Understanding TV Media’s Role In Chinese People’s Nationalism To Japan

In recent years, nationalism has become a focus point of contemporary study of Chinese thought history. At the same time, as a special case of nationalism, Chinese nationalism draws wide attention internationally. As some scholars conclude, the nationalism in China is stress-responsive, and the nationalism towards Japan should never be ignored. Recently, along with the development of bilateral relations of China and Japan, Chinese people’s nationalism towards Japan has showed the characteristics of high correlation, high intensity and high frequency with wide effects. As to the factors affecting the nationalism, scholars usually use macro external factors to explain, but this thesis chooses the television media which is often neglected as the research object, since TV has wide coverage and influence, to analyze the role it plays in Chinese people’s nationalism.This paper focuses on the analysis of TV media’s construction of nationalism, and the specific paths of its function, i.e., shaping the collective memory, setting agenda and creating public opinion. TV media builds the bridge between the people and the nationalism through the construction of national identity. This paper analyzes the current Japan-related television programs, Anti-Japan TV dramas, Japan-related news and news commentary on their influence, the reason for their popularity and the results caused. On this basis, the paper points out that the TV media plays an important role in stimulating Chinese people’s nationalism to Japan. Therefore, the television media should recognize their important roles in information check, memory remodeling and public opinion guidance, thus actively fulfill its social responsibility. It is a new issue for the TV media to view nationalism dialectically, and to appropriately guide the nationalist sentiment.