Author Description

This dissertation, "Framing Bias: a Case Study of Local Newspaper Coverage of Hong Kong Police During the 2014 July 1st Protest" by Ka-yan, Chik, Kar-man Carmen, Ng, Ho-sing, Tsang, Wing-tim, Wong,,,,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Media arecentral in the public's perception of police legitimacy (Chan and Chan, 2012), in part because most of the major events that reflect on police performance were not first-person experiences for members of the public but became "facts" when reported by the media. Many studies have demonstrated that members of the public tend to accept news from the mass media as the "reality." Cohen (1963) points out that the media can influence their audiences about what to think and how to make sense of it. On the other hand, the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme(HKUPOP) research indicated a significant decrease in Hong Kong's public satisfaction with the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) despite HKPF's success in reducing the crime rate as a very stable trend. The present study aims to explore to what extent the Hong Kong newspapers have displayeda one-sided perspective toward the HKPF as a "consistent pattern." To ensure that the study was focused, news reports related to HKPF performance during a July 1, 2014, protest were selected as the content to test the hypothesis that Hong Kong newspapers have consistentselectivereport preference and stance towardspolice performance on the July 1 protest.The July 1 Protestwas one of the most significant local events in recent years, given that it led to more serious protests later on. The hypothesis rests