Emotional Mobilization And Media Representation

Nationalism is a discourse structure,cyber nationalism movement ranging from its organizational mobilization to media communication and expression falls into the categories of discourse,in which metaphor is a critical component.This thesis focuses on one of the common forms in cyber nationalism movement – “Bar Bursting”,observes the course of “Bar Bursting” in nearly a decade from the media and public awareness of “Bar Bursting” in 2007,the normalization of “Bar Bursting” as a cyber-event,to the event group of “Facebook Emoji Battle” in 2016 through text analysis and critical metaphor analysis from the perspective of metaphor,and attempts to find out what metaphors have been used by its participants? And have these metaphors changed? Prior studies show that metaphor is a political instrument to motivate sentiment and the occurrence of cyber-event is a process of emotional mobilization,then does metaphor play a role in emotional mobilization? What metaphors are mainly used in the decade-long reports on “Bar Bursting”? And have these metaphors already changed? This study selects four most reported cases from the historical events of “Bar Bursting”,namely “Yang Chenglin Bar Bursting” in 2007,“69Jihad” in 2010,“Du Haitao Bar Bursting” in 2013,and “Expedition of Li Yi Bar” in2016.Chapter 2 analyzes the comments,videos and posters left by “Bar Bursting”participants in the four “Bar Bursting” cases,identifies three main categories of self-mobilization metaphors through text analysis of the self-mobilization of these “Bar Bursting” participants: war metaphor,salvation metaphor,and father-son metaphor.War metaphor prevails in each mobilization of “Bar Bursting”,salvation metaphor prevails in the “Bar Bursting” action against South Korean stars,while father-son metaphor prevails in the mobilization of “Bar Bursting” against Taiwan.Prior studies show that metaphors can stimulate sentiment and affect judgment.In this chapter,the author attempts to analyze and prove the effect of metaphors on emotional mobilization in cyber nationalist events.Chapter 3 analyzes the news coverage on four “bar bursting” cases by newspaper and magazines of China Mainland in Wisers News Database,the text analysis of the media representation of “Bar Bursting” reveals that it mainly uses war metaphor and Jianghu(brotherhood)metaphor,war metaphor tended to decrease during the mediacoverage of “Bar Bursting” events in 2007-2016,the metaphor “Bar Bursting is communication” was formed in “Expedition of Li Yi Bar” in 2016.In addition,the metaphors of “Bar Bursting” groups changed from “cyber-mobs” to “self-confident young patriots”.It should be noted that the cyber-event “Expedition of Li Yi Bar to Fb”is a “paradigm defining event” for traditional media,because the reporting framework began to change and the identity definition of this group also changed after this event,and it is after this event that Emoji began to be reported in media,as followed by a large number of coverage.This thesis makes some explorations in the researches of cyber nationalism events combined with metaphor-related theories,and adds the discourse analyses of cyber nationalist events.The author argues that metaphors will mobilize sentiment in cyber nationalism movement.In the media representation of cyber nationalism movement,group identity and social reality will change with metaphor.A new metaphor is followed by new action guide.