Framing the Chinese Government during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis of BBC and CNN’s Digital Video News Coverage

Abstract

This study examines how BBC and CNN portrayed the Chinese government in COVID-19 digital video news. Using quantitative content analysis, 724 videos published between December 2019 and December 2020 (BBC = 189; CNN = 535) were coded for tone (positive/neutral/negative) and five generic news frames (responsibility, conflict, human interest, economic consequences, morality). Two trained coders double-coded 20% of the sample (Cohen’s κ = 0.85). Results show that both outlets overwhelmingly relied on the responsibility frame (BBC: 91.5%; CNN: 90.4%). BBC used human-interest framing more frequently (41.1%) than CNN (6.5%), whereas CNN employed economic consequences framing more often (9.5%). Tone was predominantly neutral in both outlets (BBC: 69.84%; CNN: 73.46%), with moderate negative coverage and minimal positive portrayals. A chi-square test indicated no significant difference in tone distribution between BBC and CNN (χ²(2, N = 724) = 2.290, p = .318). The findings suggest convergent accountability-centered framing of China’s pandemic response in Western digital video news.