Limited Persuasion:Discourse Strategies In Mainstream Media Coverage Of Fatherhood Agenda

The role and function of father is an enduring agenda in mainstream media,in a new era of greater equality,fathers are expected to be more involved in child rearing.Especially in the background of the multi-child policy,fathers’ active participation in childrearing can alleviate the social problem of "There are people who can give birth,but no one to take care of them" to a certain extent,and also have a positive impact on the social fertility desire.Based on this,the basic question that this paper tries to discuss is how the mainstream media constructs the fatherhood,that is,what discourse strategies are adopted to establish the new participatory fatherhood concept,and what role these strategies play,Whether it could lead us to a more equal domestic division of labor between the sexes.After a thematic analysis of four mainstream media reports that were related to fatherhood published in 2015,it is found that the mainstream media constructs the new fatherhood concept through three discourse strategies: the attribution of responsibility for "fatherhood absence",the deconstruction of the authority of motherhood and the normalization of fatherhood.The mainstream media tends to attribute the responsibility for "fatherhood absence" mainly to individuals,mention social responsibility lightly;and by citing scientific discourse,civil discourse to weaken the authority of motherhood,strengthen the importance of male parenting;and at the same time,mainstream media will consciously choose specific facts or describe events in a specific way to integrate "caring" into hegemonic masculinity,to normalize father parenting,and encourage other fathers to actively participate in children’s education by shaping positive father cases.On the basis of the above research conclusions,this paper further discusses the shortcomings of these discourse strategies.After analysis,this paper argues that discourse strategies currently used by mainstream media have limited effect on persuading fathers to participate in parenting,and it is difficult for the mainstream media to fundamentally move the society towards a more equal family division of labor.