A Study Of Shanghai City Image In Foreign Media Reports(2010-2017)

In the volatile global communication environment,the image of Shanghai city remains to be an organic part of the country’s external communication strategy and national soft power.The shaping of the image of Shanghai by foreign mainstream media determines the international economic and cultural contact as well as global participation of Shanghai and China.In the past few years,Shanghai is playing an increasingly important role in the global network connection.With the city image becoming an important resource for global city competition,the spread and construction of the Shanghai image by foreign media directly affects Shanghai’s scramble for important nodes in the global city map.This is an important subject that concerns national interests,public relations,and building of China’s preeminent global city.This article selected four representative foreign media,namely,The New York Times,The Times,The Yomiuri,and The Times of India as research sample sources.A total of 802 Shanghai-related reports were collected from the four newspapers during the eight years from 2010 to 2017.Through the comprehensive use of content analysis,social network analysis,bibliometrics analysis,framework analysis and other research methods,this study carried out a study on the construction of Shanghai’s city image in the reports.Based on the research questions of "How the Shanghai image was shaped","How the Shanghai image was presented ","How it was interrelated",and"How to spread",the current study focuses on the analysis of the media discourse generation,frame construction and related geography of the four foreign media reporting on Shanghai.Based on that,the Shanghai image presented by the foreign media reports was summarized.Finally,suggestions and countermeasures to optimize the communication of Shanghai city image was provided.The study focuses on the issues of "How the Shanghai image was shaped" and "How the Shanghai image was presented" on the four foreign media.The content analysis method was used to describe the generation mechanism of media discourse about Shanghai on the four foreign media from the perspectives of theme distribution,report form,source,and report tendency.With the help of Gamson’s interpretive package theoretical tool,the study clarified how foreign media adopted the theme frame setting and discourse strategy to perform meaningful production of Shanghai city image from five dimensions of business theme,financial theme,cultural theme,social theme,and political theme.On the " How it was interrelated " issue,we used social network analysis to visualize the geographical distribution of cities related to Shanghai as was reported by the four foreign media,and the relationship and interaction between Shanghai and different locations around the world,so as to observe the international perception of the distribution of globalization and localization in Shanghai’s urban image.The study finally depicts the image of Shanghai city as was constructed by the foreign media’s Shanghai-related reports.As an important node in the emerging global economy,finance and culture,Shanghai has gained wide recognition.However,it also outlined that an image of Shanghai as a vibrant as well as problematic global city image.The factors highlighted by the four foreign media in shaping the image of Shanghai are always in contradictory and complex situations:Shanghai has both bright prospects and obstacles;it has risen rapidly under government regulation and has various immature and imperfect market environments.As a modern and open cultural center,Shanghai’s social management level and the quality of its citizens are considered lagging behind the standards of a modern citiy.At the meantime,risk in Shanghai’s urban public safety management continue to increase.Foreign media did not deny Shanghai’s increasing economic strength and cultural vitality,but spared no effort to expose the unoptimistic social environment in Shanghai’s urban development and the unstable factors brought to the global economy or the international community.The characteristics of Shanghai’s global city image in the context of foreign media can be summarized as "rise with power","open with vitality","coexist with problems" and "aggressive".The shaping of Shanghai’s image by foreign countries is the result of the interaction of multiple factors such as urban characteristics,media coverage and international games.Discourse,framework and interactive relationships all constitute a complex perception of Shanghai’s image.On the basis of summarizing the influencing factors and cognition foundation of Shanghai’s image building,the study puts forward suggestions to optimize Shanghai’s global city image.