An Analysis of Framing Controversial News: A Comparative Study of the News of U.S. Beef Import in The China Post, The Taipei Times and The Taiwan News

This paper deals with the news coverage of proposal by President Ma to lift the ban on the import of ractopamine-tainted U.S. beef in The China Post, The Taipei Times, and The Taiwan News, and it compares among these three English newspapers in Taiwan how they represent the controversial issue.
The methodology includes content analysis and framing analysis. The content analysis aims to examine the different attributes of the three newspapers. The framing analysis tries to explore how these newspapers construct the beef row and what is the difference between them.
By framing analysis, this study finds that the conflict frame is most commonly used to present the beef row by the three newspapers. Anti-U.S. beef protest and struggle is most widely used as news topic to constitute the frame by these newspapers. To address the news topic, The Taipei Times, and The Taiwan News cite opposition parties as the main source while The China Post often quotes the statement of local livestock industry as news source.
By content analysis, this study finds that the momentum of the beef row reporting varies between the three newspapers, depending on the scale of operation, the editorial policy and the layout management. To show the genuine momentum, this research employs a weighted approach to put more emphasis on the different genres of reporting and the distinctive page position of the story. Overall, The Taipei Times and The Taiwan News, two pro-pan-green newspapers, say “no” to President Ma’s proposal, while pro-pan-blue The China Post says “yes” to the proposal.