The paradox of journalistic representation of the other: The case of SARS coverage on China and Vietnam by western-led english-language media in five countries

This paper primarily looks at one of the essential aspects of global (usually western) journalists' praxis of covering and depicting the other (generally the non-western). Content analysis of quantitative and qualitative attributes of media coverage of the SARS outbreak with regard to China and Vietnam from newspapers in five countries, including the Washington Post (USA), The Times (UK), the Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), the Globe & Mail (Canada), the Straits Times (Singapore), Newsweek and online news was undertaken. Findings show that while the western news coverage on China corroborated the image of the other in an unfavorable light, Vietnam was not portrayed as the negative other. Differences in China's and Vietnam's handling of SARS have affected their news coverage by the media. Both internal forces and external factors, interplaying and often competing, have contributed to the dynamic process of news coverage and image construction in the international media.