What does China want the world to know: A content analysis of CNN World Report sent by the People's Republic of China

Abstract

This study is a content analysis of news sent by China to CNN World Report. Significant differences are found between the news sent before and that sent after the 1989 Pro-democracy Movement. During the pre-movement period, economic news was the type of story from China most frequently aired on CNNWR while news that was supportive as well as news that was critical of the government were both well-represented. After the student movement, political news increased dramatically and there was much less negative news and more supportive news during this period. Another interesting finding is that the news patterns of the stories sent by China to CNNWR in 1994 resembled the news patterns of those sent before the 1989 student movement, both in news categories and news direction.

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