"The Cultural Other’s" Image Building

A country carries out international communication through various means of communication,which is the process of conveying its voice and position on relevant affairs in the world information pattern on the one hand,and also the process of constructing its culture and national image on the other hand.National image is a very vague and complex concept due to the complexity of the "state" and "nation" itself and the heterogeneity and diversity of its constituent subjects.The image shaping is not only based on selfconstruction,but is constantly established and perfected in the process of self-construction,others-construction and construction of others in a developmental,dialectical and longterm way.However,with the continuous development of information and communication technology(ICTs)and the accumulation of capital,the relative solidification trend of the world media order and the international communication pattern is more prominent,resulting in the "national image" construction being increasingly monopolized by countries and regions with strong power and the discourse right in communication all over the world.The world today is undergoing great changes.The competition of soft power among countries has a more profound impact on the international pattern and system.As an important part of national soft power,the discourse right has become an important focus of the international community.Meanwhile,the image has also become an important asset of the country,which is related to national security.Based on the research background and significance,this study takes The Times as a case to analyze the construction paradigm and path of the cultural“other’s" image in the international communication pattern through its reports on the National People’s Congress of China.Taking Dow Jones news database as the data source and "National People’s Congress’ as the key word,a total of 492 valid data were collected.With the help of media framework theory,this paper examines news reports from the following categories:source of content,discourse attitude,types of reports,subjectivity setting,theme framework,construction strategies and use of metaphor.With the help of media framework theory,this study investigates news coverages from the categories of information source,discourse attitude,reporting genre,subjectivity setting,construction strategy,metaphor usage and so on.This study takes Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis model and the relevant theories of cognitive linguistics as analysis logic,and analyzes the content of The Times from micro to macro dimensions of text,discourse practice and social practice,so as to identify its reporting characteristics.This thesis attempts to analyze how the British mainstream media"The Times" constructs the national image of the cultural "other" under the background of dynamic international relationships.Thus,the thesis tries to analyze the changes of The Times’ international communication pattern from a diachronic perspective,and the rule of international communication and national image construction,so as to seek a way out for the breakthrough of the current international communication pattern.The research finds that the British mainstream media,The Times,mainly adopted information from China’s official to report on the National People’s Congress.The journalists and news editors weave discourse construction and position into news information and reporting.And most of the reports were in the form of feature story.When constructing news discourse,The Times uses more structural metaphors to convey its reporting attitude and image construction position with its audiences’ familiar language with cultural elements.When reporting the main social events of the "other",The Times mainly adopts the Conflict Framework,by emphasizing the responsibilities of different subjects in the reporting events,The Times conveys its attitude and position of news coverage to the audience.Besides,it usually uses the Human-Interest Framework to strengthen the audiences’ experience,so as to affect the audiences’ attitude and cognition.The Times adopted a negative attitude towards the vast majority of the National People’s Congress coverage.The reporting rules of The Times’ image construction of the cultural"other" is the inevitable result of the nationalism and ideological struggle in the international community.The Times’ reports developed in the context of the historical development of China and Britain,showing a obvious three-stage.The first stage is before 1986,and there are few reports in that period.The second stage is from 1986 to 2010,and during this stage,The Times continuously pay attention to and report on the NPC even though the number of reports fluctuated and was always at a relatively low level.The third stage is from 2010 to now,The Times has greatly improved its attention and coverage on the NPC,and the amount of coverage has remained relatively high.This research results also confirm that the international order and pattern are changing day by day,the national development track has a profound impact on the construction of international communication pattern.The discourse power construction conversely is not only the comprehensive competition of national soft power,but also has a profound impact on international competition.Research on the construction of China’s national image by The Times from the perspective of the cultural "other" is not only an investigation of its discourse construction ideas and models,that is to say,The Times constructed the cultural "other" China as it constructed its self-image from its own framework in a series of political reports.Its reporting framework and discourse paradigm also provide a reference for the international expression of China’s international media,and also provide a mirror for the building of China’s own image.Furthermore,we should first master the framework and mechanism of western discourse expression and construction,and explore a set of international narrative mode and discourse system in line with Chinese cultural characteristics and social nature to construct a discourse system and narrative mode with Chinese characteristics.Meanwhile,on the basis of the renewal of the ideological and discourse paradigm of communication,we are required to find specific and elaborate topic in the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization,find a variety of effective ideas from the increasingly developed information and communication technology,and integrate the narration of Chinese stories into the world story expression sequence.From this perspective of thinking,we should innovate the ways,means and platforms of discourse and opinion expression and so on,making it viable to explain our country’s points and position,construct a credible,amiable,honorable image of China in the international community.