MA Erasmus Mundus Master Journalism, Media and Globalisation
(joint degree)
Media’s role in inter-state conflict
How do local and international news media frame the Vietnam-China
sovereignty dispute in 2014?
By
THM Pham (My Pham) Student ID: 12367834
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s programme Communication Science
Supervisor: Dr. Penny Sheets Thibaut Date of completion: 25 May 2019
Abstract
Media plays an important role in interstate conflict by shaping public opinion via its framing process. This role has been shown to differ between national and international media outlets, though limited attention has been paid to how such differences occur especially in some less-focused parts of the world. This study addresses this gap by examining the frames used by Vietnamese local media and international news agencies in their coverage of the sovereignty dispute between Vietnam and China on the South China Sea in 2014. The results confirmed the expected difference between the two media types in their framing of the conflict. It showed that local coverage was more pro-Vietnam and peace-oriented while foreign news tended to be more neutral in their position but deployed more war journalism in their reports. The study also observed a significant alignment between the frames introduced by the Vietnamese government and those used in local news coverage. These findings not only contribute to the academic debate on the news coverage of inter-state conflicts but also shed light on potential roles of different media in dispute resolution.
Word count: 7375 (excluding abstract, notes, bibliography, appendix)
Introduction
On 2 May 2014, China placed a deep-water oil rig named HD981 close to the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, which both China and Vietnam claim belongs to their territories. The move triggered one of the worst diplomatic breakdowns between the neighbours and
prompted extensive media coverage of the event (Reuters, 2014). Conflicts provide reporters with dramatic stories that are easy to understand and relate to, and therefore normally draw huge public attention. News, in fact, tends to deal heavily with conflict and disorder (Altheide, 1997; Wolfsfeld, 2011; Yarchi, Galily, & Tamir, 2015).
The media plays an integral part in shaping public opinion on certain issues via its framing process in which it informs the public of not only what to think about, but also how to think about a subject (Entman, 1991; Kahneman & Tversky, 1984; Price, Tewksbury, & Powers, 1997; Saris, 1997). In the case of reporting on such political disputes between countries, the media’s role is particularly important as, based on its choice of how to present the event, it can act as either a conflict escalator or de-escalator (Kempf, 2002). That is, the media no longer only plays the role of informing its audience as to what is happening but can directly participate in the conflict development by providing platforms and resources for international dialogue and
exercising international mediation (Shinar, 2003; Wolfsfeld, 1997; Gilboa, 1988). For example, in the Middle East conflict, the media’s favourable coverage of the Oslo accords (1993) and process and its adoption of the reconciliation model had directly and indirectly created “end-of-conflict expectations” among the public (Shinar, 2003, p. 8). It, however, returned to emphasizing the escalating violence after the failure of the process. These practices of the media have
contributed to the “crisis of expectations” which have caused serious consequences (Shinar, 2003, p. 1).
This background has inspired many normative and ethical debates on the conflict coverage of different media outlets and their diverse roles in dispute resolution. Several studies have confirmed the significant differences between national and international media in covering interstate conflicts due to the differences in their stakes in the disputes, social identities and cultural norms (Sheets, Rowling, & Jones, 2015; Entman, 2004; Gamson & Modigliani, 1989). Understanding these influences and roles is important as it help explain how different media types contribute to conflict resolution. To date, little attention has been paid to exploring how these differences are and occur (Gilboa, 2009), especially in some less-documented parts of the
This research, therefore, aims to address this gap by examining how the coverage of local and international media differed during the sovereignty conflict between Vietnam and China over the HD981 incident in 2014. A content analysis of 438 articles from six different news outlets— three international, and three Vietnamese—compared the differential framing of the incident, including their framing of the legality and legitimacy of both countries, as well as their
employment of war and peace journalism frames. The results shed light on the role of Vietnamese and international news outlets in escalating or attenuating conflicts. Furthermore, the paper examines the extent to which the news framing matched that of the Vietnamese government during the conflict, helping to illuminate the potential governmental influence on news coverage and broader press-state dynamics in Vietnam.
Framing in the news
Though there exists a rich collection of literature and research on news framing, there is no one standard definition of what framing is (Scheufele, 1999; McCombs, Lopez-Escobar, & Llamas, 2000). Broadly speaking, a frame is “an emphasis in salience of different aspects of a topic” (Vreese, 2005, p. 53), or “a central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events, suggesting what is at issue” (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989, p. 3). Key ideas, phrases and typical images are repeated either in text or visually or both to provide a dominant interpretation that is more readily acceptable and memorable for the public audience compared to other interpretations (Entman, 1991). Framing, therefore, refers to the process of selecting certain angles of a
perceived reality and highlighting them in the communication (Entman, 1993). It is found to significantly influence the news audience by activating specific thoughts and ideas about an issue (Iyengar, 1991; McLeod & Detenber, 1999).
Frames are formed by different actors, including public actors, journalists and media users (Entman, 1993). Public actors strategically sponsor and send out certain frames via its
communication (Benford & Snow, 2000). Journalists either frame news stories according to their own personal interpretations of the issue, known as frame setting practice, or merely repeating the frames represented by public actors, referred as frame sending, or use a mixture of both, which is plausible to occur (Brüggemann, 2014). Media users, finally, frame the information they received through the media based on their own understanding (Entman, 1993), which may be reflected back in later news coverage. Each of these actors’ ability to dominate news framing and media content, however, depends on their respective powers (Hänggli, 2012). For example, in a country with low media independence like Vietnam and China, the power to shape news may fall into state hands that control all local news outlets. Meanwhile, in nations with high press freedom and democracy such as Denmark and the Netherlands, media may have more power than public actors in forming the frames or the frames may be equally formed by all actors.
There has been extensive literature discussing framing effects and the importance of frames. As noted by Price et al. (1997), frames “render particular thoughts applicable, resulting in their activation and use in evaluations” (p. 486). Framing of choices can pose significant
influences on respondents’ perception of risk, for example (Kahneman & Tversky, 1984). They have also been shown to profoundly shape public discourse of political issues and events, swaying, for example, public opinion about the European Union in different ways (Saris, 1997). These framing effects can become more significant in conflict coverage due to the sensitive nature of the events. By its choice of frames and language, media can either directly contribute to the peaceful resolution of conflict or further escalate the dispute (Kempf, 2002). A field study by Paluck (2009), for example, suggested that media can affect behaviours contributing to intergroup
conflict. Media, in contrast, had a significant impact on participation in violence by both civilians and military groups also during Rwandan genocide (Yanagizawa-Drott, 2014). Therefore, it is very important to study the media framing process during conflict.
Media’s positions in conflict
The framing process appears to be more explicit and diverse in the coverage of interstate conflicts, which often involve a complex and controversial series of events. Gilboa (2009) suggested that there are differences in the conflict coverage of media at different levels including local, national, international and global. Several other studies also pointed out that controversial international events are often interpreted varyingly by news media across national contexts
(Sheets et al., 2015; Clausen, 2003; Kolmer & Semetko, 2009). Such differences can be explained using several theories including social identity, which argues that the social groups a person belongs to can meaningfully shape his/her identity (Rivenburgh, 2000; Tajfel, 1982). National identity in particular, defined as the shared emotional legitimacy and sense of belonging of citizens living in an ‘imagined community’, can lead citizens to act in a way to defend the nation when it is threatened (Anderson, 1983; Entman, 1991; Rowling, Sheets, & Jones, 2013).
Such national identity can trigger patriotism which also plays a role in shaping the articles. Patriotic reporting has been explored in journalism research literature since 1980s, referred to as the loyalty of a journalist or journalistic organisation to its country or nation (Ginosar, 2015). Such loyalty has inspired a journalistic behaviour that differs from the liberal Western traditional journalism model of neutrality, objectivity and impartiality (Deuze, 2005). Patriotic reporting is more subjective. Katz (1992) showed the way the American press covered the country’s involvement in Vietnam, Korea, etc. as ideological wars against the threat of communism, in line with the framing of the U.S. government then. Later on, patriotic behaviour was also identified in the coverage of leading newspapers of the United Kingdom, Sweden,
Norway and Greece over the NATO bombing of Kosovo (Nohrstedt, Kaitatzi-Whitlock, Ottosen, & Riegert, 2000). These studies suggest that journalists tend to be more nationalistic in time of conflict or confrontation, especially if their countries are directly involved in those events.
Even without national identity and patriotism, dispute coverage between local and international media can significantly differ from each other due to different journalistic beliefs and values across cultures, nations and time (Berkowitz, Limor, & Singer, 2004; Deuze, 2002; Donsbach & Klett, 1993; Hafez, 2002; Wasserman & Rao, 2008). This implies that may be different journalism ideologies reflecting different beliefs, values, and ideas, which in turn leads to varied views of the journalists’ roles and behaviours in society. For example, a study by Deuze (2002) showed that the interpretive role of journalists is becoming more popular in the U.S while Dutch and German reporters prioritize a “pro-people” role rather than being a watchdog of the government.
Due to these elements, local media coverage from the countries directly involved in a conflict or international controversy is likely to be less critical in their than their foreign counterparts who are not directly involved in the event (Gans, 1980; Sheets et al., 2015). With this in mind, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H1: Local Vietnamese media is more likely to in favour of Vietnam while international coverage tends to be more neutral.
War and Peace journalism
Not only the media’s framing of the “good guys” and “bad guys” in a conflict matters; its focus on war or peace processes also has significant implications for the dispute’s outcomes. The concepts of war and peace journalism are used to examine these differences. According to
zero-sum game while ignoring the causes and possible solutions for the tension. Being too neutral and merely reporting on what is happening without bringing in critical analysis and the human side of the story are also perceived as negatively contributing to the dispute (Ruigrok, 2008; Bell, 1997; Galtung & Fischer, 2013; Galtung, 2002).
By contrast, peace journalism is described as peace-oriented reporting which attempts to present causes and potential peaceful solutions for the conflict by giving voice to all parties and highlighting invisible effects of violence (such as mental trauma and relationship damage) to create empathy and common ground that can result in a win-win situation and dispute resolution (Galtung 1986, 1998). By exercising the “high road” of peace journalism that explores the reasons behind violence and highlights peace and conflict resolution, journalists can be more truthful and play a role in de-escalating violence, Galtung suggests (2002). Not all scholars agree with this claim, however. Some reject the idea, saying that peace journalism and related
approaches are dangerous and threaten good journalism as journalists may slide into a reporting mode where biases toward a particular side of the conflict parade as moral principles (Ward, 1998). Hanitzsch claimed that peace journalism is at odds with mass communication theory (Hanitzsch, 2004). This concept places the responsibility on the media to “prevent, manage, resolve, and transform conflicts”, but this role is not recognized by communication theory (Gilboa, 2009, pp. 102-103). It was also regarded as unpractical and economically impossible to ignore the interests of some audiences or downplay elite voices (Barajas, 2016; Hanitzsch, 2004).
Despite diverse and sometimes conflicting opinions on the support toward these
journalistic approaches, the fact that media outlets differ from each other in their use of these two competing approaches may hint at a difference in their reporting orientation and potential role in conflict resolution. A study on several Asian newspapers’ coverage of different domestic and foreign conflicts has shown that the examined newspapers deployed a war journalism frame while
covering local conflict but used a peace journalism frame to report on foreign dispute (Lee, Maslog, & Kim, 2006). The finding indicates that local media is more war-oriented in its
reporting of the conflict directly involving its country and more peace-oriented when covering the disputes where its country is an outsider. This argument is in line with national identity and patriotic journalism concepts which suggest a less critical and objective journalistic behaviours of local reporters whose country is directly involved in the event (Deuze, 2005; Ginosar, 2015). In order to protect their country, local journalists may report more in favour of their nation by giving more space in the coverage, emphasizing their state arguments while downplaying those of their rival parties, which follows a war journalism orientation. International media, however, is likely to be more neutral and objective as they do not closely relate to any side of the conflict.
Furthermore, such differences between local and foreign news in this particular case can be expected given unique characteristics of their media systems. Specifically, international news outlets often follow Western liberal journalistic standards of being impartial, neutral and giving voice equally to all stakeholders in an issue, meaning that they should tend to use more peace journalism frames. Meanwhile, local news in Vietnam, where no media independence exists, is more likely to be biased and employ more propaganda and patriotism in their coverage. From this background, the second hypothesis is proposed:
H2: Vietnamese coverage is more likely to deploy war journalism frames while peace journalism is exercised more often by international media.
Press-State Relations and Vietnamese media
News is socially constructed (Molotch & Lester, 1974; Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). Consequently, the role and performance of news media in certain conflicts is directly influenced
coverage of embedded journalists in the 2003 Iraq war was more pro-U.S. military than the non-embedded reporting. The alignment between frames used by news and the state is also reflected in the “indexing hypothesis” which argues that journalists often “index” the opinion and
information in their coverage of a certain issue to that expressed by official sources and equally treat the frames emphasized in official discourse (Bennett, 1990; see also Sheets et al., 2015; Zaller & Chiu, 1996). Further, media that is subjected to state censorship would be even more likely to employ similar values and ideas in reporting conflict as the government (Carruthers, 2000). Such influence can become more significant in countries with no media privatisation, such as Vietnam, where all media belongs to and is under strict control of the ruling Communist Party. According to media ownership theory, news content is mostly influenced by the government in state-owned media systems (Djankov, McLiesh, Nenova, & Shleifer, 2003). The media in this model play a role to help the government reflect and implement its public diplomacy (Samuel-Azran, 2013). It is suggested that during the 2014 conflict with China, Vietnamese media
highlighted national unity, support for maritime officers and affected fishermen and confidence in the government’s strategy to resolve the conflict (Bui, 2017).
Additionally, studies by Cooke (2003) and Schaefer (2003) examining local versus foreign coverage when reporting a same event show that “physical proximity and the local angle influenced local framing, whereas foreign framing was more influential upon international debates and worldviews” (Papacharissi & de Fatima Oliveira, 2008, p. 58; Cooke, 2003; Schaefer, 2003). This finding implies the conflict coverage of national media is more likely to look at the issue from the local point of view and use local frames which may be influenced by local government, while foreign news will frame the issue from a broad international view.
These arguments have inspired the third hypothesis as below.
H3: Compared with international media, Vietnamese press are more likely to employ the frames similar to those introduced by the local government.
The Vietnam-China relationship
Before proceeding to the methodology, a brief background on the region is warranted, in order to help explain the context in which this study takes place, and better define the parameters of the sample under investigation.
As neighbours, the history of the Vietnam – China relationship should be seen under a combination of both historical and geopolitical viewpoints. Historically, Vietnam was under the direct rule of China for almost ten centuries (Guan, 1998). Though this resulted in certain similarities between the two countries’ cultures, this largely bitter history also reminds the Vietnamese of their weakness and vulnerability vis-à-vis their giant neighbour, as well as fosters a resentment toward what they considered Chinese bullying (Guan, 1998). Their relationship was friendlier during French colonial period in Vietnam and quickly developed to become
revolutionary brotherhood when China offered Vietnam its help and resources to fight back American troops (Womack, 2006).
After Vietnam’s victory against the US in 1975, China expected Vietnam to act as a “grateful client” and gradually cut its ties to the Soviet Union without additional investment from China. However, such aid cut-off of China had prompted Vietnam’s decision to join COMECON according to the late-Nguyen Co Thach (Duiker, 1989), an action that was construed by the Chinese to be Vietnam’s collusion with the Soviet Union against her (Guan, 1998). This had led to a big breakdown between the two countries during the period from 1979 to 1991 with the
Despite several incidents regarding the disputed sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands since the normalisation of Vietnamese - Chinese relations in 1991, not until 2014 when China placed the HD 981 oil rig in the disputed water on the South China Sea did another significant conflict break out between the two nations (Anh, 2017; Reuters, 2014; AFP, 2014). This was considered the worst breakdown in the diplomatic relationship between the two
countries since 1979, with repeated clashes on the sea and huge protests in Vietnam, which rarely happened before. The conflict started on May 2 when China placed the oil rig on the sea and ended on July 15 when the rig was moved elsewhere. The Chinese move to place the rig was considered as a warning toward Vietnam and challenge toward the US over Obama’s strategic “pivot” toward the Asia-Pacific region (Anh, 2017; Reuters, 2014). With its strategic location next to the oil- and gas-rich South China Sea – the world’s busiest trading route – Vietnam often finds itself in between different powers who want to enhance their influence on the area.
This historical background and an asymmetric relationship between the two communist neighbours have created a standing dilemma for Vietnam where its need to maintain peace with China is bigger than China’s need to keep peace with it, while the country also cannot let China to push it around (Womack, 2006). Therefore, Vietnam “tends to desire peace” and to be “allergic to any gesture on China’s part that impugns Vietnam’s sovereignty” (Womack, 2006, p. 9).
Regarding its media environment, Vietnam does not have media privatisation, meaning all local news outlets are under tight control and censorship of the communist party. The local
media, therefore, is perceived as the mouthpiece of the government (Vietnam's National
Assembly, 2016). This characteristic may have certain implications for the local coverage of the conflict which will be further discussed below under the press-state relations section.
Methodology
In order to test the hypotheses, I conducted a quantitative content analysis of media frames in news stories from three biggest Vietnamese national media outlets – VTV, VOV, and VnExpress - and three top international news agencies – Reuters, AFP, and AP. VTV and VOV are the biggest official national television and radio broadcaster, while VnExpress is the most-read online newspaper in Vietnam (Alexa, 2019). Analysing coverage of these news
organisations allows the study to grasp the most prominent frames and information distributed to the local audience. Likewise, Reuters, AFP and AP are the oldest and most prominent
international news agencies actively reporting in Vietnam and on the conflict (Wu, 2000; Paterson, 2005). As news agencies, they have local correspondents reporting on the ground and inevitably influence other foreign media’s news framing due to their role as wholesalers
providing news to their media clients (Paterson & Putnis, 2000; Paterson, 2005; Boyd-Barrett, 2000).
The news reports from April 20 to July 31, 2014 were analysed, representing the period just before, during and after China placed the oil rig HD981 in the disputed water. The stories of Reuters and Vietnamese news outlets (VOV, VTV, VnExpress) were retrieved via the news outlet’s online platforms using their built-in search tools and Google while AFP and AP articles were collected via LexisNexis with the following key words: Việt Nam (Vietnam), Trung Quốc (China), giàn khoan (oil rig), HD981, biển Đông (South China Sea) for Vietnamese coverage; and Vietnam, China, oil rig, HD981, South China Sea for English coverage. In total, this returned more than 500 articles during the given time period. From these articles, 85 were removed
because they focused mainly on other issues and only mentioned the event very briefly. The final sample includes 152 articles from the international news agencies and 286 stories from the local
In order to test the hypotheses, a quantitative content analysis with a deductive approach was employed. The deductive approach to identify frames involves exploring the presence and absence of certain predefined frames to compare the coverage of different media outlets (Vreese, 2005). A drawback of the deductive method is that frames not defined a priori might be missed (Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). However, such risk can be minimized by having a clear idea of the frames likely to appear in the coverage based on existing, related studies. Furthermore, such a method offers a coherent and systematic way to detect the differences in frame deployment among media outlets as well as the similarities between coverage and diplomatic tactics, which are also the main research purposes here (Wendorf Muhamad & Yang, 2017, p. 191).
The frames were predefined in two ways: first, based on relevant existing literature, and second, developed after an in-depth reading of the Vietnamese government’s press releases and state officials’ speeches and interviews about the incident. The deductive codebook (appendix 1) for each of these frames was created, and then adjusted during the initial coding process when the primary coders found any other relevant prominent frames that were not initially included. The frames are grouped by categories, including Position and Reporting Orientation. The first
category comprises five frames on the involved parties’ legality and aggression. Each article was coded in its entirety and given a score for each frame on a 5-point scale ranging from entirely in favour of Vietnam to entirely in favour of China (or 99 in case the article did not include the frame at all). The score represents the overall ‘skew’ of the article on each frame. So, for example, if an article included only pro-Vietnam statements affirming the sovereignty right of Vietnam over the disputed area or referring to Vietnam as the victim and China as aggressor, the article would score a 1 on that frame. This scalar approach allowed not only the presence/absence of frames to be measured, but also their relative use across an article so as not to miss nuances in the relative bias favouring one side of the conflict or the other. These five subframes scaled
together well, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .97; they were averaged into an index of the article’s position ranging from 1 to 5 (M=1.71, SD=.89, N=325).
Likewise, the reporting orientation category also includes several frames developed based on the classification of Galtung (1986, 1998) that involved different criteria of war and peace journalism such as the focus on visible or invisible effects of the conflict, elite or people-oriented coverage, or the use of demonizing and victimizing language. These indicators, also with a scale from 1 to 5, help examine whether a story’s approach and language are relatively peace-oriented (1) or war-oriented (5). These ten sub-frames scaled together well, with a Cronbach’s alpha of .83 (M=2.92, SD=.64, N=357). An article is (more) peace-oriented in its approach when it places a stronger emphasis on analysing the causes and potential consequences for the dispute, giving voice to different parties and people from diverse backgrounds, while war-oriented reporting is likely to ignore such things and instead focus more on ongoing tensions, differences and visible damage, casualties of the conflict. Similarly, a story using more demonizing or emotive language to exaggerate the situation is more war-oriented than the one deploying a clearer, objective language to correctly report the event. Demonizing language includes words such as provocative, disruptive, tense, aggressive, ruthless, blatant, savage, extremist, brazenly, violent, non-rational while emotive language is the use of strong words as blatant infringement, intentionally injure, systematic killing, etc. to exaggerate the situation and trigger strong emotions (anger,
compassionate, fear, extremely anxiety).
Ten percent of news stories were randomly selected and then coded separately by two coders to assess the inter-coder reliability for all variables. Their inter-coder reliability scores ranged from a Cohen’s Kappa of 0.75 to 0.96 across all codes (appendix 2).
Results
To test the first hypothesis—that coverage of local and international media was framed differently, with Vietnamese media more likely to cover the incident in favour of Vietnam—I conducted a T-test comparing the mean scores on the position frame of each news outlet. As shown in Table 1, local coverage showed a strong lean toward Vietnam’s side (M=1.05 on the scale, SD=.16). Meanwhile, international reports were heavily clustered around the neutral value of 3 (M=2.8, SD=.39). These means were significantly different, as indicated by the T-test results in the table. When looking into specific frames under the position category as illustrated in Table 1, it is interesting that almost all the coverage skewed toward Vietnam’s side (M<3), except for the depiction of Vietnam’s aggression in foreign news (M=3.08, SD=.78)
Table 1. Mean scores and T-test results of the position frame and its sub-frames by news source
An analysis week-by-week showed that the gap between foreign and local coverage remained roughly at a similar level throughout the period and slightly widened during the time of
protest outbreaks in Vietnam in middle of May (week 2,3) and late June (week 7,8) as shown in Figure 1. During these periods, international coverage often reported about the Chinese
government’s criticism toward the riot participants of being violent and aggressive and
Vietnamese government’s tolerance for such activities. Local coverage also reported the incident, though less extensively. But when they did, they highlighted the Vietnamese state’s effort to properly handle the situation and punish the extremists and explained the participants’ aggression as being incited by rebels. A similar pattern was also seen in the depiction of Vietnam’s legality frame which also observed a big gap in the mean scores of the two media types. Here, it is
interesting to note that while the legality was significantly and deeply addressed in local media — which even had a series of articles completely devoted to analyse the legal issues around the dispute — this aspect was mentioned only briefly in foreign news which chose to focus more on the political side of the tension.
For additional detail on these differences, I also ran ANOVAs comparing the mean scores on each individual news outlet within the local and international clusters (see appendix 4). The position of the three Vietnamese media were statistically identical (VOV: M=1.02, SD=.07; VTV: M=1.04, SD=.13; and VnExpress: M=1.07, SD=.22; F(2, 199)=1.68, p=.19). Their foreign counterparts, in contrast, exhibited a difference in their position on the dispute, with Reuters (M=2.41, SD=.63) leaning further toward the pro-Vietnam position than the other two (AFP: M=2.89, SD=.30; AP: M=2.80, SD=.29; F(2, 120)=11.98 with a Scheffe post-hoc test showing Reuters as significantly different to the others at p<0.001). Interestingly, all three foreign outlets agreed on their framing of China’s status as the aggressor in the conflict, with their mean scores for this particular frame ranging from 2.11 to 2.36, and no significant post-hoc differences (see appendix 3). This was also the frame that foreign coverage scored the lowest mean among the five position frames (M=2.17), showing that despite being more neutral on the legality of the two parties and the aggressiveness of Vietnam in the conflict, international news all were more likely to frame China as the aggressor or conflict starter, referring for example to its actions as
“provocative” and “aggressively assertive”. These results support the prediction that Vietnamese media was more likely to cover the incident in favour of Vietnam. They also show that
international media tends to be more neutral, not systematically favouring one side or the other, though ever-so-slightly taking a pro-Vietnamese position relative to a pro-China one.
Next, the study looked at the peace-versus-war reporting orientation of the local and international news outlets. Contrary to the prediction of H2, the patterns show that local news engaged in less war-oriented journalism than international news. Specifically, whereas local news was positioned below the neutral mid-point on the scale, slightly more toward peace journalism (M=2.59, SD=.03), the foreign press was more likely to employ war journalism techniques in their coverage (M=3.49, SD=.04; T(292)=17.68, p<0.001). Throughout the examined period,
local media mostly fluctuated below the neutral level, meaning more peace-oriented, and occasionally went slightly war-oriented (see Figure 2). Foreign news, however, consistently skewed more toward war journalism. Figure 2 also showed that foreign news was most war-oriented during the outbreak of a violent riot of Vietnamese employees at Chinese companies in the third week of the conflict (May 15-21), reporting heavily on the damage and casualties. Local media, by contrast, was interestingly more peace-oriented during this period, focusing more on how the government tackled the riot and protected foreign investors. The war orientation increased in both media types between May 29 and June 4 (week 5), when there were repeated clashes between Vietnam and China on the sea.
Figure 2. Mean article valence of orientation category, by news source, over time
Despite these fluctuations, the tendency of local news to be more peace-oriented than its international colleagues were also consistent in each orientation’s sub-categories of approach and
language. The difference was most significant in the two media types’ reporting approach with local coverage skewing more to peace journalism (M=2.61, SD=.57) while foreign news leaning more toward war journalism (M=3.73, SD=.51). When looking separately into each frame within the approach sub-category (appendix 3), the difference between the two media types was most present in the visible/invisible effects frame, with local press focusing mostly on invisible effects of the conflict (M=1.83), namely the damage to the relationship between citizens of the two countries or the outrage of Vietnamese people, and international coverage tended to report more on visible effects such as injuries, casualties or physical damage to assets (M=3.59). Vietnamese media was also more likely to call on peaceful measurement and emphasize the importance of peace (M=2.25). For example, a VOV article on June 20 repeatedly called on peaceful resolution six times, saying that “(Vietnamese) always use peaceful methods and request China to solve the issue peacefully” (VOV, 2014). Their foreign counterparts, meanwhile, mostly reported on ongoing tension and mentioned past disputes between the two countries without explaining what the implications of those events are on the current conflict. AFP articles repeatedly mentioned the border war in 1979 but did not link it to the context of the current incident (AFP, 2014).
In terms of reporting language, the two media types differed less considerably with both mean scores positioned below the balanced level of 3 (Local: M=2.46, SD=.76, N=286;
International: M=2.96, SD=.54, N=152; T(401)=7.9, p<0.001). Though both the media types were relatively neutral, and in this case leaned more toward peace journalism than war journalism, local news used less victimizing, demonizing and emotive language than foreign news (appendix 3). This means that local media was more peace-oriented in their language than international press. Foreign coverage, for example, often used terms as “strongly concerned”, “worst breakdown in decades”, “seriously threaten” to describe the tension between the two parties. Local news, instead, mentioned these terms less often and rarely demonstrated the dispute
with China as a severe tie breakdown between the two nations. Similarly, international articles tended to devote more space to report on victimhood: what “has been done” to certain
people/groups such as Vietnam, fishermen, businessmen, etc. and slightly less on the more peace-oriented notion of how they are coping with it. Meanwhile, national reports focused more on the measurement people/parties are taking on to cope with what had been done to them.
These findings contradict H2, suggesting instead that international coverage is more likely to deploy a war journalism frame and less likely to exercise peace journalism than local media in all aspects.
Last but not least, the final hypothesis was tested by performing an ANOVA to investigate whether the coverage of each media type aligned or differed from the frames
introduced by the Vietnamese government. The results showed a significant difference between the groups in both categories of position - F(2, 329)=1631.70, p<0.001) and orientation – F(2, 365)=155.53, p<0.001. The Scheffe post-hoc tests further pointed out that foreign news greatly differed from the Vietnamese state in both its tendency to take sides in the conflict, and in its peace/war reporting orientation (both at p<0.001), while local coverage employed relatively similar frames as its government (at p=0.91 for the position in the dispute and p=0.16 for
reporting orientation). It is worth noting that the population size for the government press releases and official announcements was quite small, however, compared with the sample size of the two media types, which may affect the statistical pattern recognition and reliability of the findings (Raudys & Jain, 1991). Despite such a small population of texts for the government, the tendency of local news to match the framing of the Vietnamese government was clear as illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Mean score of frame categories by news source
This result supports H3 and provides some evidence for the potential influence state frames on local media coverage, though naturally this causal pattern cannot be demonstrated with this cross-sectional data. At a minimum, this analysis confirms the expected correlation between the government frames and those employed by its state-run media outlets. The fact that the
government (and also the local media) used more peace-oriented frames than war-oriented ones is interesting in light of the literature predicting the second hypothesis, however, and will be
revisited in the discussion, along with recommendations for future research along these lines.
Discussion
Considerable scholarship has discussed varied news frames deployed by international and local media when covering an inter-state conflict. The two media types, as this study’s findings confirm, frame a dispute differently and therefore may play different roles in conflict resolution.
The study did not only confirm the argument made by existing literature but also further examined to what extent these differences occur and how they possibly influence the news outlets’ respective roles in the conflict by analysing the coverage of Vietnam – China incident over an oil rig placement on the South China Sea in 2014. As expected, Vietnamese media was more pro-Vietnam, demonstrating its country as the good guy and China as the aggressor and bully, while international news held an almost neutral position with a very slight lean toward Vietnam. Such differences can be explained by the fact that each media type has unique cultural and national identity motivations. These national and cultural contexts may indeed have shaped how they reported on the event (Sheets et al., 2015; Entman 2004; Gamson & Modigliani, 1989). As international news agencies have no national or cultural ties with China or Vietnam, they may have a more objective viewpoints than local media or even national media of other countries having ties with the two conflicting parties. Furthermore, the media landscapes and systems of local and international news may also affect their reporting orientation and professional criteria. In Vietnam, where there is no media privatisation and high news censorship, local news acts as “mouthpieces of the party, state, socio-political organizations and forums of the people” (Vietnam's National Assembly, 2016). Meanwhile, international news agencies have editorial independence and prioritize balance in their reports to not be biased or take any side (Reuters; AFP, 2016; AP). Another point worth noting is that among international news, there is a slight difference in their reporting tendency with Reuters skewing further to the Vietnam side than AFP and AP. This difference suggested that though having common high standards of doing
journalism, global news agencies are not necessarily similar in their reporting and framing
process. Some of them can appear to be more neutral or critical than others based on the way they frame an event.
Not only varying in their position toward opposite sides of the conflict, local and international media were also different in their reporting orientation. The study found that Vietnamese news was more peace oriented than their foreign colleagues, which went against the traditional claim that media of a country directly involving in a dispute tends to employ more war journalism than the media that are not directly involved (Lee et al., 2006). This peace orientation can be a result of potential state influence on local coverage, supported by the final finding on the press-state relation which will be further discussed below. As it tends to desire peace with China (Womack, 2006), Vietnamese government has framed its message in a way to promote peace and possibly influenced local coverage under its control to do so too. Lee et al. (2006), though having a different conclusion on war/peace orientation of local coverage, also argued that local
newspaper coverage of a conflict directly involving its country reflected its government’s stand. This means that the local coverage in the two studies may follow similar routines and were potentially influenced by their governments. What makes their war/peace orientation different, instead, lies at their governments’stands in those conflicts.
Based on this surprising finding, one can argue that in this particular context, local media pursuing peace journalism acted as conflict de-escalator while international news with its war journalism orientation may have contributed to the escalation of the dispute. However, it would be naïve to perceive this argument as absolute, given the long-standing debate on these two types of journalism as discussed earlier, as well as the functional theory of communication. Wright (1960) argued that a media warning of an upcoming storm is functional if it provides important information to help people better prepare and minimize the possible losses and damage from the storm. The warning, however, could be dysfunctional if it causes panic and chaos or any reaction that leads to a negative outcome. Such formula suggests that “even if the media are sincerely interested in positive contribution to prevent, manage, resolve, or reconcile international conflict,
the results may backfire” (Gilboa, 2009, pp. 105-106). Therefore, it is difficult to give a simple normative judgment about how a specific media’s coverage affects a conflict’s development and results based only on an analysis of the coverage content. This argument was further supported when looking specifically at this Vietnam-China incident. Despite the peace-oriented coverage of local media, a deadly riot and violence still broke out in the country. There was no concrete evidence proving that it was actually the result of the national media’s dysfunctions. However, it pointed out the need for the future research to carefully investigate functions and dysfunctions of the media by uncovering the conditions determining the conflict’s outcomes. By doing so, it not only helps analyse accurately the media’s influences in but also inspires potential reporting methods to maximize the positive contribution and minimize the negative effect of the press toward a dispute.
Lastly, the study found that the frames introduced by Vietnamese government were significantly aligned with its local coverage but different from international media. This finding has further supported the arguments on press-state relation in the empirical research (Carruthers, 2000; Cooke, 2003; Bennett, 2003; Djankov et al., 2003; Papacharissi & de Fatima Oliveira, 2008). The coders obseved that both media types often used state officials or elites’ statements as one of their primary sources. Vietnamese media, however, referred more to the local government and official from countries as US, Japan, Philippines, etc. who strongly opposed Chinese actions while their foreign counterparts also included Chinese views in their reports. This may explain the similarity between local government and its media in their framing of the conflict. Also, it suggested that the difference between international media and Vietnamese government framing does not necessarily mean that the foreign news is totally independent from the local Vietnamese state but may because they rely on several other involved states with diverse and even opposite
consequences (Rowling et al., 2015; Pfau, et al., 2004). In the case of Vietnam-China conflict, though, the correlation between Vietnamese government and its local press has potentially transferred the peace orientation from the state frames to its media coverage, which can be considered as a positive influence. This discovery has rejected the initial expectation of state’s negative influence on local news but instead, proposed a new argument that whether a local media employs more war or peace journalism in covering an inter-state conflict may partially depends on its country’s govermental orientation in handling the dispute. Future studies,
therefore, can further examined this argument by systematically investigating how different local news outlets of the countries with different stakes in a conflict cover it, as well as how a local media covers different conflicts in which their countries follow competing orientations.
However, it is important here to take into the consideration the small population size of the government’s press releases and statements, which is also a limitation of this study. In
addition, the paper only analysed a specific conflict between Vietnam and China over the HD981 oil rig placement, making it unclear whether the results can be generalized to other situations, as each conflict has different unique characteristics and developments. Though, the findings were in line with many existing literature, which has confirmed their validity.
To sum up, the research has contributed to the academic discussion of media coverage and its role in conflict, confirming that international news agency is likely to be more neutral in its position toward competing sides of an event, while the local government directly involved in the dispute and its country’s press tend to frame the incident in favour of their country.
Unexpectedly, this paper has found that local coverage and governmental frames were more peace-oriented than foreign reports, which contradicts extant literature. It, instead, suggested that the role of local media in an inter-state sovereignty conflict may be influenced by its
the actual role of the media in the conflict outcome, it is necessary for future research to look at functional theory and investigate the conditions determining the conflict’s outcomes. A
systematic study on the media coverage of other conflicts in the region during different periods of time can also add valuable data to the academic debate on this subject. Additionally, as the media types target different audience, either directly or indirectly involving in the conflict, their
war/peace reporting orientation may have distinct implications on the way and degree they
influence the dispute. Therefore, future research may wish to analyse these audience factors when discussing on the media role in conflict.
Nevertheless, this study has further affirmed that by being neutral does not necessarily mean a news coverage is more peace-oriented and will certainly help de-escalate the conflict it is covering and vice versa. Therefore, in certain cases, international news agencies, who tend to be neutral and impartial, may not always act as conflict de-escalator while local media, despite its biases, can still positively contribute to the dispute resolution. Acknowledging this is important for journalists to better understand and then perform their roles in a way that can result in positive impact on the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
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Appendix Appendix 1. Code book CODEBOOK
NOTE: graphics captions should also be coded—any material printed alongside an article should count.
1. News Story
Each news story will be assigned a unique number which should be entered here. A list of story code can be found the Summary of Data file.
2. Source
The news source from which the news story was derived. 1 = Reuters
2 = Agence France-Presse (AFP) 3 = Associated Press (AP) 4 = VOV
5 = VnExpress 6 = VTV
3. Date
The date that the news story was published: DD/MM/YY
4. Headline
The title of the news story.
5. Section
The section of the newspaper or the segment in the television broadcast from which the news story was derived. Important especially whether OPINION/EDITORIAL or not. Do not code LETTERS. You should just copy-and-paste the title of the section into this field.
6. Word count
Enter the number of words in each news story
Position
7. Which side does the news story consider/refer as having legal sovereignty right over the disputed location where the oil rig was placed?
1. Vietnam
2. Mainly Vietnam 3. Neutral/mixed 4. Mainly China 5. China
99. Not applicable/no mention of sovereignty right/can’t tell
If the story exclusively, directly or indirectly (via quotes) mentioned the disputed area where China placed the oil rig HD981 is within Vietnam’s territory and legally belongs to Vietnam, code it as 1.
If the story directly or indirectly (via quotes) relates the sovereignty right over the area to both sides but more to Vietnam than China, code it as 2. This might mean several quotes or sentences say Vietnam is sovereign, but only one says China is sovereign, for example.
If the story directly or indirectly (via quotes) refers the sovereignty right over the area to two sides equally OR explicitly says it’s unclear who is sovereign, code it as 3
If the story directly or indirectly (via quotes) relates the sovereignty right over the area to both sides but more to China than Vietnam, code it as 4
