Research On China’s Image In Indian Mainstream English-language Newspaper

National image is an important part of soft power. China and India are the world’sfastest growing emerging economies. The mutual cognition between the two countries isvery important to the prosperity and stability of Asia, as well as the final solution of theboundary problem.In this thesis, the research object is the coverage about China presented by the threemainstream English newspapers in Indian——Times of India，The Hindu, Indian Express,during the time from2003to2011.The total number of sampling is4,687. Since Indianofficials, the educated classes, as well as the influential people on foreign policy speakEnglish, therefore, English medias in India had an important impact of public opinion onthe government’s foreign policy-making. Generally speaking, Times of India is thespokesman of the right-wing forces in India, The Hindu represents the interests of theleft-wing parties; while Indian Express maintains a vigilant watch against China, but theattitude is more moderate——"center-right" as a whole. These three newspapers canbasically represent the Indian English media’s perception of China.Since2003, the Sino-Indian relations rebounded. And economic and trade exchangesled to the comprehensive development of Sino-Indian relations. Although the Sino-Indianrelations experienced some setbacks, the determination to develop friendly relationsbetween the two governments has never wavered, the process of all-round cooperationbetween the two countries has never been interrupted. Reflected in public opinion,Sino-Indian relations became the focus of continued coverage on the three newspapers.The three newspapers’ coverage on China can be divided into three stages over the past9years:First stage: the recovery period in2003. It was Indian Prime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee’s visit to China in2003that became a new starting point of the Sino-Indianfriendly relations. The reports about China on Times of India grew rapidly from76in2002to120in2003. What the three newspapers discussed were whether India shoulddevelop friendly relations with China, and how to evaluate Vajpayee’s visit to China.Second stage: the stable development period from2004to2006. Since exchanges between China and India has been stagnant for many years, three newspapers were curiousabout why China’s economy can obtain rapid development, in which way India shouldlearn from China, and how to develop the Chinese market. In line with these, threenewspapers’ coverage steadily grew, reflecting the thriving scene of Sino-Indian relations.Third stage: the suspected setback period from2007to2011. Due to theintensification of the Sino-Indian trade imbalance, pending border issues andintensification of geopolitical competition, the development of China-India relations hadto face many obstacles. The number of reports about China on the three newspaperscontinued to rise, however, the reported tendency began to change——from friendly tosuspicious，and China’s national image began to decline.Based on content analysis and discourse analysis, longitude by subject and latitude bytime, this thesis analyzed the differences of the three newspapers in the political, economic,military and other seven issues reports, as well as the general image of China presented bythe three newspapers.By using the framework of binary opposition, The Times of India regarded China ascompetitor and adversaries, and always felt worried about China, reflecting its inferioritymentality. While The Hindu used the framework of “Chindia”,and regarded China as afriendly neighbor, reflecting the optimistic confident state of mind. Nevertheless, IndianExpress used the framework of contrast, not only emphasizing on economic cooperationwith China, but also keeping high vigilance against China in the area of politics andmilitary. China’s image which was restricted by three newspapers’ reporting frameworkreflected through agenda-setting, the number of the report, the choice of reporting angle aswell as the application of reported methods.The Times of India was most concerned about economic and social issues. Sinceagenda-setting was “closed”, focus effect was outstanding, plus the use of story-telling, itcan enhance reports’ systematicness and persuasiveness, but it was easy to hold a part asthe whole, and generalize misleading to readers. The Hindu paid more attention to thepolitical and cultural issues. Due to the “open” agenda-setting, scattered issues and itsmore objective reports, power of reports had been weakened. Indian Express paid muchattention to the reports of military and environmental issues. It focused on the macroissues, gave more introductions about the history and the international background of theevent, and reported in an objective and calm way. Moreover, it often adopted comparative perspective. It seemed that Indian Express on China’s position was relatively mild,actually what it concerned about was related to the interests of the whole strategic issues.Finally, this thesis analyzed the various factors that affected reporting framework,including the interests of the state, market pressure, party politics, professional conceptand other factors. In international communications, national image in the media is mostinfluenced by the interests of the state, followed by the pressure of market and partypolitics. Different image of China in the three newspapers not only reflected thecomplexity of Sino-Indian relations, but also reflected the problems in China itself.Therefore, improving the image of China is largely dependent on China’s own conditions’improvement.