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Abstract
This study explores how the Chinese media have legitimated the Chinese government’s anti-COVID policy at home by constructing the spectatorship of foreign countries’ suffering during the pandemic. Using the Oriental News of Shanghai Media Group (SMG), a leader in Chinese provincial media, as a case study, the present study reveals that the core countries within the world system have been reported on more often than the semi-peripheral and peripheral countries. News about core countries also precedes news about non-core countries during the parts of broadcasts that concern the global COVID-19 pandemic. China’s specific geopolitical and national political contexts have significantly influenced the mediation of COVID-19 suffering in various countries. While the US is represented as experiencing multiple forms of “chaos” during the pandemic, African countries are represented as “allied others” or “weak others.” News about India, a country with national conditions similar to those of China, reminds Chinese spectators that the Chinese government’s strict controls are correct and effective. The mediation of other countries’ sufferings has produced various degrees of emotional involvement on the part of the Chinese public.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Prof. Chang Tsan-Kuo for his insightful suggestions on the earlier version of this article and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Notes
1 For example, a news item mentioned the following: “The outbreak is developing rapidly in European countries, with the number of confirmed cases in France and Germany increasing by more than 3,000 cases.” Both France and Germany were coded. However, if one country was mentioned in the news, without mentioning its COVID-19 situation, it would not be coded. For example, in the news story titled “Russia resumes routes with Egypt under Russia’s new policy,” only Russia was coded.
2 China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are within the semi-periphery zone; however, this study excluded them from statistical analysis because it focuses on Chinese international news. News regarding the COVID-19 pandemic on the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan was classified as domestic news in Oriental News.
3 This data can be found at https://covid19.who.int/.
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Yan Yi
Dr. Yan Yi is an associate professor at the School of Politics and International Relations, East China Normal University, China. Her research interests include international communication, Chinese political communication, and symbolic politics in contemporary China. Her articles have been published in leading media and communication journals. Her current project focuses on the politics-media axis in the era of networked politics.