Analysis of the Report Framing of China's Mainstream News Media During Major Epidemics

Abstract

The major epidemic poses a huge threat to public health and social stability and require a joint response by the government, health authorities, media and the public. The high level of attention paid to the coverage of such events poses a huge challenge for the news media. However, different media have different news frames, and audiences can understand and recognize things through the news frames constructed by media. In this paper, People's Daily, one of the most influential national mainstream media in China, and Hubei Daily, a representative of local mainstream media, are selected as the research objects, and relevant reports on the epidemic from these two news portals from December 31, 2019, to April 8, 2020 are selected. The news framing theory of Pan and Kosicki (1993) is utilized. This paper analyzes the media framework adopted by different types of media in reporting the epidemic situation, and what role this media framework plays in the epidemic situation report, so as to provide useful reference for the media reporting of such major emergency public health events.