China’s National Image On New York Times In2012

Based on the reports about China on New York Times in2012, this paper aims to find out the national image of China reflected on this newspaper and its reporting tendency by adopting the method of content analysis. The definition and elements of national image were summarized through reviewing of National image through domestic and foreign literature, which is composed of political, diplomatic,economic, military, justice, culture,humanrights,healthcare,sports,educatio n, scienceand technology, geography, society, characters and so on.1117related reports were selected from New York Times in2012.The results showed the reporting themes are as follows:economic (25%),political (21%),human rights (12%),culture(11%).The overall reporting tendency reflected three tendencies, including neutral (46%),negative (45%), and positive (9%). Among which, the human rights (85%) and political (55%) reflected the most obvious negative tendency, whereas the culture (18%) and economy (14%) tended to be the most obvious positive.The research attempted to explore the views of the American media and society about China. Obviously, the American mainstream media plays an important role on shaping the national image of China, which helps us to have a better understanding on the characteristics of American media, and formulated the corresponding strategy for government and the mainstream media of China. It has realistic significance on building a sound national image of China.