A Study On The Image Of Mainlanders In Hongkong Media

Since the return of Hong Kong,the cultural and economical exchanges between Hong Kong and the mainland have become closer.While Hong Kong has thrived further in tourism due to mainland Chinese visits,multiple clashes between the two sides have emerged out of varying reasons,such as history and differences in culture and lifestyle.With conflicts intensifying,Hong Kong people tend to alienate and discriminate against mainlanders.They rely heavily on the coverage of Hong Kong media to access information about the mainlanders.The objectivity and facticity,therefore,of the coverage play a significant role in allowing them to gain a proper understanding of mainland Chinese.In this study,five Hong Kong newspaper companies were selected to investigate how differently-oriented newspapers construct the image of mainland Chinese.The marketoriented Apple Daily,the elite-oriented Ming Pao,the mainland-funded Wen Wei Po,the English-language newspaper South China Morning Post,and the non-profitable newspaper Toutiao Daily,were all selected.Their coverage on mainland Chinese from 2009 to 2019 was quantitatively analyzed through three primary analysis methods(the content analysis,the text analysis,and the comparative analysis)in terms of the news release date,the news type,the news issue,reporting tendency,reporting genres,news sources,length of coverage,as well as the identity,behaviors,and characteristics of mainland Chinese.The high-frequency words in the news headlines are also counted.The study has found six main types of the image of mainland Chinese in the reports of the five media.They are viewed as the law offender,the economic driver,the disadvantaged in rights and interests,the immoral,the spendthrift,and the intruder on resources.It also summarizes four factors that influence how the image of mainland Chinese is constructed,including the marketing campaign by commercial media;the differences in social systems,history and culture;mainlanders’ misconduct;and mainlanders lacking the right of speech in Hong Kong society.Finally,several suggestions were proposed to improve the situation.First,the government should further improve the public awareness of civilized manners,and take further action to promote exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong.Besides,mass media should remain objective in reporting to lead public opinion in the right direction.Hong Kong people and their mainland counterparts should try to understand each other.This requires Hong Kong people to set aside their stereotypes about mainlanders while the latter should improve themselves to be accepted by the Hong Kong society.