An Analysis Of China-Related Reports In Pakistani Media During The COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan.Over the past 70 years,China-Pakistan relations have remained strong and bilateral ties have continued to deepen despite changing global dynamics.Dawn is the oldest newspaper with the largest readership in Pakistan and has a significant influence on the formulation of government policies.The framing of objective facts in news reports reflects social consensus,so an analysis of the media’s China-related reports within a given time period can roughly capture the trend of China-Pakistan relations,which is of great importance in understanding the dissemination of Chinese discourse in Pakistan.With this in mind,this study selects the China-related reports in Dawn during COVID-19 from January 2020 to December 2021,and uses the methods of data-driven and text-intensive reading,combined with the high-level,middle-level and low-level structural framework theory proposed by Zang Guoren,to deeply interpret the China-related reports during this period,summarise the framework characteristics of the reports,and conduct attribution analysis.The thesis found that during the outbreak of COVID-19,the China-related reports in Dawn had the following characteristics: First,in the high-level structure,the issues of China-related reports in Dawn are widely distributed,but at the same time there is a clear preference: “Chinese diplomacy”,“Chinese anti-epidemic measures”and “China-Pakistani economic cooperation” are the core issues.With the effective control of the epidemic,Dawn has gradually shifted its focus to the two major issues of “Sino-American relations” and “Sino-Indian relations”,indicating that Pakistan is very concerned about the attitude of the United States and India towards China and is trying to find a foothold in the three relations.It is worth noting that the image of China portrayed in China’s domestic affairs is biased.This shows that the image of China as a “brotherly” country in the Pakistani media is not as perfect as the domestic imagines.Second,in the middle-level structure,the “attribution” and “results and influence” reports account for a large proportion,and focus on political and economic issues.This indicates that the coverage is not entirely objective.Third,in the low-level structure,the selection of keywords in the China-related reports of Dawn closely follows the hot topics of current events.The attitude of the reports is generally positive,especially when it comes to the issues of “China-Pakistan cooperation” and“China’s space achievements”.However,the sentiment value is reduced when it comes to some political issues and events with negative connotations,such as the reports of “Hong Kong event”,“epidemic casualties” and “India-China conflict”.Most of the news sources reported in Dawn come from Western media.This has had a negative impact on the dissemination of the Chinese voice.There is a need for China to strengthen its international communication capacity and comprehensively enhance the effectiveness of its international communication.Finally,the attribution analysis shows that the frameworks of these news reports are inevitably shaped by national relations,the influence of Western media,and the characteristics of Dawn itself.This study deeply explores the framework and reasons for the formation of China-related report in Dawn,hoping to provide a perspective for the general public in China to understand foreign media and China’s own image,as well as provide relevant support for external communication of China.