Transition "migrant Workers" Community Media Representation Of Social History Research

Most existing researches of migrant workers’ representation in mass media rarely shed lighton their role as social change agent. Therefore, we could not hear their voices, or see their actions,or realize their efforts of changing mass media. Using social history approach, the researchsynthetically analyzed the representation of migrant workers in mass media and its history,migrant workers’ self-construction in alternative media, and their various actions to influence massmedia’s representation.The research discovered that: Firstly, mass media used different frames to represent migrantworker’s issues in different periods, these issues including social identity, wages, occupationalsafety and health, children’ s education and housing.Secondly, alternative frames were used in migrant workers’ self-construction in alternativemedia, which criticized the mass media’s frame and presented many uncovered social facts. Onthe other side, migrant workers’ self-construction also had something in common with therepresentation in mass media.Thirdly, various actions were implemented by migrant workers in order to change therepresentation in mass media. These actions increased the visibility of migrant workers’ issues inmass media, changed the frames of mass media to some extent, and created a friendly public spacefor their rights protection and social mobilization.The research also demonstrated that an image of ‘imaginary stranger’ was created by massmedia to construct and sustain the new urban-rural dual structure inside urban areas. Based onmigrant workers’ practices of self-construction and actions influencing mass media, the authorproved that issue visibility, alternative frame and subject’s attendance could measure the publicityof ‘public sphere’ in transformative society. Mover, alternative media should be defined by thequality of ‘counter-hegemony’ or ‘counter-frame’.