Mainland China Frames Taiwan: How China's News Websites Covered Taiwan's 2004 Presidential Election

摘要

This study applies framing analysis to online news in China by examining how two mainstream websites in Mainland China, www.people.com.cn (hereafter People) and www.sina.com.cn (hereafter Sina), frame Taiwan's 2004 presidential election and how the presence of news frames varies within the same website as well as between these two websites. Factor analysis gauges four distinguished news frames: conflict, game, ideology and military consequences. Within websites, game and ideology frames are more perceptible than the other two frames. Between websites, the conflict frame is more salient in Sina than in People. The author suggests that generic frames and issue-specific frames can be detected simultaneously. In China, online news frames are identical with the frames underlying traditional mainstream media when it concerns coverage on Taiwan. This study also verifies the validity of the deductive approach in the identification and measurement of news frames.