News Framing on Corporal Punishment Events: Critical Discourse Analysis and Policy Implication

• In Event: Roundtable Session 57
  In Roundtable Session: Transnational Policy Discourse

Abstract

This study examined the news reports on the cases of school corporal punishment from the 1990s to 2010s in Taiwan. While the social movements and a series of policies against the punishment proceeded, our analysis shows that the news reports, though relating to the policies and social changes at the surface level, remained framing the case in three identified ways that simply reflected unbalance power and conventional values, contributing to the continuous use of corporal punishment. This study illustrates how critical discourse analysis can be used as a means to advance a discourse-driven social change, penetrating the surface reframing, questioning the existing power structures manifested in the news discourse, and suggesting alternative frames.

Author

• Wen-Ting Chung, University of Pittsburgh