Research On The Construction Of China’s Anti-Epidemic Image In The “Foreign Net Celebri Ty” Videos Of Station B Under The Background Of Pierce’s Symbol Theory

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus,China’s anti-epidemic policies and measures have attracted wide attention from people both at home and abroad.As an emerging force to spread stories about China,Internet celebrities actively spoke out during the epidemic and released a large number of videos about China’s anti-epidemic with the help of platform B,which played a certain role in spreading the image of China’s anti-epidemic.At the same time,due to the multi-platform release of its creative content,the external communication level can not be underestimated.Human communication activities are based on the transmission and exchange of information and the resulting social interaction behavior.In semiotic theory,information is composed of symbols and the meaning they represent.As part of the national image,the image of China fighting the epidemic presented in the videos of Internet celebrities cannot be separated from the construction and dissemination of symbols.Based on Pierce’s semiotic theory and combined with literature analysis,content analysis,case analysis and text analysis,this paper tries to analyze the features and representative symbolic elements of the epidemic-related videos produced by Internet celebrities in Website B,and studies the mechanism of symbol construction through the relationship between symbols and reference objects.Clarify how symbols refer to objects in the video.On this basis,the image of China’s fight against COVID-19 constructed by symbolic text is explored.This study focuses on the representative new media platform B,in which keywords such as "Internet celebrities,foreign bloggers,foreigners" are searched.After that,with the number of fans,account operators and epidemic content as the screening criteria,epidemic related video content produced by 7 Internet celebrities accounts is determined as the research object,and a total of 126 video samples are obtained.Content analysis method was used for coding statistics to explore the presentation characteristics of video samples in topic setting,concern area,content information source and video form.The study found that Internet celebrities mainly pay attention to the epidemic prevention and control in China and the United States,and the video topics are mainly hot epidemic topics,such as the wearing of masks,epidemic prevention measures and racial discrimination.At the content source level,media content and objective shooting are mainly quoted,and the form of the video is consistent with the pattern of Chinese video,pursuing in-depth expression of views.Based on Pierce’s semiotics theory,this paper analyzes the presentation of symbolic elements in the video samples of foreign Internet celebrities,and divides the symbols in the videos into two categories: language and visual symbols.In terms of language symbols,the author obtained 300,000 words of text with the help of voice transcription tools.After the statistics of parts of speech and word frequency,the research found that the videos of Internet celebrities used symbolic elements at multiple levels.First,symbols of "people,materials,epidemic and culture" were used to show the fact of China’s fight against COVID-19.The second is to use punctuation and emotional symbols to convey their attitude towards the anti-epidemic measures taken by China and the US.On the level of visual symbols: first,the main character becomes a cross-cultural symbol,reflecting the objectivity of the creative content from the perspective of "others";Second,the video uses scene symbols and material image symbols that reflect the common reality to intuitively and vividly restore the truth of the event.According to the classification of the relationship between symbols and objects in Pierce’s theory of symbols,the mechanism of symbol construction of China’s anti-epidemic image is explored.It is found that the symbol shows the real picture of China’s anti-epidemic,the indicator reflects the measures and real-time situation of China’s anti-epidemic,and the symbol highlights the advantages of China’s anti-epidemic and promotes the spread of Chinese culture.After analyzing typical symbolic texts,the author interprets the videos of Internet celebrities going overseas and constructs the national image of the government’s flexible governance and scientific epidemic prevention.The national image of the people fighting and helping each other;The national image of open and transparent information release.Finally,this paper makes an in-depth analysis of the negative impact of the Internet celebrities in constructing the image of China’s anti-epidemic response,and finds that the topic selection of the Internet celebrities’ videos is one-sided,and the reference of nonmainstream western views is easy to bring the audience into the opposite context.Excessive use of emotional symbols,utopian expression easily cause cultural barriers,hinder normal cultural communication;The content is seriously homogenized,which is easy to lead to the audience’s stereotype.Based on this,this study puts forward relevant regulation paths around the platform,mainstream media and the government,and suggests that the platform build a full-chain video supervision and support mechanism.The mainstream media should establish conversational discourse space and seek crosscultural linkage with foreign Internet celebrities.The government takes advantage of the Internet celebrities’ communication advantages to build domestic and international publicity channels,so as to regulate and guide the Internet celebrities to better tell the story of China’s fight against COVID-19,improve the public’s national pride and sense of national identity,and to some extent improve the external communication ability.