How Media Play As An Interpreter And A Legislator

The "5·12 Wenchuan Earthquake" is one of the most devastating natural disasters since the establishment of People's Republic of China,only the "Tangshan Earthquake" in 1978 can be comparable to its scale and effect.By 2018,it has been a decade since the Wenchuan earthquake happened.During the past ten years,the media had continuously reported on the sufferings,reconstruction and rebirth of the disaster areas,arising widespread public attention as well as profoundly affecting the people who experienced the disaster.The study focuses on the influence of media coverage and the discourse of ten years on the memory of the survivors.Using methods like field research,in-depth interviews in several areas such as Yingxiu,Hanwang,Mianzhu,we tried to uncover how media discourse has been embedded in both people's memories and public spaces.We find that the victims of the disaster are deeply or lightly influenced by media.During the retelling of individual memory,media discourse was consciously or unconsciously invoked to frame their expression.At the same time,the memorial venue played an important role in shaping the scope of disaster memory.This study also argues for,a competitive and cooperative relationship between the official memorial and the private memorial.Therefore,the study adopt the concept of “legislator and interpreter” from the sociologist Zygmount Bauman.Although the concept originally pointed to the social role of intellectuals,in this study,we contend think that the media also played such a role in,delineating the boundaries of individual memory,providing explanatory and expressing discourse resources for individual memory.