Framing Analysis Of India's English Media On The Belt And Road Initiative

Since China launched the "Belt and Road" initiative in 2013,global public opinion attitude has undergone a series of change.Among these countries,India has always been on the list of counties who concerned about the "Belt and Road" Initiative the most.India's attitude towards the "Belt and Road" initiative has gone through different stages of"ambiguity-excuse-rejection.”Domestic research on India from the perspective of international communication is very scarce.This study takes the Hindustan Times,Times of India and the Economic Times,which have a long history and wide coverage in India,as the research objects,uses the framework theory,and adopts content analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the reports from the official websites of the three mainstream English media.The study period was from December 22,2017 to May 15,2019.Based on a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis,this article examines Indian media's understanding of the "Belt and Road" initiative and China's image.Although the number of media selected is limited,it can be found that the mainstream English media in India have not effectively obtained the positive voice from China.From the perspective of the Indian media,it is found that there is still a lack of mutual trust between China and India.Analyze from the news reported on April 2018,we can observe that its reporting attitude gradually shifted to a positive trend.The study includes the samples of 499 English news reports from the three major English news media in India with a variety of perspectives,such as the amount of news pieces,the distribution of report time,the topics,the audience attitudes,and audiences' comments.This study found six major reporting frameworks,including Skeptical Framework,Explanation Framework,Rejection Framework,Pressure Framework,Friendly Framework,and Threat Framework.Besides,this study also found three characteristics:first,under the framework of rejection and suspicion,reports present a single theme that guides the audience's discourse;second,under the framework of pressure and threat,Indian media are negatively portraying China's image,trying to shape India's "forced" state;third,under the framework of interpretation and friendship,the two countries interaction can alleviate the concerns of the Indian media and increase mutual trust.At the same time,the analysis of the media discourse of the readers in this paper also confirms the direct impact of Indian media discourse framework on audiences.From the current international perspective of global communication,the Indian case has told China that the expression in the process of China's external communication still needs to improve to clearly explain the original intention of China's "Belt and Road"initiative,that is,the practical carrier of building a community of shared future.BRI is also a very constructive international cooperation and related practical solution proposed by China.The natural theme of mankind's changing future is not the "ambition" of a certain individual or country,but the great ideal of the entire world.This study suggests that in the context of global communication,China should also appropriately increase the common consciousness that the economic development of all countries in the world is closely connected,in order to increase the awareness of the development of each country,and to avoid misunderstandings.From the perspective of external communication,it is suggested that China's communication with India should increase common interests and seek cooperation projects.At the same time,China is suggested to make good use of the interactive events between the two countries to pass on trust.Under China's external communication strategy of "One Country,One Policy," the significance of this study is to enhance the domestic media's understanding of India's perspective on communication,and outline the China's "Belt and Road" initiative in the Indian English-language media.Secondly,this study analyzes the process of India's interpretation of China's Belt and Road initiative from the perspective of media reports,reveals India's concerns and pressures,and inspires China to prompt the Belt and Road initiative in a more acceptable way to the other party to achieve better outcomes.