Representation of China:
A Longitudinal Analysis of Coverage in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times
Abstract
This study examined the coverage of China in the New York Times and Los
Angeles Times between 1992-2001. Across time comparison were made both
within and between the two newspapers in terms of total number of stories,
media frames used and favorability differences. Findings show that coverage
on China has increased significantly over time, but the overall tone
remained negative. Political frames and ideological frames were more likely
to be unfavorable. No significant differences were found between the two
newspapers.
Zengjun Peng*
Doctoral Student
School of Journalism
University of Missouri at Columbia
1000 Hospital Dr. Apt 1J
Columbia, MO65201
(573)- 771-0077
[log in to unmask]
Paper Submitted to the International Communication Division of AEJMC
*The author thanks Prof. Wayne Wanta for his valuable advices and generous
help.
Representation of China:
A Longitudinal Analysis of Coverage in the New York Times and Los Angeles
Times
Abstract
This study examined the coverage of China in the New York Times and Los
Angeles Times between 1992-2001. Across time comparison were made both
within and between the two newspapers in terms of total number of stories,
media frames used and favorability differences. Findings show that coverage
of China has increased significantly over time, but the overall tone
remained negative. Stories presented in political frames and ideological
frames were more likely to be unfavorable. No significant differences were
found between the two newspapers.
Paper submitted to the International Communication Division of AEJMC
Spring 2003
Representation of China:
A Longitudinal Analysis of Coverage in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times
National image is the product of a complex historical process involving the
interplay of many factors, such as the political and social realities of a
particular country, diplomatic relations, and changes in the international
political and economic spheres as well as symbolic representations in the
mass media and popular culture. Among these factors, news media play a
vital role in constructing and shaping the image of a country (Adoni &
Mane, 1984; Wolfsfeld, Avraham, & Abu Raya, 1988) in the sense that events
are framed within ideological, political and cultural contexts to produce
representation of images from which individuals picture the world in their
heads (Lippmann, 1922) and construct their conception of "us" and "them"
(Kellner, 1995). Media make a nation real and tangible by relaying to
audiences a range of images and symbols, events and ceremonies, often live
(Scannnel & Cardiff, 1995). To a certain extent, even the concept of a
nation is merely a symbolic referent, an "imagined community" (Anderson, 1991).
China, a geographically distant country drastically different in almost
every aspect—history, culture, political system, lifestyle—from the United
States, had been a mystery until recent years for the American public, who
consciously or sub-consciously tend to associate the country with pigtails,
concubines, chopsticks, red guards, Mao caps, and of course, the Great Wall
and pandas. Although great changes have taken place in the last 20 years or
so since the implementation of the opening and reform policy, and China has
received increasing international media exposure, its national image has
been largely at the mercy of mainstream American media. Historically,
China has been framed as red China, Communist China, the Tiananmen Square
China, and a developing and threatening China. While the American media
claim objectivity and balance in their reporting, the Chinese official
media accused the American media of demonizing China's international image,
spreading anti-China notions and portraying depressing and concocted
versions of the China threat theory (Beijing Review, 1997).
This study, while making a brief review of media images of China as a
context, concentrated efforts on studying the representation of China in
the mainstream American news media. Based on sample news articles drawn
from two major American newspapers, namely the New York Times and Los
Angeles Times, a quantitative content analysis was conducted within the
theoretical frameworks of framing to (1) examine the characteristics of
media representation of China and (2) explore if there are differences in
their news coverage by comparing the news frames put on China and
favorability across time.
The two years 1992 and 2001 were chosen for comparison for several
considerations:
First, the year 1992 was crucial in Chinese political and economic history.
In that year, the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made the important
South China Tour Talks, which redirected the country back to the reform and
opening track after about two years of setbacks resulting from the
Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. That year was chosen as the starting
point for this study also out of a technical consideration: roughly three
years of time after the Tiananmen Massacre might provide the U.S. media
some time to "normalize" its reporting and calm down from the purely
event-driven condemnation and public outrage.
Since 1992, China has registered rapid economic progress with its GNP
increasing more than 7 percent annually. Relatively speaking, the top
leadership headed by President Jiang Zemin remained stable and secure, and
there have not been major political and social turbulences. And China's
domestic and foreign policies were consistent through the years.
Second, during this period, the Chinese authorities expended
unprecedented efforts in international image building, including two
extensive PR campaigns, one in France in 1999 and the other in the United
States in 2000. This time period also saw China's successful hosting of
several major international events such as the World Expose in Kunming and
the Fortune 500 Forum in Shanghai. The 1997 Hong Kong handover to China was
also historically significant. Most recently, China successfully gained
entry to WTO and won the bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. All of
these have greatly increased China's exposure to the world media, and it is
reasonable to expect some effects on media coverage of China.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times were chosen because of their
prominence and influence. In the case of the New York Times, it is
generally believed that it not only sets the agenda for other U.S. news
media but also exerts strong influences on American leaders and U.S.
foreign policies (Cohen, 1961; Davison, 1976; Weiss, 1974; Graber,
1980). In the case of the Los Angeles Times, geographical and readership
factors are also important considerations, in addition to its prominence as
an influential newspaper. In their study of Los Angeles Times'
international reporting, Beaudoin and Thorson (2001) suggested that the Los
Angeles Times, with its international focus and "international" local
community, provided an excellent model for other metropolitan dailies.
Media, Government Policy and Public Perception
Media are believed to be a fourth branch of the government, or cooperating
part of the total national establishment, and an instrument expressing and
promoting national perspectives in international relationships (Lent, 1977;
Merrill, 1983). Many studies (Chang, 1989; Dorogi, 2001; Yu & Riffe, 1987)
found that the U.S. mainstream media's agenda in reporting international
news has been consistent with the U.S. government shifts in foreign
policy. Politically, national interest seems to be a dominant reason to
keep in line with the state policy; Technically, the limitation in
newsgathering resources often force the news media to rely on government
sources for international reporting.
Studies show that the American public is dependent on the news media for
news about the outside world. Media construct the social reality for the
American public who from news coverage transform the world outside into
pictures in their heads (Lippmann, 1922). It is fair to say that for
average American citizens, foreign affairs are often beyond direct
experience and involvement, and hence their involvement and perception of
the world outside depend heavily on how the issues and consequences are
framed by the policy makers and the news media (Chang, 1988). It is the
news media that are creating and destroying images (Merrill, 1995). The
public, noted by Merrill, hoped that a truthful and unfettered press would
serve the public interest, and a free press can mend differences among
nationalities, classes, and groups. However, in practice, the American
public is more likely to have distorted perceptions of the other parts of
the world through the news coverage of the American media (Galtung & Ruge,
1965; Perlmutter, 1998).
Media Image of China
National image is a complex issue involving the interaction of many factors
through a long period of time. Any attempt to study the media
representation of a particular country has to be put in a historical
context. Therefore, a brief review on the media images of past and present
China is necessary. As John Fairbank (1976) pointed out: "Unless we
recognize the old images when they pop into our minds we may mistake them
for the new China. Similarly, in looking at Chinese life today we can
hardly guess where it is going if we have no picture of where it used to be
(p.xvii)."
Recent history can be categorized into four eras since 1949.
1. The Red China (1949—1979). During the four decades from the founding
of "New China" in 1949 to the establishment of Sino-U.S. diplomatic
relations in 1979, ideological biases had dominated the media coverage of
China. Chang (1989) found that in this period, news coverage of China
seemed to reflect the shifts of Sino-American relations, and representation
of China in American newspapers shifted from the use of ideological and
emotional symbols (Red China, Communist China) to that of legal and precise
symbols (PRC, Mainland China) after the establishment of formal U.S.-China
diplomatic relations in 1979. Chang explained that underlying such a clear
shift of symbols from Communist China to PRC or China was the U. S. desire
to improve relations with China. Chang also found significant differences
between the two periods before and after the normalization of Sino-U.S.
relations in the amount of news space, type of items, subject matter,
sources and attitude directions in Chinese news in the New York Times.
Hao (1990) found in his study on Time's coverage of the Chinese Cultural
Revolution (1966-1976) that the general direction of the magazine's
attitudes towards the People's Republic of China became less unfavorable in
the 1970s than in the 1960s.
2. The "Green" China (1979—1989). Green is here used to symbolize American
media's image of a promising China. The establishment of formal diplomatic
ties lessened the political and ideological tensions between the two
countries, and China's reform and opening policies encouraged the American
media to cover China in a more objective and favorable way. Ge (1999), in
his study of Time's coverage of China, found substantial changes in media
coverage of China, paralleling the shifts of U.S. China Policy. During
1980-85, favorable and neutral paragraphs became more common and
unfavorable paragraphs declined compared to 1960-65. Dorogi (2001) argued
that the news reports in this specific period concentrated on the reformist
nature of the Deng regime while de-emphasizing the political constraints
that were characteristic of Chinese political culture in this era.
3. The Dark China (1989-1992). The Tiananmen Massacre marked an end to the
era of American idealism with regard to American expectations of political
and social liberalization in the PRC (Madsen, 1990). The massacre in
Tiananmen Square badly damaged China's image in the U.S. The webs of
wishful thinking spun by China's reformers and their foreign admirers had
been swept away.
4. The Grey China (1992--Present). Disillusioned by the Tiananmen
crackdown but impressed by the economic progress China has made, the
American media found themselves facing a complicated and unpredictable
China (Mosher, 1990). Media attitudes were mixed. On the one hand, the less
than objective formulation of cross-cultural images by the American press
resulted in the dissemination of highly negative images and impressionistic
stereotypes about the socio-political evolution of China (Dorogi, 2001). On
the other hand, American economic ties with China have been closely
connected and strengthened. In the past decade, the core of American's
China policy had centered on the fundamental financial benefits of the
Sino-American commercial contact. China is regarded both as a strategic
partner and a potential rival. As a result, the emphasis of the media
coverage of China was increasingly placed on a greater global context, and
the themes have been greatly extended from economic development, the nature
of the communist regime, human rights, to Chinese expansionism, and
relations with Hong Kong and Taiwan (Dorogi, 2001).
Media Frames on China
"News is a socially created product, not a reflection of an objective
reality" (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996, p.121). Behind the social construction
of news, one of the most important factors in news coverage is
framing. Norris (1995) defines news frames as cognitive schemata, and
journalists commonly work with news frames to simplify, prioritize and
structure the narrative flow of events. Framing is inevitable in the
process of news production. It is the stage at which journalists define
problems, diagnose causes and make moral judgments (Akhavan-Majid &
Ramaprasad, 2000). News frames are embodied, not in overt evaluative
statements, but rather in "key words, metaphors, concepts, symbols and
visual images emphasized in a news narrative" (Entman, 1991. p.7).
In the case of China, three news frames are consistently salient in U.S.
media's coverage: the political frame, the ideological frame, and the
economic frame.
Political Frame
Political frames refer to the news frame of the media chiefly reflecting
the American government political agenda and foreign policy. Past studies
have shown that with regard to China reporting, there were strong parallel
relationships between the American press and the government policies
(Chang, 1989). The news frame followed a common foe or friend
orientation. An "us" versus "them" Cold War mentality prevailed. For
instance, political unrest in the Communist countries is news, but similar
kinds of unrest in other countries are not. Less developing countries'
national image was often distorted and mispresented, mostly reflecting the
negative side of their societies. The prevailing image of Communist
countries was characterized as an aging, inept leadership that cannot
change or make policy, but can only manipulate it; a crisis-ridden,
decaying system composed of a stagnant, inefficient economy; a corrupt,
bureaucratic elite; and a sick cynical and restive society (Cohen, 1984).
Ideological Frame
Ideological, cultural and social values combine to form this frame. The
American news media portrayal of foreign countries often reflects the
dominant ideology of the host country. (Yu & Riffe, 1988). News reporting
is often motivated by ideology rather than newsworthiness. The emotional
overtone of many news articles, in this regard, are often highly critical
of selective aspects of the Chinese domestic environment, particularly when
domestic circumstances that emerge in China conflict with American cultural
principles of individual liberty, democracy, and human rights. More than
simply a group of facts represented in a sequential manner, the treatment
of events by the mainstream media are carefully arranged, in order to
convey specific and well-defined pictures of modern China in terms of their
emotive and ideological quality (Dorogi, 2001).
Economic Frame
Economic frames emphasize the economic development of a country other than
political and ideological conflicts. This frame is largely the result of
the globalization of American economy. Rather than simply covering
international affairs by country or region, there is an emphasis on
economics, the environment, health, and scores of unifying themes that seek
to make sense of the world relevant to the domestic agenda (Dennis,
1993). With China's international position as an economic powerhouse
expected to substantially increase and the growth of large-scale American
investment in China, the American media tend to cover China more with this
economic frame.
From the above discussions, we may conclude that in general, newspaper
coverage of China has reflected the dominant political agenda of the U.S
government and the ideological framework of the American media. Although
the American government foreign policy may shift from time to time, the
underlying principles remain consistent, as they constitute the fundamental
differences concerning the nature of a political system. Ideology is a
deeply rooted set of philosophical beliefs and social and cultural values
that are not easily changed over time. Therefore, we would expect little
changes concerning the political and ideological frameworks of the American
media. However, as China is vigorously developing its market economy and
becoming an integral part of the global economy, we have reasons to predict
that the American media will increase their coverage on China and use the
economic frames more often in their China reports.
Based on the above discussion, the following hypotheses are proposed:
H1: There is a significant increase in the number of stories on China in
both the newspapers across time.
H2: There are no significant differences in the favorability of the two
newspapers' coverage of China across time.
H3: There are no significant differences in the favorability of the
coverage on China between the two newspapers.
H4: Stories presented in political frames are more likely to be negative.
H5: Stories presented in ideological frames are more likely to be negative.
H6: There is a significant increase in the number of stories presented in
economic frames across time.
Method
The method of content analysis was used in this study.
Content analysis has been defined as a "research technique for the
objective, systematic and quantitative description of the manifest content
of communication" (Berelson, 1952, p.13,). Content analysis is frequently
used in foreign news coverage research because it can help researchers
"learn about news reports' underlying attitudes, biases or repeat themes
(Rubin & Spiele, 1986),) As this study is mainly designed to explore the
across-time differences in the New York Time and the Los Angeles Times'
coverage of China, including the prevailing tone and the news frames used,
content analysis was decided as the appropriate and valid method.
Unit of Analysis
Different units of analysis such as the single word, symbols, the theme,
the character, sentence or paragraph and the item are generally used in
content analysis. Among them, item is commonly used in exploring
differences in coverage characteristics of different periods. Therefore,
single story is the unit of analysis for the study.
Sampling
The sample population here refers to all the news stories and editorials
covering China by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times at two
different time periods. The first time period was the entire year of 1992
and the second time period was the entire year of 2001. The sample
population was generated by a key word search (China, Chinese or PRC)
through the two newspapers' archives in the online Nexis and Lexis
database. Although researchers have shown repeated concerns about the
missing of visual elements of the database, this possible problem is less
relevant here as this particular study deals only with textual presentations.
Ideally, systematic random sampling is desirable for quantitative
studies. However, in this particular study, the method of systematic random
sampling, in which "every nth subject or unit is selected from a
population" (Wimmer & Dominick, 2000, p.87) would most probably result in
problems of typicality, as news content distribution will not be randomly
disseminated over years, months and days. Therefore, a stratified sampling
seems to be more appropriate. Thus, two constructed weeks were used to
represent the stories of each year for each paper.
Sampling Validity
Although the use of online databases is fairly common for retrieving
newspaper items (Roberts, 1997), there is often the risk of sampling errors
caused by (a): the problems of not all editions of a newspapers are
included in the database, (b): the problem of semantic validity. These
problems may lead to two common errors: the error of omission (the
exclusion of relevant content items) and the error of commission (the
inclusion of irrelevant content items). To address these concerns, a
pre-sampling test was conducted. First, articles of one randomly selected
week for each of the newspapers were retrieved from Nexis and Lexis.
Second, articles of the same week were recorded from the microfilmed
newspapers archives. An adapted precision test method initiated by
Yanovitzky and Bennett (1999) was used to measure the precision. That is,
the number of relevant articles retrieved online was divided by the number
of articles of the same period recorded from the microfilm archive. The
results showed a high precision (precision=0.95 for the New York Times, and
precision=0.96 for the Los Angeles Times). Hence, the concern of sampling
errors was removed.
Coding Scheme
Favorability refers to the overall tone manifested in the individual
stories, which was determined by a modified index originally proposed by
Budd, Thorp, and Donohew (1967, p.53-54). The index was created as a
quantitative content analysis tool to judge how news reporting reflects
prevailing impressions toward a social actor and its positive, negative, or
neutral range.
A positive story was operationally defined as the overall tone or
prevailing elements in the story that suggest political, social and
economic stability/strength, and progress and improvement, which tend to
contribute to a favorable image of China.
A negative story was operationally defined as the overall tone or
prevailing elements in the story that suggest political, social and
economic instability/weakness, conflicts, and human rights, religious and
other problems, which tend to contribute to a unfavorable image of China.
A neutral story was operationally defined as the overall tone or prevailing
elements in the story is either a balance of negative or positive, or mixed.
Favorability and unfavorability were rated on a Likert-type scale from 1
(very negative) to 5 (very positive).
The use of a Likert-type scale enabled flexibility in judgment, including
providing guidance for coding stories as neutral:
"Clearly, the mathematical "middle point" along such a scale will be an
arbitrary outcome (depending on the specific channels and content chosen
and the criteria applied for judging value implication) and not an absolute
standard. However, the method serves quite well for comparative and
relative assessment" (McQuail, 1992, p.227).
In using the Likert-type scale, coders were instructed to follow McQuail's
(1992) aforementioned tradition to decide based on a "speculation of a
common-sense kind on the likely impression made on an average audience"
(p.227).
Media frames were operationally defined by (1) the context in which the
stories are constructed, which is chiefly reflected by the subject and
theme matters; (2) the value sets or judgment system used for problem
definition, moral evaluation and treatment recommendation, etc.
Three news frames used in this study are political frames, ideological
frames, and economic frames.
A political frame will be recorded if the story is presented in a political
context and framed in line with the American government political agenda,
e.g. depicting China as "Communist regime," "undemocratic decaying
political system," "crisis ridden," etc.
An ideological frame will be recorded if the story is presented in an
ideological context or defined in line with cultural bias or moral
evaluation. For instance, emphasizing birth control as a human rights
issue while ignoring other aspects of the problem often reveals an
ideological bias.
An economic frame will be recorded if the story is presented in an economic
context, or with emphasis on the financial and economic aspects.
Although there might be strong connections between topic domains and the
three frames suggested in this study, the major differences between them
lie in the context and cultural norms and values in which the story is
framed. For instance, a topic on China's communication industry might be
framed as an issue of freedom of speech, market place of ideas, etc.
Therefore, a story in the economic domain may have a political or
ideological frame.
Intercoder Reliability
Two independent coders, both journalism graduate students, were involved in
the coding work. A coding manual was discussed and agreed upon by the two
coders. Then 10 percent of the stories were both coded by the two
independent coders. The results were tested with the Holsti reliability
formula (Holsti 1969, p. 140).
In this study, reliability coefficient was found at 0.90 for the overall
average, with 0.91 for the favorability rating, and 0.89 for the frames
categories.
Statistical Tests
Chi-square was employed to see whether there would be significant increase
in the newspapers' coverage of China, particularly if there were more
economic frames used in their coverage. T-tests were used to determine
whether any significant differences existed across time and between the
coverage of the two newspapers in terms of favorability.
Results
A total of 189 articles were analyzed: N=39 for the year 1992, and 65 for
2001 for the New York Times, and N=33 for the year 1992, and 52 for 2001
for the Los Angeles Times. Specific distributions of news stories and
favorability ratings by the two newspapers in the two time periods are
summarized in Table 1. Favorability is rated on a Likert scale from 1 (very
negative) to 5 (very positive).
[Insert Table 1 about here]
This study also proposed to identify three news frames (political frames,
ideological frames and economic frames) suggested by previous studies in
analyzing media coverage of international events and issues. The results
are presented in Table 2:
[Insert Table 2 about here]
H1 predicted that there was a significant increase in the number of stories
on China across time. Chi-square test on the distribution of the number of
stories of two different time periods shows a significant result (72 to 117
stories). Therefore, H1 is supported.
H2 predicted that there were no significant differences in the
favorability of the two newspapers' coverage on China across time. Based on
the result of the two-tailed t test on the means of the two time periods
(Table 1), the null hypothesis is accepted.
H3 predicted there were no significant differences between the two
newspapers in their favorability of China. This too is supported by the
result of the two-tailed t test (Table 1).
H4 stated that politically framed stories on China were more likely to be
negative. As shown by the favorability means in Table 2, the stories in
political frames are consistently negative, with means below the neutral
mean index of 3. H4 is supported.
H5 predicted that ideologically framed stories on China were more likely to
be negative. The average mean of 1.24 for all the stories with ideological
frames offered support for the hypothesis.
H6 predicted that there is a significant increase of stories presented in
economic frames. The result of Chi-square test indicates no significant
differences across time. Thus, H6 is rejected.
Discussion
This study examined the China coverage in two major U.S. newspapers by
chiefly comparing the total number of stories, the dominant media frames
used, and favorability differences across time and between the two
newspapers. The results of the longitudinal content analysis show several
important findings.
First, this study found a significant increase in the number of stories on
China. Both newspapers demonstrated more than 50 percent increases over
time (from 33 to 52 for the Los Angeles Times, and 39 to 65 for the New
York Times). This might be due to several important factors. One is the
remarkable social and economic changes in China resulting from its
continued reform and opening efforts in the past 20 years or so. Related to
this is China's growing international influence and consequently increased
international media exposure. Another important factor is the relatively
stable and strengthening diplomatic relations and economic ties between the
United States and China. Ahern (1984) found that economic and political
factors exerted a strong influence on international news coverage in U.S.
newspapers. He particularly pointed out that a country's gross national
product trade and political relations with the United States could be
important predictors of the amount of coverage the country received. This
study provided further evidence to Ahern's conclusion. This finding is
especially noteworthy and impressive that such increase was recorded
against a general sharp decline of foreign news coverage in the American
news media (Emery, 1989; Stepp, 1999). Although this study failed to
support the hypothesis that there was an increase in economic frames, the
stories with economic frames showed a higher favorability rating ( mean
index=3.1).
Second, the results of this longitudinal content analysis show that the
overall tone of the stories on China remains consistently negative across
time and there are no significant differences between the New York Times
and the Los Angeles Times. The results also show that political frames and
ideological l frames are predominantly negative. These findings
corresponded with results of previous studies (Dorogi, 2001; Emery, 1989;
Goodman, 1999; Perlmutter, 1998;) that the American mainstream news media
tend to frame international news stories with political and ideological
biases, and these biases remain persistent despite the dramatic political,
social and economic changes that have taken place in the countries being
covered. Throughout the history of American international journalism, there
has been a "strong ideological inclination toward interpreting foreign
cultures via domestic standards of evolutionary progression" (Dorogi 2001,
p.79). In the case of China, although there has been fluctuation of media
frames during different historical periods, the prevailing themes in
covering the socio-political climate in China were "tainted with an
ethnocentric negativity" (Dorogi 2001, p. 79). Apart from the political
and diplomatic factors, ideological and cultural differences may account
for a great deal of the negative frames on China. For instance, birth
control is more likely to be framed as a human rights issue in the American
news media despite the fact there are other related issues such as
population pressure versus economic development.
The consistent political, ideological and cultural biases in U.S. media's
China coverage might also be explained by some of the practical problems
that journalists faced in their China reporting. First of all, the
historical, cultural and political complexity of the Chinese society posed
great challenges for American journalists to put news event in accurate and
proper contexts. Without adequate, reliable and easily accessible official
Chinese sources, most of the journalists have to develop and use
alternative sources for their news stories. For instance, American
embassy, American businessmen and students in China often are sources
frequented by the American journalists. Even if they extend their efforts
to local sources, their pools of candidates are likely to be intellectuals,
particularly political dissidents, who can communicate in English and often
have a pro-American orientation and are critical of China. Secondly, the
field reporters' frames are constantly affected and shaped by the editorial
decisions made by their editors--gate-keepers back home. Addressing the
problems of U.S. media coverage of China, Oksenberg (1994) discussed the
existing gap between correspondents in the field and editors at the
headquarters. He stated that set images of China—both favorable and
unfavorable—have taken hold of the public, including editors, and
"dispatches that have not accorded with mood have been more prone to
rejection, heavy editing, or being accompanied by a misleading headline"
(p.213). Such editorial gate-keeping has pressed upon the journalists in
the field certain frames in their routine coverage. This perhaps explained
the persistent negative political and ideological frames despite the many
changes taking place in reality.
The above factors may also provide reasons why there are no significant
differences between the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times in their
overall favorability toward China.
Nonetheless, results of this study suggested positive signs in U.S. media's
coverage of China as shown by the significant increase in the total number
of news stories, and the slightly lesser negative stories, though not
statistically significant, in both newspapers across time.
Limitations
This study only sampled stories at two time points. This might limit the
study from identifying possible fluctuations of media frames within this
time period and offering a more comprehensive picture. Also, as often found
in framing analysis, the definition of frames and favorability ratings are
largely the researchers' subjective, arbitrary inferences from the texts.
Although this study has paid particular attention to sampling validity and
intercoder reliability, there are still possible cultural and personal
biases in coding and interpreting the findings. Finally, in doing content
analysis, there is often the risk of "missing the substance while counting
the numbers." Therefore, it is advisable for future studies to use both
qualitative content analysis and qualitative textual analysis to examine
both the trends and characteristics of framing in international coverage.
Nonetheless, findings of this study do provide some insights into the most
recent patterns and trends in U.S. news coverage of China. Overall, the
American news media have remarkably increased their China coverage, and the
generally tone appeared to be slightly less negative. All these are
positive signs both reflecting and promoting the healthy development of
U.S.-China relations and the understanding between peoples of the two
countries. However, the findings also show that political and ideological
frames were dominant in the coverage, and they were more likely to be
negative. As before, this poses one of the major challenges for the U.S.
news media as how to present the world to the public with more accuracy and
context, but less political and ideological biases.
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Table 1: Distribution of News Stories and Related Favorability Means
1992
2001
Total
N
Favorability
N
Favorability
N
Favorability
NYTimes
39
2.31
65
2.57
104
2.47
LATimes
33
2.48
52
2.40
85
2.44
Total
72
2.38
117
2.50
189
2.46
1. Chi-square test on the distribution of total number of stories by
year: X2=10.7 with df=1 p=0.001
2. Two tail t tests on the favorability means by year and by paper show
no significant results at p< 0.05
Table 2: Distribution of Frames and Related Favorability Means
Frames
1992
2001
Total
Mean
N
Mean
N
Mean
Political
31
2.33
52
2.57
83
2.45
Ideological
22
1.21
33
1.27
55
1.24
Economic
Other
Total
13
6
72
3.2
2.34
2.39
23
9
117
3.1
2.35
2.50
36
15
189
3.15
2.32
2.46
Chi-square test on the distribution of economic framed stories by year
shows no significant result at p<0.05.
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