A Study Of The China’s Image Building By The Economist According To The Framing Theory

The National Image is an important part of soft power, it is not only the question of national honor and interests, but also an important national resource and intangible assets.It is possible to create a favorable external environment for the development of a country. In the 21 st century, along with the increasing comprehensive national strength and the international influence, China has become the indispensable target of news report of worldwide mainstream media. But China’s foreign dissemination capabilities have long been at a disadvantage, which making China’s national image have been in the state of “being constructed”. Therefore, studying how the Western media report China is of great significance for China to locate its international image accurately, to improve the national image and to enhance China’s international status and influence.National Image is the public awareness and the symbolization of the objective state of a country.News frame is what the news media or journalists rely on to process the information. Via news frame the objective reality is converted to symbols, when symbols are accepted by audience, the media complete the building of alternative reality. There are mechanisms of three levels in how the news frame build the National Image. The macroscopic frame decide whether the topic will be reported and control the access of information; the mesoscopic frame decide whether a report will attract audience’s attention; the microscopic frame is the mechanism through which the journalist highlights the tendency and put their own views in the text.Among the China-related reports in the Economist from 2001 to 2014, China’s image built by the macroscopic frame is basically comprehensive, issues about politics,society, economics and international relationship are abundant, but issues about science,technology, literature and art are of great deficiency, and so are the issues about poor areas and countryside. Macroscopic frame is heavily tilted towards the Eastern regions and urban areas. The image of the Midwest, the Northeast and rural China are missing.Mesoscopic frame makes China-related reports of a very strong ability to attract the attention of the audience, which accords with China’s international status and is in favor for the audience to accept the China’s image built by The Economist.China’s image built by the microscopic frame is largely negative. Use words of strong subjective bias such as conjunctions and adverbs of manner. Repeated use of the historical fragments build a turbulent political image. Use the exaggerated rhetoric to normalize the individual adverse events. The number of news sources is slightly less, the balance of both sides is also weak, and there is a special news sources The Economist used to evaluate the China’s self-awareness---how the Chinese news media report domestic events.The China-related reports of The Economist also build a positive image of China mainly by expressing affirmation for China’s achievements and suggestions of China’s remaining problems. Although overall the impartiality of China’s image is weak, but in recent years the trends to improve are becoming evident.