Data Analysis

Quantitative analysis informs on general information like frequency, size and type of articles. This is intended for a comprehensive overview and for comparison across the chosen dailies. Frequency and size together show the attention the event received during the research period. The frequency of actors in the articles, such as workers involved, employers, or government officials, are calculated. In addition, the

frequency, size, source, and actors in the photographs are measured for the analysis to give a general overview of how the event is portrayed in news. Statistical tools, which are usually employed in research that uses sampled data, will not be needed since the data collected in this thesis are the population.

Identifying the Discourse in the Dominant Frames

Research on news framing to date has highlighted certain frames that can be

commonly observed in the news (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000; Neuman et al., 1992;

van Dijk, 1988, Lin, 2010). Neuman et al. (1992) found that American media tend to draw on the four news frames: conflict, economic consequences, human interest and morality, to cover major issues, such as apartheid in South Africa, Star Wars, the stock

market crash of October 1987, drug abuse, and AIDS. The findings are confirmed in other later studies that set their research interests in the U.S., Europe and Taiwan (Neuman et al., 1992; van Dijk, 1988, Lin, 2010).

Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) replicated these findings and identified another frame, attribution of responsibility frame. In their research of Dutch news coverage of Eurotop meetings of the heads of government of the EU countries, held in Amsterdam during June 16-17, 1997, all the five news frames, including conflict, economic consequences, human interest, morality and attribution of responsibility, are identified. The five news frames are also identified in Taiwan’s television news

coverage of social movements (Lin, 2010), where the researcher found that human interest, attribution of responsibility and conflict frames are the most used three.

Making reference to previous research in media’s coverage of political and economic issues as well as social issues like suicide or labor issues, the five news frames identified by Semetko and Valkenburg (2000) also overlap with the frames used in labor or suicide news. These five frames have been analyzed in many other studies and applied in labor or suicide news research. This thesis also employs these five frames in its analysis.

Conflict frame. This frame is usually applied to cover conflicts that occur to individuals, groups or organizations. It is used as a means to draw the audience’s attention. Neuman et al. (1992) found that conflict frame appears to be the most common among the news frame in American news coverage. To highlight the conflict, reporters transform the issue into dramatic stories (Bennett, 1996). Parenti (1986) also argued that workers always appear to be “crazy strikers” under such situation. As media always favors conflicting strike issues, the frame is very commonly used in labor news. In Taiwan, scholars also found similar use in the press. Weng (2002)

found that more than 50% of news published from 1983 to 1989 applied conflict frame when dealing with labor movement.

Economic consequences frame. This frame presents an issue in a way to describe the economic influences to individuals, groups, organizations, religions or countries. Van Dijk (1988) suggested that the newsworthiness of an event “is partly determined by the seriousness of their economic consequences,” i.e., gain or loss. The concept of economic consequences is also employed in Martin’s (2004) five

consumer-oriented frames. If labor’s rights contradict the employer or consumer’s interest, the economic consequences tend to be emphasized, making the pressure on the labor side even heavier.

Human interest frame. This frame takes advantage of a human face or emotional angle to present an issue dramatically. Reporters or editors usually

“personalize” the issue to draw audience’s attention (Bennett, 1995; Semetko &

Valkenburg, 2000). In Taiwan, previous research also found that reporters tended to cover labor news from the perspectives of human interest. Weng (2002) identified a similar frame named “personalized frame” in her research on labor news. Despite less coverage than the conflict frame, it indeed exists in labor coverage.

Morality frame. News in this frame tends to examine an issue with certain religious doctrines or moral judgments. Journalists, for example, usually take

advantage of quotation or inference to question certain values (Neuman et al., 1992).

Attribution of responsibility frame. This frame attributes an issue or a problem to the cause, which may be individuals, items, organization or the environment, to take the responsibility. It is commonly seen in suicide news in Taiwan (Chen, 2003;

Chang, 2009). Since the Foxconn suicide jumps is a labor issue wrapped with the form of suicide, the attribution of responsibility frame should also be examined in the

current research.

Previous research has shown that the five news frames generally exist in media discussion over political, economic and social issues as well as in labor and suicide news. Furthermore, three of the five frames, namely conflict, human interest, and attribution of responsibility, are also replicated in the labor news coverage in Taiwan. In contrast, “economic consequence” and “morality” have received less attention in previous research in Taiwan. The two frames, are therefore included to measure the news coverage of the Foxconn suicide jumps for a more comprehensive understanding of the incident. Other news frames, if any, that appeared in the articles will also be identified.

The present study will analyze the frames by examining headlines and the lead of each article. However, since the lead often repeats what is already stated in the headlines, yet in a more elaborated manner, the second paragraph will be included in the analysis to ensure a deeper and comprehensive insight about how the issue is framed.

The articles will first be carefully read to identify the main discourses in the five frames about the suicidal incident. In addition, the tone of the article toward labor and employer- whether it is positive, negative or neutral to labor and employer- is also coded. The author also takes account whether and how the framing changes in the coverage of the incident during the year the suicides occurred. Similarities and

differences of dominant discourse and tone among the four Taiwanese dailies, namely Liberty Times, Apple Daily, United Daily, and China Times, are scrutinized.

With the aforementioned information, the tone and framing of the articles were measured to understand how media framed the issue and with what political leaning. Statistical tools will not be applied here since the data collected in this thesis

is the population. An additional lexical analysis on the text was also employed in the wake of framing analysis to provide more details about how workers and employers were presented in the coverage.