| CRI-Sinhala Service is China’s main international media.It has caught the eyes of the majority of Sri Lankans to learn information about the two countries’ relationship.Therefore,it has become very important to examine CRI-Sinhala service as it has turned out to be the protuberant international media in Sri Lanka.The aims of the research are to examine the communication strategies used to attract the Sri Lankan audience and its effects on Sri Lanka – China relationship.In order to explore the Sri Lankan audience analysis,communication strategies used in CRI Sinhala service,and its impact on the two country’s relationship,three main theories are adopted in the study,they are strategic communication theory,critical theory,and framing theory.In terms of the research methodology,this study has a positivist,hermeneutic,realistic,and post-positivist research orientation.And both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used,including 25in-depth interviews,CRI digital media content analysis and questionnaires with 367 sample sizes.The Content analysis of the CRI website and the Facebook has been conducted through the manual coding system of the content.Further,the categories have been made to understand the deeply the facts reported inside the content of Website and Facebook page.The findings of the study show that Sri Lankan audiences love to visit the CRI Sinhala service,and especially like to visit CRI Facebook page.Of course,if they want to understand the future of the China-Sri Lanka relationship,China’s foreign policies,China’s development,its effects on the world,Chinese politics and culture,Sri Lankan audience would like to visit the CRI Sinhala service.Then the present study has identified the interested themes of CRI Sinhala service,such as BRI development projects in Sri Lanka,China’s support for Sri Lanka’s economy,China’s political stability,the uniqueness of Chinese culture,China’s foreign policies and ideologies,China’s technological development innovations and individual contributions,and China’s economy and development as the interested themes by the Sri Lankan audience.The quantitative study indicated that the audience has a huge interest in each and every theme identified.Thus,China’s support for Sri Lanka’s economy and political stability are indicated as the most interested themes in CRI reporting.Moreover,the present study recognized the benefits that audience receives through visiting CRI Sinhala service such as understanding the opportunities created through development projects,realizing the opportunities to get an education in China,realizing the opportunities of international business,collecting proper information for academic discussions and understand Asia’s powerful country insights and its impact on Sri Lanka.Furthermore,the present study identified the main communication objectives of CRI-Sinhala service.Therefore,it acknowledged three main communication objectives such as,strengthening Sri Lanka-China relationship,spreading Chinese culture,building the China’s global power and national image to the Sri Lankan audience.Therefore,each main communication purpose of CRI has used several communication strategies to reach the Sri Lankan audience.Hence,integrating Sinhala-speaking Chinese presenters,reporting Sri Lankan expertise viewpoints about China-Sri Lanka relationship,integrating Sinhalatraditional presenters for reporting and share the experiences of Sri Lankans in China could be recognized as the main CS used by CRI to strengthen the relationship of two countries.Therefore,Sinhala-speaking Chinese presenters have a huge impact on the audience as per the quantitative findings.Furthermore,the present study specified the strategic narratives to spread Chinese culture.Hence,the research identified three main communication strategies such as integrating social media influencers,unique style repertoire,and the arrangement of digital media and live reporting persuasive language and conversational audio videos.Therefore,integrating social media influencers have a huge impact on the audience in order to spread Chinese culture could indicated as the strategic narratives for spreading Chinese culture.Then the study flagged in building China’s global power and the national image as another main communication objective.Thus,to reach this objective,four main CS have been implemented such as straightforward reporting,topic avoidance control and message abandonment,storytelling about China’s national contributors and inventors,and reporting with research data and sources could signpost through the present study as the strategic narratives.Straightforward reporting is designated as the most impactful CS to indicate China’s global power and national image.The quantitative analysis indicated that all the communication strategies used for every communication objective have a positive and significant impact on the Sri Lankan audience.Additionally,the study conducted a relationship analysis to identify the relationship between the communication strategies and communication objectives.Hence,the analysis indicated that all the strategies have a positive relationship with the communication objectives.The study also has pointed out a few challenges of CRI Sinhala service such as less presenting skills of local presenters,less documentation of videos about the social life of Chinese people,and fewer local audience interaction program and events.The author recommends CRI Sinhala service to address these challenges to reach the Sri Lankan audience more effectively.The study findings designated that CRI Communication strategies have positive effects on the relationship between Sri Lanka and China.Therefore,the audience gets ideas and persuasion to develop international business,employment opportunities,education opportunities,and tourism opportunities.Thus,the data findings and analysis of the present study made four main conclusions.Firstly it justify that,the audience visit CRI Sinhala Service to learn about the country and its effects to audience motherland and to the world.Furthermore,the author argues with the findings that the audience visit the international media platforms based on the relationship and the powerfulness of the country of origin.Secondly,the study concludes that CRI Sinhala Service has its main objectives to reach Sri Lankan audience.Thirdly,the study provided the insights to argue that CRI Sinhala Service uses effective communication strategies to reach audience successfully.Hence,at last the present research has proven with the research data that effective communication strategies in CRI Sinhala Service has positive media effects towards the international relations of Sri Lanka and China.Based on the findings and conclusion of the present study,this research propose a model of effective strategic communication impact towards sustainable international relations.Therefore,the model can be used by any other international Media to gain sustainable international relations.The author stretches several recommendations for the further development of CRI-Sinhala service.Therefore,the author suggests to improve the content of CRI Sinhala service with more variety of programs in different themes,introduce documentary programs and news in CRI content,introduce radio drama to the web radio of CRI,include video programs and new program structures,upgrade the communication strategies,conduct audience researches and enhance CRI marketing and promotions are the main suggestions and recommendations made by the author for further development of CRI.Thus,the study has several limitations which could be expanded in the future researches.The major limitation is that,the study focus on communication strategies implemented in CRI-Sinhala service and its impact towards the international relations.In future the ideological perspectives,international media agenda setting,inter cultural exchange could be discussed.Further the research sample can be expanded and varied.Additional the future researches can be conducted as comparative studies. |
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