Framing the NATO Air Strikes on Kosovo Across Countries

Using a frame analysis technique, this study compares the way in which Chinese media, represented by the People's Daily Online and the China Daily, and US media, represented by the New York Times and the Washington Post, covered the NATO air strikes in 1999. The content analysis of 200 news stories reveals that Chinese newspapers and US newspapers adopted two different media frames in recounting the large-scale military action. While the Chinese newspapers framed the air strikes as an intervention of Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territory, the US newspaper framed the air strikes as a humanistic aid to Albanians to stop the ethnic cleansing initiated by Serbians. The general corresponding reflections of government attitudes toward the air strikes in the newspapers indicate a considerable influence of national interest on media frames in newspapers. The author concludes that in international news reportage, national interest often outweighs other factors to play an active role in framing media texts.