The Representation Of The Rural Migrants' Images And Their Construction In Mass Media

This thesis explores the representation of rural migrants'images in several major national newspapers People's Daily, Peasants Daily, Xin'min Evening Post, Yangtze Evening Post, and Yang'cheng Evening Post, The result of the exploration manifests diversity in the portrayal of the rural migrants'images by the press. Different mass-media construct different rural migrants'images from their own perspectives——People Daily and Peasants Daily have been constructing the images of beneficiaries and winners from the standpoint of the government and the rural migrants themselves, while Xin'min Evening Post, Yangtze Evening Post, and Yang'cheng Evening Post, distort the rural migrants'images, describing them as clowns, unlucky ones and rascals. The analysis of such rhetorical strategies as naming, policy illustration, variations and unhistorically reveals political and commercial power's interference in the media language. From different angles like social system, social ideology, social status, national press system and mass media's management and commercialization, the thesis summarizes the reasons for those different reproductions of the rural migrants by the various media and puts forward reasonable suggestions for improving the mass media.