Youth Rhythm And Media Mirror:The Strategy Of "Young" Athletes’ Image Construction In China Youth Daily Based On The Reports Of 2004-2022 Olympic Games

The media image of athletes symbolizes the spirit of the nation and the image of the country,and plays an important role in the communication and development of sports,especially the media image of "young" athletes.In the Olympic Games,the wonderful performances and outstanding achievements of "young" athletes show the bright future of world sports."Young" athletes are the rising stars of the sports world,the pride and future of the nation.Through media coverage,viewers have a better understanding of their excellent performance and strong psychological quality,which strengthens their perception of the image of "young" athletes.Therefore,the focus of this study is on the media image of "young" athletes and the construction strategy of mainstream media.We selected 740 reports from China Youth Daily from the 2004 Athens Olympic Games to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games,and used sampling,coding,and decoding methods to quantitatively analyze the news about "young" athletes in China Youth Daily.Based on the media mirror theory,we summarize the media image of "young" athletes presented by China Youth Daily and analyze what strategies China Youth Daily used to build the media image of "young" athletes.The four types of media images of Chinese "young" athletes constructed by China Youth Daily are "national hero","surpassing oneself","distinctive genius" and "continuing the legend".The media images of foreign "young" athletes are "excellent performance" and "perseverance".The analysis shows that China Youth Daily uses subjective,visual,narrative and symbolic constructs to show the positive,optimistic,tenacious and idealistic side of the "young" athletes.The paper also discusses the causes of the construction of "young" athletes’ images in China Youth Daily from three aspects: media,audience and culture.Finally,it is pointed out that the problems of excessive use of "idolization",over-strengthening of political function and single presentation method in shaping the image of "young" athletes in China Youth Daily are addressed,and it is suggested that the newspaper should report objectively and avoid over-exaggerating,focus on humanistic feelings and strengthen the awareness of the audience,and change its thinking mode to show the image of "young" athletes.The newspaper should be objective and avoid over-exaggerating;focus on humanistic sentiment and strengthen audience awareness;change the mode of thinking and innovate the way of reporting.The identity of "young" athletes has dual attributes,representing not only outstanding young people but also an important part of the athletes’ group,and studying the construction of their media images is conducive to analyzing the intergenerational characteristics of young groups in various historical periods and creating a realistic and three-dimensional image of athletes.It is also possible to summarize the characteristics of China Youth Daily’s Olympic coverage of "young" athletes,to study the strategy of constructing the media image of "young" athletes in China Youth Daily,to reflect the philosophy and way of reporting in China Youth Daily,to analyze the problems of China Youth Daily,and to analyze the media image of "young" athletes in China Youth Daily.It is also possible to analyze the problems of China Youth Daily and make specific suggestions for other mainstream media.