The Comparative Framing Analysis Of Accidents Reports Between Chinese And Foreign Internet Media

In the evening of April 15,2019,the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral,which has a history of thousands of years,attracted great attention among world.The incident did not cause serious casualties,but caused a global shock instantly and received the attention and mourning from the whole world.Since the fire accident of Notre Dame Cathedral is a significant accident of the heritage of ancient civilization,it has a special cultural property and seriously endangers the politics and economy of France compared with the ordinary ones.Therefore,China and the United States faced the challenges of complex information choice,strong emotional interference and multicultural shock when reporting this accident.For these reasons,this paper takes the Notre Dame fire as an example and compares the coverage and framework between China and the United States,which can contrast the journalistic practice of major emergencies between two countries to the utmost.Guided by the framework theory in the field of communication science,this study selects the reports from mainstream press of China and the United States,that is China News and The New York Times,taking the Notre Dame Cathedral fire accident on April 15,2019 as the study objects,limiting the time from April 15 to December 31 in 2019.199 Chinese samples and 53 American samples are obtained and conducted quantifying analysis from five aspects: thematic framework,content framework,news source,reporting method and reporting tendency.By comparing the report framework of two countries,the study sums up the similarities and differences of news report on this accident in China and the United States and makes a further comparison of the media coverage characteristic by analyzing the representative text,and finally conducts an attribution analysis to the differences of news report in two countries.Study finds that the news reports of two countries on the fire accident shares some similarities when choosing thematic framework,such as fact framework and influence framework,when selecting news source,which is mainly from the person concerned or a third party,as well as the choice of thematic framework by the media at the different stages of the fire accident.At the same time,the medias of the two countries show their own characteristics in the way of reporting and constructing specific content which embodies in the following aspects: First,the US media is relatively more balanced in the choice of thematic framework,and Chinese is top-heavy.Second,the US media are better at mining information while Chinese report too much staying on the surface.Third,the news reports of two countries are mainly neutral,but each has its own bias based on their own reporting habits,as they will give considerations to the focus information in the field of public opinion and then choose the specific content.In the end,the study attributes two media's performances to political background,media system and cultural differences.It is recognized that the report of major emergency between China and the United States is not absolute opposition due to relevant inflexible elements,but with consensus existing.This study also puts forward some counter measurable proposals for Chinese media to properly adjust the report strategies and skills so as to solve current problems to improve reports level and comprehensive communication ability of Chinese media.