A Study Of China’s National Image In Tunisia’s Mainstream Media During The COVID-19

After the global outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020,the development of various fields in all countries in the world has been affected to varying degrees.China’s strict prevention and control and timely foreign aid have been recognized by the international community,but some Western media have smeared China’s epidemic prevention measures,misinterpreted the original intention of medical assistance to Tunisia and other countries,and tried to politicize the epidemic to influence China.The purpose of national image.In this context,understanding the media public opinion in Tunisia and shaping a three-dimensional national image in the epidemic has become one of the important challenges facing China.Understanding how the African media will shape China’s national image during the epidemic and post-epidemic period is an opportunity and a key time point for deepening China-Africa cooperation and further developing bilateral and multilateral relations in the future.This article addresses the three questions raised by Tunisian media:"What should Tunisia’s mainstream media focus on China?" "What characteristics does the country’s image in Tunisian media show?" and "How to build China’s national image for Tunisia".In March 2022(from the period of the global outbreak of COVID-19 to the period of normalization of prevention),269 Chinese-related reports from three mainstream media in Tunisia were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed,and the factors that connected Tunisia’s domestic and international society and the causes of different image construction were analyzed.Generally,taking into account the social background factors such as the development history of Tunisian media and political economy,this paper finally selects the French daily newspaper "Journal La Presse",the Arabic daily "Slaheddine El Amri" in the traditional mainstream media,and the Arabic news website "Tunisia News Net" in the emerging mainstream media.Report analysis for research subjects.The market share,cumulative number of clicks and website visitors of the three newspapers are all at the forefront of other Tunisian newspapers.The number has gradually slowed since the surge after the outbreak,but the overall increase has been significantly higher than the previous period.The number of reports in the same month in different years has an obvious and the same trend of change.The side shows that Tunisian reports are mainly received by official aid,international conferences and hot events.In a word,the economic,cultural and public health tend to be positive and positive,except that the political and emotional tendencies are relatively neutral.On the whole,the three media reports on the epidemic have an absolute advantage,and they all reflect a positive image;the number of economic reports ranks second,and the content is mainly related to the adjustment of the global market after the epidemic and economic recovery.The positive economic growth of the country and the business opportunities of import and export products in the Chinese market,actively and hope to take the opportunity of bilateral cooperation between China and Tunisia to revive the Tunisian economy;and in terms of politics,affected by domestic factors,Tunisian media mostly choose to be conservative and neutral.The reprinted reports did not follow the Western media to politicize the epidemic,but they also maintained special vigilance against China,as a major country,and the game between Europe and the United States;social and cultural reports were less,mainly the official documents of cultural exchanges from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Culture is rarely involved,and a cultural atmosphere of frequent communication and two-way benign communication has not yet been formed.Based on the above image viewpoints,in Tunisian media reports during the epidemic,China mostly appeared in a positive image,which not only showed the vigorous driving force of the political economy and social construction of a major country,but also showed a positive and enthusiastic image of welcoming Tunisian export products to develop the tourism economy.However,there is still a gap in the social and cultural aspects.Most of the reports are reprinted by news from other countries and official documents of China and Tunisia.There is no participation of other Chinese and Tunisia communication subjects,and it has not aroused Tunisia’s interest in understanding China.Therefore,it is possible to rely on the multi-subject and multi-channel connection and closed-loop method,innovate the communication path,actively speak on the social video platform of Tunisia,drive the topic of China-Tunisia cooperation,and let the local residents understand the vivid and three-dimensional image of China through specific and close-to-life events..The most important contribution of this paper is that it complements China’s analysis of China-related reports in the Tunisian media industry.This article is dedicated to discussing China’s national image in Tunisia’ s China-related reports under the background of the new crown epidemic from the perspective of public communication,providing reference materials for China to understand the Tunisian press industry,and for the future to penetrate into the local discourse environment and enrich China’s national image construction in Tunisia provided first-hand information.