Framing the Uyghur Camps in Xinjiang: an Appeal to Respective Principles

Abstract

Through layers of framing analysis and content analysis, I conducted a cross-comparative news analysis looking at the framing of the treatment of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang camps. China is facing serious allegations of human rights abuses within what researchers have labeled internment camps, and current empirical research has been focused on these abuses as well as the surveillance technology employed. This study aims to examine how differing ideological stances and media system models by a Chinese-state media outlet, Xinhua, and an American explanatory outlet, Vox, influence their framing of the camps and Uyghur welfare. Framing theory, as popularized by Robert Entman (1993), is effective in application to cross-comparative news analysis, especially in assessing how the frames present between two media outlets raise vastly different themes into salience. While my study found seven frames and fourteen sub-frames utilized by the news outlets, I wish to present upon only two dominant frame packages to fit within presentation time constraints. From Xinhua, I will focus on the frame package of ‘Counter- terrorism and De-radicalization’; from Vox, the frame package of ‘Chinese State as Human Rights Abuser’. If time allows, I will briefly cover my content analysis of the types of sources cited by each media outlet and how they acted as supplementary sources to reinforce the ideas behind each frame in consistent fashion.