| The current research explores the role of the digital media platforms in international communication,as the new media plays a major role to establish the online discourse about foreign countries in the internet age where we live in.In this context,the current research aims to examine how the digital news website of the Russian state-owned,main source of news agency,The Russian Telegraph Agency?TASS?represent all news regarding China to the Russian audience,from 15th of November 2012 until31st of October 2017.The five years period are representing the first presidential term for the Chinese president Xi Jinping.Since the leadership change in China in November 2012,there have been significant changes in the Chinese foreign policy.It?s been widely noticed that under the new leadership of President Xi Jinping,China's foreign policy toward Russia has become more amiable.It's also observed that Xi Jinping visited Moscow more than any other capital city,in a step to deepen the Sino-Russian relations.The quantitative results of the news analysis shows that TASS tends to present a recognizably big amount of news on China's affairs in different topics.China's domestic and foreign affairs were always under TASS spotlight,the Russian news agency categorized the news regarding China under 107 sub-themes which were later minimized and organized by author into 10 main themes,those ten thematic categories are Army and Security;Accidents;Culture;Economic and Business;Interview;Politics;Science;Society;Sport and TASS Inform.Most of the content of the news stories regarding China's Economic,Politics,Culture etc.were covered in a positive frame,while news that covered topics like accidents,political conflicts etc.were covered in a very neutral–even supportive frame in some events.This Research is linked to the Framing Theory.The textual analysis of 13490 news Stories and reports of TASS on China resulted that positive framing practice was used by the Russian news agency.China's news were framed by using mix brush wherein two dominant frames?Cooperative-China'and?Friendly-China'were identified in the news themes on Chinese domestic and foreign affairs news.The current findings would help reveal more knowledge with multiple news themes and multiple news frames that make up?Image of China',which is based on news value of issue at hand and the media organizations covering that issue.The study contributes to the literature on understanding China Affairs through internet news media in the Russian Federation,which shows China as:a?Development Partner',?Forever Friend'and an?Emerging Power'on the Russian stage in the context of Chinese new foreign policy of President Xi Jinping.In few words,the study concludes that online news editions of Russian news media agencies,like TASS,employ the framing strategy,which seems,apparently,affected by the political,economic and ideological factors in their coverage to the news regarding China.The research also provides a better understanding about online news discourse on?China's Image'in Russia and this endeavor would provide valuable insight for both the media scholars,media practitioners and foreign policymakers. |
PDF Full Text Request