A Study Of Chinese Images In American Public Opinion Investigation

The changing course of the China’s national image reflects the trend of the world setting of power and discourse in the international community as well as the accomplishments and the faults in China’s development. This thesis is focusing on the theme of China-related public opinion surveys, which are from the most famous U.S. public opinion organizations. Based on the description and the analysis of China-related public opinion surveys, we can basically know how the China’s national image presented by the whole world’s people, and commend the reasons to construct the image.Based on the analysis of the China-related public opinion surveys from different organizations, combined with the concludes of the China-related reports and comments of the famous media, the author can concludes the construction of the China’s national image from the U.S. public opinion organizations. At the same time, the China’s media reported some China-related surveys, the author also observe the attitude of Chinese media and the public through these citations, then makes a comprehensive conclusion.The objects of this thesis is the major public opinion organizations in the United States, Which can be divided as three types, the first type is the social organizations, including profit and non-profit professional ones-Pew Research Center, Gallup Company etc. The second one is the Organization based on the university or college: Maryland and the Globescan "cooperation in international policy trends" research project (PIPA) etc. The third type is the media research institutions, such as the Columbia Journalism Survey (CBS News Poll) and so on.In order to get the clear results,"China" and "Chinese" are the keywords for searching, the author search the American public opinion organizations’ websites and get the China-related reports from the year of the2008to2012. Through content analysising and comparative analysising, the author divided these reports as following segments:political, economic, social, cultural and educational contents, combined with the contents from the famous media and different organizations, we can conclude the significance of these surveys.With the summary of the China-related surveys, combined with the famous media reports, the constructed image of China can be described as follows. Political image:the rise of political status, the increasingly open diplomatic relations, the reform of the political system and needs to be further open government official, uprising difficult social management, to be universal and political rights protection; Economic image:China as the world economic leader widely recognized by the whole world, better domestic consumption situation, but still insufficient domestic consumer demand, complex trade relations with the United States(neither friend nor foe), there are obstacles and disadvantages between the two countries in the long-term development, Sino-Indian relations is increasingly important; Social and livelihood Image:the social security system needs to be improved as well as the public health status, the protection of citizens’private rights needs to be strengthened, and the civil rights awareness needs to be improved, the great gap between the rich and the poor should be narrowed; Other image:China’s ancient culture is worthy of serious study, the education system is not perfect. Although the greater environmental input and the larger national support for the green economy, the problem of global warming is still a heavy responsibility, which needs more practical initiatives.At the same time, although the focus of this thesis is to present the constructed image, but the analysis of the constructed image can reach a better understand of China’s national image in the world public opinion. In theory, the thesis gives more international angles and themes to research the public opinion towards China, and extends the concept of the national image, not just presents the China’s national image in the mainstream media on, but also covers the public views from the public opinion organization. The thesis also expands the concepts of the national image, and brings more directions and paths to study the national image.In practice, this study concludes the different public opinion organizations and gets a relatively comprehensive picture of China. Through comparing the different results and analyzing the news citation from the China’s media, we can get the reasonable attitudes toward these surveys:having a relatively objective attitude to the China-related public opinion surveys,"neither total affirmation nor total negation", not pander the results. At the same time, concrete analysis of concrete problems. It is also can provide evident to the practice of international communication.