The Comparison Of TV Media Frames On “Sunflower Student Movement" Between Chinese Mainland And Taiwan

From 2008, Chinese mainland and Taiwan started to improve close relationship in culture, economic and trade. At the same time, media form both sides of Taiwan Straits increased reporting news and commentaries on things happened on the other side. The “Sunflower Student Movement” happened in Taiwan since March to April, 2014, caused by the signing of the Cross-strait Service and Trade Agreement, is one of the most important social events that matter the relations across the Taiwan Straits.Media from both sides focused a lot on it. This paper uses Frame Theory with Content Analysis studies news commentary programs about “Sunflower Student Movement”. The programs include Across the Strait of CCTV4, Shinkansen Across the Strait of Northeastern satellite TV, Situation Room of TVBS and Challenge News of FTV. This attempts to show different reporting frames from the four programs and different forms TV news commentaries performance, and to discuss reasons of these differences.According to the study, mainstream media form both sides of the Taiwan Straits paid close attention to the “Sunflower Student Movement” and the relations across the Taiwan Straits. They shows different frames and forms affected by divers party spirits, culture and media environment. Across the Strait and Shinkansen Across the Strait, two programs from Chinese mainland, performed and formed almost in the same way. They both argued against the movement and supported the agreement. They discussed actions of the Democratic Progressive Party, and made obvious attribution. Situation Room and Challenge News from Taiwan reported the most close up with more details since they were exactly in the place where the movement happened. And both of them were excessive entertainment compared to those in mainland. Among the four programs, Situation Room invited the representatives that were object to the movement and the representatives who supported it. This could make a balance on voices of both sides. Challenge News gave chances for different voices, too. However, it was biased towards the supported ones. Based on these results, there are some suggestions for TV media from both sides of the Taiwan Straits. When making report and commentary about news happened on the other side, media producers should be more objective and use more formal to perform more diversified subjects and issues.