A Comparative Study of Television Coverage of the 2014 Hong Kong Protests on Global Media BBC World News and CCTV News

Abstract: In a globalizing world, different media representations have been witnessed from various global newsrooms, particularly with reference to issues relating to politics such as war and protest. This study focuses on cross-cultural media representations of the 2014 Hong Kong Protests on two leading global media: BBC World News based in the United Kingdom and CCTV News based in China. Drawing from a comparative perspective of the traditional and new global powers, this research sheds more light on representation of protest by global media. By using a combination method of quantitative content analysis and qualitative framing analysis, two television flagship news programs broadcast on BBC World News and CCTV News in the two weeks following the 2014 Hong Kong Protests (i.e. from 26th September to 9th October 2014) have been analyzed to find out similarities and differences between their representations. The results show that there is a significant difference in the way the 2014 Hong Kong Protests were portrayed by the two global media. The BBC World News frames the protest as a democracy movement driven by students against the government for the election issue; while CCTV News claims the protest is illegal, and argues more about the negative economic consequences of the protest by quoting much from local retailers and general publics. The findings suggest that media representation is not an emerging hegemony due to media globalization. Instead, media system and political backgrounds still play a key role in framing the news between different global newsrooms. The scientific novelty and significance of the study lie in its empirical evidence with a novel comparative perspective, which contributes to bridging the research gap between traditional and new media powers in global media studies.