A comparative framing analysis of Edward Snowden’s coverage in The New York Times and People's Daily

Abstract

<p>The purpose of this study is to examine whether different countries employed different news framing of the Snowden controversy. It also aims to understand how media coverage is influenced by different countries’ media systems and media sources. Edward Snowden, as an American computer technician, former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) (Verble, 2014), leaked 1.7 million documents of secret data from the National Security Agency (NSA). The leaked documents were related to U.S. intelligence activities and partnerships with foreign allies, including some that revealed the extent of data collection from U.S. telephone records and Internet activity, and the NSA’s ability to tap undersea fiber optic cables and siphon off data. This study is focusing on two different countries’ elite newspapers, The New York Times (United States) and The People Daily (China). China and the U.S. hold different points of view on Snowden’s actions, and this study will explore how those differences will influence the portrayals of Edward Snowden. The content analysis will also explore what news sources the two newspapers relied on and how those sources correlated affected framing and bias in news coverage. The study uses framing, indexing, and sourcing literature as its theoretical framework.</p>