A Study Of China’s Image In German Media

Der Spiegel，as a German news weekly with high quality, covers a wide range ofaudience both in Germany and Europe. It earns great reputation by its sharpperspective and professional interview and report.In addition, German is a highly valued strategic partner to China and anindustrialized country. The study of China’s image in Der Spiegel has its own realisticmeaning. Der Spiegel has a history for almost seventy years since it set up in1947.Atvery beaning of its history, the reports related China in Der Spiegel focused on thewartime condition in China. And this paper is an analysis of reports and articles inDer Spiegel about China in recent years.The introduction mainly introduces the research motivation, the main content ofthe research and the domestic research tendencies.There are four chapters in total. The first part in Chapter One introduces thegeneral concept of Der Spiegel and its development history. Der Spiegel is expert inrevealing and criticizing the political corruption and social abuses. Therefore, it hasgreat influence on Germany’s public opinion. The second part reviews the trend of thereports about China in Der Spiegel since publication from the macroscopic angle.The reports before1997were mainly about the wartime condition and the politicalsituation. Der Spiegel not only increased the quantity of the reports related to China,but also began to take attention to China’s economic development after1997. Amongthese reports, Der Spiegel showed obvious tendentiousness. The second chaptersummarizes the three characteristics of China’s image reflected by Der Spiegel. Firstone is the rapid economic development. China’s economic impact on the internationaleconomic situation, the rapid development of China itself, and a strong purchasingpower-these three aspects reflect the situation of China’s economic development.Second one is about human rights problems in China, including Tibet ethnic problems,China’s domestic politics without democracy, and lack of freedom. Third one is theinternational influence of China, who plays an important role in the world. Chapter three discusses the factors affecting Der Spiegel shaping China’s image： Objectivereasons-the fact and weather the communication channels are unobstructed; theeffects that German media longs for as well as the approaches it applies; the influencein international communication and the roots of politics, economics, and culture.Based on the overall analysis, the author discussed and explored the correspondinginternational communications strategies in Chapter Four, including confirmingcommunication demands of China’s international image, encountering possiblecultural conflict in international communication, paying attention to potential ways ofcommunication and strengthening the construction of China’s cultural industry.Through the analysis of China’s image in Der Spiegel in the above four chapters,this paper presents a more comprehensive understanding of the construction ofChina’s international image under the background of international communication.