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Commenting on the Umbrella Movement: a Framing Analysis of Online News and Audience Discourse

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Commenting on the Umbrella Movement: a Framing Analysis of Online News and Audience Discourse Commenting on the Umbrella Movement: A Framing Analysis of Online News and Audience Discourse by Yanchao An A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2016, Yanchao An Abstract This thesis examines the relationship between news frames and audience comments surrounding Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement. Motivated by inconsistent reports on the “pro-democracy” movement, this study questions: How was the Umbrella Movement framed across mainstream news outlets, and what are audiences saying? Employing a dual framing and discourse analysis, this study examined news coverage on the Umbrella Movement and the discussions generated by commenters across the online editions of three national newspapers: South China Morning Post, the Washington Post, and Global Times. The findings revealed that news frames were connected to a nation’s history and enduring societal values. While news outlets had defined positions towards the movement, the key findings revealed that comments were predominantly generated by critical audiences who challenged dominant news narratives. In doing so, they generate interactive communicative spaces that enable alternative perspectives to emerge, rendering comment sections as valuable resources when studying news frames online. ii Acknowledgements I was once told that writing a thesis is like driving at night with the headlights on. You may not be able to see the final destination, but you will eventually get there. Throughout this project, I had many shining headlights and helpful road signs that directed me to the end. I would like to extend my gratitude to my supervisor, Merlyna Lim. Thank you for not only providing great moral and academic support for this project, but also for sharing your many delightful stories. I am also grateful to have Ben Woo as part of my committee. Thank you, Ben, for your sharp attention to detail and for providing valuable insights to this project. It goes without mention that the entire Communication Studies faculty has been tremendously encouraging throughout this process. A special thanks goes to Coleen for always being so kind and helpful. Thank you to all my colleagues for making this experience more bright and colourful. I am inspired by your positivity, intelligence, and ability to complete quality work in the office! You will always be my commrads. Lastly, I would like to say a huge thank you to my close friends and family for all your love and support. To my mom, I strive to be as hard working and motivated as you each day. iii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv List of Figures ................................................................................................................... vi List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................. vii 1 Chapter: The 2014 Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong ......................................... 8 1.1 Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How? ..................................................................... 11 1.2 Emergent Research on the Umbrella Movement ............................................................. 14 1.3 Research Significance ...................................................................................................... 18 1.4 Organizational Framework of Thesis ............................................................................... 19 2 Chapter: Legitimizing Social Reality through Framing ....................................... 22 2.1 Framing of Social Movements: Literature Review and Key Concepts ............................ 23 2.2 Cross-National Framing ................................................................................................... 27 2.3 Framing and Public Discourse ......................................................................................... 28 2.4 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 30 2.4.1 Corpus ....................................................................................................................... 33 2.4.2 Coding ....................................................................................................................... 38 3 Chapter: Contextualizing the Umbrella Movement through History ................. 39 3.1 “One Country, Two Systems” .......................................................................................... 39 3.2 Brewing Dissatisfaction under Hong Kong’s Political Structure ..................................... 41 3.3 Plans for Electoral Reform under Article 45’s Ambiguity............................................... 42 3.4 Social, Economic, and Cultural Changes in Hong Kong ................................................. 44 3.5 The Turning Point of Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Movement ..................................... 47 3.6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 48 4 Chapter: Finding Key News Frames ....................................................................... 50 4.1 Corpus Article Distribution .............................................................................................. 51 4.2 Micro-Level Frames ......................................................................................................... 52 4.2.1 Causal Frames: NPCSC’s Decision as the Catalyst of Protest ................................. 53 4.2.2 Umbrella versus Tear Gas ........................................................................................ 55 iv 4.3 Macro-level Frames ......................................................................................................... 59 4.3.1 SCMP: Democracy as Remedy ................................................................................. 59 4.3.2 WP: Tiananmen 2.0 .................................................................................................. 63 4.3.3 GT: Protesters as Manipulation ............................................................................... 65 4.4 Discussion on Cross-National Frames ............................................................................. 67 4.5 Framing Processes and Social Movements ...................................................................... 71 4.6 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 75 5 Chapter: Commenting on the Umbrella Movement .............................................. 77 5.1 Audience Responses to Media Frames ............................................................................ 77 5.1.1 Comments from SCMP ............................................................................................. 78 5.1.2 Comments from Washington Post ............................................................................ 81 5.1.3 Comments from Global Times .................................................................................. 82 5.2 Metadiscursive Analysis of User Comments ................................................................... 86 5.3 Discussion: The Paradox of News Framing ..................................................................... 90 5.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 94 6 Chapter: Conclusion ................................................................................................. 96 6.1 Implications ...................................................................................................................... 99 6.2 Limitations ..................................................................................................................... 101 6.3 Recommendations for Future Work ............................................................................... 102 References ...................................................................................................................... 104 Appendix:....................................................................................................................... 113 v List of Figures Figure 1: Exemplifying the Elements in Constructing a Frame Package ………… 34 Figure 2: Distribution of Online News Articles ……………………………………... 49 vi List of Acronyms CPC: Communist Party of China GT: Global Times HKSAR: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region NPCSC: the Standing Committee of the National’s People Congress OCLP: Occupy Central with Love and Peace PRC: People’s Republic of China SCMP: South China Morning Post (International) WP: the Washington Post vii 1 Chapter: The 2014 Umbrella Movement of Hong Kong On September 28, 2014, thousands of protesters marched into the Central government district of Hong Kong, demanding the right to elect Hong Kong’s 2017 Chief Executive through methods of universal suffrage, commonly defined by one person, one vote. In an attempt to control
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