| Description |
With the development of globalization, the sharing economy - a business model that refers to peer-to-peer based access to goods and services - has caught media attention worldwide but remains understudied by communication scholars. Based on framing theory, this study uses an international perspective to explore how the media in the United States and China frame the global issue of the sharing economy. Following a transnational framing analysis model, this study finds that media in both countries may construct the sharing economy as corporate behavior with conflicts between governments and corporations. The U.S. media may construct an individual-oriented frame while the Chinese media present a corporate-oriented approach. These and other findings of this study confirm the applicability of the transnational framing model in framing research and identify the possible influence of culture on media coverage, and potentially on public acceptance of an innovative concept. Theoretical implications and practical suggestions for global coverage of the sharing economy are discussed. |
