Framing the Chinese baby formula scandal: a comparative analysis of US and Chinese news coverage

Abstract

This study examines how Chinese and US news media covered the 2008 Chinese baby formula scandal. It begins by drawing on framing theory to provide a theoretical groundwork for comparing Chinese and US news coverage of product safety issues—an area of growing international concern due to the ever-increasing globalization of the world economy. It then presents an analysis comparing how two leading news agencies, the Xinhua News Agency of China and Associated Press (AP) of the United States, framed the scandal. In terms of the topics that Xinhua and AP covered, a higher proportion of the stories from the latter agency mentioned causes of the contamination, effects of the contamination, responses to the contamination, and links between the baby formula scandal and other safety issues in China. In terms of overarching frames, Xinhua covered the scandal in ways that framed the Chinese government positively, whereas AP covered the issue in ways that framed the Chinese government negatively. The contrasts between the coverage produced by these two agencies illustrate how news media organizations operating in two different political and economic contexts can construct the meaning of the same product safety issue in diverging ways.