| Foreign aid is an important part of international relations as well as an essential means of a country's foreign policy.Since the 1950s,China has begun economic aid to Africa.Over 70 years,the scale of China's aid to Africa has continued to grow,with fruitful results in all fields.However,China's foreign aid has raised controversies in the international community.Accusations and misunderstandings including"neocolonialism","China's aid is harmful to Africa","China is grabbing Africa's natural resources" can be heard without end.Based on a frame analysis,the research studies the similarities and differences of the reports about China's aid to Africa of Associated Press,Xinhua News Agency and AllAfrica.com from 2013 to 2019.The research also analyzes the reasons for the differences,and hopes to understand the overseas public opinion on the issue.The study finds that the AllAfrica.com reports the issue most frequently and often reprints Chinese media's reports.The number of reports by the Associated Press is the least,but they include more background information,analysis and comments.The reports by Xinhua News Agency are the shortest.Concerning the high-level framework,all of the three news agencies use the economic framework and the leadership framework most frequently.The Associated Press prefers the conflict framework,while the Xinhua News Agency and the AllAfrica.com prefer the peace and development framework.In terms of attitude,the reports by the Associated Press are mainly negative and neutral,while the reports by the Xinhua News Agency and the AllAfrica.com are mainly positive.Concerning the mid-level framework,it is found that all of the three media focus on economic aid.The Xinhua News Agency focuses more on human resource development assistance,and the AllAfrica.com pays more attention to humanitarian assistance.Considering the results and influences of China's aid,although the reports by the Associated Press acknowledged some achievements,the reports of negative influences take the majority.Xinhua News Agency shows positive results by covering the praise and gratitude of African leaders.The reports by AllAfrica.com not only express appreciation to China,but also refute the criticism such as "neo-colonialism." When talking about the low-level framework,the Associated Press uses the most sources in a single report and tends to choose Western sources.The sources of Xinhua News Agency and AllAfrica.com mostly come from Africa and China.In terms of specific rhetoric,the three media all emphasized China's important role in the international politics and economy.The Associated Press uses a lot of derogatory adjectives,and Xinhua News Agency is the most positive.These differences among the three news agencies are due to the differences between cognition,media values,and the social system.To improve the international public opinion environment for China's aid to Africa,it is suggested to improve foreign aid mechanisms and evaluation systems.The China media can cover more stories about common people and do more in-depth interpretation.Finally,it is recommended to use diverse forms of international communication to expand the influence of China's discourse.The research analyzes reports on China's aid to Africa in detail.On the one hand,it focuses on the long-neglected African media,which follows the trend of the reverse flow of communication.On the other hand,the research compares Western media,Chinese media and African media.It helps to explore the differences between different media and the causes.In 2020,the China-Africa Cooperation Forum enters its 20th year.This study is also of practical significance for building a community of shared future for mankind. |
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