The News Media Image Of The Medical System Reform

Health is the basic right of human beings; medical system reform is inseparable from not the individual health but also the human basic rights. As is known to all, medical reform is a worldwide problem-to some extent the toughest decision the governments around the world has ever grappled with. Since 2009, our country issued new reforms on health care and put it into effect; meanwhile, the US Obama administration signed on the new health care bill in March 2010, determining to achieve the goal of universal health insurance in the year of 2014. However, mass media is a main channel for citizens to collect and catch on the information of medical reform policies, and the medical reform of both sides is presented in domestic. This article mainly starts with the frame theory, using the content analysis and discourse analysis to make both comparison and analysis of the framework of the reports of the medical reform made by China and the US mainstream media, and finally draw an outline of the mirror image presented by China and the US mainstream media.This paper analyzes the reports of the medical reform from three levels: macro-and mid-frameworks and micro-discourse structure. In macro-framework, it mainly researches on the basic condition of medical reforms in China and the US and makes a comparison from the subject frames, information source frames, layout frames, news resource frames and orientation frames; in mid-framework, it discusses the plot and issue frames and makes a cross-analysis with the subject frames to figure out the usage of the medical reforms in China and the US; in micro-discourse analysis, it mainly discusses the macro-proposition of that in terms of key words, quotations, and specific discourse usage on the basis of subject frames analysis, and gets a fairly clear understanding of the different frameworks of the media between China and the US from the perspective of micro-discourse.We found that China’s mainstream media presents a proper reform policy holding important position and has achieved remarkably in media mirror images, while the US’s mainstream media presented a controversial reform policy with ineffective mirror image. The two countries presented different mirror images is not only because of the differentiation of the medical reform policies but rather because the two countries have different cultural environments. This paper is based on the dimensions of national cultures developed by Geert Hofstede from the three aspects:power distance, collectivism and individualism and long-term and short-term orientation to discuss the reasons for the different mirror image of medical reforms in China and the US.