Research On The Media Construction Of Collective Memory In The Centenary Of The Founding Of The Party

The 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party is a major event in China’s political life in 2021.At such a historic point,People’s Daily has planned a large-scale special report to present this significant historical event and build a common memory of the Chinese nation in this report.Collective memory is the process and outcome of sharing past events between members of a particular social group,the basis for a community to establish a sense of identity and unity,and the collection of meaningfulness,cultures,values,and experiences of a group.Studying the collective memory constructing of the People’s Daily for the centennial of the founding of the Party has theoretical and practical significance for an in-depth understanding of the mechanism of collective memory construction.This article selects the 2021 news reports of the People’s Daily on the centenary of the founding of the Party as the object of study,relying on the theory of "collective memory",and explores the contents and strategies of the collective memory constructed by the People’s Daily on the centenary of the founding of the Party through literature research,content analysis and case study method.The article summarizes the reports on the 100 th anniversary of the founding of the Party in People’s Daily in terms of the number of reports,topics,pages,lengths,and genres of reports.It is found that the collective memory constructed by People’s Daily and the memory themes highlighted by it are six aspects: memory of party history,memory of achievements,memory of people,memory of spirit,memory of celebration and memory of reflection.In terms of construction strategies,People’s Daily first sets up the topics of its reports to build up the priority of public perception;then uses high-quality content to help ritualize the reports and strengthen collective memory;uses visual symbols in the layout to enhance the communication effect;at the same time,uses the narrative style of stating emotions and reasoning to trigger emotional resonance;and most importantly,reflects mainstream values through the perspective of history and reality.Finally,we conclude that it is important for People’s Daily to construct the collective memory of the Party’s centennial,share cultural significance,strengthen individual memory,enhance national identity,disseminate national image,and maintain social order.