TY - JOUR
T1 - Contrasting Frames
T2 - Visual Coverage at Urban and Regional News Outlets in Australia and China
AU - Thomson, T. J.
AU - Zhang, Shixin Ivy
AU - Ren, Qumo
AU - Chen, Yuan Aqua
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Chinese and Australian news
KW - Comparative news analysis
KW - hierarchy of influences
KW - image analysis
KW - photojournalism
KW - urban and regional news
KW - visual journalism
KW - visual news
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85198721929&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/1461670X.2024.2372436
DO - 10.1080/1461670X.2024.2372436
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85198721929
SN - 1461-670X
VL - 25
SP - 1272
EP - 1292
JO - Journalism Studies
JF - Journalism Studies
IS - 11
ER -