News Frame Construction Of Media In Mainland And Taiwan

It was in 2005 that Mainland China and Taiwan had the most active and outstanding communication in this decade. On January 29th, some Taiwanese businessmen chartered flight to go back to Taiwan from Mainland China during the Spring Festival. It was the first time in sixty years that a flight had been made between Mainland China and Taiwan. In April and May, successively, Lian Zhan, chairman of the Kuomin Party in Taiwan, and Song Cuyu, chairman of the Qinming Party in Taiwan, both came to visit the mainland……With the deepening of communication between Mainland China and Taiwan, the role of the media on both sides are becoming more and more predominant in shaping the image of these two places.This study selected the representative newspaper People's Daily in Mainland China and China Times in Taiwan as the samples and selected 441 item news from four different categories of articles about Mainland China and Taiwan which were both included in the"Top Ten News About Mainland and Taiwan"and was chosen by Mainland China's and Taiwan's media in 2005. Through content analysis of the topics, the reporter's objects, and the sources of these articles, one tries to make clear whether or not there are different news frames in the media coverage of these reports. If there are some differences, what are they and what could result from these dissimilarities?The result of the study shows that there are not obvious differences in news sources and news structure between the media in the Mainland and in Taiwan, whereas there are many differences between them in the aspect of information sources, news topics, and reporter's objects. According to the analysis data, the media in the Mainland is used to adopting a kind of gender appeal and sensitive vocative in news reporting and always favors peace and stability as the most important appeal, presenting a reliable and peaceful humanism news frame when reporting the cross- strait news. The media in Taiwan, however, always uses a conflict news frame by selecting the information resources about government divergences, which easily attracts audience's eyes. After taking the Taiwanese media as an example to analyze the cause of news frame formation, the results show that the press rules the media's operation and the nation's policy power influences the news frame formation. At last one tries to explain the interactions between media and government.