Dynamics of Culture Frames in International News Coverage: A Semantic Network Analysis

Authors

  • Ke Jiang University of California, Davis
  • George A. Barnett University of California, Davis
  • Laramie D. Taylor University of California, Davis

Keywords:

news frames, culture, semantic network analysis, dynamic evolution

Abstract

A semantic network analysis was conducted to investigate how national political culture shapes news frames for international political coverage. Specifically, the Associated Press framed the Arab Spring as a process of pursuing democracy, a core value of American political culture, whereas Xinhua News Agency framed it as a crisis that challenged authority and the related stability, the central concerns of Chinese political culture. The results of the analysis of coevolution of cultural symbols indicate that competition between the two different cultural frames happened with the purpose of negotiating the meaning of the Arab Spring on the global stage.

Author Biographies

Ke Jiang, University of California, Davis

Ke Jiang is a Ph.D student of the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. She received her M.A. from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2010. Her research interests focus on semantic network analysis and international communication networks.

George A. Barnett, University of California, Davis

George A. Barnett is a Professor of the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in 1976. Dr. Barnett’s research interests focus on international communication networks and their role in the process of globalization, as well the role of information technologies on the sociology of science.

Laramie D. Taylor, University of California, Davis

Laramie D. Taylor is an Associate Professor of the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2005. Dr. Taylor is interested in why people make the media choices they do and how those choices affect media users, particularly in the way they perceive and interact with other people.

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Published

2016-07-27

Issue

Vol. 10 (2016)

Section

Articles

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