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The Role of Australian Newspapers in Sino-Australian Relations under the Rudd Administration

Author: LiuBingRu
Tutor: HouMinYue
School: East China Normal University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: media reporting Sino-Australian relations content analysis
CLC: G219.611
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 80
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Abstract

In an age of information explosion, media serve as a major source of domestic and overseas information. As a traditional media form, despite a lack of real-time informing effect, newspapers still enjoy a wide readership consisting of people of different walks of life for the depth and ranges of news reporting. The linking-up function of newspapers between information and the public allows them to decide what foreign issue is significant and worth public attention through the length of news articles, reporting duration, news themes and news language, thus setting agenda for the public, creating public opinion and further imposing influence on government diplomatic policy to a certain extent.In recent years, with the ever-improving economic and political relations between China and Australia, Australian newspapers have been producing more news reports of China and paying more attention to issues about China. The election of Kevin Rudd as Australian Prime Minister was believe to promise a much closer bilateral relationship because of his fluent mandarin and working experience as a diplomat in Beijing. However, due to the deeply-rooted prejudice toward China among some Australians, they don’t have higher expectations for a closer linkage with a country managed by different political systems and ideologies. It gives an excuse to the Australian media practitioners for the exaggeration of China’s human rights record, political predicament and economic ambitions, which in turn worsens differences in the bilateral relations.The thesis takes news reports of the troubled Beijing Olympic torch relay in 2008 and Stern Hu’s detention in 2009 carried by The Australian and The Age as the research objects and makes a content analysis within three frames---theme, word and keynote and opinion source---to investigate China’s image in their media and media prejudice toward China. In addition, the public opinion surveys, state documents, official policy speeches are collected to probe into the media influence on public opinion towards China and afterwards on the formulation and implementation of Kevin Rudd’s China policy. It turns out that the media reporting of the above-mentioned two issues did contribute to more negative attitudes toward China among Australians and lead to a slow progress in the development of Beijing-Canberra relations and a much tougher China policy during the Rudd administration. The rest of the thesis is dedicated to exploring the problems in Australian media coverage of China and figuring out possible solutions. It also points out that only by China’s own efforts to improve the international understanding of China can China’s image be lifted up fundamentally and media bias reflected in the western media including Australian media be minimized little by little.

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