The Image Of Mainland China Created In Taiwan Newspaper During Past Ten Years(1996-2006)

By adopting the content-analysis method, this thesis mainly focuses on the quantitative analysis of the reports from United Daily, Free Daily and China Daily during the past 11 years (1996-2006). The aim of this thesis is to explore what kind of image of Mainland China that the Taiwan newspaper and mass medium has created to Taiwanese. This thesis will fill in the gap of the research on the reports from Taiwan newspaper concerning on the image of Mainland China, which remained blank for a long time.The study shows that, during the past 11 years (1996-2006), there is large quantity of reports on the news of Mainland China. The content of the reports is mainly about Cross-straits news; the source of the reports is mainly from the daily lifes; the news of the reports is mainly collected by the press itself; the authenticity of the news is approved by the government authorities and media. The reports property in China Daily and United Daily is neutral; while in Free Daily is neutral and reserved; news location is mainly in Taiwan. In China Daily and United Daily, there are specially set sheets for Mainland China news, while there is not any in Free Daily. Free Daily highlights the importance of Mainland China news in the form of language, and this fact can be found almost everywhere in the newspaper except the front page.At different stages, reports on Mainland China have changed. In the period of "report forbidden", there were few reports on Mainland China, which appeared in Taiwan newspaper, if there was, they were negative. After releasing the ban, the reports about Mainland China have a significant increase. During the past 11 years (1996-2006) when DPP were on their political stage, China Daily and United Daily were regarded as traditional newspaper and were limited to release news, and their style was forced to change into neutral. However, their "blue color" still existed, and the "green storm" of Free Daily became even stronger.Reports of Mainland China in the above mentioned three newspapers were subject to Taiwan's politics, economy, society consciousness and many other principles of news. Political factors are the most important factors in influencing the reports of Mainland China, while economic factors are the key factors which influence the development of Taiwan's news industry. Complicated and multi-layered society consciousness is obviously and clearly expressed by mass media, and its constraint on mass media is also strong and long-lasting. Mutual influence of the two principle-"commercial in command" and "the fourth power" forms the characteristics of Mainland China news.