The Framing Of Nuclear Energy In Chinese Media Discourse

Media’s framing can affect the public’s opinion and policy debates.Investigating the media’s framing of nuclear energy in China,a country with ambitious nuclear development strategy instead of the trend of global phasing out,can contribute the broader understanding of the linkage between media and nuclear energy development.The nuclear energy issue is a policy issue related to the national energy strategy and sustainable development.It goes beyond the scope of energy or environmental issues and directly refers to the deeper issues of institutional security,international politics and cultural concepts.The release of nuclear waste water in Japan on April 13,2021 is a wake-up call for a new era of maturing nuclear technology and wider applications.How to make more "effective,safe,reasonable,environmentally friendly and green" use of nuclear energy and nuclear technology has become a new topic facing the whole world in the new era.Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011,what new changes have been made in the representation of nuclear energy issues by Chinese media? In view of this thinking,this thesis selects four representative newspapers in different functions and analyzes the media framing of nuclear energy in China from2011 to 2021.This thesis uses reports in two national newspapers(People’s Daily,Guangming Daily)and two metropolis dailies(Southern Weekly,Southern Metropolis Daily).Seven hundred and twenty three nuclear energy news reports are collected and coded for analysis using a Perceived Risk-Benefit coding frame,and logit and ordinary least squares regression analysis methods are employed.The results demonstrate that the Chinese media tends to be supportive of nuclear energy and that the Fukushima nuclear waste discharge in 2021,has negatively impacted on the perceived benefit frames and positively impacted on the perceived risk frames.Moreover,national and metropolis newspapers present different framing patterns.People’s Daily and Guangming Daily tend to be more supportive and use perceived benefit frames much more,while Southern Weekly and Southern Metropolis Daily use perceived risk frame for nuclear energy reports.