International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development

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From Factual Selection to Value Articulation: Frame-Building Mechanisms in Award-Winning Feature Reports of the 35th China Journalism Award

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This study examines how factual materials are transformed into value articulation in the production of feature reports. From a population of 34 first-, second-, and third-prize feature reports in the 35th China Journalism Award, 10 cases were selected through purposive and maximum-variation sampling. Seventeen work-elicitation, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 creators, producing approximately 410,000 Chinese characters of transcripts. A theoretically informed codebook thematic analysis showed that facts entered the final report through the dual gate of verifiability and explanatory relevance; problem definitions and evidence gathering recursively revised one another; the functional configuration of lived experience, data, expert knowledge, and institutional materials constructed causality and responsibility; and characters, scenes, and temporal structures translated evidence into public meaning. Frames were mainly developed by reporters and were calibrated by editorial feedback and organisational norms as recalled by the creators. The study proposes an iterative mechanism of problem orientation, evidentiary constraint, narrative translation, and feedback calibration, together with the concept of evidence-constrained value articulation. It extends Entman’s textual functions into observable production practices and argues that the journalistic legitimacy of value articulation depends on evidentiary traceability, causal proportionality, and the non-substitution of narrative for evidence.
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