An Exploration Of China's Social Media-Based Short-Video Strategies In International Communication

In the era of Web 2.0,as internet penetration and decentralization escalate,netizens have participated in online activities more extensively and thoroughly,and thus the era of "everyone is self-media" has arrived.At the same time,short videos have exploded worldwide,forming a group of self-media that use short video to display their contents.As a personalized international communication subject,self-media communication is richer in its form and content with more sense of reality and higher potential to be accessed by people all over the world.This is conducive to an individual's understanding of other cultures.Therefore,the international communication effects of self-media are of great significance for displaying a comprehensive image of China.The present study analyzed an exemplary case of international communication of Chinese short-video self-media,Li Ziqi,and her 90 videos posted on YouTube from 2017 to August 2019.Based on the cultural discount theory,this study examined the international communication strategies used by Li Ziqi from three aspects:the subject of communication,the content of communication and the audience of communication,and analyzed overseas audience reactions to Li Ziqi's productions.Research results showed that Li Ziqi has cooperated with professional Multi-Channel Network institutions in production and dissemination.In terms of production contents,besides circumventing language barriers and selecting topics around daily life,Li Ziqi's short videos create a natural and personal image,and appeal to universal values shared by many cultures.For the audience strategy,Li's productions attach importance to the cultural proximity market.In addition,based on the analysis of 297 YouTube video reviews with information on the nationality of the audience,results showed that the interpretations on videos' character,values and lifestyles of audience from different regions were similar:they were fond of Li Ziqi's personal quality,values and lifestyle.In terms of main topics,audience showed more negotiated positions than other aspects.For example,they talked more about food in their own cultures.Findings suggested that the contents had relative superiority,high compatibility and low complexity,so the videos were welcomed by overseas audiences.Li Ziqi videos' weaknesses in international communication were also discussed.At the end of this paper,suggestions are proposed.It is necessary to increase interactions with overseas audiences for feedback,and further expand cultural markets.The inspiration of Li Ziqi's phenomenon was discussed to improve the international communication effects of short-video produced by Chinese people.