| Research on country image is mainly to study what and how the public and institutions home or abroad judge a country's performances in politics, economics, and foreign affairs etc. Country image exists mainly in the coverage of mass media, especially in that of the prestigious media in the world. In order to get the clear image of China, it's necessary to analyze what and how the world-known prestigious media report China, and why they do so.Based on quantitative study and qualitative study, this thesis got the general image of China presented by New York Times through analyzing all news about China in New York Times from January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2005. According to the content, methods, and attitude of New York Times' coverage about China, this thesis also studied how New York Times presents China's image and why it does so. Accordingly, this thesis tables some proposals on how to enhance China image in the prestigious media like New York Times.As the theoretical and operational guidance, Introduction chapter introduced some concepts, definitions, and background about this study, and explained why this study had chosen New York Times and the time period as the research objectives.As the main body of this thesis, chapter 1 and chapter 2 firstly analyzed the statistics and China image which is impartially in general, but favorable is much less than unfavorable, in the front page, in the international edition, and in the news pictures respectively in New York Times. Secondly, China image in different aspects presented by New York Times was researched in different categories with the same research methods. Thirdly, the general features and influential factors that New York Times has when it reports China were discussed in this part.Finally, this thesis presented some proposals on developing our information channels to enhance China image in international opinion according to worldwide-recognized news rules. |
