Image of China in Hong Kong Media: A Content Analysis of Three Hong Kong Newspapers from 2008 to 2018

Abstrakt

Despite being a popular subject of study worldwide, image of China is rarely studied in Hong Kong media. Moreover, in the high time of recurrent warnings about Chinese influence on Hong Kong media and threats towards press freedom, this study is conducted to fill the existing literature gap to unravel the image of China presented in Hong Kong newspapers and explore the degree of more Chineseleaning reports for the past decade. This research employs content analysis on 961 news articles from Apple Daily, Sing Tao Daily and Ming Pao Daily during 2008 to 2018 using constructed week sampling. Framing theory and agenda-setting function theory served as the basis of this study and directed the design of the research. Volume, theme and favorability frame of all news articles were recorded and analyzed. In short, this study suggests that a multifaceted coverage of China is presented in Hong Kong media. Depiction of China includes political, social, cultural, technological and economical aspects. Social news dominates the news in from 2008 to 2013 and political and international affairs dominates the news from 2013 to 2018. From 2008 to 2018, overall average favorability on reports of China remains relatively constant. It is also observed that coverage of China from newspapers have become more politically aligned. Conservative and liberal newspaper significantly reduced negative coverage while anti-Beijing newspaper has shown an increase in unfavorable representation.