Research On China Related Reports Of Himalayan Times(1950-1962)

Since General Secretary Xi put forward the "the belt and road initiative" in 2013,the countries along the "the belt and road initiative",especially the Indian region in South Asia,have further enhanced their strategic significance to China.In the academic field,in recent years,scholars' research on the media information dissemination in South Asia,especially India,has increased,but compared with the research results of media information dissemination in western countries,there is a big gap in quantity,especially the research on the information dissemination in South Asia from 1950 s to 1960 s.Based on the above research omissions,this paper selects Himalayan Times as a research case.The Himalayan Times was founded in 1947,and its publishing place is in Kalipong,India.During its publication,the newspaper published a large number of reports on China,covering many fields such as politics,economy,education and society.This historical weekly magazine not only has high literature value,but also has great significance for exploring the characteristics of Indian English media reports on China and reflecting the information exchange situation in Himalayan region at that time.In this paper,frame analysis and content analysis are the main research methods,and743 China-related reports of Himalayan Times from 1950 to 1962 are taken as the research objects(all samples are from the digital library of Heidelberg University).Based on the agenda setting theory and frame theory,the content analysis method is used to quantitatively study the China-related reports of Himalayan Times,and to summarize the reporting characteristics of Himalayan Times.Then,on the basis of summarizing the reporting rules and discourse tendencies of the Himalayan Times' China-related important topics in different reporting stages,this paper analyzes the theme framework of the Himalayan Times' China-related important topics by using the "interpretation package" analysis path,and restores how the Himalayan Times' China-related reports construct important topics.Finally,this paper puts the Himalayan Times' China-related reports under a specific historical background,and expounds the reasons for the emergence of the weekly's Chinarelated reporting framework from four dimensions: national interests,Indian domestic political factors,media thoughts and Western discourse.The study found that:First of all,on the whole,the Himalayan Times reports on China for a long time,covering a wide range of topics and reflecting China's face more comprehensively;There is an obvious agenda setting.The Himalayan Times' China-related reports focus on "hard" issues such as politics and military affairs,and pay less attention to "soft" issues such as "cultural and sports education issues",among which political issues have the highest negative reporting rate and cultural and sports education issues have the lowest negative reporting rate;China-related reports use a large number of fuzzy sources,and their credibility is not high;The report genre is mainly news,which mainly plays the role of transmitting information;Most of the sources from China are mainly the Chinese government and official media,and the Chinese sources are concentrated;In terms of relevant countries(or regions),the Himalayan Times reported that the distribution of relevant countries or regions showed two common characteristics.First,they gathered in neighboring countries that were geographically close to China,covering India,Nepal,Bhutan,Sikkim and other countries.The second is to gather with the strong western discourse countries represented by Britain and America.Among different topics,"Tibet issue" and "border issue" are two topics that Himalayan Times focuses on.In the aspect of attitude tendency,different topics present different keynote.Political and military issues are dominated by negative attitudes,while reporting attitudes on economic issues are mostly neutral.Positive,negative and neutral reports on cultural and sports education and religious issues are relatively balanced.Except religious issues,foreign sources are cited more than Chinese sources in other topics.Thirdly,in the process of constructing the thematic framework of "Tibet issue" and "border issue",there are three things in common: First,from the perspective of reporting tone,the overall reporting tone of important topics related to China is mainly negative,and anti-China sentiment is obvious;Second,there is an obvious tendency in vocabulary use,and a large number of derogatory words are used,resulting in obvious negative emotions.In the use of news sources,a large number of news source construction issues with negative attitude towards China are cited.In the process of constructing important topics,different topics present different construction characteristics and form different thematic frameworks.In the process of constructing the "Tibet issue",the fact that Tibet is a part of Chinese territory is questioned by means of metaphors and examples.The "Tibet issue" is messed with human rights and religious issues,and the so-called "crimes" committed by China against Tibet are enumerated.In the reports on border issues,through specific descriptions and examples,we try to rationalize the illegally fabricated Mc Mahon Line,and build China into an image of an "intruder" who pursues an "expansionist" policy and has an "imperialist aggression plot" through specific descriptions and metaphors.Finally,the study also found that the formation of China-related reporting framework of Himalayan Times is restricted by four factors: national interests,domestic political factors in India,media thoughts and western discourse tendency,which respectively affect the selection of topics,positions,frameworks and attitude holders of China-related reporting of Himalayan Times.