Framing Analysis On The Reports Of COVID-19 Epidemic In The U.S. From China’s Mainstream Media

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019 has attracted the attention of all the countries because of its strong contagiousness since it hit the world.The COVID-19 epidemic has taken a toll in the countries all over the world in a short period of time,not only posing a huge threat to the health and life of the human beings,but also exerting a profound impact on the political,economic,cultural,social and other aspects of all the countries.As the United States has also been hard struck by the epidemic,the country shifted the responsibility of its failure to fight the epidemic to China,which was the first country to report the COVID-19 confirmed cases.Under such a background,Chinese mainstream media have to strengthen their coverage of the outbreak in the U.S and construct specific news frames to ensure that their reports can lead the public opinion while achieving the basic news reporting requirements,so that China can respond effectively to the stigmatization from the U.S.Xinhua News Agency(Henceforth Xinhua)is not only the representative of China’s mainstream media,but also the flagship media for international communication.There is a great value to study the relevant reports on Xinhua because its coverage of the epidemic situation in the U.S.can reflect the Chinese government’s positions and the overall trend of China’s mainstream media’s reporting on the COVID-19 situation in the U.S.Based on the settings above,the paper selects 281 news reports from the Xinhua’s multimedia database which has a relatively large sample size.The paper takes the news framing theory and Professor Zang Guoren’s three-level structures theory as the main theoretical basis to conduct a de-structuring analysis of Xinhua’s news frames of reporting the COVID-19 situation in the U.S.The main research methods adopted in this paper are content analysis and framing analysis.Through the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,the research samples are categorized and analyzed for the frames including high-,medium-,and low-level structures.In the high-level structure,this paper studies the characteristics of Xinhua’s reporting topics,the number of reports,the length of reports and the genres.In the medium-level structure,the paper takes the advantage of the news schemata proposed by Professor Zang Guoren to study the text structure of Xinhua’s relevant reports.In the low-level structure,this paper focuses on revealing the language features of Xinhua’s reports from three perspectives:the tones,the keywords,and the use of numbers.With the analysis mentioned above,the characteristics and the reasons for the formation of Xinhua’s U.S.-related epidemic news frames are completely revealed.This study finds that in the high-level structure of Xinhua’s news frames,the reporting topics are rich and diverse,and can basically cover the epidemic-related affairs in the U.S.that domestic and foreign audiences focus on.The change of the number of Xinhua’s reports follows the ups and downs of the epidemic situation in the U.S.and China as well as the Chinese government’s needs to make a response.The genres and length of Xinhua’s reports are reorganized according to the different topics of the reports,which plays an important role in achieving Xinhua’s reporting goals.In the medium-level structure,Xinhua constructs a complete text structure for its reports,and different text structures can be constructed to support different topics,so as to ensure that the content and main ideas of the reports can be clearly conveyed to the audience.In the low-level structure,Xinhua’s reporting tone is neutral but negative,and Xinhua is good at attracting audiences’ attention and enhancing the reporting effect through the use of numbers.Based on the research findings mentioned above,this paper further summarizes the reasons for the formation of Xinhua’s news frames of reporting the epidemic situation in the U.S.First,the COVID-19 epidemic has influenced the world for over two years and hit almost all the countries in the world,which sets the background for Xinhua to make its news frames.Second,the politicization of the epidemic adds fuel to the argument between China and the U.S.In order to protect China’s national interests,Xinhua’s news frames need to respond to the remarks about China’s fight against the virus made by the U.S.Third,the difference in the anti-epidemic policy between China and the U.S.makes the epidemic situation in both countries different.The collision of collectivism and individualism on the fight against the virus also makes Xinhua’s news frames emotionally biased.Fourth,Chinese media pursue Marxist Outlook on Journalism which highlights the party spirit and affinity to the people.As a result,Xinhua has to adjust its news frames to make the government’s attitudes and positions on the U.S.fight against the epidemic clear when keeping its reports truthful and objective.Fifth,China’s mainstream media have some connectivity with the government,which makes them politically inclined to adjust the reporting frames to serve China’s political needs.This study can provide referential value to perfecting the epidemic coverage of China’ mainstream media,helping improve the authenticity and impartiality of the reports about the epidemic situation in the U.S and other western countries.Moreover,the study can also play an important role in making the epidemic reports of China’s mainstream media accepted by both the domestic and foreign audiences,raising China’s voice in epidemic-related affairs,and building a global community of health for all.