British newspaper coverage of the Tibet issue over time, 1949–2009: representations of repression and resistance

News media play a significant role in shaping the national image of other countries, especially in the context of China (PRC). They have been and remain the main source of information for the British public about developments in China but representations evolve over time. This thesis examines how a particular aspect of China s state actions has been reported. The study examines how the national imagery of China and Tibet has been represented in the British national press over the Cold War period and beyond. This study investigates media representations of the Tibetan conflict and how the events related to this were represented and portrayed in the British national daily newspapers from 1949 to 2009. It examines the frames chosen by the press and the influence of the sources (especially external journalistic influence) on the frame-building process. Through a comparison of coverage by the British newspapers over time, it determines the changing similarities and differences in representations of Tibet according to their partisanship and newspaper formats. The research involved a quantitative content analysis and a qualitative frame analysis. The research showed that generally there were greater similarities than differences in the way the British press represented the Tibet issue from 1949 to 2009. Only the pro-Communist Daily Working/Morning Star with a purely Communist canon of news values adopted a completely different framing strategy to report the events. Other British press aligned closely with the UK government by reproducing and reinforcing the dominant capitalist ideology. This political motivation resulted in their approval of stable and familiar frames. In addition, there were differences in the frame types used by the British press between the early Cold War, near the end of the Cold War and the post-Cold War periods. The year 1989 could be seen as a turning point. The research enriches the concept of Herman and Chomsky s propaganda model and contributes to existing media framing studies on Western media s representations of China.