Nationalist Cheerleaders: The Coverage of the Russian-Ukrainian War by Chinese Media and the Media’s Role

Abstract

<p>俄烏戰爭引發全球關注，研究聚焦於與俄、烏兩國交好的中國，如何報導這場戰爭？媒體如何透過戰爭新聞反映國家與市場利益？研究採用vanGorp 的框架包裹取徑，結合量化與質化分析，探討中國網路媒體──《人民網》、《澎湃新聞》如何再現俄烏戰爭。結果發現，分屬黨營與市場導向的兩家媒體，在報導形式、消息來源、報導主題、內容框架上存在差異，但報導中性、不偏袒任一方，符合官方立場。相關主題，則以「衝突框架」最常使用；其餘框架則包括「責任歸屬」、「經濟影響」、及「道德」等類型。而結合框架化、推理等裝置，以及潛在的文化背景現象，發現中國媒體藉由戰爭新聞，強化反美、反西方論述，扮演民族主義啦啦隊的角色。</p> <p> </p><p>The Russia-Ukraine war has been attracting global media attention. In China, a country that has good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, how did Chinese media outlets report this war? How were did national and market interests of China reflected by Chinese media through war news? Using van Gorp’s framework wrapping analysis method, this study explored how two Chinese online media outlets, People’s Daily (Renmin ribao) and The Paper (Pengpai xinwen), represented the Russian-Ukrainian war in their reports. Both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed. The study found that in the reports by the two media outlets, one run by the party and the other market-oriented, there were differences in forms of report, sources of information, reporting themes, and content frameworks. However, consisting with China’s official position, their reporting stances were both neutral without biasing towards either Russia or Ukraine. The study also found that, among the four commonly-seen thematic frameworks, the conflict framework was most frequently used by the two media outlets. The other frameworks include the responsibility attribution framework, the economic impact framework, and the ethical framework. After combined analysis of framing devices, reasoning devices, and underlying cultural backgrounds of the war news, the study also found that, by reporting the news of the Russian-Ukrainian War, the Chinese media outlets attempted to strengthen the anti-American and anti-Western discourses and played the role of nationalist cheerleaders.</p> <p> </p>