Social-mediated frame alignment: A study of menstrual activism in China during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

At the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, an urgent appeal for the donation of menstrual products for female medics was ignored by medical institutions. This soon triggered an unprecedented wave of socially-mediated menstrual activism. By adopting frame alignment as a theoretical framework, this study aims to explore the frames social media influencers utilize to represent topics relating to menstruation and menstrual activism and how the public responded on this taboo issue. We conducted a qualitative content analysis of the frames adopted by WeChat posts. Statistical results showed that news organization accounts used fewer conflict, human interest, and feminism frames than individual and corporate accounts in order to avoid controversy in cyberspace. This study also demonstrated the use of frames of menstrual stigma and public invisibility of menstruation was associated with the pro-feminist attitudes of followers, while the use of efficiency and respect frames was correlated with anti-feminist attitudes. These findings should also provide insights into social-mediated frame alignment strategies for future menstrual and other types of activism.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

在新冠疫情爆发之初，一些医疗机构忽视了抗疫一线女性医护的卫生用品需求甚至拒绝相应的社会捐赠，在社交媒体平台上引发了月经正义倡导行动。基于框架整合理论，本研究旨在探究社交媒体影响者采用何种框架来呈现月经主题，以及网民对此禁忌话题做出何种回应。通过对微信公众号文章进行质化内容分析，发现相较于个人和公司公众号，新闻机构公众号更少使用冲突框架、人情味框架和女性主义框架，以此避免引发网络空间的话题争议。研究还表明，揭示月经污名和公共空间的月经话题隐形等女性主义框架与评论区的亲女性主义态度相关，而使用效率和尊重等非女性主义框架则与网民的反女性主义态度相关，以上发现可为未来的月经正义倡导提供参考。

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• menstrual activism
• frame alignment
• micro-mobilization
• social media influencer

KEYWORDS:

• 新冠
• 月经行动
• 框架整合
• 微动员
• 社交媒体影响者

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 WPAs would usually attract a number of followers after the publication of a series of posts. For example, those that focus on fashion and vogue would attract many young white-collar persons as followers; WPAs that focus on child rearing, would attract many mothers. Hence, for different WPAs, there would be different numbers and types of followers. When a WPA acquires a considerable number of followers, it would sell its advertisement, as traditional newspapers do.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qianying Zhou

Qianying ZHOU is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Jiangxi Normal University. She received a Ph.D. degree from Xiamen University. Her research interests include health communication, gender, media, and society. Email: [email protected].

Hongfeng Qiu

Hongfeng QIU (corresponding author) is a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University. He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Sydney. His research interests include health communication, risk communication, and news media and society. Email: [email protected].

Xinying Yang

Xinying YANG is a Ph.D. student at the School of Journalism and Communication, Xiamen University. Her current research interests include gender, media, and society. Email: [email protected].