A Content Analysis Of Western Media Coverage Of World Expo

This paper is to study how western media portray the international mega-event World Expo. It first compares the amount of newpaper coverage of World Expo with that of the other two international mega-events, Olympics and World Cup. Employing the content analysis of news coverage of the latest three regiestered world expositions, Hanover 2000, Aichi 2005 and Shanghai 2010, this study examines the frequencies, types, themes, sources, valence etc. of world expo coverage. By applying the theories of aganda-setting and framing, it also attempts to research how the west media build the agenda and also frame the world expositions especially Shanghai Expo.The results suggest that World Expo itself is less prominent in the news agenda of the west media. Shanghai Expo, however, receives more attention in more varied aspects compared with the previous Hanover Expo and Aichi Expo. Particularly in contrast to the cultural theme of the previous two expositions, Shanghai Expo would be rather an ecomomic one. The present newspaper covergae of Shanghai Expo, to be more accurate, of pre-exposition implies the possibility of an influential exposition in Shanghai 2010.