ROSY FRAMING IN NEWS TITLES WITH THE US-CHINA RELATION & MILITARY-RELATED NEWS

Yan Jingya

A Project Submitted

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Communication

Supervisor: Dr. ZHAO Xinshu

School of Communication Hong Kong Baptist University

Hong Kong May 2017

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Dr. ZHAO Xinshu for his advice and support in the

preparation of this project. She is also grateful to her parents for their love in the past one

year.

Part of the work presented in this project was done in collaboration with Miss. Angela

Wang while she is the PHD candidate in the School of Communication, Hong Kong

Baptist University. The coding process is under her guidance. The author also wishes to

thank Miss. Ji, Miss. Qian, Miss. Bao and Miss. Shi. The coding process wouldn’t be

such successful without their help. All other field research described in this project was

my own original work and was carried out by myself under the supervision of Dr. ZHAO.

(signature)______YAN JINGYA________

(Student‘s name)

M.A. in Communication

School of Communication

Hong Kong Baptist University

Date:____15/5/2017______

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Authorization

This is to authorize the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University to

place my project titled ―Rosy Framing in News Titles with The US-China Relation &

Military-Related News in the HKBU library for general public reference and inspection.

Name in block letters _ YAN JINGYA___

Student ID 16442024_ ____

Signature___YAN JINGYA______

Date_________15/5/2017________

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MA Graduation Project

PLAGIARISM DECLARATION FORM

This form must be completed, signed, dated and included with the Project submitted to

the University for marking.

Student Name: YAN JINGYA

Student Number: 16442024

Name of Project: Rosy Framing in News Titles With The US-China Relation &

Military-Related News

Submission Date: 15/5/2017

Declaration:

I have read the relevant sections on Plagiarism provided in the Handbook for Graduation Project and

observed the standards of conduct. I am fully aware of the consequences in the event of plagiarism.

I declare that, to the best of my knowledge, this project represents my own work and all sources have been

properly acknowledged, and the Project contains no elements of plagiarism.

I further declare that the Project has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report

submitted to this University or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualification.

Student‘s Signature: YAN JINGYA

Date: 15/5/2017

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Abstract

In this fast-reading age, compared to news content, news titles share a more important

position in spreading information and make more significant efforts in framing. Framing

theory has been studied by two decades and large amounts of research paper focus on this

field. However, studies about the news titles framing are rare. With more obvious

patterns, the news titles frame deserve to be taken a deep research in the title-driven

times. In addition, since the information flows fast, the framing presents varieties of

ways. In this paper, framing with the positive tendency, especially which is positive to

the certain audience, is the main object of study. With agenda-setting theory and its

second level theory, framing, this paper crawled the data from a noticeable online news

website Toutiao.com as the big data database. By constructing the coding system and the

framing categories, some special framing patterns are traced and are under the deeper

analysis. Among the results, this paper gives special attention to the US-China relation

and military-related news titles. In most cases, this kind of news titles are with significant

patterns which is worthy of exploring their deep implications to some certain news

events. They are not only influenced by the government and censorship system, but also

affected in the trend of free marketing and eye-catching economy. Therefore, this paper

has combined with previous theoretical mechanisms and the contemporary social reality

to examine the news titles frame. Although this paper cannot reach every aspect of

framing process, some relationships between some isolated notions can be built according

to observation and data analysis. Further researches will continue to study the framing

process and effects in the decentralized online communication.

Keywords: framing, US-China relation, military news, news titles

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Contents

Introduction 2

Conceptualization 5

Framing and News Title Frames 5

Frames about the China-US Relation and Military Related News 8

Rosy Framing 10

Research Question 15

Hypothesis 15

Methodology 16

Inter-coder Reliability 17

Coding Method 17

Findings 19

Discussion and Conclusion 25

Exhibits 30

Reference 33

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Introduction

News has been seen as a man-made outcome of a socially constructed reality. With a

combination of perceived reality and underlying information, the frame is omnipresent in

media discourse. Journalists intentionally or unintentionally carry ideological messages

and which is represented in the news titles by frame. It is a resonance to the overall tone

of the national propaganda system.

In earlier research, China’s news media was usually considered as being taken under

control and was treated as important instruments by the authority. With the growth of

liberalization trend in China, however, news media in China is no longer be regarded as

merely presenting propaganda. Being influenced by western news reporting values and a

series of economic reform, China’s news media has been with various diction and

reporting styles of now (Luther & Zhou, 2005 ). Additionally, a few of self-media

terminals have bloomed and how to survival in the consumerism-oriented market turns

into a focus. Multiple factors have an impact on the frame of China’s news media at the

same time and hence researchers cannot simplify all the news frame as a manipulation or

an indoctrination of Chinese public mind. Taking multi-polarization into consideration,

both of the external factors, like the world pattern, the economic situation and the

mainstream ideology, and the internal factors, like the features and skills of framing,

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influence the frame consequences. But it doesn’t mean that the news frame is out of

regulations. There is a battery of news frame patterns can be traced.

The news is not only serves as an information provider system, but also a tool to

integrating the public into a larger society with certain values and beliefs which carried

by the frame (Herman & Chomsky, 1988). Understanding how frames work helps us to

measure the attitude of the government to China-US relation. We can also find out the

preferred versions of foreign affairs for the audience and the preferred reporting ways of

media. Framing has the ability to select and highlight some facets of events. Certain

connections can be made during the process so as to promote a particular interpretation

and/or evaluation (Entman, 2003). By using certain words or phrases or different

information sources, the frame may narrow or define the keynote of a given news issue

(Lane, 1998). In China’s socio-historical context, the role of media, particularly those

official media agencies which considered as a mouthpiece of the China's Communist

Party, their framing tone usually tend to be positive. Even some news events contain

conflicts and challenges can be framed in an optimistic way. Or some news contents are

reported in an objective way and a relatively neutral attitude in their, but the news titles

are exaggerative or using completely opposites to draw attention.

Compared to the news contents, news title shows its significant inclination of shaping

people’s ideas in this fast-reading era. Especially when it comes to some politics and

military-related news, the way of making news titles usually has certain patterns.

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Whatever rhetorical device the journalists choose, they aim at a positive frame for the

national image and for the Chinese readers. In this title-reading age, this phenomenon can

be intensely perceived. Limited but impactive words and phrases in the news title

reinforce the message. Among all the political news and international news, those ones

related the United State. has relatively more obvious features. America remains its

powerful identity and global leadership position in the world, while China experiences a

rise on the global stage which is one of the most important worldwide events in the 21st

century. A wave of “China Threat Theory” emerges. Under this circumstances, US-China

relation becomes a high-profile issue. Except for some periods of open conflict in

historical time, with mutual political and economic interests, currently, the relation

between the two countries have generally been stable. However, there are still some

sensitive topics between China and the United States, for example, the South China Sea,

Taiwan issue, and human rights, which may cause conflicts. Therefore, the news frame

referred to the U.S related news has its peculiarity. To illustrate this framing

phenomenon, this research has traced more than 40,000 news titles from Toutiao.com, a

news and information platform with a Beijing-based headquarter which attracted more

than 600 million users, to make the invisible visible.

Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the features of Chinese news frame patterns

the political, military and the US-China relation related news frame in particular, in

today’s China news media (Toutiao.com) and to examine how them work.

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Conceptualization

Framing and News Title Frames

Framing operates in a cognitive process. It is raised by Goffman (1974) as schemata of

interpretation which can be perceived and interpret when it renders the change of

meaning and experiences. As for the news frame, first introduced by Tuchman (1978), it

is the social construction of news, which organizes daily reality. People’s perception of a

news event can be affected by framing, which is not only about the individual value

difference but rather on social values such as ethics, social norms, and interest-group

pressures, especially for political news. Gitlin (1980) and Entman (1991) definite the

news frame in a direction of specifically political communication field related. It is also

categorized as an extension of agenda-setting by McCombs, Shaw & Weaver (1997).

Additionally, framing is an important process by which mentally stored message is

transmitted (Majid & Ramaprasad, 1998).

Framing mechanisms deliver both ideological principles and textual information of the

news content (Entman, 1993). According to Gitlin (1980), there are two kinds of bias,

selection bias, and description bias, exist in the framing process. He defined the bias

came from the media perspective. Journalists control the information sources and the way

of reporting. They package the organized information to the audience. Meanwhile, we

cannot ignore the activeness of audience. Gitlin (1980) sees the framing process as

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persistent ‘‘persistent patterns of cognition, interpretation, and presentation, of selection,

emphasis, and exclusion’’. The news information is processed for the news media

professionals and their audience as well. Considering media effects, Scheufele (1999)

categorized a framing process model along two dimensions: media frames or audience

frames. It is important to note that the framing bias act in the audience perspective as

well. The preference of target audience and the mainstream of public opinion affect what

frames to used by the journalist. As Neuman (1992) indicated that a version of reality is a

coalition of personal experience, peer influence and selective information from the mass

media. News media sets frames for reference that audience uses them to discuss news

events. At the same time, the certain ways of framing chosen by news media take

audience’s requirements into consideration. In this case, news framing, based on the

interaction between news providers and audience, can be analyzed from either a media

perspective or a reader perspective.

Despite the active framing transforming process, there are some certain patterns can be

traced. In this paper, I examine the frames of news titles to verify the predicted patterns,

on account of the features of the news titles frames. Firstly, news titles frames, carrying

connotations with limited words, is representative as one of the outcomes of

modernization. Being in pursuit of efficiency and sufficiency, audience drives the trend

of title-reading. People receiving news information have mainly depended on news titles

nowadays. Additionally, news titles frames is a notable variable in this smartphone age.

Smartphone dependency is indisputable and prevails the title reading. Internet/Broadband

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Fact Sheet by Pew Research Centre (2017) takes American adults as a sample. According

to the result of the survey, there is a growing share of people use smartphones, which are

their primary means, to get online access at home. Considering the portability and

multifunction of the smartphone, reading news is the only one of the missions carried out

by this terminal. With limited screen size and a large amounts of information availability,

news should be transmitted timely and tersely, which can be realized through news title

frames. And this kind of direct frames refers to a mode of social constructing

interpretation.

Frames about the China-US Relation and Military Related News

Carrying certain bias message, framing helps people make sense of the meaningless

succession of events. It is critical to shaping individuals’ political attitudes (Goffman,

1974; Iyengar, 1991; Kinder and Sanders, 1990; Nelson, 1997; Lecheler and De Vreese,

2011). Government and journalists exercise political influence by framing all the time.

They intend to raise their own voice and tower over each other and over the public

especially (Riker, 1986; Entman, 2003). To achieve a successful political communication,

appropriate ways of promoting perceptions and interpretations, benefitting one side while

hindering the other, is needed (Entman, 2003). In international relation and

military-related news, the frame presents more intense and strong tendency. It affects

public opinion about national interests and world affairs, and vise versa (Page & Shapiro,

1992). Therefore, when it comes to the news about important international and martial

materials, framing should be cautious in order not to mislead the guidance of public

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opinion and cause the unnecessary tensions and controversies. On the other hand, this

kind of news can also turn into a way of showing and facilitating the national pride and

confidence. Although the conventional context held that national interests act as a humble

role in shaping public opinion (Drezner, 2006; Page and Shapiro, 1992), more recent

researches have challenged this view. Instead of the previous views that only simple

moralistic and legalistic terms can be noticed, audience respond in reasonable ways to the

media coverage of international and martial news (Chong, 1993; Nelson et al, 1997). In

this paper, to see how the frame contains a conflictive and militant message, I give

particular concerns on the news titles referred to China-US Relation and military.

There are several types of comparative research concern about this topic. Parsons and Xu

(1999) studied the Chinese and American image-making news flow during a time of the

mid-1990s. Luther & Zhou (2005) compared the news framing of SARS in Chinese and

American media coverage. Parsons & Xu (2009) took Chinese embassy bombing as a

case study to examine the News framing by the people's daily and the New York Times.

When it come to national level conflicts and disagreements, its news frame is going to be

weighted and representative. In terms of current political orientation, China’s news

coverage and the frame trend focus on its global power enhancement and recognition. But

seldom studies focus on the framing features in contemporary China and its international

affairs aspects.

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China and the United States regards each other as a potential adversary and a strategic

partner at the same time. The China-US relation has been described as the most important

bilateral relationship among the world. As of 2017, the United States and China

respectively enjoy the world's largest the second largest economy, the partnership

between the two has been strengthened on account of the demand for the economic

development. Meanwhile, by the reason of serial events, South China Sea’s ongoing

maritime disputes, China as a major creditor of US public debt, and current U.S.

President Donald Trump’s telephone conversation with President of the Republic of

China, which has never had such contact with Taiwan by a U.S. president since 1979,

have considerably strained US-China relations. What is more, multiple news outlets have

spread the statements of America recession and China threat theory. Anticipating

potential trade or military conflicts between the two countries is prevailing. In this case, I

examine whether the news title framing creates some associations between the present

news events and the target of audience’s judgments or their stereotype images and current

public opinion about the United State (Chong, 1993; Zaller, 1992). In this research,

framing patterns of China-US relation and military-related news will be particularly

analyzed. To see how the news titles frames reflect the national interests and how the

guidance of public opinion presents in the framing process, the notion of Rosy Framing is

raised in this research.

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Rosy Framing

The term framing has been studied over two decades. With the increase of a complex

array of challenges in today’s world, however, the linguistic complexity and variation

added accordingly. There are still plenty of fragmented and theoretically vague need to be

labeled in the operational approaches. According to Entman (2004), if the frame is more

congruent with the dominant political culture schemas, it will enjoy more success in the

communication process. In this case, both of the national interests and national conditions

should be taken into consideration in the framing analysis. According to The 2017 World

Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China was the fifth

from the bottom of the list. As an authoritarian country, it is Internet censorship and

propaganda flood everywhere. The authority has managed to use the growth of the

Internet to reduce the bad political effects by employing technological means and framing

skills instead of acting as an internet holdout (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2005;

Morozov, 2011).

Internet information is usually considered as the role of freedom and anti-regime though,

in authoritarian countries, the information has another processing mechanism. Some

researchers argued that the internet has challenged the information control of the

authority. Due to anonymity, low cost and fast communication speed, negative news, like

the problems of corruption and social injustice, can be exposed on the Internet easily

(Best and Wade, 2009; Diamond, 2010). However, we should narrow it into China and

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the current media discourse. A series of studies examine the framing effect of the Internet

(Coleman and Hall, 2001; Kopacz, 2008; Song, 2007; Zhou and Moy, 2007; Zillmann et

al., 2004). Compared with the traditional news media, online news offer greater freedom

to select information and thus news frames have a stronger selective-exposure effect

(Zillmann, 2004). Online communication is decentralized. It is hard to capture the

audience’s attention in this information explosion times. But with the proper framing, the

news can be popularized in a second. Once you get the framing patterns, then you get the

way connected to people’s cognitive regulation and deliver any ideas through the

framing.

Heider (1930) assumed that people cannot understand the reality because of its

complexity. Sensory information is a channel for the individual infers underlying causal

relations. Political issue is a good example which transmitting the idea of problems by

reducing information. Iyengar (1991) argued that responsibility for social issues can be

framed as individual responsibility at large. The active role of audience and the rising of

free market economy in China is merely a resonance of the superior agenda-setting.

Certainly, not only cognitive factors influence individual judgments, but also within an

appropriate frame of reference (Sherif, 1967). Therefore, frames fermented by audience’s

taste in this title reading age to convey the message of news professionals or the

authority’s real intention. Entman (1993) applied above findings to social settings. He

described the social world as a kaleidoscope of potential realities. Any of the possibilities

can be evoked by altering the framing and categorizing way.

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Based on this theoretical explanation, we can see the commercialisation contributes to

offering varieties of information for the audience, however, the overall tone of the news

media, the centralization of authority in China, is the real message the authority and the

news media set (Tang & Huhe, 2014). Recent studies of the media effect indicate that

higher levels of political support significantly affects the media consumption (Kennedy,

2009; Stockmann & Gallagher, 2011; Yang and Tang, 2010). No matter how alternative

and fancy the news titles is, it is the outcome of the ideology. As China is one of the

world's fastest-growing major economies, it is in an upward trajectory. The framing of

news titles presents in a sensational way of building a positive national image, even

regardless of discordance in the news content.

When it comes to foreign policy related news, conflicts are inevitable. They are

categorized into negative issues very often. However, their framing methods are usually

not in a negative or obvious negative way. Taking U.S. for example, ambiguity has

become increasing common in foreign policymaking related news (Entman, 2004). In

issues like Iraq War, the Korean Airline and 911, Entman (2004) explained the frame

process by his cascade model. News media have become actors in the international

political arena under some circumstances. This kind of role playing is much more

common in China. China’s media has cultivated a relevant framing mode. Some studies

compare the framing mechanism between China and the U.S. within the same news event

(Luther & Zhou, 2005; Parsons & Xiaoge, 2001; Zhou & Mastin, 2014) Simply

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acknowledging that existing news frame might do not help to recognize the implication

of China-specific news production. Politics, ideology and the growing concerns about the

marketing have encroached upon the news-framing process (Berry, 1990). Consideration

should be taken into the popularized collective experience and current political

orientation (Deng & Moore, 2004).

In the international affairs related news, the China-US relation in particular, and

military-related news, the framing pattern are usually inclined to manifest the positive

image of China but defaming America in some extend. This framing tendency is built

mainly for three reasons: firstly, a positive frame is internationally applied when the news

referred to national interests. Secondly, as the watchdog of government officials, news

media discourages the negative framing which is unfavourable for building a bright

national image. What is more, according to the agenda-setting theory, more exposure to

the certain frame could raise the importance that audience attach to. Positive framing as a

tool of propaganda leads the audience to assign a greater weight in subsequent judgments

in their ideology sphere (Nelson, 1997; Brewer, 2006). Under the positive-sum logic

game, Chinese news titles have its noteworthy characteristic.

However, not all frames are with the wielding power to shape public opinion. Research

suggest that “some frames” enjoy a natural advantage while others are the lack of that

which the ideas and language the frame applied have the ability of resonation of a

broader political culture (Gamson, 1992). Therefore, this research has traced the framing

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tendency to examine where and how the wielding power works. Some studies reveal that

constructing frame by culturally resonant terms is an effective way of influence.

Employed highly salient words can make the news titles more noticeable and delivery

message with more emotionally charged (Miller & Riechert, 2001; Snow & Benford,

1988, Entman, 2003). Therefore, in this paper, sensational ways, including using highly

culturally resonant terms, admiring China but defaming other countries, highlighting the

positive side of China national image and etc, are considered to be the rosy framing.

In analyzing more about the tendency and the functions of rosy framing in news titles,

the following research question and hypotheses are posited:

Research Question

To what extend will the news titles framing be more likely to present in a rosy

framing?

Hypothesis

H1: In coverage of military related news titles, the frames will be more likely to

be in rosy framing.

H2: When the military related news refer to the China-US relation, the tendency

of being rosy will strengthen.

H3: Compare to the intrinsic event itself, rosy framing patterns can be examined

among military related news titles by the tendency of being positive.

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H3a: In coverage of military-related news titles, the news titles will achieve more

positive resonation to China as a whole.

H3b: In coverage of military-related news titles, the news titles will achieve more

negative resonation to the U.S. as a whole.

Methodology

There is no single news agency can be fully representative of the various media attitude

in a society. In this big data age, this research chooses one of the most popular news

websites in China as the database to see the larger pictures of the framing patterns.

Content Analysis

This research crawled data from Toutiao.com from March 2015 to November 2016. The

news aggregating website Toutiao.com, based in Beijing, is one of the world’s largest

news Chinese language disseminating platforms, in terms of content volume, the number

of users, and content providers. Powered by a machine-learning system, recommending

content based on individual user’s clicking pattern and preference, Toutiao.com shares a

significant popularity. Considered as an institutional media, Toutiao.com has

communicated with a large number of individuals through institutions. It attracts nearly

160 million visits from Chinese-speaking users every day among the worldwide. Given

this, ideological and political constraints from national censorship sectors of the Chinese

media generally operate upon the Toutiao.com.

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By filtrating the keywords “美” or “美国”, this research narrowed down the range and

select the news titles which mentioned the Unites State from the database in order to

focus on the China-US relation. Then 10,000 news titles are randomly selected from the

filtering result. The coding results generalize to 50,000 the U.S. information related news

titles by machine-learning. After removing duplicate data from spreadsheets, there are

47265 valid news title data. Many research stand in the tradition of deductive approaches,

predefining content analytical categories and summarizing indicators for the certain

framing patterns. As the operationalization of rosy framing has its own characteristic in a

political communication context and for the eye-catching online title phenomenon is not

available from previous research. This paper utilized six related variables to examine the

patterns.

Inter-coder Reliability

Six coders were trained to establish inter-coder reliability in the process. There were six

coding rounds in total. Six independent coders with Chinese native speaking backgrounds

coded approximately 20 percent of the news titles, 10,000 news titles from Toutiao.com.

Without any exposures to the news content, only news titles are examined in the coding

process.

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Coding Method

This research categorized the data to eight variables which is event, frame, object, to

China as a whole, to the U.S. as a whole, the target audience, US-China relation and

Military/War related. The former six variables (event, frame, object, to China as a whole,

to the U.S. as a whole, the target audience) are coded by the measurement scale of

Ordinal (1=non-positive, 2=neutral, 3=positive), while the latter two variables (US-China

relation, Military/War related) are coded by the measurement scale of Nominal

(1=related, 2=no related). This research mainly focus on six variables (event, frame, to

China as a whole, to the U.S. as a whole, US-China relation and Military/War related) to

examine the rosy framing pattern.

It is important to make it clear that the positive as a measuring degree has its special

implication in this research. If the news title contains several objects, I choose the

Chinese perspective or the perspective which is relatively close to Chinese. If the news

title contains the information of the same object with multi-status, I code it to neutral. For

the event, I focus on the intrinsic event itself. If the news title contains the information of

wars, conflicts and criminal issues, it is the non-positive. If the news title contains the

information of progress, discovery, and cooperation, it is positive. For the frame, I see

whether the framing changes the intrinsic implication. Additionally, if the frame is

inclined to positive, then it can be considered as a tendency to be a rosy framing. For the

object, I choose the Chinese perspective or the perspective which is relatively close to

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Chinese, if the news title contains several objects. In the categories of to China as a

whole and to the U.S. as a whole, only those national interests related issues have the

right of being non-positive or positive. All the rest of news titles are in the neutral

category. For the target audience, I mainly concern about the Chinese audience

perspective. About the US-China related category, only the news title contains the

important event referred to the national interests like economic, political and military can

be categorized into US-China related. Those livelihood issues and entertainment news are

not US-China related. For Military/War related category, if the news title contains

weapons, wars, national defense and related words, it can be categorized into

Military/War related. The historical wars interpretation is military/war related as well.

Findings

Among the 47,265 valid data, there are 11,198 military/war related news titles and 36,067

non-military/war related news titles. This research examined the frequency and the

percentage of different framing degrees between these two categories.

Comparing table 1 and table 2, the proportion of positive framing in the military/war

related news titles (27.8%) is larger than the non-military/war related ones (18.7%). To

further expatiate the differences between these two categories, I also tested them by

compare means mechanism. In order to measure the means into a more percipient way, a

new label named reframe is created. The newly-created label reframe is also consist of

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three degrees (0, 0.5 and 1) which relevantly equal to the 1, 2 and 3 of the frame

category. In this case, the compare means can be presented in the dimension from 0.0000

to 1.0000.

From Table 3 we can see the result of compare means of different framing degrees in

military/war related and non-military/war related news titles. It shows military/war

related news titles with the mean of .5217 which larger than the non-military/war related

news titles (=.4980). In other words, it means that military/war related news titles enjoy

much more positive tendency than the non-military related ones. As the previous

demonstration and what is shown in tables above, for H1, in coverage of military related

news titles, the frames will be more likely to be in rosy framing. The one-way ANOVA

runs to determine the statistically significant differences between the means of three

degrees of framing. With the significant figure of “.000”, it shows there are some

differences existed.

Positive frames in the military-related news titles can be regarded as the way of building

powerful national image and raising national confidence. For example, the news title

“After calculation, American found that the airfight loss ratio between F-22 and J-11 is

1:30 which is the gap between China and the U.S during Opium War (美国人计算F-22

与歼11交换比为1:30 差距如同鸦片战争)” is a kind of compensatory framing to the

past. The audience has no idea whether the American really do the calculation and

compare the result to the Opium War. However, this framing patterns successful connect

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the unfamiliar military news with the culturally familiar terms “Opium War”. Added the

remarkable achievements China has made in recent years, this alternative and eye

catching frame tried to compensate the deficiency in Chinese modern history. On the

other hand, in the non-positive tendency framing, we can see the real image of the

national cognition, which is a lack of confidence. For example, “Offical media has

exposured serious defects of J-10, American will mock that China is far away from

informatization (官媒视频曝歼-10B重大缺陷，美国会嘲笑中国根本谈不上信息化)”

this news title is all about a conjecture. Containing the negative message that derision

from the U.S., this news titles make the audience feel inferior. Audience, news media

professionals, and government are at the different level of producing news information.

Each of level has their own mechanism to interpret and building the frame. According to

Entman’s Cascading Activation Model (2004), the further an idea travels through diverse

levels on the cascade, the fainter power people equipped to trace the “real” situation.

Table 5 shows that with the condition of US-China related, the compare means are

different from the table 3 which is only under the condition of military-related. Those

news titles are neither military/war related nor US-China related, they get .4856 in the

compare means measurement, which is smaller than the figure under the onefold

condition. With the dual function of US-China related & military/war related, the means

reach up to .5721 which is much larger than the frame only under the military/war related

condition. The tendency of being rosy framing, namely, has enlarged under the dual

function of military and US-China related news titles. The ANOVA Table shows the

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valid significant figure which is as same as the Table 4. Supporting H2, when the military

related news refers to the China-US relation, the tendency of being rosy will strengthen.

Furthermore, the research question asked to what extent will the news titles framing be

more likely to present in a rosy framing. According to the table 3 to table 6, we can see

that when the news titles are with the information related to military and with the

US-China relation related message as well, they are more likely under the affection of

rosy framing. Since framing is not an isolated process, the tendency of rosy farming has

considered the various aspects. For example, “American aircraft carrier can launch 600

attacks a day, China’s Liao Ning carrier still needs to work harder (美国航母能每天出

击600次：中国辽宁号航母还需要努力学习)” Mentioned the carriers among China and

the U.S is a signal of military comparison. Chinese news media certainly frame it in a

positive way. “Work hard” is a commendatory term for encouragement and stimulation.

Although Chinese military is reduced to inferiority in the comparison, the framing post in

a bright side. The audience is more likely to have a positive view of the national military

instead of looking down ourselves. This reaction is the last link of agenda-setting. There

is a long turn to trace back public sentiments to policymakers, which is moving from the

bottom back up. After two rounds of compare means, the patterns can be observed that if

the news title is highly related to the China-US and military case, considering the national

interests and national confidence building, it shows a rosy (sometimes irrationally rosy)

picture which primarily aims at the Chinese audience.

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To examine H3, the event variable needs to be introduced. To present the means into a

more percipient way of 0 to 1 measurement, a new label named recodeevent is created.

The recoding process of the label recodeevent is exactly like the way of creating the label

of reframe, with three degrees 0, 0.5 and 1 to rename the old degrees consisted of 1,2 and

3. In this case, the compare means of the original tendency of an event itself can be

presented in the same dimension in Table 3.

With the number of .5891 and .5463, it is obvious that the new titles without any military

related information tend to be more positive. Included conflicts and disharmonious

information, military related news titles are more likely be the non-positive events.

However, compared to the results after framing, those military/war related news titles are

under the positive framing process in order to present the positive national images, for

example, the full force and might of the national military. H3 is supported. Besides, what

should noticeable that those news titles without any military information have been under

neutral framing.

Moreover, there are two more dimensions of H3 needed to examine. By using the

compare means mechanism again, to contrast the results of the attitude of to China and to

the U.S. as a whole between the intrinsic attribute of the event itself and the framing

outcome. Within the same measurement patterns as the former, the newly-created labels,

recodeevent and reframe, which are in a more percipient way of 0 to 1 measurement, now

measure the compare means with the attitudes which to China and to the U.S. as a whole.

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It is obvious that the tendency of news titles and their framing patterns are more

China-oriented. For the intrinsic attribute of event itself, it enjoys a high tendency in the

degree of positive to China as a whole ( .6200). After framing, this positive tendency

continued to soar to .6484. The results support H3a, in coverage of military-related news

titles, the news titles will achieve more positive resonation to China as a whole.

On the other hand, to the U.S. as a whole, less positive tendency presents in both of the

intrinsic attributes of event and the framing outcome. The positive figure is .5843 for the

original event attribute and has experienced a sharp decrease to .4765 after framing. In

contrary, the means of non-positive get an increase after the framing process to the U.S.

as a whole (from .4718 to .4988), which supporting H3b, in coverage of military-related

news titles, the news titles will achieve more negative resonation to the U.S. as whole.

On account of large amounts of news titles containing two or more than two countries as

objects, coders choose the China’s view or one’s view is more relevant to China as the

object. The framing mechanism tends to China-friendly but US-alienated. For example,

the news titles “Why did the U.S. frighten? The PLA shoot down American secret

weapon (美国为何突然大惊：绝密武器都被解放军给打下来了)” , “America peeps at

China’s nuclear detonation site. Ironically, what they’ve seen shamed themselves (美国

借它偷窥中国核爆场地，展出的东西却让美国感到羞耻和肉疼)”, “These weapons

can direct stroke American warships from the Huang Yan Island, which frightened the

U.S. (这些武器在黄岩岛可直击美军舰，把美国吓到了)” As a matter of fact, the U.S.

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will not be that frightened or ashamed. This kind of framing is in an exaggerated and

fictitious way to highlight the Chinese military power but depreciate the power and the

national image of American. If America is the only subject in the news titles, it still more

likely to be in a negative framing as a US-China and military-related news. For example,

“Why do people consider that America has overrated the effects of ‘running amuck’in the

South China Sea (为什么说美国高估了在南海“横行自由”的效果？)”, “The Pacific

Fleet has difficulties in facing the China’s Fleet alone, American Atlantic Fleet is going

to entre into Asia-Pacific (太平洋舰队面对中国独木难支：美国大西洋舰队即将进入

亚太) ”, “America is under the anxiety period of strategy, breaking through the South

China Sea to cover up (美国处于战略焦躁期 舰闯中国南海岛礁撑面子)” These news

titles are with the obvious subject, the U.S., but this type of framing tend to put the

America into an embarrassing stage. In fact, America is not suffering in the awkward

situation or the news titles have overrated the degree of embarrassment. Such framing

patterns are made for making fun of tease for the Chinese audience. The negative

tendency can be recognized as the reverse effort for communication. When the news

incongruent with dominant schemas, social consensus, and common culture will block

the spread. Thinking altogether is discouraged, until mental associations get united again

(Entman,2004).

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Discussion and Conclusion

The previous studies of news framing mainly focus on the news content while seldom

researches concern about the news titles framing. Given that media coverage is under the

marketing-oriented and capital-driven control in nowadays, and given that the censorship

is highly-centered to the government, the news media discourse is a mixture of different

systems. One single news title frame is under multiple information and ideological filters.

In this study, we have examined one of the framing patterns, the rosy framing. It serves

as a regulation when the news titles referred to the US-China and military related news.

The national image of the U.S. in the rosy framing is usually negative, hegemonism,

interventionism, being active in military activities, and etc. This idea comes from the

authority and popularized by the agenda setting and framing. In general, news events

should make it possible to fit the media routines (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989) because

the mass media influences the public agenda (McCombs & Shaw, 1972). Due to the

exposure frequency in the mass media, it can tell people what to think by its rigorous

setting. What is more, on account to framing, a second dimension to agenda setting

(Maher, 2001), involves how the issue is treated by news professionals and how the

rhetoric is used (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997). The framing mechanism comes from top to

bottom to shape audience’s view about the national interests topic. However, With the

rapid diffusion of the Internet, it is necessary to study its effects on news framing and the

related political consequences.

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In China, a conventionally considered authoritarian country, the astonishing number of

internet users makes its media industry prosper. Online news has become the major

source of people being exposure to the news. Considering the rapid information

spreading time, news titles has occupied a much more important position than the news

content. The way of titles framing should be paid an extra attention in particular. As the

phenomenon of title attractor has now become a common practice, the features and the

functions of news titles framing worth worthy studying deeply. Tuchman (1973) argued

that the world looks natural beyond direct experience is because of the media frame. The

frame patterns enable journalists to process information more quickly and routinely. By

recognizing the useful information and assigning it to cognitive process, the news media

professionals deliver the news message as a final outcome of a mixture of framing. All

the outcomes have built the world we have known. Society is not a cold machine but acts

in a sentient, reasoning and active way. The term of ideology is a realm where our

patterned experiencing takes place (Gilton, 1980). The news titles frame not only is a tool

controlled by the authority to shape people’s idea but also constructed by the cultural

congruence as well (Entman, 2003). Having a better understanding of framing helps us to

build a more comprehensive view of the reality.

The limitation of the study is about the coding dimension for different variables. Taking

frame for example, there are some news titles are in the question formats. Using question

as a title aim at ratcheting up the suspense to arise audience’s curiosity. It is one of the

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title-reading outcomes for increasing the clicks. Since the titles is a question, without any

certain answers, the audience cannot make clear about the attitude this title convey until

they read the article. In some extreme situation, even if audience have finished their

reading about the whole article, they still have no idea about the attitude. Because the

only function of this kind of titles is misleading the attention to increase the clicks. When

it comes this kind of question format titles, coders categorized them into the unclear and

code them as the same number as the neutral framing (which is 2). In the further study,

we should refine the measurement by more accurate and gradient division method.

Instead of three gradient of 1,2 and 3, five-level or seven-level Likert Scale can be

introduced into the coding system.

Another limitation is about the limited variables. The reality is more complex than the

eight variables. In further study, we will continue to add variables from different s aspects

to go deeper to the news titles analysis. As for rosy framing, more refinements should be

concerned. Framing itself is an approach of simplifying the world by one’s own

understanding and cognition. Large amounts of latent information contains in the

deconstruction and reconstitution process from tracing framing. We should measure some

more specific categories of rosy framing in the further study which enables to discuss the

details in many dimensions:

1. Praising to China and/or China-friendly countries while depreciating the U.S.

and/or US-advocate countries

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2. Using commendatory terms to describe inferior qualities and/or disadvantages of

China

3. Using unrealistic, irrational and exaggerated words and terms to portray the

serious international relation

With two or more objects in the same news titles, it is difficult to define the whole pattern

is either positive or negative framing conditions (e.g. Rothman and Salovey, 1997;

Schneider et al., 2001). It has some common with the Valenced frames which carry

positive and/or negative elements in on frame pattern (de Vreese & Boomgaarden, 2003).

As the data source we use is a Beijing-based typical Chinese news platform, coders have

the intrinsic preference to choose the China’s perspective or the perspective which is

closer to China as the main object. Although rosy framing is indicative of good and bad

message at the same time, it has its dominant tendency which is polishing up the China’s

national image. These indications above with the typical China’s framing habits will be

the subcategories for deeper rosy framing analysis.

Besides, other variables are with important research values as well. Several research

questions have been raised during the coding process. When it comes to non-US-China

relation and non-military related news, will the frame show another significant tendency?

If we pay attention to the framing trend on livelihood and entertainment these “soft

news”, will China show more confidence or be more humble than hard news? They are

also our directions for the future study.

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Although the rosy framing always tends to be positive for China’s perspective, we cannot

ignore the root of the news titles are consist of contrary frames. In China’s media

discourse, American is enthusiastic about intervening international affairs, especially the

military intervention, so the negative framing is to safeguard the concept of national

sovereignty. At some time, China's government needs to respond the U.S. media’s

framing tone about the human rights, dictatorship and environmental problems as well.

Therefore, in the next step of the research, more concern should be taken in the China’s

foreign images and the responding way of China to its historical or contemporary

national roles.

The news titles we have coded so far focus on the U.S. related news. We sum up the

regular patterns to generalize them into machine learning. Compared to the keywords

filter, this logic-based coding method is more suitable for the present information

explosion age. With the growth complexity of vocabularies and sentence patterns, purely

keywords filtering may produce a bigger error. Only by adapting the linguistic logic, the

machine learning has the possibility to be widely used in a network society. Following

step of our study is going to refining the existing variables. We take the U.S. related news

as an example and tend to generalize our results to more international news. It would be

helpful to analysis other countries’ traits on the basis of US-China relation research.

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Exhibits

Table 1

Frequency Percent (%)

non-positive 2,628 23.5

neutral 5,456 48.7

positive 3,114 27.8

Total 11,198 100.0 Table 1 Frequency & Percentage of different framing degrees in military/war related news titles

Table 2

Frequency Percent (%)

non-positive 6,876 19.1

neutral 22,459 62.3

positive 6,732 18.7

Total 36,067 100.0 Table 2 Frequency & Percentage of different framing degrees in non-military/war related news titles

Table 3 (reframe*military)

Military/War related Mean N

1 .4980 36,067

2 .5217 11,198

Total .5036 47,265 Table 3 Compare Means of framing in military/war related & non-military/war related news titles

(1=no related, 2=related)

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Table 4 ANOVA Table

Sum of Squares

df Mean Squares

F Sig.

reframe*military

Between Groups

4.798 1 4.798 46.932 .000

Within Groups

4832.083 47,263

Total 4836.881 47,264

Table 4 ANOVA of Table 3

Table 5 (reframe*US-China)

US-China related Mean N

1 .4856 37,408

2 .5721 9.857

Total .5036 47,265 Table 5 Compare Means of framing of US-China related and non-US-China related news titles

with the condition of military-related and non-military-related (1=no related, 2=related)

Table 6 ANOVA Table

Sum of Squares

df Mean Squares

F Sig.

reframe* US-China

Between Groups

58.375 1 58.375 577.377 .000

Within Groups

4778.506 47,263

Total 4836.881 47,264

Table 6 ANOVA Table of Table 5

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Table 7 (recodeevent*military)

Military/War related Mean N

1 .5891 36,067

2 .5463 11,198

Total .5789 47,265 Table 7 Compare Means of the intrinsic attribute of the event itself in military/war related &

non-military/war related news titles (1=no related, 2=related)

Table 8

recodeevent*to China reframe*to China

to-China Mean to-China Mean

1 .4977 1 .4662

2 .5756 2 .4787

3 .6200 3 .6484

Total .5789 Total .5036

recodeevent*to US reframe*to US

to-US Mean to-US Mean

1 .4718 1 .4988

2 .6092 2 .5093

3 .5843 3 .4765

Total .5789 Total .5036 Table 8 Compare Means of the intrinsic attribute of the event itself to China& to US as a whole

(1=non-positive, 2=neutral, 3=positive)

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