Research On The Australian Mainstream Media Frame And The Audience Frame Of The Chinese Diaspora In Australia In COVID-19

COVID-19 that broke out in Wuhan has aroused people’s concerns about public health and panic,as well as prejudice against China and the Chinese.As a result,the Chinese diaspora has faced challenges in the sojourn countries.Australia and China have been in friction in recent years.The Chinese diaspora is a culturally marginalized group in Australia,even though there are many Chinese immigrants and other Chinese sojourners in Australia.Therefore,the situation of the Chinese community in Australia during the epidemic deserves special attention.During the epidemic,the Australian mainstream media serves as a window for audiences to understand the Australian government’s,elites’,and public’s attitudes and perception of the Chinese community in Australia,The Chinese diaspora in Australia composes part of the audience of the news related to the Australian Chinese community.In order to understand how the Australian mainstream media reports the Chinese community in COVID-19 and how the Chinese audiences in Australia perceive the news about them.Based on the process model of framing,this thesis explores the news frames,the audience frames,and the audience’s reactions to the framing effect through discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews.This thesis selects 43 news articles for discourse analysis to explore what news frames are adopted by the Australian mainstream media when reporting about the Chinese diaspora in Australia in COVID-19.The findings show that news includes five categories,among which the social category and the political category appear most frequently.Under the social category,the media uses the conflict frame and the solidarity frame to reflect its attitude towards the Chinese diaspora in social life.Under the political category,the interest frame and the responsibility frame show the media’s position and tendency on the political issues.The author conducts interviews with 11 Chinese sojourners in Australia to explore the audience frames and the Chinese diaspora’s reactions to the framing effect.The results show that the Chinese interviewees are more interested in the social news category based on the ethnic identity during the epidemic.Moreover,their attention to other news categories is based on personal needs.When interpreting news involving the Chinese community in Australia,the Chinese interviewees form two audience frames:the indifference frame and the hostility frame.The Chinese interviewees point out that the Australian media is indifferent to the real situation of the Chinese community in Australia and neglects their interests in the epidemic.Meanwhile,the Australian media stigmatizes China by virtue of the epidemic and shapes a negative image of the Chinese diaspora in Australia,showing its hostility towards China and the Chinese community.Under the influence of the Australian media and the pandemic,the Chinese interviewees experience psychological distress,ranging from low to high anxiety levels.To reduce the impact of unrest,the Chinese interviewees take measures of negative avoidance,new alternatives,and social support.It is found that the audience frames and the audience’s reactions to the framing effect are related to the Chinese cultural factors,including uncertainty avoidance,non-confrontational conflict management,and collectivism.