A Study On The Content Preference And Modality Orientation Of Media Questions At The Chinese Foreign Minister's Press Conferenc

After 40 years of reform and opening up,the international press has increased its demand for and interest in China’s diplomatic press conferences.Under such circumstances,it is necessary for us to strengthen the study of diplomatic press conferences,especially those of foreign ministers as the highest standard of our diplomacy,so that our country can better understand the concerns of various countries,regions and social groups,so as to carry out two-way effective information communication,timely and accurate dissemination of China’s position and attitude,and actively and effectively.Guiding international public opinion.This paper reviews the relevant research on foreign press conference and modality orientation,and introduces the quantitative tables set by American scholars Steven E.Clayman and John Heritage.Through consulting the relevant literature,this paper summarizes four factors affecting the modality orientation of Chinese and foreign journalists,namely,frequency of questioning,power distance,degree of freedom of the press and level of economic development,and puts forward relevant research hypotheses.First,Chinese and foreign media journalists are paid different attention to in foreign ministers’press conferences.Chinese media occupy the main position in foreign minister’s press conference;over the years,Hong Kong media have been favored,among which Phoenix Satellite TV has attracted much attention;Taiwan media has received five questioning opportunities in 19 years.Western powerful media have attracted much attention.Our government fully understands the current international communication pattern and attaches great importance to those powerful Western media with global influence.Secondly,the results of text statistics present the framework of media agendas that the media pay attention to.Chinese and foreign media journalists’questions are centered on "politics" and"international relations".Mainland media pay more attention to the characteristics,trends and key words of China’s diplomacy.The media in Hong Kong pay more attention to the support and influence of the policies formulated by the central government on Hong Kong’s own development.Taiwan’s media have paid more attention to cross-Strait issues and repeatedly mentioned the impact of Sino-US relations on cross-strait relations.Foreign media emphasize more on China’s role in international affairs and the trend of China’s relations with its own country or region with the improvement of China’s comprehensive national strength,but at the same time,they also make difficulties to China in terms of human rights,territorial disputes and environmental issues.Thirdly,the modality orientation of the questioning content of the media reporters varies in varying degrees.The average values of the five quantitative indicators of the initiative,directness,arbitrariness,antagonism and accountability of the decisive stakeholder media are higher than those of other media;the average value of the potential stakeholder media is slightly lower than that of the decisive stakeholder media,but higher than that of other media;the initiative and directness of the Hong Kong and Taiwan media are higher than that of other media.The average value and arbitrariness is slightly higher than that of potential stakeholder media,but the average value of antagonism is about 0.28 lower than that of potential stakeholder media.The five quantitative indicators of modality orientation of questioning content in mainland media are the lowest.Fourthly,the frequency of questioning,power distance,degree of freedom of the press and level of economic development have positive and negative effects on modality orientation.The frequency of questioning only has a significant positive impact on the confrontation and accountability of Chinese and foreign journalists’questioning content;the right distance has a significant reverse predictive power on the directness,arbitrariness and confrontation of Chinese and foreign journalists’ questioning content;the degree of freedom of the press has a significant positive impact on the initiative,directness,confrontation and accountability of Chinese and foreign journalists’questioning content;and the level of economic development has a significant positive impact on Chinese and foreign journalists’ questioning content The initiative,antagonism and accountability of questioning content have positive and significant influence.