A Study On The Political Inclination Of CNN's Reports On China During The Past Two Years

The mass media—an carrier of ideological and political education—has its unique characteristics and carries out the wedge function by making the public accept the ideological and political education in time and with universal appeal; and the ruling class has firmly grasped the function and implementation information of the ideological and political education as a propaganda tool. The American media is quite experienced in their ideological and political education. As one of the mainstream media,CNN is the first major news channel of the United States, with essential influence on the worldwide propaganda. CNN shows its political inclination when reporting news about China. The analysis of the reasons for this tendency will be of great significance in the following aspects: enhancing the function of our mass media in ideological and political education; adjusting our international communication strategies; revealing the American mainstream media's attempt at"westernizing"and"differentiating"China, in establishing a proper international public environment; and improving the image of China.This thesis has adopted statistical description and content analysis. For the research subjects, we have selected the typical cases of CNN's reports on China concerning politics, military affairs, culture and economy from March, 2008 to March, 2010. Research indicates that CNN's reports on China are frequently"selectively blind"concerning the subject of US national interests and ideology, cutting the dialectical unity between news objectivity and political inclination, and eventually falling in the mistake of subjective idealism.The prejudices and misunderstandings reflected in CNN's reports on China, together with the political inclination and one-sidedness in them have deep political, ideological and commercial roots. The subsequent negative comments with international impact have brought negative effects on China's international public environment, which have become the research focus in the academic world. Through the objective knowledge and in-depth study on CNN's reports on the four typical events in China, we could draw some countermeasures that the CNN's reports on China.