Research On The Stigmatization Of COVID-19 In American Media

This paper is to analyze the reports of China’s coronavirus epidemic by three US media,namely,The Wall Street Journal,The New York Times and The Washington Post from the stigmatization framework.To explore the characteristics of American mainstream media’s narrative and discourses,,this study focuses on the labeling,stereotypes,and social discrimination in the coverage of Chinese coronavirus epidemic.Meanwhile,the paper also tries to explore how image of China is shaped in the process..The research results show that the mainstream American media is not objective and fair in portraying China’s image.They even deliberately vilified or even smeared China’s image in their reports.Three media outlets are different in their portrayal of Chinese coronavirus epidemic.The New York Times has a more human interest frame than the other two newspapers.The Wall Street Journal has more economic consequence frame than the other two newspapers.The Washington Post reveals more Trump’s stigmatization of the Chinese epidemic and has more conflict frame.All of the three newspapers use the responsibility attribution frame.They not only use labelling,social discrimination and stereotypes to cover China,but blame China for the spreading the epidemic.Faced with the distortion of foreign media’s reporting on China,China needs to build a strong Chinese international discourse to cope with it,to construct a good and responsible image,,to tell Chinese stories well,and strengthen international discourse power.It is hoped that this research can provide a practical case for future stigma analysis,and provide a reference for exploring narrative models and discourse strategies suitable for China’s international discourse,as well as the construction of China’s international image.