News Framing of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative

This article probes how journalists frame China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).  Towards this end, it undertakes a qualitative media framing analysis of pieces appearing in The Wall Street Journal and The Economist from January 2012 to June 2019.  It shows journalists situate the BRI within three frames: (1) BRI overview and economic development; (2) geopolitics under BRI, itself consisting of four frames (i) geopolitics: BRI and the United States, (ii) geopolitics: BRI and Europe, (iii) geopolitics: BRI and Africa, and (iv) geopolitics: BRI and Asia; and (3) BRI and world order.  It demonstrates that international business media is neutral.

This piece originally appeared as Salman Bahoo and Ilan Alon, “News Framing of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative: A Media Analysis,” Nordic Journal of Media Management, Vol. 1, No. 4 (2020), pp. 495-525.  Copyright remains with the original holder.