Dynamics of Networked Framing: Automated Frame Analysis of Government Media and the Public on Weibo With Pandemic Big Data

Networked framing focuses on how the public becomes gatekeepers on social media. To unpack the dynamics of networked framing, we conducted an automated frame analysis to identify the shift of frame structures of government media (N = 12,090) and the public (N = 1.49 million) on Weibo during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found a moderate level of frame alignment between government media and the public, with high divergence observed during the pandemic's initial stage. The public challenged government media frames by deploying unique frame functions and creating new frames, but their frame network was fragmented relative to that of government media, which constructed a cohesive network of frames to enhance discursive control.