Contrasting Frames: Visual Coverage at Urban and Regional News Outlets in Australia and China

Visual news can be a broad topic and encapsulate a myriad of forms, conventions, and representational content. The present study delves deeply into the image-based side of news to explore how visual news is produced, framed, and presented at four print and digital news outlets in urban and regional parts of Australia and China. We first conducted a qualitative denotative, stylistic-semiotic, and ideological framing analysis of a total of 1,408 images, published as part of 674 articles. Next, we deepened our understanding of the image analysis results through semi-structured interviews with 14 editorial staff in the visuals departments at these four outlets. Using framing theory and the hierarchy of influences model as theoretical lenses, this study uncovers how economic, social, and political factors affect the types of visual stories that journalists in these countries cover and sheds light on how those stories are presented. Specifically, our results indicate that outlets in Australia illustrate their news more than comparable outlets in China and that the types of visuals used also differed considerably. Online templates and editor directives influenced visual news in Australia to a greater degree while comparable Chinese news outlets paid more attention to audience expectations and political considerations.