Framing as an Information Control Strategy in Times of Crisis
Journal of East Asian Studies
; 2022.
Article
in English
| Scopus | ID: covidwho-1805488
ABSTRACT
How can authoritarian regimes effectively control information to maintain regime legitimacy in times of crisis? We argue that media framing constitutes a subtle and sophisticated information control strategy in authoritarian regimes and plays a critical role in steering public opinion and cultivating an image of competent government during a tremendous crisis. Using structural topic models (STM), we conduct a textual analysis of more than 4,600 news reports produced by seven Chinese media outlets during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that Chinese media, instructed by the propaganda authorities, used a heroism frame to feature frontline medics' sacrifices when saving others in need and resorted to a contrast frame to highlight the poor performance of the United States in the fight against COVID-19. We also show that both state and commercial media outlets used these two frames, though the tone of commercial media coverage was generally more moderate than the state media version. © 2022 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.
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Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Scopus
Language:
English
Journal:
Journal of East Asian Studies
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
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