| The Wall Street was shocked at a great many Chinese citizens' panic purchase of gold after a steep fall in gold price in April, 2013. In this event, the damas(old ladies)became the focus of attention due to their overwhelming purchasing power, and afterwards reports on “Chinese dama” sprang up on the Internet. But the reports were merely related primarily to “dama rushing for gold”, “dama dancing on the square”and “dama speculating in real estate”, so the damas made many negative impressions on people. Such biased reports not only spoiled the overall image of “Chinese old ladies” and stigmatized them, but also blinded people to the old ladies' contribution to the transmission of positive energy.Portal Sina.com and news website people.cn were chosen as objects of this study,and their reports on “Chinese dama” published from April, 2013 until April, 2016 were selected as research samples. A research and analysis shows that the media are more inclined to report the negative news about “Chinese dama”, and some network media even directly republish unconfirmed news released by net friends. Various negative reports have attached the label of stigmatization, such as “resident disturber”,“egoist” and “blind follower”, to “Chinese old ladies”. The reason is, on the one hand,that some Chinese old ladies didn't speak or act in good manners in life, giving ammunition to the media, and on the other hand, that to meet readers' curiosity and improve the click-through rate, network media became enthusiastic about releasing the negative news about “Chinese dama”, and indifferent to the report or republication of the positive news. Such a report and handling way stigmatized “Chinese old ladies”,not only spoiling their image, but also horribly misleading the public cognition, so that they formed a stereotype about “Chinese old ladies”. For the network media, their credibility whittled down owing to some false reports, revealing a deviation in online media workers' news value orientation and the inadequacy of the online news supervision system.For destigmatization of “Chinese dama” in network news, “Chinese old ladies”should be perfectly aware of the adverse impact brought by stigmatization and pay attention to their behavior in public. Besides, they can establish a relevant organization in positive response to the media reports by holding activities good for redeeming their self-image. In addition, the public should treat the “damas” rationally,and avoid forming a stereotype on them by taking an objective view at the media reports. As far as network media are concerned, they should give reports from a number of angles, guide the public opinion correctly, and help the audience comprehensively understand “Chinese old ladies” to reflect the real image of“Chinese old ladies”. |
PDF Full Text Request