A Study On The Change Of Media Image Of Chinese Disabled Athletes

Sports for the disabled is an important part of China's sports cause,which attracts the attention of the Party and the government.The Paralympic Games,as the top event for disabled sports,is the best stage to showcase the positive and upward outlook of Chinese disabled athletes,and also an important opportunity to enhance the national image.People's Daily is the most authoritative and influential Party newspaper in China,it is also the important mouthpiece of the Party and the people.People's Daily's report on the Paralympic Games highlights the concern of the party and the government for the sports of the disabled,its own influence and guiding appeal also enable disabled athletes to be known and recognized by more people.This paper takes all the news reports of the 9th Paralympic Games in People's Daily from 1984 to 2018 as the research object.Through content analysis and comparative analysis,combined with the news framework theory,this paper explores the image of disabled athletes from three aspects: the number of reports,the theme of reports and the key words of reports.This article also analyses the characteristics of the media image of disabled athletes,and the changes the media image of disabled athletes has undergone.Generally speaking,since 1984,the media image of Chinese disabled athletes has undergone two stages of transformation,that is,from the image of "national hero" who strives for national glory and the image of "sports model" that transcends self to the pluralistic image of loving sports,loving life,pursuing dreams and self-worth.The change of Chinese disabled athletes' media image reflects the great change of China in the past 40 years of reform and opening up.The transformation of society,the change of audience's cultural values and the change of media itself determine the trajectory of the media image of disabled athletes.