U.s. Media Construction Of "made In China" And Risk Response

Since the pet food contamination scandals in 2007, products made in China have been exposed on end to world opinions. "Made in China" seemed to be equivalen to "hazardous" at one time, which in turn, triggers the trust crisis to the whole manufacturing industry in China. The Theory of Risk Construction holds that risk is not an independent thing but the result of social culture and history. This dissertation starts from this view and tries to reveal how the risk of "made in China" comes into being and put forward some solutions through studying the image construction of "made in China" by media in the United States.New York Times and Time are two bestselling and reputated media in U.S.,and 20 years'(1991-2009) coverages on them are chosen as samples to study thoroughly "made in China" reports.Firstly, this dissertation gives a comprehensive review on the report subject and quantity about "made in China" through content analysis and finds out that the overall image is negative. Meanwhile, this research finds out the image construction by the two media drags in other things such as government, economics and politics.The image construction seems fair but is actually based on country benefits and ideology of U.S.,and finally converts from the risk of quality problems of "made-in-China" products to "Chinese government-made" risk.Secondly, the dissertation analyzes the approach through which U.S.media construct the risk image of "made in China" by news frame and reveals that healthiness and country benefits frames are mainly used.Meanwhile, the two frames construct and influence each other. For example, the country benefits frame provides the predisposition for the healthiness frame and accordingly the latter consolidates the former. The two frames continually develop and upgrade one another like "an unbalanced spiral"Finally, the dissertation puts forward some solution to the risk.This research proposes that we should weaken the concept of "made in China" tactically in the first place and then construct the trust system in media, enterprises and government by focusing on the responsibility. A responsible country image should be rebuilt so as to evade the potential risks before it comes into being.