A Frame Research On U.S. Think-tanks China-related Opinions In National Newspapers

The influence of U.S. think-tank has become increasingly prominent in the field of international communication, and is a very worthwhile research topic. Especially for think-tanks China-related opinions in the mass media platform, the role and the effect of which plays is still a relatively new research direction. This thesis analyzes think-tanks China-related opinions in the newspapers through three aspects: the media type and genre, mode of communication and methods, themes and contents. By resorting to the content analysis and the framing analysis, the thesis puts emphasis on analyzing think-tanks opinions in the media's China-related reports in terms of issue frame and contents frame. On this basis, explores the reasons of characteristics of the frame and make functional analysis between the relationships of think-tanks and media, in order to deepen understanding of the role of think-tanks with the construction of mass media effects.At the operational level, the thesis selects five well-known U.S. think tanks (Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, the Heritage Foundation, Center for Strategic and International Studies, RAND Corporation) as the analysis object, makes its reference texts in the paragraphs of China-related reports and comment articles through 2000-2008 in"The New York Times","Washington Post","Los Angeles Times"—Three U.S. mainstream media coverage as the sample of the analysis. In the"theme framework"level, it focuses on classifying its main issues and hot spots, that is to analyze how think-tanks China-related issues have been incorporated into the media's concerns of line of sight; in the"contents framework"level, it focuses on the study of contents and attitude show bias, intended to consider how the American media to interpret think-tanks China-related issues and opinions.