarian approach, which emphasizes the importance of unrestricted freedom, and later adopted the social responsibility model, in which newsrooms accept some obligations and regulation (Siebert,

Peterson, & Schramm, 1956). According to the First Amendment, the core of American media is freedom and deregulation, so the press, especially printed media, is almost free from the control of the U.S. government. There is no obvious legal requirement of accountability for the

American press. However, self-regulation of journalists spontaneously emerged in this environment of media freedom and was carried out through multiple mechanisms, including press councils, where citizens could judge and criticize the media, “the code of ethics” (p. 699), rules voluntarily followed by journalism practitioners, “media criticism” (p. 701), in which different press organizations evaluate each other, and the professionalized training of journalists, meant to improve the quality of journalism practitioners (Dennis, 1994). In contrast to this social responsibility model adopted by America, the media system in China is usually categorized as either the authoritarian model or the Soviet Communist model, in both of which the media is highly controlled by government authorities (Siebert, Peterson, & Schramm, 1956).

However, the Four Theories of the Press, developed in the 1950s, has been considered insufficient by many scholars to explain the changing media systems across the globe (Hallin &

Mancini, 2004; Ostini & Fung, 2002; Winfield & Peng, 2005). Meng and Rantanen (2015) argued that, even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the communist media models in the

Soviet Union and China differed because of their different national conditions, although Western scholars tended to study both of them using a single “communist” category. According to Ostini

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and Fung (2002), the dissolution of the Soviet Union changed not only the world order but also its media systems. After the Soviet Union ceased to exist, the very terminology of a “Soviet

Communist model” became obsolete (Ostini & Fung, 2002). These two scholars (2002) redefined the basic media models, concluding that China had an authoritarian system with conservative journalistic values, associated with “ideas of sovereignty, historical claim, and moral obligation” (p. 52), while the American media system is democratic-liberal, connected more to social obligation and individualism (pp. 52-53). Hallin and Mancini (2004) created a new classification of media systems in the West, suggesting that America belonged to the Liberal

Model, in which the media industry is highly market-oriented, but these scholars did not pay attention to media systems in Asian countries. Unlike the America’s media system, China’s is at an earlier stage of development. Winfield and Peng (2005) said that because the Chinese media system has been evolving from state-controlled to market-driven, as a result of the economic reform initiated by Deng Xiaoping at the end of the 1970s, its complicated media system is difficult to neatly categorize within any existing media model. The transformation of the Chinese media system was started mainly by government policies. The first important stage of this evolution took place from the end of the 1970s to the middle of the 1990s, during which the government pushed most newspaper organizations to become self-sufficient rather than relying on the financial support of the government, unleashing widespread commercialization. By the middle of the 1990s, more and more market-oriented newspapers, such as metro papers and evening papers, were springing up. However, increasing media marketization led the Communist

Party to fear losing control of the Chinese media industry. In order to prevent its regime from being undermined, the Party strengthened its control of the licensing system, which determined whether a news organization could be established legally (Zhao, 2000). As a result, the Chinese

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media system is now in a complicated and confusing situation, in which the two forces of Party control and commercialization compete with each other, creating an uneasy balance. Given its peculiarities, the Chinese media system needs to be studied carefully, on its own terms.

Framing

Although the two countries’ media systems vary considerably, they share one common characteristic: newsrooms in both America and China inevitably adopt discernible media frames while reporting the news (Yang, 2003), making possible the meaningful comparison of media coverage in each country of the same events.

Framing analysis, first proposed by the sociologist Erving Goffman (1974), offers a method for analyzing how the media structures or presents issues as mediated by frames, the

“principles of organization which govern events—at least social ones” (p. 10).

As framing theory has developed, scholars have refined the concept of framing from either a sociological or psychological perspective, though not always giving clear definitions of the theory’s features (Matthes & Kohring, 2008; Pan & Kosicki, 1993). Instead, definitions of framing proposed by different scholars complement each other, offering views of the theory in different dimensions. One definition of framing cited by many scholars was proposed by Entman

(1993):

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 described. (p. 52)

Entman’s definition reveals that frames are chosen or constructed for particular purposes by emphasizing the salience of certain media content, a definition that takes the perspective of news producers or journalists.

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However, framing is usually understood as having another aspect as well, one that privileges the readers’ or consumers’ point of view. For instance, Scheufele (1999) mentioned that frames have a macro level (the “media frames”) and a micro level (the “individual frames”).

The former refers to how the newsroom presents or constructs news, while the latter refers to individuals’ interpretation or understanding of media content (Scheufele, 1999). Media frames and individual frames may have some overlap, but they are not exactly the same (Scheufele,

2000).

Later, taking a more dynamic approach, Scheufele (2000) claimed that the process of framing has three stages: frame-building, frame-setting, and the consequences of framing on an individual level. Like the earlier concept of media frames, the first stage, frame-building, emphasizes how various factors affect newsrooms’ or journalists’ selection and production of news. Thus, in frame-building studies, news frames are treated as dependent variables. The second stage, frame-setting, focuses on how news frames influence the audience’s attitudes and behaviors. Thus, the news frames in frame-setting studies become independent variables. The last stage refers to how audiences’ interpretations of news media trigger changes in society, which is not directly related to media frames. Studies from this perspective treat individual frames as independent variables (Scheufele, 2000). Using similar divisions, Pan and Kosicki

(1993) wrote that journalists, news discourse, and audiences are three important actors in the process of framing, where journalists construct news content, which is then reconstructed by readers. In this contrastive study, however, only news frames will be examined for potential differences between the agendas of news producers in the two countries, while the framing effects on the audience will be left aside, since the two newspapers may have distinctly different

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groups of readers that would require study on their own terms and thus broaden this research impractically.

De Vreese (2005) further described news frames as falling into two groups with marked differences: “issue-specific news frames” and “generic news frames” (p. 55). Unlike generic news frames, which are more general, issue-specific news frames are issue-oriented and focus on specific events (de Vreese, 2005). Since Xi’s visit is a specific diplomatic event, this study will adopt an “issue-specific approach,” enabling researchers to investigate a limited subject thoroughly and deeply.

Scholars usually conduct content analysis of news frames by one of two approaches: the inductive approach and the deductive approach. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. In the inductive approach, frames are defined or identified by qualitative evaluation by researchers or coders, introducing an element of subjectivity, since the frames chosen by researchers may not match those of newsmakers. Researchers taking this approach may use methods that include the hermeneutic, linguistic, manual holistic, and computer-assisted. However, none of them is perfect, and the process of identifying frames is relatively mysterious, without any authoritative rules to guide it. The deductive approach seems more objective, given its reliance on pre-defined components or frames of news stories; however, pre-existing frames are not guaranteed to be appropriate for new studies (de Vreese, 2005; Matthes & Kohring, 2008). Based on the pros and cons of these two approaches, Matthes and Kohring (2008) proposed a more detailed method of identifying frames, cluster analysis, in which media frames are detected according to different frame components in an article rather than by studying an article as a whole. Their approach seems to provide a clearer and more exact way of detecting frames, but, when dealing with a huge research sample, identifying frames by combing each article for single elements seems

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impractical. In short, designing analyses of media framing is not an easy task. The methods used by past researchers need to be tailored to meet the requirements of new studies.

Next, it should be noted that the framing paradigm is not limited to the study of verbal content but extends to the analysis of visual images. Gitlin (1980) said that “media frames are persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which symbol-handlers routinely discourse, whether verbal or visual” (p. 7). This definition suggests visual framing should also be considered essential to framing research, and that it is similar in several ways to verbal framing. Like verbal content, visual images can also be analyzed or investigated in terms of their inherent frames (Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011), and images are also selected or chosen by news producers to present particular perspectives (Parry,

2010). However, there are also significant differences between textual framing and visual framing, which is markedly less investigated (Parry, 2010). Rodriguez and Dimitrova (2011) summarized three characteristics of images to distinguish them from verbal content: “the analogical quality,” the “indexicality,” and the absence of “an explicit prepositional syntax”

(Messaris & Abraham, 2001, p. 216). The analogical quality, one of the main characteristics of images, means that the understanding of images is less certain and more changeable than that of verbal content. Indexicality refers to images, especially photographs, more effectively guaranteeing the truth-value of news. The absence of an explicit prepositional syntax means that images, lacking sentence or grammar structures, are more straightforwardly perceived by audiences (Messaris & Abraham, 2001). These three characteristics of visual images necessarily make the study of visual framing different from that of verbal framing. Rodriguez and Dimitrova

(2011) further proposed four levels on which image framing should be analyzed: “denotative systems,” “stylistic-semiotic systems,” “connotative systems,” and “ideological presentations”

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(p. 48). The denotative system level involves studying images by simply portraying details presented in the images. The stylistic-semiotic system level is about examining the visual prominence of subjects by interpreting the composition of pictures. The connotative system level refers to finding the cultural or social connotations behind pictures by detecting certain symbols or elements in the pictures. The last level, that of ideological presentations, is based on the idea that the selection of photos may reflect the ideologies of newsmakers (Rodriguez & Dimitrova,

2011). These four layers of visual framing analyze images from both the external perspective, where framing is based on the simple description of images, and the internal perspective, where framing is based on the potential symbolic meanings of images. This multi-layered approach makes this framework very helpful for designing the visual framing index in this study.

Lastly, visual analysis is widely employed in the study of political communication. For example, Lee, Ryan, Wanta, and Chang (2004) found that the divergent politics and cultures of

Taiwan and America led their newspapers to visually depict their respective presidential candidates differently. Their study showed that the American candidates tended to be portrayed as more approachable, often surrounded by a group of followers to show his or her popularity, while Taiwanese newspapers were more likely to be depict their candidates as serious and authoritative figures, usually appearing alone. The authors suggested the differences could be partly explained by long-established Confucian values in Taiwanese society, leading to expectations of solemnity and power in the head of a group (Lee, Ryan, Wanta, & Chang, 2004).

The coding scheme of their study is highly useful for investigating how Xi is portrayed as a political figure in American and Chinese newspapers, since Taiwan and mainland China manifest cultural and political similarities (Chang & Chu, 2002). It is possible that the PRC, another country emphasizing Confucian values, portrays its leaders in a similar way.

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Framing and Agenda Setting

Framing and agenda setting are both important tools in studies of political communication (Scheufele, 2000). Research into agenda setting emerged earlier, and its forty- year history makes it better established, both theoretically and practically, than framing scholarship. However, in recent years, framing has drawn more attention in the field of communication, which Weaver (2007) suggested may be associated with the complexity and vagueness of framing, which more obviously requires further exploration.

Some scholars have considered framing and agenda setting to parallel each other in important ways (Ghanem, 1997; Maher, 2001; McCombs & Ghanem, 2001), while others have written that they are based on different hypotheses and should be studied as two independent disciplines (Maher, 2001; Scheufele, 2000; Weaver, 2007). Agenda setting theory has two levels.

The first level concerns media’s influence on what publics think about, emphasizing the salience of issues. The second level concerns media’s influence on how audiences think about particular things, which is considered to converge with framing theory, since both theories pay attention to the attributes of issues (McCombs, 2005; McCombs & Ghanem, 2001). Ghanem (1997) mentioned a conceptual interchangeability of framing and of second-level agenda setting, meaning that some dimensions of framing theory correspond with some included in definitions of agenda setting and thus can be used interchangeably between the two theories (McCombs &

Ghanem, 2001). What’s more, Scheufele and Tewksbury (2007) compared research into framing and agenda setting in terms of the construction, processing, and influences of news, and pointed out the conceptual overlaps between framing building and agenda building, and between framing setting and agenda setting. Maher (2001) argued that framing and agenda setting, though possessing conceptual similarities, have different research emphases and so are not likely to be

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combined into one theory, but that these two important political communication research tools can be combined in future studies so their strengths will complement each other.

The Changing Portrayal of China in American Media Coverage

Media frames are relatively subjective constructs and are usually affected by “ideology and prejudice” (Edelman, 1993, p. 232). Given the differing social and political contexts of

America and China, anti-Communism frames have long been used in American media discourse about news events concerning China (Akhavan-Majid & Ramaprasad, 1998; Stone & Xiao,

2007; Yang, 2003). What’s more, De Vreese and Boomgaarden (2003) pointed out the inherent valence of news frames, meaning that frames can depict events either positively or negatively. In coverage of an issue, even slight differences in wording can have very different effects (Levin,

Schneider, & Gaeth, 1998). The term “anti-Communism” itself can be seen as a negatively charged word. The following examples illustrate how valenced news frames and anti-

Communism frames were used by American media reporting of China-related news.

Akhavan-Majid and Ramaprasad’s study compared American and Chinese reporting on the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women, concluding that most American articles negatively portrayed China as an unjust and totalitarian Communist country that was unready to host such a conference. China was sharply criticized by American media for failing to resolve security and logistical problems during the conference and was characterized as infringing on human rights and having oppressive government surveillance (1998). Similarly, Stone and Xiao

(2007) explored differences in how American media depicted the Kwanju massacre in Korea and the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. Although the nature of these two massacres was basically the same—a country’s government violently suppressed its citizens’ demonstrations— the American media gave them distinctly different interpretations. The suppression by the

Korean government was positively portrayed as reasonable and understandable, while similar

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actions on the part of the Chinese government were negatively described as cruel and inhuman

(Stone & Xiao, 2007).

The intensity of anti-Communism media frames in American media has been bound up with the fluctuating state of Sino-American relations. Corresponding to a shift in American foreign policy, there was a gradual lessening of the anti-Communist ideology in the American press, as with the adjustment to The New York Times’ editorial guidelines in 1969, after which news relating to China was not simply depicted as evil but in a more neutral way that took the

Chinese government’s feelings into consideration (Yan, 1998). American media adopted a relatively friendly tone with regard to China during President Nixon’s state visit to China in 1972

(Stone & Xiao, 2007). While “Communist China” was a negatively connoted political shorthand frequently encountered in American media coverage, an examination of news discourse in The

New York Times and the Washington Post by Tsan-Kuo (1988) found that articles containing this phrase decreased from 54.8% in 1950 to 1.4% in 1984. Instead, names with more positive connotations, such as “the People’s Republic of China” or just “China” were used widely, indicating a transformation of American media’s attitude towards China (Tsan-Kuo, 1988). On the other hand, media outlets in the US employed a much more accusatory tone while reporting on the Tiananmen Square massacre and in its aftermath, when relations were chillier (Stone &

Xiao, 2007).

Research Questions and Hypothesis

Based on the literature review, this study proposes that the differences between American and Chinese media systems, anti-Communism frames and the changing image of China reflected in American media, and the propaganda function of Chinese media all had a discernible impact on the media framing in these two countries around Xi’s trip. American media’s anti-

Communism frames, in combination with the freedom of the press it enjoys, may have led it to

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report on Xi’s trip more critically. On the other hand, the government surveillance and control in the PRC may have led Chinese media to present Xi’s trip in a more positive light. Thus, this study attempts to answer the following questions and assumes the following hypothesis.

1. RQ1: How did China Daily differ from the New York Times in framing Xi’s visit textually and visually? 2. RQ2: What are the most frequently used media frames in China Daily and the New York Times, respectively? 3. RQ3: What are the most frequently adopted dominant frames in China Daily and the New York Times, respectively? 4. RQ4: Are there any significant differences in the prominence of articles relating to Xi in China Daily as opposed to those in the New York Times? 5. RQ5: Is there a significant difference in the number of photos of Xi in each? 6. RQ6: Are there any significant differences in the visual portrayals of Xi in China Daily as opposed to those in the New York Times? 7. H1: China Daily reported on Xi’s visit more positively than the New York Times.

Answering these questions and testing the hypothesis will help in understanding not only the differences in news discourses from the two countries around Xi’s trip but also differences in the ways the countries’ ideological perspectives influence the reporting of news generally. The next chapter will focus on the design of the content analysis research that will help to answer these questions.

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

Based on the preceding literature review, a content analysis study that combines qualitative and quantitative methods was conducted to explore whether the American press and

Chinese press reported on Xi’s trip from different perspectives. First, a qualitative assessment of news coverage was used to identify and elaborate a list of relevant media frames and to generate a codebook. After that, a quantitative approach was used in the coding and analysis of the data.

This chapter on the study’s methodology discusses the selection of the research sample as well as the coding design and the test of inter-coder reliability.

Newspaper Selection and Sampling

The newspapers chosen for this study were the New York Times and China Daily, both of which are highly influential in their own countries. Table 3-1 compares the most prominent features of the two newspapers.

News articles about Xi’s visit published from September 20 to September 30, 2015, by both China Daily and the New York Times were selected. These eleven days included the seven days of Xi’s visit, the two immediately before his visit, and the two immediately afterward. The two days before his visit were included in order to measure the two newspapers’ original attitudes toward the event, and the two days following the visit were important because the media presumably evaluated the achievements of Xi’s trip during that period.

For the New York Times, “Xi” was used as the keyword to find relevant articles. Overall,

41 articles that contained “Xi” were found via the ProQuest search engine, 31 of which were truly related to Xi’s American trip. These selected articles were from September 20 to September

29. No article about Xi was identified in the New York Times of September 30. All of the 31 articles were examined. For China Daily, articles will be searched for “Xi” and “America”

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together in order to exclude articles that relate only to Xi but not to his American visit. 171 articles were found through the search engine of China Daily’s official website (the ProQuest search engine cannot access China Daily). After carefully reading these articles, only 128 of them were directly associated with Xi’s visit. The other 43 articles were either indirectly concerned with this visit or were repetitions of existing articles (because, when an article takes up more than one page, the search results of China Daily’s official website show it once for each page it takes up). Since China Daily did not publish on Sunday, there were no articles from

September 20 and September 27. The other nine days of the study date range yielded 128 articles, out of which 32 articles (25%) were randomly chosen for the comparative study. Table

3-2 shows the sampling of the two newspapers in detail.

Coding Design

Guided by framing theory, the selected articles were mainly coded as regards two dimensions: textual framing and visual framing. For the textual framing analysis, the research samples of the New York Times and China Daily were obtained from ProQuest and China

Daily’s official website, respectively. For the visual framing analysis, microfilm versions of the

New York Times in the University of Florida library were examined, while PDF versions of

China Daily were studied on its official website. Appendix A shows the sample coding sheet.

Textual Framing Schema

The textual framing was based on three indexes: article type, article valence, and the dominant frame.

Article type

Articles were coded into three categories: news, features, and editorials.

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Article valence

De Vreese and Boomgaarden (2003) stated that some news frames are positively or negatively valenced but that others tend to be neutral. The inherent valence of news, which reveals a newspaper’s attitude toward specific issues, is helpful in investigating the differences between these American and Chinese newspapers’ opinions of Xi’s visit.

In this study, selected articles were coded into three tonal categories: positive, negative, and neutral. Tones of articles were used to examine two newspapers’ attitudes towards Xi’s state visit.

1. Articles that described or evaluated Xi’s trip optimistically, including thinking his trip would help improve the two countries’ subsequent diplomatic relations or resolve preexisting problems between the two countries, or depicting his trip as warmly welcomed, were categorized as possessing a positive tone. In addition, articles that portray Xi as an honored leader who received a warm welcome from America were also categorized as possessing a positive tone.

2. Articles that described or evaluated Xi’s trip critically or pessimistically, including thinking his trip would not significantly promote the two countries’ future relations nor reconcile disputes between the two countries, or criticizing the other country’s attitudes or actions on international issues, were categorized as possessing a negative tone.

3. Articles lacking any obvious positive or negative attitude and thus seeming relatively objective were categorized as possessing a neutral tone.

Article frames

Overall, 83 articles (31 are from the New York Times, 52 from China Daily) were randomly chosen for the initial identification of media frames. Nine media frames were found in this qualitative evaluation.

1. Culture frame: Articles remarking on the cultural similarities/differences or transformations/influences of America and China, or on cultural exchange or cooperation programs between the two countries, or analyzing Xi’s visit from a cultural perspective. For instance, an article that discusses an internal conflict of the Chinese between their increasingly favorable opinion toward American culture and their concern about American policies would have been classified in this frame.

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2. Military and security frame: Articles relating to anti-terrorism cooperation and military conflicts. For instance, news of Obama and Xi agreeing to contribute more resources to the peacekeeping missions of the United Nations would have been classified in this frame.

3. Human rights frame: Articles mentioning human rights such as gender equality and social democracy. For example, news of two Hong Kong protesters appealing for democracy during the period of Xi’s American trip would have been classified in this frame. Another example is Xi’s speech at a United Nations conference about the protection of women’s rights.

4. Technology frame: Articles concerned with the two countries’ technological development and cooperation. For example, an article about the second state dinner of the visit, in which Xi, Obama, and many heads of high-tech companies from both China and America attempted to deepen international cooperation on technology, would have been classified in this frame.

5. Cyber security frame: Articles regarding the discussion of cyber espionage/attack in the two countries. For example, an article on how America accused China of involvement in cybercrime would have been classified in this frame.

6. Economy frame: Articles relevant to economic growth, collaboration, and investment by America and China. For example, an article discussing Uber’s pursuit of meetings with Chinese leaders during Xi’s visit to America in order to increase Uber’s Chinese market share would have been classified in this frame.

7. State visit and international relations frames: Articles including a general summary of the background, process, or achievements of Xi’s visit, and how the visit affected international relations. For example, an article that introduces Xi’s background to help audiences understand the visit would have been classified in this frame. Another example would be an article about Xi’s self-evaluation of the achievements of his visit.

8. Environmental protection frame: Articles about discussions on preventing climate change and cooperation on eliminating the emission of greenhouse gases. For example, news of President Xi, leaders from other countries, and the U.S. Secretary of State talking together in New York about international cooperation on curbing climate change would have been classified in this frame.

9. Territorial sovereignty frame: Articles regarding territorial disputes, such as the South China Sea problem and the Taiwan issue. For example, an article about the involvement of the United States in the territorial disputes in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines would have been classified in this frame.

An article was first coded according to all the frames appearing in it, then coded by its most dominant frame. If an article could not be classified into any frame category, it was coded as “Other.” The intensity of each frame’s use was measured in order to examine how the New

York Times and China Daily differed in their focuses on issues.

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Visual Framing Schema

In this study, the visual prominence of an article was evaluated by how a newsroom placed the article on a particular page and how many images it used to accompany the article.

The visual notability of an article may be associated with how important and significant the newsmaker thinks the news is. A detailed explanation follows of how each article was measured by its article placement, photos and graphs, and length.

Article placement

How close an article is to the front of the newspaper, or to the front of its individual section within the newspaper, may reflect the importance a newsroom has assigned to the article.

However, since the number of pages published in each edition of China Daily may differ widely from that in editions of the New York Times, a simple comparison of articles’ page numbers may not have adequately reflected the importance of articles within the two newspapers. Therefore, article page was not coded by an article’s page number but by whether it was placed on the front page or not. Article placement on the page further measured whether an article was placed on the page’s upper half (above the fold) or lower half (below the fold). Because articles located above the fold tend to be more visible to audiences than those below the fold (Schramm & Ludwig,

1951), measuring article placement helps determine the importance of particular pieces of news from the perspectives of newsmakers.

Article length (word count).

An article’s length was measured by the total number of words it contains. Picture or graph captions were included in the word count.

Photos and graphs

An article was examined to see how many pictures or other visual elements accompanied the text. If an article had no photo, it was coded as “0.”

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Xi’s appearance in a photo.

Lee, Ryan, Wanta, and Chang’s coding scheme for presidential campaigns was adopted for analysis of photos containing Xi himself in the selected articles (2004). However, considering the differences between a presidential campaign and a state visit, a pretest of coding was carried out to test the workability of using their coding scheme on media coverage of Xi’s visit. Based on this pretest, the following four variables were adapted from their coding scheme.

The first variable, the nature of Xi’s appearance, was coded in one of seven ways: beloved leader, dynamic speaker, media star, glad-to-see-you, father figure, family figure, and other.

1. Beloved leader: A photo showing Xi being liked, respected, or honored by surrounding people. For example, a photo in which Xi is receiving a customized T-shirt as a welcome gift can be classified within this type.

2. Dynamic speaker: A photo showing Xi giving a speech or talking in public.

3. Media star: A photo showing Xi in the spotlight, surrounded by media practitioners. For example, a photo of a crowd of reporters waiting for Xi, who is disembarking from a plane, can be classified within this type.

4. Glad-to-see-you: A photo showing Xi using body language, for instance waving his hands, to greet people.

5. Father figure: A photo showing Xi interacting with a younger generation, displaying his paternal love.

6. Family figure: A photo showing Xi with his wife.

7. Other: A photo that cannot be classified within any of the types above.

The second variable, camera angle, has three types: low angle, high angle, and eye-level angle.

1. Low angle: the camera was positioned below Xi’s eye level to capture the photo, making the subject look large and authoritative (Moura, 2014). 2. High angle: the camera was positioned above Xi’s eye level to capture the photo, making the subject look submissive and vulnerable (Moura, 2014). 3. Eye-level angle: the camera was positioned at Xi’s eye level to capture the photo.

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The third variable, Xi’s facial expression, has four types.

1. Smiling: Xi is happy, cheerful, or pleased in the photo. 2. No facial expression: Xi does not have an obvious facial expression, making it hard to read his emotion. 3. Frowning: Xi looks at least a little unhappy, confused, or tired. 4. Other: The photo cannot be classified within any of the types above.

The fourth variable, interaction, has two types.

1. Alone: A photo showing Xi alone. 2. With a crowd: A photo showing Xi with other people.

These appearance frames were not mutually exclusive. A photo may, of course, be categorized in more than one way. For instance, when a photo showed Xi and his wife standing together and waving their hands at journalists, it could have been classified as both “family figure” and “glad-to-see-you.” During the coding process, photos were coded according to all of their characteristics.

Inter-Coder Reliability

The author and a student at UF performed the coding together. Before actually coding, the two were trained together to guarantee the coherence of coding judgments by establishing a clear comprehension of each indicator on the coding sheet. The author coded all of the 63 articles, while the second coder coded approximately 40% of the sample (25 articles). The calculation of the coders’ agreement on the presence of media frames in the articles was used to check the inter-coder reliability. According to the inter-coder reliability test, the percentage agreement on textual frames was 90%. Agreements on important items of textual framing are listed in Table 3-3. The percentage agreement on visual framing, including article prominence and Xi’s appearance, was 94.1%. Table 3-4 shows the agreements on each item of the analysis of

Xi’s photos.

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Table 3-1. Comparison of two newspapers Newspaper China Daily Source the New York Times Source Name Nation The People’s China Daily. The United States The New Republic of Retrieved from York Times China http://usa.chinadaily. Company. com.cn/2011- Retrieved Owner The Chinese 04/13/content_1231 The New York Times from Government 9449.htm Company http://investo rs.nytco.com /press/press- Headquarter Beijing New York releases/pres s-release- Total Approximatel 2,134,150 (Mon. to details/2014/ Circulation y 800,000 Fri.) The-New- (including 2,502,367 York-Times- digital and (Sun.) Marks- print) Solid- Print N/A 639,887 (Mon. to Circulation- Circulation Fri.) Gains/defaul 1,181,160 (Sun.) t.aspx

The New Type Mon.- Sat. Daily York State No Sunday Library. Retrieved from http://www.n ysl.nysed.go v/nysnp/nytl ucey.htm

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Table 3-2. Number of articles two newspapers Before (2 days) During (7 days) After (2 days) the New York Times 3 (9.7%) 22 (71.0%) 6 (19.4%) N=31

China Daily 1(3.1%) 23 (71.9%) 8 (25%) N=32

Table 3-3. Percentage agreement on important items in textual framing Article type Article tone Media frame Dominant frame

Percentage 92% 88% 84% 96% agreement

Table 3-4. Percentage agreement on important items in the analysis of Xi’s photos Xi’s appearance Camera angle Facial expression Interaction

Percentage 77.8% 88.9% 100% 100% agreement

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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS

In order to answer the research questions and to test the hypothesis posed in the literature review, this chapter shows the statistical results of the content analysis by analyzing data obtained from the research sample with SPSS. The findings about textual and visual framing in the sample reveal significant differences as well as similarities between coverage by the New

York Times and China Daily of Xi’s American journey.

Overall, 63 articles were examined, of which 31 articles were from the New York Times and 32 were from China Daily. The 31 articles were all of the articles about Xi’s visit in the New

York Times. Table B-1 in Appendix B shows the list of all articles in the research sample. The 32 articles represented 25% of the total population of relevant articles in China Daily. Together, these 63 articles constituted the sample that was measured for textual framing and article prominence. Since not every article had Xi’s photo, the sample used to analyze Xi’s photos was different from that used to measure textual framing and article prominence. A total of 30 articles with photos of Xi were collected from the 63 articles. If one article had more than one photo of

Xi, the largest photo would be used for coding. Thus, 30 photos were obtained, among which 13 photos were from the New York Times and 17 photos were from China Daily (Table 4-1).

Article Type

As Table 4-1 shows, news was the major article category for articles reporting on the state visit in both China Daily (news accounted for 68.8% of the total) and the New York Times

(news accounted for 54.8% of the total), though a slightly larger proportion of China Daily articles were categorized as news. As for features, the New York Times had a relatively high percentage of features, which made up 32.3% of its articles in the sample, but China Daily only had two (6.3%) feature stories across the state visit’s life span. When it came to editorials, China

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Daily had a higher percentage of editorials, which accounted for 25% of its total, compared with the New York Times (12.9%). However, based on the Chi-Square test results for article category, only the difference in the proportion of feature stories in the two newspapers was statistically significant.

Media Frames

Research Question 2 asked what the most frequently adopted frames were in China Daily and the New York Times, respectively. Note that measurement of media frames included all the frames that appeared in the 63 articles, meaning that one article could have multiple frames. As shown in Table 4-3, overall, 72 media frames were detected in the New York Times, and 78 media frames were found in China Daily. For the New York Times, Cyber security was the main type of frame, accounting for 18% of the 72 frames, followed by Economy, representing 16.7%, and Human rights, accounting for 13.9%. For China Daily, State visit and international relations made up the largest percentage (23.1%) of total frames, followed by Economy (accounting for

17.9%), with Cyber security and Environmental protection tying for third place (each accounting for 11%). Thus, both newspapers focused on Cyber security and Economy. In addition, neither newspaper frequently used the frames of Technology or Culture, both of which were at the bottom of the ranking of frame frequency. However, according to Chi-square tests, none of these differences were statistically significant.

Dominant Frames

Research Question 3 asked what the most frequently adopted dominant frames were in

China Daily and the New York Times, respectively. While an article might employ more than one media frame, each article could only have one dominant frame, the one occupying the greatest space in the article. The top three dominant frames appearing in New York Times articles were

Economy (accounting for 25.8% of the total), State visit and international relations (19.4%), and

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Cyber security (16.1%). The most frequently occurring dominant frames in China Daily were

State visit and international relations (accounting for 50%), Economy (12.5%), and Cyber security (12.5%) (Table 4-4). Though the two newspapers’ top three dominant frames were the same, those three frames were distributed more unequally in China Daily, since half of the dominant frames in China Daily were State visit and international relations, which made up less than one-fifth of the dominant frames in the New York Times. Furthermore, Chi-square tests showed that the differing frequency of the State visit and international relations frame in the two newspapers was statistically significant (Chi-Square = 6.507(1), p < 0.05). What’s more, for both newspapers, the three least used dominant frames were Culture, Territorial sovereignty, and

Technology. However, differences among the use of other dominant frames by the two newspapers did not prove statistically significant according to Chi-Square tests.

In summary, both media frames and dominant frames manifested similarities between the two newspapers as regarded their most and least frequently used frames. Analysis showed

Economy and Cyber security among the top three frames for both media frames and dominant frames, while Culture and Technology were among the bottom three in both categories.

Article Prominence

Question 4 asked if there were significant differences in the prominence of articles in the

New York Times and China Daily. Article prominence was measured by article placement, word count, and the presence of photos and graphs in an article.

To begin, article placement was measured with a numerical score from one to three. An article with three points had the most prominent placement, meaning it appeared on the upper half of the front page. An article with two points appeared either on the lower half of the front page or on the upper half of an inside page. An article with one point appeared on the lower half of an inside page. As seen in Table 4-5, T-tests of article placement showed that China Daily (x̅

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= 1.95, sd = 0.695) earned a higher average score than the New York Times (x̅ = 1.45, sd =

0.506) on article placement, meaning that articles on Xi’s visit in China Daily were placed more prominently on average. This difference was statically significant (t = -3.368(61), p < 0.05).

Next, word count was used to measure the length of an article. Longer articles are supposed to be more noticeable than shorter ones, signaling their subjects’ relative importance to the newsmaker. As shown in Table 4-5, China Daily (x̅ = 508.75, sd = 218.02) tended to have shorter articles than the New York Times (x̅ = 978.32, sd = 448.17), a difference that also proved statistically significant (t = 5.26 (43.123), p < 0.05). It should be noted that the p value of

Levene’s test was less than 0.05 in this analysis, which means that equal variance was not assumed in the data from the two newspapers.

Lastly, the number of photos accompanying an article was recorded, with each article’s numerical score equal to that number; e.g., an article with zero photos was recorded as “0.” T- test results showed that there was not a statistically significant difference in the numbers of photos accompanying selected articles in the two newspapers (-0.76(61)n.s.), though China

Daily (x̅ = 0.77, sd = 0.85) did have slightly higher numbers on average than the New York Times

(x̅ = 0.97, sd = 1.12).

Article Valence

Articles were recorded as possessing one of three tones: positive, neutral, or negative. As shown in Table 4-6, articles with a neutral tone made up more half of the total articles in both the

New York Times and China Daily. However, the New York Times had only one article (that is,

3.2% of the total) with a positive tone. China Daily completely lacked articles with a negative tone. Hypothesis 1 suggested that China Daily reported on Xi’s visit to America more positively than the New York Times. The results showed that the coverage of China Daily was indeed more positive than that of the New York Times (Chi-Square = 14.254(1), p < 0.05), meaning that

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Hypothesis 1 was supported by the evidence. Conversely, Table 4-6 also shows that the New

York Times covered the event more critically or negatively than China Daily (Chi-Square =

9.459(1), p < 0.05). However, the two newspapers did not exhibit a statistically significant difference as regards articles with a neutral valence.

Xi’s Portrayal in Photos

Not every article in the research sample was accompanied by a photo, and, likewise, not every photo in the research sample included Xi himself. After careful investigation of all photos accompanying these 62 articles, only 13 articles (72.2% of the total) from the New York Times and 17 articles (85%) from China Daily were found to include Xi himself. Question 5 asked if there was a significant difference between the number of photos of Xi in each newspaper.

Though China Daily had a higher ratio of articles with Xi’s photos, Chi-square test results showed that the difference in the number of articles accompanied by photos of Xi in the two newspapers was not statistically significant (Table 4-7).

Photos of Xi were also analyzed to see how he was portrayed or how he appeared in the image. If an article had more than one photo of Xi, the largest one was examined. Appearances of Xi were classified according to seven categories, and it was possible for a photo to be in more than one category at once. Table 4-8 shows that, overall, 14 appearance frames were found in the

New York Times sample, and 26 appearance frames were detected in China Daily articles. The three most popular appearance frames in the New York Times were Beloved leader (accounting for 35.7% of the total), Dynamic speaker (21.4%), and Family figure (14.3%). The main type of appearance frame in China Daily was Glad to see you (Xi shaking hands in photos), accounting for 30.7% of the total appearance frames, followed by Dynamic speaker (26.9%) and Family figure (23.1%). However, these differences were not statistically significant according to the results of Fisher’s exact tests, as shown in Table 4-8.

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In addition, Xi’s facial expressions in these photos were analyzed. As Table 4-9 shows, smiling was the most commonly depicted facial expression in both the New York Times and

China Daily. Apart from smiling, the New York Times had two photos (15.4% of the total) depicting No facial expression and two photos (15.4%) depicting Frowning. China Daily had no photo with Frowning but one photo (5.9% of the total) with No facial expression. The results of

Fisher’s exact tests showed no statistically significant differences.

The third coding index in the analysis of photos of Xi was for camera angle. Low angle meant that the camera was looking up at Xi, High angle meant that the camera looked down at

Xi, and Eye-level angle meant that the camera was placed at about the same height as Xi’s eyes.

As shown in Table 4-10, more than half of the photos in both China Daily and in the New York

Times were Low angle. China Daily did not use any High angle photos but five articles (29.4% of the total) were Eye-level angle, while the New York Times had one photo (constituting 7.7% of the total) that was High angle and four photos (33.3%) that were Eye-level angle.

Lastly, depictions of Xi’s interactions with other people were recorded. Table 4-11 shows that Xi appeared with other people in most photos in both China Daily and the New York Times.

The New York Times had only two photos (15.4% of the total) in which Xi showed up alone, while China Daily had no photo with Xi appearing alone.

Significant Differences

Research Question 1 asked what differences in textual and visual framing existed in coverage of Xi’s visit by the New York Times and China Daily. According to the results above, three major differences with statistical significance were found, in the categories of article type, article prominence, and article valence. As for article type, the New York Times reported on the visit in more feature stories, while China Daily used more editorials. As for article prominence, articles in China Daily were positioned with higher visibility, but articles in the New York Times

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had longer average lengths. As for article valence, China Daily reported on the visit more positively than the New York Times. However, the measurement of media frames, dominant frames, and Xi’s portrayal in photos did not produce many statistically significant differences, except for the rather high use by China Daily of the dominant frame of State visit and international relations. Significant differences mentioned above, as well as some of the non- significant differences, will be discussed in the next chapter, along with possible reasons for those differences.

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Table 4-1. Sampling of textual and visual framing in the New York Times and China Daily Newspaper type Number of articles Number of articles Number of articles with photos of Xi with photos

The New York Times 13 18 31

China Daily 17 20 32

Table 4-2. Article types in the New York Times and China Daily The New China Daily Chi-square York Times test

n % n %

News 17 54.8% 22 68.8% X2 = 1.292 (1), n.s.

Features 10 32.3% 2 6.3% X2 = 6.907(1), p < .05

Editorials 4 12.9% 8 25.0% X2 = 1.494 (1), n.s.

Total 31 100% 32 100%

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Table 4-3. All media frames in the New York Times and China Daily The New China Daily Chi-square test York Times n % n %

Cyber security 13 18% 11 14.1% X2 = .435 (1), n.s.

Economy 12 16.7% 14 17.9% X2 = .043(1), n.s.

Human rights 10 13.9% 5 6.4% X2 = 2.327(1), n.s.

State visit and 8 11.1% 18 23.1% X2 = 3.741(1), n.s. international relations

Environmental 7 9.7% 11 14.1% X2 = .409(1), n.s. protection Territorial 7 9.7% 4 5.1% X2 = 1.163(1), n.s. sovereignty Technology 6 8.3% 3 3.8% N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Military and 5 6.9% 8 10.3% X2 = .519(1), n.s. security Culture 4 5.5% 4 5.1% N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Others 0 0 0 0 N/A

Total 72 100% 78 100% Note. N/A means that a Chi-square test could not be run because the expected value for each cell was less than 5. In these cases, Fisher’s exact test was run instead.

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Table 4-4. Dominant media frames in the New York Times and China Daily The New China Daily Chi-square test York Times n % n % Economy 8 25.8% 4 12.5% X2 = 1.808 (1), n.s.

State visit and 6 19.4% 16 50% X2 = 6.507(1), international p<.05 relations

Cyber security 5 16.1% 4 12.5% N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Human rights 4 12.9% 2 6.3% N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Environmental 4 12.9% 2 6.3% N/A (Fisher’s protection exact test, n.s.) Military and 2 6.5% 3 9.4% N/A (Fisher’s security exact test, n.s.) Culture 1 3.2% 0 0 N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Territorial 1 3.2% 0 0 N/A (Fisher’s sovereignty exact test, n.s.) Technology 0 0 1 3.1% N/A (Fisher’s exact test, n.s.) Others 0 0 0 0 N/A

Total 31 100% 32 100% Note. N/A means that a Chi-square test could not be run because the expected value for each cell was less than 5. In these cases, Fisher’s exact test was run instead.

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Table 4-5. Article prominence in the New York Times and China Daily The New York China Daily Times Article Mean Std. Mean Std. T-test Levene’s prominence deviation deviation test

Article 1.45 .506 1.97 .695 -3.368(61) p < .05 p > .05 placement

Word 978.32 448.17 508.75 218.02 5.26(43.123) p <.05 p < .05 count

Number of 0.77 0.85 0.97 1.12 -.76(61) n.s. p > .05 photos and graphs

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Table 4-6. Article valence in the New York Times and China Daily Article The New China Daily Chi-square valence York Times test n % n %

Positive 1 3.2% 15 43.8% X2 = 14.254(1), p < .05 Neutral 22 71.0% 18 56.3% X2 = 1.471(1), n.s. Negative 8 25.8% 0 0 X2 = 9.459(1), p < .05 Total 31 100% 32 100%

Table 4-7. Articles with photos of Xi himself in the New York Times and China Daily Newspaper types Number of articles Number of articles Chi-square test with photos of Xi The New York Times 13 31 X2 = .790(1), n.s. China Daily 17 32

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Table 4-8. Xi’s appearance in photos in the New York Times and China Daily The New China Daily Fisher’s York Times exact test n % n %

Beloved 5 35.7% 3 11.5% n.s. leader

Dynamic 3 21.4% 7 26.9% n.s. speaker Family figure 2 14.3% 6 23.1% n.s.

Glad to see 2 14.3% 8 30.7% n.s. you Media star 1 7.1% 1 3.8% n.s.

Father figure 1 7.1% 1 3.8% n.s.

Others 0 0 0 0 N/A

Total 14 100% 26 100%

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Table 4-9. Xi’s facial expression in photos from the New York Times and China Daily Xi’s facial The New China Fisher’s exact test expression York Times Daily n % n % Smiling 9 69.2% 16 94.1% n.s.

No facial 2 15.4% 1 5.9% n.s. expression Frowning 2 15.4% 0 0.0% n.s.

13 100% 17 100%

Table 4-10. Camera angle in photos of Xi from the New York Times and China Daily Camera The New China Fisher’s exact test angle York Times Daily n % n % Low angle 8 61.5% 12 70.6% n.s.

High angle 1 7.7% 0 0 n.s.

Eye-level 4 33.3% 5 29.4% n.s. angle

Total 13 100% 17 100%

Table 4-11. Xi’s interactions with people in photos from the New York Times and China Daily Interaction The New China Daily Fisher’s exact York Times test n % n % Alone 2 15.4% 0 0 n.s.

With crowd 11 84.6% 17 100% n.s.

Total 13 100% 17 100%

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CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Before discussing the results of the study, it is helpful to review the previous chapters.

Chapter 2 reviewed findings by previous researchers that were relevant to the design of this study, such as the differences between the American and Chinese media systems, anti-

Communism frames and the changing image of China reflected in American media, and the propaganda function of Chinese media. These findings served as a frame of reference in interpreting the similarities and differences of the two newspapers, which were summarized in

Chapter 4. This chapter will discuss those results by comparing them with the findings of previous studies mentioned in the literature review, suggest some limitations of this study as well as possibilities for further research, and give the study’s overall conclusions.

Discussion

The analysis of data in Chapter 4 resulted in five major findings: (1) Positive coverage by

China Daily; (2) High article prominence in China Daily; (3) Highly adopted frames:

“Economy” and “Cyber security”; (4) Similar usage of photos of Xi in both newspapers; and (5)

Frequent use of the Family figure visual trope in China Daily. Each finding is discussed below with suggestions as to possible causes.

Positive coverage by China Daily

Hypothesis 1 proposed that China Daily would have more positive coverage about the visit than the New York Times. The results of this study showed that China Daily and the New

York Times did evaluate the state-visit somewhat differently. Approximately half of China

Daily’s articles had a positive valence and none of its articles had a negative valence, suggesting the newspaper viewed the state visit as highly fruitful. However, about one-fourth of the New

York Times articles had a negative valence, suggesting the American newspaper remained more

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skeptical and thought the achievements of the visit more modest. Apart from textual framing,

China Daily also seemed to be a little more positive in its visual framing of photos of Xi. For example, no photos of Xi frowning were found in China Daily, but there were two such photos in the New York Times. Another example was the use of camera angle. China Daily had no photos using a high angle, which might have made their subject look small and vulnerable

(Moura, 2014), but the New York Times did.

There are two main reasons that might be responsible for these differences. Firstly, the difference in overall positivity might be due to the differing natures of China Daily and the New

York Times. The American newspaper is an independent media organization whose core values include objectivity. China Daily, on the other hand, is the Chinese government’s mouthpiece and as such is responsible for positively portraying important members of the government and promoting public confidence in the administration. Given this mission, it is no wonder the newspaper always portrayed the visit in a positive light. Furthermore, Xi’s first state visit coincided with China’s economic downturn (Perlez, 2015), making it possible that Xi treated the visit as an opportunity to show China’s “constructive” diplomatic relations with America, the superpower, on an international platform, in order to bolster support not only among Chinese citizens but also among foreign investors. Secondly, the differing ideologies and interests of

America and China tend to make their citizens, and thus their media, view issues differently in general. Though the longstanding anti-Communist bias has been alleviated in recent years (Yan,

1998), it might still have a residual impact on American newspapers’ reporting style when it comes to China. What’s more, the visit happened at a time of strained Sino-American relations, during which the two countries were blaming each other for cyber espionage, America considered a large-scale Chinese military parade to be an aggressive behavior, and so on. Thus,

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the clashing politics, economies, and cultures of the two countries might also have contributed to the more negative coverage in the New York Times.

High Article Prominence in China Daily

The prominence of an article was measured by its placement, length, and the number of photos accompanying it. Article placement and article length were found to be significantly different in the two newspapers, though there was no significant difference in the number of accompanying photos

To begin, the results showed that China Daily tended to make articles related to Xi’s

American trip more visible than the New York Times did, meaning that China Daily articles were more likely to be put on the front page and/or above the fold. The author even found that the

Chinese newspaper created a special column called “Xi’s visit” during the span of his journey to

America. The prominence accorded to this subject by the placement of the articles might have been caused by various factors. Firstly, during a state visit, the media in the guest country

(China) and the host country (America) might report the event with inherent differences due to their different perspectives. Secondly, China might take the state visit more seriously and be more eager to establish a constructive relationship with America, leading its media to give the event a higher profile. Thirdly, unlike the New York Times, China Daily is a newspaper owned by the Chinese government (“About China Daily,” n.d.) and thus might be likelier in general to prioritize news reports relating to the Chinese president and the Chinese government. Lastly, it was of course possible that other important events happening in America during Xi’s visit competed for prominent placement in the newspaper.

In addition, as shown in the results, the New York Times tended to have much longer articles than China Daily (the average word count of each article in the New York Times was almost twice as much as that in China Daily). The distinct difference might have been due to two

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factors. Firstly, the two newspapers may simply have very different styles of writing articles, with China Daily likelier to make articles succinct and brief, while the New York Times might be likelier to make articles long and in-depth. Another factor may that China Daily, as an English language newspaper in a non-English-speaking country, might employ more journalists or freelance writers for whom English is their second language, making their news reports very different from journalists whose native language is English.

Highly Adopted Frames: “Economy” and “Cyber Security”

According to the results, the frames categories were similarly distributed in China Daily and the New York Times, suggesting the two countries’ media were focused on roughly the same issues during the state visit. In addition, the analysis of dominant frames also looked similar between the two newspapers, except for the adoption of the frame of State visit and international relations, which accounted for approximately half of the dominant frames in China Daily articles. Articles dominated by this frame discussed the background, process, or influence of Xi’s visit rather than talking about specific issues such as cyber security. The high volume of State visit and international relations frames might indicate that China Daily attached more importance to the state visit than the New York Times did. What’s more, China Daily had a very high percentage of editorials compared with the New York Times, suggesting that China Daily might be more concerned with the influence or aftermath of the visit than the New York Times.

For both China Daily and the New York Times, Cyber security and Economy were two frequently used frames, not only in the analysis of all frames appearing in the sample but also in analysis of the dominant frames. In Appendix C, Table C-1 and Table C-2 show some sample sentences from each of the newspapers with the Cyber Security frame, while Table C-3 and

Table C-4 give examples of the Economy frame in articles.

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Economic cooperation between China and America has been an important focus for the two countries for many years, so it is unsurprising that the Economy frame was one of the most frequently used frames during Xi’s visit. Compared with the economy, cyber security is a much newer problem, in Sino-US relations (Lieberthal & Singer, 2012). It probably received so much attention because, unlike the use of military weapons with long histories, cyber weapons are relatively new, so agreements and laws relating to their control still need further development.

The state visit offered an important opportunity for the two countries to discuss this newly important issue.

Similar Usage of Photos of Xi

For the analysis of photos of Xi that accompanied articles about his state visit to America, this study adapted the measurement system used by Lee, Ryan, Wanta, and Chang (2004) to study differences in how American and Taiwanese media portrayed presidential candidates in photos. However, no significant differences were found between photographs used by American and Chinese media, which might be explained by four reasons. Firstly, a presidential election and a state visit by a president may differ in their natures. In a presidential election, different candidates with varying backgrounds compete with each other to gain public support, while a state visit is a form of diplomatic activity in which a single official visits another country. The lack of competing personalities and the fixed itinerary inherent in a state visit may have made the use of photos remarkably similar in the two newspapers. Secondly, even though Taiwan and mainland China resemble each other in many ways, including culturally (Chang & Chu, 2002), they still have different political systems, perhaps leading Taiwanese media to portray political figures quite differently from mainland China’s media. Thirdly, only 30 photos of Xi were found, 13 of which were from the New York Times and 17 of which were from China Daily.

Thus, the small sample size of relevant photos may have indicated similarities between the two

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newspapers’ visual framing that were not really representative. Lastly, it was possible that, because a state visit is one of the highest levels of diplomatic activity, only a small number of photographers were allowed access to Xi to take his photo. Thus, photographs of him used in newspapers may all be drawn from the same small pool, rendering them highly similar to one another.

Frequent Use of the Family Figure Visual Trope in China Daily

As defined in Chapter 3, use of the Family figure visual trope refers to photos showing Xi with his wife. According to the visual analysis of photos of Xi, he appeared with his wife, Peng

Liyuan, very frequently, not only in the New York Times but also in China Daily, where the ratio of photos categorized as Family figure in China Daily was even higher. Table D-1 in Appendix

D shows a few photos employing this visual trope.

The high profile of the president’s wife was very rare in Chinese history, since former

Chinese first ladies were usually kept in the background and seldom reported on by the Chinese media (FlorCruz, 2013). The low visibility of Chinese First Ladies had a historical reason: Jiang

Qing, the wife of the first Chinese president, Mao Zedong, was accused of being actively involved in politics and facilitating the implementation of the infamous Cultural Revolution in

China. After Jiang Qing, subsequent presidents’ wives, including Deng Xiaopeng’s wife, Zhuo

Lin, Jiang Zhemin’s wife, Wang Yeping, and Hu Jingtao’s wife, Liu Yongqing, were kept relatively low-profile, or even invisible, in public (Baik, 2014).

Peng Liyuan’s Western-style first ladyship was a breakthrough under these circumstances and might blaze a trail for future first ladies in China. Two factors may have especially contributed to this change. Firstly, Peng Liyuan, as a former famous singer with extensive performance experience (Baik, 2014), presumably knows more about how to behave in the spotlight than any former Chinese first ladies. Her own conditions helped to make her a

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successful public figure. Secondly, the Chinese government may have been trying to portray the president as less solemn and authoritative and more humanitarian and approachable by using the first ladyship to earn the confidence of Chinese citizens and to augment Xi’s international image.

The Limitations of the Study

Before stating this study’s conclusions, some potential limitations of this research need to be mentioned, in order to keep the results in perspective. Four shortcomings of the methodology were: (1) A small sample size; (2) the use of differing key words to find relevant articles in the two newspapers; (3) obtaining articles from the two newspapers through different databases; and

(4) the possibility of inherent differences between English-language newspapers in English- speaking and non-English-speaking countries.

Small Sample Size

Given the time limitations of this study, coverage from only two newspapers was analyzed, which might not represent the broader coverage in American and Chinese newspapers.

The small sample size also made analysis of specific items in the sample difficult. For instance, possible changes in the attitudes of the two newspapers toward the visit before, during, and after the event could not be studied because of the low number of articles found from before and after the visit. Additionally, it was difficult to investigate how the two newspapers’ focus on different issues changed across the life span of the event due to the limited number of articles focused on specific issues.

Inconsistency of Key Words

In searching for articles related to Xi’s visit, the researchers adopted different key words for the two newspapers because of the differing natures of China Daily and the New York Times.

For China Daily, “Xi” and “America” were used to find articles related not only to Chinese

President Xi Jinping but also to his American trip. However, synonyms of America such as

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“U.S.” were not used in searches. For the New York Times, only Xi, the president’s family name, was used to find the largest range of articles relating to Xi. The key word “America” was not used to search a newspaper originating in America, since the New York Times seemed less likely to include the country name while reporting news domestically. Though different terms were used for more efficient searching of newspapers based in two countries, this inconsistency in search terms might have skewed results in some unforeseen way.

Multiple Databases

Another possible issue was that articles from China Daily and the New York Times were found through different search engines. China Daily was retrieved through its own official website, while the New York Times was accessed via ProQuest for text, and via a microfilm version for photos, which might affect the consistency of searching. This was unavoidable, however, since China Daily was not available through ProQuest, nor was there a microfilm version that the researchers could access.

An English-Speaking Newspaper in a Non-English-Speaking Country

Since China Daily is an English-language publication originating from a non-English- speaking country, it is possible that this newspaper presented or interpreted Xi’s visit differently than native-language newspapers in China.

Further Research

This study was guided by framing theory and thus attempted to compare different media frames across news reports from two different media outlets, but there were many approaches besides framing analysis that could be implemented fruitfully in a contrastive study of this kind, such as Fairclough, Mulderrig, and Wodak’s three dimensions of critical discourse analysis

(2011). Thus, further research might use different methods to analyze the same event in order to provide different dimensions of and perspectives on news reports from the two countries.

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Secondly, there might be differences in the ways that state visits are presented by media in a host country and media in a guest country. Further studies might explore, for instance, the distinctions between media coverage in both countries of an American president’s visit to China and of a Chinese president’s visit to America.

Thirdly, the study did not consider whether other important newsworthy events happening in China or America during the period of Xi’s visit might have competed with the trip for the “front page.” Further studies investigating the prominence of articles regarding to the state visit could take possible disruptions by other important events into consideration.

Fourthly, the study focused on media frames while neglecting audience frames. It might be fruitful for future research to examine how readers with different identities and cultures comprehend or interpret the same media frames.

Fifthly, further studies might investigate coverage of the visit from a third country’s point of view, in order to compare it with reporting by American and Chinese newspapers. A newspaper from a third country could serve as a useful reference point by offering news reports from a more objective and neutral perspective.

Lastly, the New York Times has always been considered as a liberal press (Groseclose &

Milyo, 2005). Thus, its political perspective might be very different from other conservative media, including Washington Times (Gerber, Karlan, & Bergan, 2009). Further research might investigate differences of media coverage of Xi’s visit between a liberal press and a conservative press.

Conclusions

The discussion of media systems and anti-Communist ideology in Chapter 2 suggested that China Daily might have presented the state visit more positively than the New York Times.

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The research confirmed this hypothesis, but it was difficult to evaluate which factors played decisive roles in making the observed difference.

Apart from the difference in article valence, China Daily and the New York Times resembled each other in two ways while reporting on the state visit. Firstly, the high degree of overlap in the newspapers’ use of media frames in general and of dominant frames in particular, e.g. the Economy and Cyber security frames, indicated that the two countries’ media focused on similar issues in connection to Xi’s state visit. Secondly, the newspapers did not show obvious differences in their photographic portrayals of Xi, probably because the fixed itinerary of the state visit allowed little flexibility in their choices of which photos to use. However, one prominent feature of photos of Xi was the frequency with which the president appeared with his wife, Peng Liyuan, representing him as a family figure in a way that was rare in previous

Chinese media coverage of the head of state (FlorCruz, 2013).

In addition, the research showed China Daily considered the state visit more important overall than the New York Times did, based on comparisons of article placement, valence, types, and dominant frames. China Daily had a higher proportion of positive coverage, editorial articles, and use of the dominant frame of State visit and international relations (articles focusing on the background, process, or achievements of Xi’s visit, and how the visit affected international relations), as well as more prominent article placement than the New York Times on average.

These conclusions have both theoretical and practical significance. Hopefully, they will serve as useful reference points for future explorations of the different media frames adopted by

American and Chinese media in covering the same issues. Furthermore, they will contribute to

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the body of knowledge about state visits and help to extend the scholarship on framing within the domain of public diplomacy.

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APPENDIX A CODING SHEET

(1) Article number:

(2) Coder ID: Coder A = 1 Coder B = 2

(3) Date: 09/dd/2015

(4) Newspaper type:

The New York Times = 1

China Daily=2

Section A: Textual Framing

(5) Article type:

News = 1

Features = 2

Editorials/opinion piece = 3

(6) Article tone:

Positive = 1

Neutral = 2

Negative = 3

(7) Article frame (all frames that appear in an article):

Culture frame = 1

Military and security frame = 2

Human rights frame = 3

Technology frame = 4

Cyber security frame = 5

Economy frame = 6

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State visit and international relations frame = 7

Environmental protection frame = 8

Territorial sovereignty frame = 9

Other = 10

(8) Dominant article frame (an article containing more than one frame should be coded by its dominant frame):

Culture frame = 1

Military and security frame = 2

Human rights frame = 3

Technology frame = 4

Cyber security frame = 5

Economy frame = 6

State visit and international relations frame = 7

Environmental protection frame = 8

Territorial sovereignty frame = 9

Other = 10

Section B: Visual Framing

Article prominence

(9) Article placement (for an article appearing on more than one page, only take the first page that appears into consideration):

A: an article is placed on the front page

B: an article is placed above the fold of its page

When the placement of article meets the requirements of both A and B = 3

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When the placement of article meets only one of the requirements of A and B = 2

When the placement of an article fails to meet any of the requirements of A and B =1

(10) Length (word count): ___

(11) Photos and graphs (for an article appearing on more than one page, only take the first page that appears into consideration):

The number of photos or graphs: ___ (If an article does not have any photos or graphs, enter “0.”)

Note: If an article with photos contains Chinese President Xi, photos will coded by the following variables. Otherwise, they will be left aside.

Xi’s appearance in a photo

(If an article has more than one photo containing Xi, the photo that occupies the most space will be coded.)

(12) Xi’s appearance:

Beloved leader = 1

Dynamic speaker = 2

Media star = 3

Glad-to-see-you = 4

Father figure = 5

Family figure = 6

Other = 7

(13) Camera angle:

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Low angle = 1

High angle = 2

Eye-level angle = 3

(14) Xi’s facial expression:

Smiling = 1

No facial expression = 2

Frowning = 3

Other = 4

(15) Interaction:

Alone = 1

With crowd = 2

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APPENDIX B RESEARCH SAMPLE

Table B-1. List of articles in the research sample Article Newspaper Publication date Article title number type 1 The New York 09/20/2015 U.S. and China seek arms deal for Times cyberspace 2 The New York 09/20/2015 Warily eyeing China, Philippines may Times invite U.S. back to Subic Bay 3 The New York 09/21/2015 Warner Bros. announces Chinese film Times deal 4 The New York 09/21/2015 Charter and Time Warner vote, and Times Chinese tech meeting in Seattle 5 The New York 09/22/2015 Fading coal industry in China may Times help efforts to slow global warming 6 The New York 09/22/2015 Chinese leader comes to U.S. facing Times fresh economic doubts 7 The New York 09/23/2015 China's premier pledges to help U.S. Times stop cybercrimes 8 The New York 09/23/2015 Visit underscores challenges in dealing Times with China 9 The New York 09/23/2015 China formally arrests detained Times American accused of spying 10 The New York 09/23/2015 Two activists visiting U.S. call for Times rights in Hong Kong 11 The New York 09/24/2015 Hackers also stole fingerprints of 5.6 Times million workers, personnel agency says 12 The New York 09/24/2015 Chinese leader hears tough complaints Times of American business 13 The New York 09/24/2015 Pentagon says Chinese pilot flew too Times close to spy plane 14 The New York 09/25/2015 Cultural revolution steeled a Times schoolboy, now China's leader 15 The New York 09/25/2015 Double talk on doing business in Times China 16 The New York 09/25/2015 U.S. says China will announce cap- Times and-trade emissions plan 17 The New York 09/26/2015 Indian Prime Minister's visit has Times Silicon Valley abuzz 18 The New York 09/26/2015 Finding common ground with China Times 19 The New York 09/26/2015 A high-tech flavor for Xi's state dinner Times 20 The New York 09/26/2015 Path set by U.S. and China to limit Times security breaches may be impossible to follow 72

21 The New York 09/26/2015 U.S. and China agree to rein in state- Times sponsored computer thefts 22 The New York 09/26/2015 Beijing puts ball back in Washington's Times court in fight to curb climate change 23 The New York 09/26/2015 China faces major obstacles in plan to Times cut greenhouse gases, experts say 24 The New York 09/27/2015 President of China pledges $2 billion Times to fight poverty 25 The New York 09/27/2015 U.N. meeting on women's rights brings Times more discord for U.S. and China 26 The New York 09/27/2015 Inner circle of China's president gives Times cold shoulder to Western officials 27 The New York 09/28/2015 Xi vows to 'reaffirm' women's rights Times efforts 28 The New York 09/28/2015 Cyber warfare capability rated Times 29 The New York 09/28/2015 Uber car pool starts in China Times 30 The New York 09/29/2015 Chinese embrace America's culture but Times not its policies 31 The New York 09/29/2015 Rallying global support, Obama Times pledges larger U.S. role in peacekeeping missions 32 China Daily 09/21/2015 Xi's visit and optimism of youths to boost Sino-US ties 33 China Daily 09/22/2015 New deals may highlight Xi’s US visit

34 China Daily 09/22/2015 Key deals in sight as Xi starts visit

35 China Daily 09/23/2015 Seattle: Differences should not harm ties 36 China Daily 09/23/2015 Seattle lays down welcome mat for Xi

37 China Daily 09/23/2015 Mutual trust essential for cybersecurity

38 China Daily 09/23/2015 Students eagerly await Chinese guest

39 China Daily 09/24/2015 Xi-Obama dinners ‘a very constructive’ way for 2 to engage 40 China Daily 09/24/2015 Stock market in recovery phase

41 China Daily 09/24/2015 Xi sees great promise for local ties

42 China Daily 09/24/2015 Cooperation, competition co-exist in Sino-US military ties 43 China Daily 09/24/2015 Security review not to block investors

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44 China Daily 09/25/2015 Xi pledges more access to China’s markets 45 China Daily 09/25/2015 Xi urges constructive cyberspace talks

46 China Daily 09/25/2015 Wide-ranging speech resonates with listeners 47 China Daily 09/25/2015 China, US seal defense agreements

48 China Daily 09/26/2015 Informal chat offers change to build trust 49 China Daily 09/26/2015 Joint efforts needed to improve world order 50 China Daily 09/26/2015 Lobster in limelight at state dinner for Xi 51 China Daily 09/26/2015 Xi, Obama take aim at cybertheft

52 China Daily 09/28/2015 When China and US join hands, the world benefits 53 China Daily 09/28/2015 Official, experts laud Washington summit 54 China Daily 09/28/2015 Xi calls his US trip ‘fruitful’

55 China Daily 09/28/2015 Xi pledges $10 million for the UN

56 China Daily 09/29/2015 The president’s historic journey to the West 57 China Daily 09/29/2015 Official: ‘Chinese women are best judges of their rights’ 58 China Daily 09/29/2015 President says China will integrate development with action on climate 59 China Daily 09/29/2015 China to set up $1b peace fund

60 China Daily 09/29/2015 Fruitful trip puts emphasis on results

61 China Daily 09/30/2015 Onus on US to further deepen ties

62 China Daily 09/30/2015 High-tech heavyweights eye US investments 63 China Daily 09/30/2015 President returns from fruitful missions to United States and UN

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APPENDIX C EXAMPLES OF CYBERSECURITY AND ECONOMY FRAMES

Table C-1. Examples of articles with Cyber security frame in the New York Times Publication Article title Sample sentences date 09/20/2015 U.S. and China Earlier efforts to get Mr. Xi and other senior Chinese seek arms deal leaders to address cyberattacks have largely failed. Mr. for cyberspace Obama spent a considerable amount of time on the issue during a summit meeting with Mr. Xi at Sunnylands, a California estate, in 2013. But even after that session, the Chinese denied that their military was involved in attacks, and portrayed themselves as victims of attacks from the United States.

09/23/2015 China's premier President Xi Jinping pledged in a speech here on Tuesday pledges to help night to work with the United States on fighting U.S. stop cybercrime, saying that the Chinese government was a cybercrimes staunch defender of cybersecurity.

"The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties," Mr. Xi said in an address to American business executives.

09/26/2015 Path set by U.S. Unlike missiles, cyberweapons are impossible to count. and China to They can be reproduced with a few flicks of the keyboard, limit security and they are easy to hide: It took American investigators breaches may be impossible to more than a year to figure out that the security records of follow 22 million federal employees and contractors were being stolen by Chinese actors. And unlike the nuclear age, the state has no monopoly on the technology. "Patriotic hackers," criminal groups, terrorists and even teenagers all have access to the arsenal.

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Table C-2. Examples of articles with Cyber security frame in China Daily Publication Article title Sample sentences date 09/23/2015 Seattle lays "China takes cybersecurity very seriously. China is also a down welcome victim of hacking," Xi told The Wall Street Journal [sic] in mat for Xi a written interview.

He said cybertheft of commercial secrets and hacking attacks against government networks are both illegal; such acts are criminal offenses and should be punished according to law and international conventions.

09/25/2015 Xi urges Xi said the informationization of society is developing constructive rapidly, with the role of the Internet in daily life ranging cyberspace talks from public use to securing a country's important infrastructure facilities.

"Both China and the US are major players in cyberspace, and the two countries have important common interests and room for cooperation," he said.

"They should work on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust, embark on constructive dialogues regarding the cyberissue, make (this issue) a new highlight for China- US cooperation, and make cyberspace better benefit people of the two countries and the world."

09/26/2015 Xi, Obama take China and the United States marked major milestones on aim at cybertheft cybersecurity and the fight against climate change on Friday during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US.

Both sides have agreed not to conduct or support cybertheft, Xi and US President Barack Obama announced in a joint news conference.

.

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Table C-3. Examples of articles with Economy frame in the New York Times Publication Article title Sample sentences date 09/22/2015 Chinese leader China's economy has slowed more abruptly than policy comes to U.S. makers have appeared ready for, alarming investors around facing fresh the world. The government overestimated its ability to keep economic doubts stock prices aloft, spending billions to bolster the Chinese markets. Mr. Xi's ambitious reform agenda, including an effort to revive a bloated state sector, has yielded few concrete results.

.

09/24/2015 Chinese leader On a day that President Xi Jinping wanted to show off the hears tough significance of China's huge market to American business, complaints of the titans of the American tech industry lined up for a 10- American business minute photo opportunity with Mr. Xi here at Microsoft's campus.

09/25/2015 Double talk on China has a long way to go in protecting the rights of doing business foreign businesses, and Mr. Xi seemed dismissive of the in China legitimate complaints about unfair, coercive treatment of foreign companies. The government has used its power to

favor state-owned and domestic private firms. There is little transparency in how it makes decisions and few rights of appeal. And of immediate concern is the continuous threat posed by hackers based in China.

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Table C-4. Examples of articles with Economy frame in China Daily Publication Article title Sample sentences date 09/21/2015 Xi's visit and With the volume of two-way trade reaching $555.1 billion optimism of last year, trade and economic ties between Beijing and youths to boost Washington not only balance their overall relationship but Sino-US ties also help boost world economic development. Therefore, it is in the interest of both sides to keep the momentum in bilateral trade.

09/24/2015 Security review As the world's two largest economies continue discussing a not block to "Bilateral Investment Treaty", which could be a key issue investors during President Xi Jinping's state visit to the US, it is worth considering how national security considerations could impact the entry of foreign investment.

09/24/2015 Stock market in Referring to the stock market, which saw heavy turbulence recovery phase in the summer, forcing the government to intervene, Xi said, "China's stock market has reached a phase of self- recovery and self-adjustment."

Xi also said the modest adjustment in August to the renminbi's reference rate against the US dollar "achieved initial success in correcting the exchange rate deviation".

Note: I am reproducing quoted material from the New York Times and China Daily exactly, even though their house styles differ from APA style and from each other.

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APPENDIX D SAMPLE PHOTOS OF FAMILY FIGURE

Table D-1. Sample photos using visual trope of Family figure Newspaper Publication Article title Photos with Family figure visual trope type date The New 09/23/2015 Visit York Times underscore s challenges in dealing with China

China 09/23/2015 Seattle lays Daily down welcome mat for Xi

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Shimeng Dai was born in Xiang fan, and grew up in Hangzhou, China. She earned her

Bachelor degree in Sports Journalism at Chengdu Sport University in 2013. After graduating from college, she had several media related internships, including working as an assistant director helping create TV shows at Zhejiang TV station. In 2015, she began her studies at the

University of Florida in order to pursue her Master of Arts in Mass Communication. She will graduate from the University of Florida in May, 2017.

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