A Frame Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of Milk Powder Risk

As German sociologist Ulrich Beck pointed out,technological development has brought about a"risk society."Modern society is full of risks,from natural disasters,terrorist attacks,new technologies to food hazards,all of which contain potential risk in our life.On September 11th 2008,Sanlu baby formula scandal was exposed to the public,which was believed to be the culprit of kidney disease of many babies who had consumed Sanlu product.Ten years later,the deep distrust of domestic milk powder still remains.Parents of mainland China having been trying to shop baby formula f:rom Hong Kong and other countries to the extent that some areas have to limit the purchase to guarantee the local supply.The mass media play a significant role in constructing risk and shaping people's perception of the risk with the help of certa:in news frames.This paper analyzed how three Chinese newspapers,namely,the People's Daily,the Chinese Youth Daily and the Beijing News,covered the risk of baby formula with various risk frames and source selectionfrom September 11,2008 to September 30,2018.The finding show that all three newspapers tend to frame milk powder as risks for health.The health risk derived from milk powder was caused by chemical contamination and also forged or fake milk powder,both could be regarded as man-made risk but not risk of nature or biology.The newspapers tend to blame milk industries for moral flaw.Some reports also blame the government officials or quality inspection agencies for their negligence of duty,but the quantity of this category can't compete with the former.The newspapers can be said to have played a better role to inform the public about the health risk of baby formula than to surveillance the government for regulating the milk powder industry.