This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Beaudoin, C. E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

SARS News Coverage and Its Determinants in China and the US

Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, 1440 Canal St., Suite 2315, TW19, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA, beaudoin@ tulane.edu

/ This study investigates the prevalence of news frames in SARS news coverage from the Xinhua News Agency and the Associated Press (AP), as well as whether the frames were predicted by news environment and the SARS timeline. Factor analysis supported four frame dimensions: attribution of responsibility, human interest, economic consequences and severity. Frame prevalence was considered in terms of, first, the story as the unit of analysis and, second, word count as the unit of analysis. For both types of measurement, attribution of responsibility and severity frames were more common in AP. For economic consequences, story frame prevalence was higher in AP, while word frame prevalence was higher in Xinhua. For both types of measurement, economic consequences decreased over time, while attribution of responsibility and severity increased. Attribution of responsibility and human interest frames increased more over time in AP, while the severity frame increased more over time in Xinhua.

Key Words: framing • news • news agency • news frames • SARS

References

• Akhavan-Majid, R. (2004) `Mass Media Reformation in China: Toward a New Analytical Framework', Gazette 66(6): 553—65.[Abstract]
• Andsager, J.L. (2000) `How Interest Groups Attempt to Shape Public Opinion with Competing News Frames', Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 77(3): 577—92.
• Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (2004a) `Impact of SARS on China', Asian Pacific Biotech News 8(4): 212—14.
• Asia-Pacific Economic Corporation (2004b) `The Impact of SARS on the United States Economy', Asia Pacific Biotech News 8(5): 842.[CrossRef]
• Associated Press (2005) `Facts & Figures', January 2005; at: www.ap.org/pages/about/about.html Bagdikian, B.H. (1990) The Media Monopoly, 3rd edn. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
• Balfour, F. (2003) `Bloomberg, Reuters — and Xinhua?', Business Week 17 February; at: www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_07/b3820149_mz035.htm
• Bardhan, N.R. (2001) `Transnational AIDS/HIV News Narratives: A Critical Exploration of Overarching Frames', Mass Media and Society 4(3): 283—310.
• Bennett, W.L. (1995) News: The Politics of Illusion. New York: Longman.
• Briggs, W. (2004) `North America', pp. 430—64 in A.S. de Beer and J.C. Merrill (eds) Global Journalism: Topical Issues and Media Systems. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
• Chan, L.C.Y., B. Jin, R. Rousseau, L. Vaughan and Y. Yu (2002/3) `Newspaper Coverage of SARS: A Comparison among Canada, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Western Europe', Cybermetrics 6/7(1).
• Entman, R.M. (1993) `Framing: Toward Clarification of Fractured Paradigm ', Journal of Communication 43: 51—8.[CrossRef]
• Fiske, S.T. and S.E. Taylor (1991) Social Cognition, 2nd edn. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Freedom House (2004) Freedom of the Press 2004: A Global Survey of Media Independence. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
• Gamson, W.A. and A. Modigliana (1987) `The Changing Culture of Affirmative Action', pp. 53—76 in R.G. Braungart and M. Braungart (eds) Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
• Gitlin, T. (1979) `Prime Time Ideology: The Hegemonic Process in Television Entertainment', Social Problems 26: 251—66.[CrossRef]
• Graber, D.A. (1993) Mass Media and American Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
• Hermann, E.S. and N. Chomsky (1988) Manufacturing Consent. New York: Pantheon Books.
• Huang, Y. and C.C.M. Leung (2005) `Western-Led Press Coverage of Mainland China and Vietnam During the SARS Crisis: Reassessing the Concept of "Media Representation of Other"', Asian Journal of Communication 15(3): 302—18.
• Iyengar, S. (1991) Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Liebman, B.L. (2005) `Watchdog or Demagogue? The Media in the Chinese Legal System', Columbia Law Review 105(1): 1—157.
• Luthra, R. (1999) `The Women's Movement and the Press in India: The Construction of Female Foeticide as a Social Issue', Women's Studies in Communication 22(1): 1—24.
• Neuman, W.R., M.R. Just and A.N. Crigler (1992) Common Knowledge: News and the Construction of Political Meaning. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Rosenstock, I.M., V.J. Strecher and M. Becker (1988) `Social Learning Theory and the Health Belief Model ', Health Education Quarterly 15: 175—83.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Scheufele, D.A. (1999) `Framing as a Theory of Media Effects', Journal of Communication 49(1): 103—22.
• Semetko, H.A. and P.M. Valkenburg (2000) `Framing European Politics: A Content Analysis of Press and Television News', Journal of Communication 50: 93—109.
• Shoemaker, P.J. and S.D. Reese (1996) Mediating the Message, 2nd edn. White Plains, NY: Longman.
• Siebert, F.S., T. Peterson and W. Schramm (1956) Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility, and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Solomon, W.S. (1992) `News Frames and Media Packages: Covering El Salvador ', Critical Studies in Mass Communication 9: 56—74.
• Tian, Y. and C.M. Stewart (2005) `Framing the SARS Crisis: A Computer-Assisted Text Analysis of CNN and BBC Online News Reports of SARS', Asian Journal of Communication 15(3): 289—301.[CrossRef]
• Wallis, P. and B. Nerlich (2005) `Disease Metaphors in New Epidemics: The UK Media Framing of the 2003 SARS Epidemic', Social Science and Medicine 60: 2629—39.[CrossRef]
• Washer, P. (2004) `Representations of SARS in the British Newspapers ', Social Science and Medicine 59: 2561—71.[CrossRef][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• WHO (World Health Organization) (2003a) `Summary of Probable SARS Cases'; at: www.who.int/csr/sars/country/table2003_09_23/en/
• WHO (World Health Organization) (2003b) `Update 95 — SARS: Chronology of a Serial Killer'; at: www.who.int/csr/don/2003_07_04/en/
• Wilson, N., G. Thomson and O. Mansoor (2004) `Print Media Response to SARS in New Zealand', Emerging Infectious Diseases 10(8): 1461—3.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Winfield, B.H. and Z. Peng (2005) `Market or Party Controls? Chinese Media in Transition ', Gazette 67(3): 255—70.[Abstract]
• Winfield, B.H., T. Mizuno and C.E. Beaudoin (2000) `Confucianism, Collectivism, and Constitutions: Press Systems in China and Japan', Communication Law and Policy 5(3): 323—47.[CrossRef]
• Witte, K. (1992) `Putting the Fear Back into Fear Appeals: The Extended Parallel Process Model', Communication Monographs 59: 329—49.[Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
• Xinhua (2005) ` Brief Introduction'; at: www.xinhuanet.com/english/aboutus.htm
• Yin, J. and G. Payne (2004) `Asia and the Pacific', pp. 342—98 in A. de Beer and J.C. Merrill (eds) Global Journalism: Topical Issues and Media Systems. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
• Zhang, E. and K. Fleming (2005) `Examination of Characteristics of News Media under Censorship: A Content Analysis of Selected Chinese Newspapers' SARS Coverage', Asian Journal of Communication 15(3): 319—39.
• Ziporyn, T. (1988) Disease in the Popular American Press: The Case of Diphtheria, Typhoid Fever, and Syphilis, 1870—1920. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

International Communication Gazette, Vol. 69, No. 6, 509-524 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1748048507082839


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Beaudoin, C. E. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?