Media Diplomacy Strategies Of Switzerland In China

With media playing a gradually significant role in public diplomacy globally,"media diplomacy" is drawing much attention from scholars and practitioners all over the world.Switzerland,as a representative of nations with long-lasting positive reputation and national image,is committed to utilizing media in the process of public diplomacy as well.This thesis studies the media diplomacy of Switzerland in China.Besides the fact that Switzerland has enjoyed a long-lasting positive national image around the world,the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Switzerland during January 15th to 19th,2017,as the first state visit of Chinese state leaders to Switzerland and the first state visit of China in this year,marks the huge progress and future development for the bilateral relations between the two countries.It also adds the importance and necessity of studying the media diplomacy of Switzerland in China.Thus,studying the media diplomacy strategies of Switzerland in China is helpful and enlightening to China.Media diplomacy,as part of public diplomacy,is consisted of tree layers-monological,dialogical and cooperative diplomacy.This thesis aims to find the media diplomacy strategies applied by Switzerland in China,as well as to provide suggestions for China in conducting media diplomacy abroad in the future.Based on the literature review of related theories as "Public Diplomacy","Media Diplomacy","Three Layers of Media Diplomacy" and "National Image Hexagon" and previous studies on media diplomacy,the research question of the thesis was proposed.Specifically speaking,the research question of the thesis is "how does Switzerland conduct media diplomacy in China?".In order to follow the theory of "Three Layers of Media Diplomacy" and to facilitate solving the problen,three sub-questions were proposed as well:a)How does Switzerland conduct monological media diplomacy in China?b)How does Switzerland conduct dialogical media diplomacy in China?c)How does Switzerland conduct cooperative media diplomacy in China?To answer the above questions,three cases of the respective layers of media diplomacy have been studied,with the method of both content analysis and interview.For monological media diplomacy,interview articles of the current Ambassador of Switzerland on Chinese media have been analyzed;for dialogical media diplomacy,posts from Swiss official WeChat public accounts,including SwissChat,Swissnex and Swissinfo,have been collected and studied;for cooperative media diplomacy,the media cooperation with Chinese media for Solar Impulse ? Project have been classified.In addition,interviews with officers working at Embassy of Switzerland in China have been conducted,in order to find the underlying reasons and original intentions related to the research findings.Six questions concerning both monological and cooperative media diplomacy were asked to the media officer of Swiss Embassy,while for the social media officer,three questions about dialogical media diplomacy were interviewed.It is found that Switzerland makes full use of all types of media with a thorough understanding of their respective features,and it achieves in building a comprehensive national image by effective cooperation among the three layers of media diplomacy.In the aspect of monological media diplomacy of Switzerland in China,it is found that the interview articles of the Swiss Ambassador show the preference in hard power aspect in content and the openness to media choice.The 14 articles between 2014 and 2016 has reached its peak in number at 2015,when the two countries were celebrated their anniversary of diplomatic relations establishment;hard power aspects as "investment and immigration" and "governance" are mentioned the most of all the six themes in the articles;and the choice of media presents openness-showing balance among traditional and new media but with more preference in traditional media as newspapers and magazines.As for dialogical media diplomacy,the preference in soft power and a quite balanced layout among the three platforms could be found.SwissChat shows more emphasis on soft power sides as "culture and heritage",Swissnex communicates more on innovation,which is classified under the theme of "investment and immigration",while the content of Swissinfo spreads evenly among the six themes,still with "culture and heritage" ranking to the first place.A strong difference exists among the three platforms,but each of them is in consistence with their original obligation and target audience.Furtherly speaking,through further study on the posts of SwissChat,it is found that the themes of "people","governance" and "tourism" have gain the most positive feedback from the audience,while "culture and heritage" and "investment and immigration" receiving the least readers and likes.In addition,most posts of SwissChat are connected to an event,but there are more outside events than Embassy ones;and all the posts have applied photos and videos,with more outsourced than original Embassy ones.For cooperative media diplomacy,it could be concluded that this type of media diplomacy is conducted in multi levels with precise positioning of target audience.On one hand,traditional and online Chinese media has played the roles of both subject and channel in the project promotion and communication.On the other hand,among the 567 relative news reports searched in websites and print media,most of them are published online.With the interest of Chinese media remaining for quite a long time during Solar Impulse?'s stay in China,the majority of the reports have appeared close to the important time point of the project-landing,media conference,taking-off,etc.Besides,the first stage(March,2015)has gained much more attention than the latter period of time(April and May,2015).With the consideration of both the interview feedbacks from media officers of Swiss Embassy and the research findings,it is possible to know that monological media diplomacy could be inevitably influenced by the local media.It also reminds us to notice the significant role of media playing in media diplomacy-although in monological media diplomacy,it is usually not the principal part,which is the country,but the media that has more say in the final image presented to local public.Secondly,for dialogical media diplomacy,the national image of Switzerland conveyed by the three Swiss official new media platforms is quite balanced and comprehensive.The research result is in consistency with the intention of the Embassy.The official WeChat public account is a significant and controllable channel of reaching Chinese audience and conveying the authentic and positive image of Switzerland.Thirdly,in cooperative media diplomacy,with close and effective cooperation between Swiss official organizations as Embassy of Switzerland in China and Chinese media,Solar Impulse ? has managed to received much attention from Chinese media and public.However,the national image of Switzerland has not been expressed effectively by Solar Impulse ? Project.In conclusion in the aspect of monological media diplomacy,the difference in focus and need of Swiss representations and Chinese media is obvious;for dialogical media diplomacy,the controllability of the subject and the integration of various participates are reflected;in cooperative media diplomacy,Switzerland effectively combines the national image with an international event-Solar Impulse II,promoting the event and building the national image.The study offered possible suggestions for the media diplomacy of China in the three layers.For monological media diplomacy,the main problem to tackle is to guarantee that the image and information conveyed are in correspondence of the original intention,without being influenced by the subjective choosing of local media.For dialogical media diplomacy,the subjective country of media diplomacy should make full advantage of its communicative channels,controlling the information and image conveyed to its audience and integrating various platforms with their respective audience.For cooperative media diplomacy,it is significant and effective to combine the building of national image and the promotion of certain influential and international events.With such appropriate opportunities,the effect of cooperative media diplomacy is more natural and lasting than directly and individually promoting the national image.Thus,on one hand,it is important to have a multi-layer use of media,a clear division of task and an overall plan of the aim of media diplomacy.On the other hand,when promoting and organizing international projects or events,it is more efficient to inform the project and convey national image at the same time.That is to say,with a multi-layer use of media,an overall plan and a combination of projects and national image,China would make better use of media diplomacy,to build a positive and comprehensive national image and actively interact with audience of other regions and countries.