How American Media Presents Crisis of Sino-Us Relations

Book excerpt: Sino-US relation that has great influence on international relations is considered as the most important bilateral relation in the world today by politicians and scholars from both of the two countries. The development of Sino-US relation has undergone twists and turns since the two countries established diplomatic relation. Although China and America has developed cooperative relationship in various areas, critical events resulted from conflicts happen from time to time. Media that plays various roles including message transmitter, public opinion shaper and problem solver during the two countries’ crisis is not only an important information channel for both the government and the people to learn about the crisis quickly, but also undertakes certain diplomatic duties like indicating attitude, explaining policy and setting agenda. This book is an analysis of the features and laws of media coverage on critical events between China and America, discussing their influence on public opinion of American people as well as the decision-making progress of American government by study the related reports of New York Times since 1990. This book takes some China-US crisis as study cases and the related reports in New York Times as researching sample, analyzing the quantity, length, type, information source, inclination towards China and news frame of the reports, discussing the features and laws of media coverage on crises between China and America. The ultimate purpose is to figure out the role and function of media during the decision-making process of America’s China policy and to conclude the inspiration for both countries’ diplomacy and international communication.