A study on the presentation of China’s COVID-19 news in American mainstream media: party logic and mirror image effect hypothesis

This study investigates the partisan tendencies of CNN (Cable News Network) and Fox News (Fox Broadcasting Company) in their reporting on China’s COVID-19 pandemic throughout the stages of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Guided by framing and gatekeeping theories to design coding rules, this study conducted a quantitative content analysis of 196 text news reports on the COVID-19 pandemic in China published between January 2020 and May 2021 on CNN and Fox News. The Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test, one-way ANOVA test, and least significant difference test were employed for the analysis. The findings indicate that both CNN and Fox News had an overall negative bias in their coverage; however, there was a discernible and increasingly negative trend in CNN’s coverage of China’s COVID-19 pandemic (p < 0.05). CNN’s tone transitioned from relatively positive before the 2020 U.S. presidential election to sharply negative after President Biden’s victory (p < 0.05), whereas Fox News maintained a consistently negative tone and significantly reduced its coverage. These patterns suggest that partisan logic strongly shapes international crisis reporting strategies. During this period, trust in domestic health institutions and the government declined among Republican-leaning Americans and increased among Democrat-leaning Americans. The study proposes the “mirror image effect hypothesis” to interpret these dynamics: the media strategically narrates international news to prompt reflection on domestic situations, thereby influencing public perceptions. This hypothesis highlights the need for ethical guidelines that go beyond partisan interest in international crisis reporting and highlights the importance of including international news literacy in media education.