Issue Framing, News Value and National Interest: Communicating EU Crises in China

Despite many studies having investigated journalism and media transformation in China in recent years, how Chinese media communicate international issues to its public, and particularly its relations with government policies, remains an underexplored area. Although the extent and quality of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and China has developed fast over the past 20 years, the crises, such as the financial crisis, Eurozone debt crisis, refugee crisis, Brexit, and COVID-19 that the EU has faced have had a negative impact on Chinese perceptions of the EU. Adopting framing theory, this paper focuses on the role of, and the challenges to, Chinese media organizations in communicating the Eurozone crisis and the European refugee crisis to the Chinese public. The study uses content analysis and semi-structured interviews to explore how Chinese journalists and editors balanced journalistic professionalism and the national interest in framing the EU crises. This balance aimed to reduce to a minimum the negative impact of the crises on perceptions, thereby securing domestic support and the government’s closer ties with the EU.