The study explores the differences in the news frames used by two Chinese newspapers (the People's Daily and the West China City Daily) as well as two American newspapers (the Washington Post and the New York Times) in covering the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It also examines how the frames applied by the newspapers in the two countries differed as the coverage evolved.

A content analysis of Chinese and American newspapers over a three-month period was conducted. The results indicate that the government policies, actions and response frame dominated the Chinese newspapers. The relief effort frame was also used substantially. However, the American newspapers exhibited highly affective frames, notably the human mortality and damage frames. The reconstruction frame was more frequently used by the Chinese papers at the later part of the coverage; the human mortality, government, and survivor frames were more noticeable in the first month of the American newspapers' coverage.