ABSTRACT
The problem for media coverage is that China itself changes far less than do the one-dimensional American frames of it. The cardinal sin committed by American news organizations in covering China is to portray it, always, in one overly simplistic frame. The American frames of China change dramatically from decade to decade, but the underlying behavior of the news organizations does not. The reduction of China to a one-dimensional frame affects coverage of China in many ways, both direct and indirect. The governing frame of China also establishes the mindset of editors back home, to whom correspondents based in China report. At news desks in the United States, the natural tendency of editors and producers is to look for stories that involve, in some way, the frame. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, it served America's Cold War interests to gloss over the darker sides of Chinese behavior.
