Imagine Tibet Dialogue - Sino-french Media Reports A Comparative Study

This study is a quantitative and qualitative research using media theory to compare Tibet-related reporting of the Chinese and French media, and to attempt to find out how the two countries describe the past, present and future of Tibet? Why the two country have two differing imaginaries for the same culture. Content analysis was conducted on the news reports of Tibet within the case study tradition. Articles studied included the two countries' main newspapers-The People's Daily and Le Monde during the seventeen year period from January 1, 1987 to December 31, 2003. French popular magazines-GEO and French cartoon- Tintin au Tibet were also analyzed. To the differences of two countries' Tibet-related reports have a detailed analyses.In chapter 1 posing the process and the meaning of selecting the subject. I review the literature of Western, French and Chinese images of Tibet in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 deals with media theory and "the other", media and nation-building. The methodology of conducting the present research is discussed in the Chapter 4. Analyzing the two countries' Tibet-related reports over a period of seventeen years is discussed in the Chapter 5. In Chapter 6 outcomes of the study are delineated, and an attempt is made to answer questions arising from the research and to explore theoretical constructs. In Chapter 7, conclusions are drawn, and an attempt to envisage future lives of research is made.