Framing Analysis On Media Representations Of The Two Main Party Leaders In The 2016 Australian Federal Election

In recent years,the media play a more and more prominent role in the Australian federal election and the role of party leaders is also very important.So,media coverage of the party leaders during the campaign period is of great significance.This study aims to examine the media framing of the two main party leaders in the 2016 Australian federal election.Having chosen the two highly representative mainstream newspapers in Australia—The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald as sample source,the researcher obtained all the news articles in the two newspapers about the two party leaders Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten during the campaign period(From May 8th,2016 to July 2nd,2016).The research questions are:about these two party leaders,in what issues were they mentioned?How were they framed?What images were presented?And what underlying factors may influence the media frame?Informed by framing theory and agenda setting theory,the research adopts the quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis methods to analyze all the campaign stories to identify the news attention,themes,tones about the two prime ministerial candidates,and their image frames through the perspectives of electability,campaigning competence,campaigning performance,policy stance,and personal traits;as well as explores the composite factors forming the images.Through comparative study,the researcher tries to explore the characteristics of media representations of the two party leaders and the differences between them.The quantitative analysis leads to the finding that the newspapers mainly cover the themes of election campaign and politics;tax cuts,jobs and growth,and other economic issues;health and Medicare,same sex marriage legislation,border protection and other hot spots of society.In terms of report tone,the report tones of two party leaders differ and vary across time.The report tone of Turnbull shifts from negative to positive,while the report tone of Shorten changes from positive to negative.Through qualitative analysis,the study summarizes the respective media frames of two party leaders.About Turnbull,he is portrayed as a transformational economic manager,an advocator of progressive social issues,and a self-made man with egalitarianism;versus a deal maker,an out-of-touch elitist,and a conservative.About Shorten,he is portrayed as an anti-business man,a scare campaigner,a union puppet;versus a putting-people-first leader,a down-to-earth battler for workers,and an advocator of high welfare.The study further explores the broader economic,political and cultural circumstances of the time,the power play and balance of different groups through the media,as well as party ideology,which may shape the media framing and representations of two party leaders.This research tries to provide a research angle for the studies of media representations of party leaders in elections.