Agenda Setting On China During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan in December 2019,China has attracted the attention of international media.During the COVID-19 pandemic,China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson answered questions from international media and updated information in all aspects about the COVID-19 pandemic at the regular press conference held five times a week,not only answering questions pertaining to the international community,but also responding when praised or questioned.Whether the agenda of China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson has a correlation with that of western mainstream media,and whether there is a possibility that the salience of the spokesperson’s agenda can be transfered to western mainstream media require more complex and precise research and design.Based on the agenda-setting theory,this thesis analyzed the agenda on China of China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson and western mainstream media in the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic.This thesis selects China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s answer to journalists’ questions about the COVID-19 pandemic from January 20 to April 5,2020,as well as news reports on China about the COVID-19 pendemic from The New York Times,The Guardian,The Australian,The Globe and Mail,and The New Zealand Herald.About object agendas: In terms of object agendas,there appeared some correlation between the spokesperson and western mainstream media,so there is a possibility that the salience of spokesperson’s agenda can be transfered to western mainstream media.Among three indicators of the object agenda,China’s spokesperson has a correlation with western mainstream media on the indicator of "objects involved",and the two indicators of "involved countries(regions)" and "topic content" can achieve statistically significant correlation after excluding the bias value by drawing fitting lines.About attribute agendas: In terms of attribute agendas,the spokesperson and western mainstream media not only do not have correlation but also are very different,so there is no possibility that the salience of spokesperson’s agenda can be transfered to western mainstream media.9 properties of the two not only do not have statistical correlation,but even the general trend after drawing the fitting line is quite different,and there is no statistically significant correlation in the corresponding attitude of substantive attribute.Based on the research results,this thesis concludes that the spokesperson has the possibility of setting object agendas for western mainstream media,and the spokesperson does not have the possibility of setting attribute agendas for western mainstream media.Therefore,it may be more likely for the spokesperson to set object agendas than to set attribute agendas for western maintream media.