The Comparative Study Of The Food Safety Reports Between The People’s Daily And The New York Times

Food safety is an important topic for discussion of the national economy and the people’s livelihood. Since China entered WTO, the government’s supervision on food safety has been more strict. At the same time, with the development of economy and the improvement of living standards, the public’s attention to food safety and their own healthiness has increasing, causing a continuing climax of media reports on food safety.The media carry the task of transferring information and knowledge, propagandizing and educating, supervising and communicating, and play an important role in the process of guaranteeing food safety. Their reports not only influence people’s understanding, but also affect people’s consciousness of maintaining health and behavior in life. On the other hand, the food trade circulation is internationally with the global background. Once the negative food safety information was disseminating, it would be certainly affect the images of exporting countries. Because different reporters have different positions and angles, the content and mode of their reports will be also naturally different, which would influence the audiences’interpretation on events with different cultural background.Therefore, this thesis takes framing theory as the theoretical basis, using combining method of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, to do a content analysis on the food safety reports between the People’s Daily and the New York Times, deconstructing the two media’s similarities and differences and summarizing the causes. This research intends to fill the gaps in the field of comparative study of the food safety reports between Chinese and western media, and to explore the framework and the development law of western reports. It is hoped that this thesis will provide reference to Chinese media for playing an active role in guaranteeing food safety, and be helpful to improve and perfect Chinese food safety reports.