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. 4 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 5 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 6 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