Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2017 The Role Of Media In Promoting Good Governance And Building Public Perception About Governance: A Comparison Of China And The United States Juan Liu Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Liu, Juan, "The Role Of Media In Promoting Good Governance And Building Public Perception About Governance: A Comparison Of China And The nitU ed States" (2017). Wayne State University Dissertations. 1832. https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations/1832 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN PROMOTING GOOD GOVERNANCE AND BUILDING PUBLIC PERCEPTION ABOUT GOVERNANCE: A COMPARISON OF CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES by JUAN LIU DISSERTATION Submitted to Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2017 MAJOR: COMMUNICATION Approved By: __________________________________ Advisor Date __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ __________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY JUAN LIU 2017 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my loving husband, Wenyang Gao. I give my deepest expression of love, and appreciation for the encouragement that you gave. There is something so powerful about having you who support me, love me and comfort me during this graduate program. Thank you for your constant love, push for tenacity, and company during numerous late nights of typing. I also dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Zhiying Liu and Zhenhong Yan, for their endless love. Thank you for all your kinds of sacrifices to support me. I also dedicate this work to my wonderful grandfather, who passed away the month when I finished this dissertation. Thank you for being a constant inspiration and continuing to be so. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A dissertation is a huge commitment. I would not have completed this dissertation without the help and support from a large community of faculty members, friends, colleagues and family. First, I own a special gratitude to my lovely advisor and committee chair, Dr. Lee Wilkins (I prefer to call her my academic mum) for her mentorship over the past four years. Lee provided me with the insight, advice, and encouragement to help me through the doctoral program. I especially appreciated that every time I gave copies of my dissertation to Lee, she handwrote her comments and feedback. I believe I would never get any dissertation addressed in handwriting. In fact, your handwriting comments encouraged me to write more thoughtfully. Furthermore, in our weekly meeting, I not only asked deep existential questions about the value of the research we conduct, but also shared my anxiety, joy and sorrow with you. You help me navigate the path to academic fulfillment, you give me the strength to overcome anxiety, and your wisdom teaches me to enjoy life. Whenever I felt disappointed and even doubted my ability to proceed, you gave me a warm hug. That time has been invaluable to me and I truly cherished it. Your guidance has taught me to turn my frustrations into actions, narrow down the great questions into smaller, show more confidence, persistence and courage in the face of adversity, and remain committed to my choice. With your encouragement, support, and insight, I become better, stronger and wiser to face the challenges ahead of me. Thank you, Lee. Special thanks must also be given to my dissertation committee members, Dr. Fred Vultee, Dr. Elizabeth Stoycheff, and Dr. Lawrence Scaff. I became particularly interested in framing theory and political communication when I took Fred’s class, which was the first time you introduced me into this field. Your insight, humor, knowledge, and enthusiasm to research iii have taken my first step on this journey. I came into your political communication class with uncertainty for my research, but I left that class recognizing the joy of pursuing my interest. Elizabeth is an amazing role model for me to follow. I particularly appreciate your pragmatic advice about my experiment and spent several hours with me going over every detail of my experiment design. I benefitted a lot from your rigorous research attitude and attention to detail. Moreover, thank you for involving me in your research and the process of publication. I wish one day I could become a young scholar like you who are smart, have a strong passion for research and care about students. I also want to thank Dr. Lawrence Scaff, who inspired me to the discourse of modernity and helped me build my research trajectory. Your expertise helped me see the sunshine when I was lost in the forest. Many friends and colleagues also helped me with my dissertation project and deserved my sincerest appreciation and thanks. My friends and cohorts Kai Xu and Jaclyn Gaule, who spent several days and weeks tediously coding news articles for my dissertation. I truly appreciate their outstanding efforts. Without their help, the dissertation would have been much more difficult than it already was. Special thanks must be given to Miwa Ito, Nicholas Smith, Fatima Barakji, Guy Wade, and Elena Corriero, who proved to be genuine friends. I enjoyed spending much time with them taking lunching together, and taking class together. I am grateful for all they did for me during my time in graduate school. I also want to thank an old friend Ashik Shafi, who collaborated with me, and his academic acumen is only exceeded by his kindness. I also want to thank the professors who welcomed me into their courses, including Pradeep Sopory, Stephanie Tong, Julie Novak, Jungmi Jun Wu, Yumin Sheng, Barry Markman, iv who are all prolific scholars and offer me incredible class. I would also like to thank Stine Eckert, Loraleigh Keashly, Katheryn Maguire, Rahul Mitra, Matthew Seeger, Denise Vultee, William Warters, Kelly Young, Kelly Jakes, Michael Fuhlhage, Rosie Jahng, Mary Alleyne, and Victoria Dallas who give me tremendous help and provide me insights during my doctoral studies. I would also like to thank Shelly Binetti Najor, with whom I have been a teaching assistant. I am a better teacher because of her profound impact on my development as a teacher and a young lady. She has a very simple teaching philosophy: when she saw her students, she saw unlimited opportunities. She is an amazing teacher, and full of energy and humor in class. I want to send very warm thanks to my friends and colleagues Kunto Adi Wibowo, Marta Lukacovic, Debbie Sellnow-Richmond, Keith Brown, Ashleigh Day, Lukas Pelliccio, Scott Mitchell, Annisa Rochadiat, Sherri Ter Molen, Domenico Nanni, and Yangsun Hong. They are my close friends in graduate school and I cherished our friendship. Back home, Ying Du and Laizhi Qian remain true friends by checking in on me to make sure I am on the right track. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Zhiying Liu and Zhenhong Yan, for their selfless love and constant support. My parents are my backbone, and they teach me the meaning of unconditional love. I am so proud of being your daughter. Without my parents, I may not have finished. Without my husband, I would not have finished. Therefore, I am deeply grateful to my husband, Wenyang. Your commitment, love, dedication and compromise were all above and beyond what any husband should have to give. I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to have you on my side. Wenyang, there are so many things my heart wants to say to you, all of which can be summed up in just three words- thanks for everything. I love you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ____________________________________________________________ ii Acknowledgments _____________________________________________________ iii List of Tables _________________________________________________________ x List of Figures _________________________________________________________ xi Chapter 1 Introduction __________________________________________________ 1 Why Media Matters in Guaranteeing Good Governance __________________ 3 The Media, Public Opinion and Good Governance _______________________ 7 Comparing Good Governance in China and the United States _____________ 11 Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework ________________________________________ 14 What is Governance? ____________________________________________ 14 Good Governance and Its Relationship to Democracy, Corruption and the Media ________________________________________________________ 21 Measuring Good Governance ______________________________________ 26 Framing Theory _________________________________________________ 28 What is Framing? _______________________________________________ 30 Previous Research on Framing Theory _______________________________ 33 Looking at Spiral of Silence Theory __________________________________ 41 Major Components of Spiral of Silence Theory _________________________ 44 Previous Research on the Theory of Spiral of Silence ___________________ 48 Spiral of Silence in Social Media Contexts ____________________________ 51 Chapter 3 Methodology ________________________________________________ 58 Sampling Strategies and Data Sources_______________________________ 59 Case Studies: Identifying Governance