Media representations of the Hong Kong police and their mainland counterpart

Abstract

Media portrayal of the police constitutes an important aspect of policing in a modern society. Thanks to freedom of the press, Hong Kong’s media can deliver a variety of news reports on the performance of police. Under the principle of ‘one country, two systems’, not only the Hong Kong police but also the police in mainland China are constantly represented in Hong Kong’s news media. The present study attempts to examine the media portrayal of the police by investigating how the Hong Kong police are represented differently from their mainland counterpart during the particular period of Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement. A content analysis of three major newspapers published in Hong Kong reveals that the media image of the Hong Kong police is not substantially different from that of the mainland police. The findings suggest that the police image tends to remain positive in terms of crime-fighting duties despite the fact that they have been the subject of political controversy in carrying out order-maintenance duties. This article concludes by discussing the theoretical implications for the media portrayal of the police and proposing strategies for extending the study.