Research On China’s National Image In Tweets Related To Beijing Winter Olympics

The Beijing Winter Olympics is a good occasion to show the national image.However,the United States and some Western countries made a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics,which seriously affected the international public opinion about the Beijing Winter Olympics.In this context,Twitter,as one of the international social media with the most users,can be a good platform,on which international users’the discussion of the Beijing Winter Olympics,can show how they has recognized and shaped the national image of China.Based on the power and discourse theory and the frame theory,this study adopts data mining and content analysis method,discourse analysis method,case study method,and computer aided analysis method,to explore who is shaping China,how and what kind of China is shaped in the discussion of Beijing Winter Olympics on Twitter.In terms of who is shaping China,it is found that individual users and media related users are the main subject of these tweets;There are more tweets in Asia than in Europe and America led by the United Kingdom and the United States,which briefly changes the international communication pattern of "strong west and weak east".The attitudes towards the Winter Olympics of users from the countries(regions) that post the most:Chinese users are celebrating the Winter Olympics without fear of challenges;American users are boycotting it under the cloak of objectivity;British users are neutral on the whole,but do not forget to give play to the problem;Indian users follow the West and boycott it obviously;Australia and Canada have similar attitudes;There are positive and negative attitudes of Chinese users in Chinese Hong Kong,Chinese Macao and Chinese Taiwan.The attitudes of users in these countries(regions) constitute the global context in which the discourse related to the Beijing Winter Olympics on the Twitter constructs China’s national image.In terms of how to shape China,it is found that in terms of the distribution of topics,the basic situation of the Winter Olympics accounted for the highest proportion of topics;that in terms of narrative strategies,factual frames and hashtags focused on the Winter Olympics were used most frequently;that in terms of the attitude of tweets,it is overall neutral,leaning towards positive,and the diplomatic boycott is the main negative source of tweets.Among these tweets,about the construction of the basic situation of the Winter Olympics,the tweets mainly used positive words,discourse selection and strengthening strategies,and the translation of official and leaders’ discourse.On the construction of the influence of the Winter Olympics,the tweets mainly use the methods of discourse group setting,examples and data description.As for the construction of the diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympics,tweets mostly shifted the focus of attention from the Winter Olympics to the Xinjiang-related issues through discourse replacement under the consciousness of hostility.As for the construction of celebrating the Beijing Winter Olympics,most tweets use various activity examples,the use of discourse strategy of subject preposition,individual narrative and other methods.In terms of the shaping results of China’s national image,the study concludes that the comments on the Beijing Winter Olympics on the Twitter present China’s "scientific and technological image of active preparation and strong strength","image of green and low-carbon economy with great potential","image of profound,lovely and charming culture","image of society with universal participation and unity" and"political image full of danger and ignoring human rights".