THE code of ethics in journalism or ‘canon of journalism’ stipulates that media workers should ensure truth, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability prevail while filing news reports.
But sometimes it baffles the mind that journalists hailing from a country that is supposedly championing democracy and freedom of speech/movement are consciously or sub-consciously taking sides.
Well, this is the revelation of CARMA Asia, a global media intelligence provider, which analysed qualitatively both the US and Chinese news coverage on the first day of the Ukraine-Russia military action (Feb 24) to understand each nation’s stance on the conflict.
“The data revealed a marked difference in each country’s perception and viewpoint,” CARMA pointed out in a media statement.
“70% of Chinese news conveyed that China has no clear position on the conflict while US media outlets focused on sanctions and leadership four times more than Chinese media.”
Other key findings from the study include:
Media perception and viewpoint
- US media outlets were far more likely to criticise Russia than the Chinese media (56% vs 12%).
- Chinese media reported from a neutral stance with “military action” being the most common description of the conflict (40% of coverage). In contrast, US media outlets described it as an “invasion” (88% of articles) whereas this term was only seen in 10% of Chinese coverage.
- Images of Ukraine were the most frequently used images. Photos from Ukraine featured in 30% of coverage from both US and Chinese media outlets.
News angles of the coverage
- Chinese media outlets primarily focused news coverage on the impact of people in Ukraine and the political implications.
- US media coverage was primarily centred on the leadership styles of both Ukraine and Russia’s leaders and the introduction of sanctions.
Leadership
- US media outlets were far more likely to criticise Putin than Chinese media (50% vs 2%).
- US coverage quoted President Joe Biden and President Vladimir Putin extensively while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the leading spokesperson to be quoted in Chinese media.
- Putin was often quoted in US outlets as a way to validate Biden’s position as these quotes frequently framed Putin as the aggressor.
Editor’s Note: CARMA Asia said it utilised qualitative content analysis through its monitoring system in order to examine the differences between the way US media and Chinese media outlets reported on the first day of conflict in the Ukraine.
Articles from mainstream online news sites with national and/or high audience reach were selected from both markets. A research matrix was designed to track the topics, news angles, images and messages that were reported by news on the first day of military action.
The media articles were analysed according to the research matrix. Coding was completed by expert analysts coding in English and Mandarin. The data provided is a percentage of the total volume for that market. – March 3, 2022
