A Study Of China’s National Image Projected By The Philippine Media Bulletin(2013.8-2014.7)

The study of national images has become a research trend in the academic field recently. However, there is not much research on China‘s national image in the Philippines. As one important neighbor of China separated only by a strip of water, the Philippines shares with China a long history of exchanges. Yet the relations between these two countries have gone through ups and downs for quite a long period of time and they even got strained for a time due to the South China Sea issue. Therefore, it is of great importance to conduct a study on the national image of China portrayed by the Philippine media during this special period. Moreover, such a study is beneficial for the enhancement of the friendly exchanges between the two countries.This thesis resorts to content analysis to categorize and summarize 949 reports about China on the Philippine newspaper Manila Bulletin between August 2013 and July 2014. It is shown that negative reports on China outnumber the positive and neutral ones. With regard to the content, most reports focus on the diplomatic affairs and the others mainly concern economy, domestic affairs, cultural and social issues. Among the diplomatic coverage, the negative reports mostly concentrate on territorial disputes between China and the Philippines while reports on the diplomatic ties between China and other countries such as the United States, Japan, India and Vietnam remain objective. In general, Manila Bulletin holds a positive attitude towards China‘s achievements in economy and reform, the progress in science and technology as well as the promotion of China‘s international status. Regarding the other sides of China‘s domestic affairs, the newspaper spends more space on reporting scandals and anecdotes, covering the corruption within the Communist Party of China, the ethnic conflicts, the tensions between the mainland and Hong Kong as well as Taiwan and so on. It is proposed in the thesis that China‘s national image projected by Manila Bulletin can be characterized as three aspects, i.e. rising raptor, blustering dragon and sleepy dragon. Furthermore, this thesis adopts the level of analysis method in international relations to explore the contributing factors for these characteristics of China‘s national image in the Philippines.