Chinese Nationalism In The Vision Of The New York Times:A Framing Analysis

With the advent of the era of social media,international communication activities are becoming more and more frequent,and more conflicts between Chinese and foreign appear in various aspects.In the news reports about Chinese and foreign conflicts,Western media such as BBC(British Broadcasting Corporation)and CNN(American cable news network)have repeatedly mentioned "Chinese nationalism" to show China’s extreme exclusion and hostility to the West.This study takes the relevant reports of Chinese nationalism by The New York Times from 1992 to 2021 as the research object,and studies the changes of the news topic and news frames of Chinese nationalism by the American media represented by The New York Times in recent 30 years.Some scholars have found that the sources’ interests are associated with news frame and risk delineation,through a content analysis of U.S.newspaper coverage of genetically modified food from 1994 to 2015.Previous studies show that by studying the news frame and its changes,we can study the factors that affects framing.Taking content analysis as research method,combined with specific discourse analysis,this study attempts to explore how American media present Chinese nationalism in the recent 30 years,and which factors affect its reporting frame,and try to put forward countermeasures and summarize some tips from these news reports.Therefore,this study puts forward three key questions:1.From 1992 to 2022,what topics did The New York Times mention in its reports related with Chinese nationalism?How has its focus changed over time?2.What changes have taken place in the news frame of The New York Times on Chinese nationalism from 1992 to 2022?What factors are related to these changes in the report?3.In the news of The New York Times on Chinese nationalism,is there any correlation between the report topics and the news frame?The study found that from 1992 to 2021,from the perspective of news topics,the main news topics of Chinese nationalism in The New York Times shift from political issues to economic issues.In terms of the number of reports,before 2008,the number of reports on Chinese nationalism fluctuated greatly every year,and the peak of reports coincided with the occurrence of real conflict events.Since 2008,the total number of relevant reports each year has shown an upward trend with little fluctuation,indicating that Chinese nationalism has been further concerned by American media since 2008.From the perspective of the change of the news frame,the main news frame of The New York Times on Chinese nationalism changes from threat frame to multiple frames.In this process,responsibility frame and threat frame appear almost every year.The main factors affecting the change of the frame are state,technology,organization and individual.The New York Times uses the threat frame more on political issues.The responsibility frame is more used in reports on economic topics.When The New York Times attempts to find something to be responsible for direct or potential economic losses,it is more inclined to take Chinese nationalism as the culprit.The changes in the news frame also reflect the changes in China-US relations and the United States’ understanding towards China.In this process,national interests and ideology have always influenced the views of American media on China in the report,which also inspires us that in the process of reporting international news and cross-cultural communication,Chinese media should have their own position and bravely question the attack and attribution of other media on something or an event.Break the threat frame and conflict frame through cooperation and friendly communication.Besides,make use of multiple subjects to carry out international communication by means of major events and special events,so as not to let them be used by the West.Take the initiative to discover news content,consider more from the perspective of new cosmopolitanism,pay attention to grasping the convergence of interests between different countries.In addition to political issues,we should also pay attention to economic and cultural issues,and break the single interpretation perspective and narration of China by Western media.As a diachronic study of the news frame,this study lacks the analysis of news pictures.Besides,we can try to analyze the impact of these news from the perspective of audience frame.