Multimodal news frames on Germany’s national image : Comparing news in U.S. Twitter and China Weibo

Xu, Yi (2021) Multimodal news frames on Germany’s national image : Comparing news in U.S. Twitter and China Weibo. In: UNSPECIFIED.

Abstract

The rise of visuality in social media isis aa featurefeature ofof the the multimodal turn in digital multimodal turn in digital communication. Framing research mainly investigated textcommunication. Framing research mainly investigated textss, while visual framing dealt , while visual framing dealt with images with images separatelyseparately. . The novel mThe novel multimodal framing ultimodal framing analysis analysis proposesproposes an an integrative integrative examinationexamination of text, image and their relations. of text, image and their relations. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, media and media and communicationcommunication studiesstudies on on nationalnational image image mainly focus on mainly focus on reception and reception and massmass--mediated representationmediated representation. . SinceSince news with imagesnews with images prevailprevail on social media, ton social media, this research his research analyanalyzeszes how Germanhow Germanyy’’ss nationalnational image is framed in image is framed in the the multimodal news published in U.S. Twitter and China multimodal news published in U.S. Twitter and China WeiboWeibo throughthrough aa quantitative content analysis quantitative content analysis (N(NUSAUSA=1722, N=1722, NChinaChina=733)=733), h, hierarchical ierarchical ccluster analyses reveal that multimodal frames of Germany’s political leadership, luster analyses reveal that multimodal frames of Germany’s political leadership, cultural attractiveness, and economic competence are recognized in the news of both cultural attractiveness, and economic competence are recognized in the news of both countries. However, multimodal frames of social conflict countries. However, multimodal frames of social conflict and environmental protection and environmental protection are only found in U.S. news. Comparisons of frame elements indicate that Chinese news are only found in U.S. news. Comparisons of frame elements indicate that Chinese news provide more positive attributions and select images with aesthetic values for provide more positive attributions and select images with aesthetic values for illustration. The results are discussed illustration. The results are discussed in termin terms of multimodals of multimodal presentation, national presentation, national image formation, journalistic culture and visual cultures.image formation, journalistic culture and visual cultures.