A Longitudinal Content Analysis on the Media Images of Left-behind Children in China

Based on the media framing theory, this study adopted the content analysis to examine the media images of the left-behind children in rural Mainland China. The study sampled the news reports in the national party newspaper Guangming Daily, the local party newspaper Sichuan Daily, and the metropolis newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily from 2006 to 2015. The study analyzed the numbers and themes of the reports, the categories of the represented images, the represented ways of caring. It detected the media frames about left-behind children and subtle differences among the three newspapers. The study found that the three newspapers mainly focused on the theme of caring for left-behind children. The most frequently represented images were the favor-receiving left-behind children. The reasons why Chinese rural children were left behind were rarely mentioned and analyzed.