Constructing Anarchical Culture And Security Community: A Content Analysis Of Nihon Keizai Shimbun's Coverage About Sino-Japanese Relations

Last year was the 40 th anniversary of the signing of Sino-Japanese Treaty on Peace and Friendship.As a result,it is a new stage of friendly exchanges between China and Japan.The development of Sino-Japanese relations has once again attracted extensive attention from the governments,media and the public of the two countries.According to the "Public Opinion Survey on Sino-Japanese relations" jointly released by China International Publishing Group(CIPG)and the Genron NPO in October 2018,about 90% of the public in China and Japan knew about Sino-Japanese relations through their domestic news media.The media is the main source of information about bilateral relations for the public,and also an important factor affecting the public opinion on Sino-Japanese relations.Drawing upon the anarchical culture theory and three tiers theory about security community in the constructivist theory of international relations,this article examines how the Nihon Keizai Shimbun has in the past decade constructed Sino-Japanese relations.We conducted a comprehensive content analysis of 502 news reports and commentaries.The purpose of this paper is to conduct a quantitative study on the introduction of the theory of constructivist international relations into the field of communication through Japanese media,including five chapters.Chapter one,introduction,will clarify the origin and problems of the research,clarify the concepts of "relationship culture" and "security community" in the constructivist theory of international relations,discuss its deficiencies and reference significance in the field of communication studies,and propose the purpose and significance of this study.The second chapter describes the selected research object,research content,research design and research methods.The third chapter is the presentation of the analysis results,including the description and analysis of the samples,how the media constructs SinoJapanese relations,and looking for the influencing factors that facilitate the transformation of bilateral relations into a security community.The fourth chapter analyzes the influence of the level of Sino-Japanese relations on Japanese public opinion.The fifth chapter analyzes the influence of the level and topics of SinoJapanese relations on Japanese public opinion.The fifth chapter draws a conclusion and further discusses the reasons that influence the media to build such a relationship,so as to provide suggestions for China to cope with Japanese media.The analysis shows that in the field of culture and diplomacy,the coverage mainly constructs the “friendly” relationship between China and Japan,while in the field of military affairs,politics and history,news focuses on the “hostile” relationship.Among the three themes of economy,people's livelihood and commentaries,there are three kinds of relations: “hostility”,“competition” and “friendship”.In the economic field,the “competition” relationship is the strongest,while the three relations constructed in the field of people's livelihood are relatively weak.However,the related reports on the views of politicians and scholars on Sino-Japanese relations have constructed three kinds of Sino-Japanese relations with great characteristics.In these three relationships,when the coverage refers to “environmental protection”,“commemoration of SinoJapanese relations” and “strategic reciprocal relations”,Sino-Japanese relations will be transformed into a friendly security community.On the contrary,“China's military threat”,“Diaoyudao Island” and “Japan-US relations” are factors that have contributed to the transformation of Sino-Japanese relations into hostile security dilemma.Further analysis shows that the level of Sino-Japanese relations constructed has an impact on the public perception of the current and future Sino-Japanese relations,the impression of China and the perception of the importance of Sino-Japanese relations.The coverage on the construction of Sino-Japanese relations reflects the pursuit of national interests.China should pay close attention to the tendency of Japan on the issue of Sino-Japanese conflicts,especially the factors that may contribute to the negative transformation of Sino-Japanese relations.Of course,it is necessary to play to the positive role of the Japanese media,make the best of the factors' positive value influencing the positive transformation of bilateral relations.The two governments should strengthen strategic and mutually beneficial cooperation and non-governmental public diplomacy to promote the friendly development of Sino-Japanese relations in the future.