By Wei Wang
About 50 scholars and media experts around the world gathered Saturday at an international forum at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) to explore global communication strategies and issues related with China’s global image. A database platform and two series of books were launched at the forum.
Li Yansong, SISU President, gives the opening remarks.
The online platform, known as International Public Opinion and Global Communication Digital Scholarship Platform, was launched during the opening ceremony. The platform, developed by Professor Guo Ke, dean of SISU’s School of Journalism and Communication (SJC)，and his team, consists of four databases regarding international news and media event analysis, global communication research and public opinion case studies. Two book series on global communication and Chinese discourse and global discourse and media studies were also launched during the opening ceremony.
Professor Chen Peiqin, deputy dean of SJC, hosts the forum.
Meanwhile, Louisa Ha, professor at Bowling Green State University’s School of Media and Communication and the immediate past editor of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, introduced “Online Media and Global Communication,” a new open access journal focusing on social media platforms and global communication. As one of the keynote speakers, Ha presented her latest research on international news outlets’ audience engagement strategies on social media platforms during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. She said, “Neutrality in the news is becoming more of a standard for international news media to win the trust and interest of the U.S. audience.”
Professor Louisa Ha during her keynote presentation.
Zhang Dongjin, chief of the Overseas Communication Center of Huanqiu.com, presented an annual report titled International Communication Influence of State-owned Enterprises. “As key players in China’s global communication, state-owned enterprises are now at the forefront of China’s construction of a trustworthy, lovable and respectable global image,” Zhang said.
Shi Ding, executive editor-in-chief of Huanqiu.com, said in his keynote speech the international community has placed more attention on China and with it increased scrutiny and negative coverage. “Because of differences in systems of governance, ethnicity and culture, some Western countries’ biases against China are difficult to shatter at the moment,” he said.
Shi Ding during his keynote speech.
Shi said one of the key challenges for constructing a positive Chinese image is that China often has to work within the constraints of American online and media platforms to make its voice heard. Facing unfavorable global public opinion, China needs to tell more stories of everyday struggles of Chinese people so that they resonate with a global audience.
Liu Yonggang, president and editor-in-chief of The Paper, agreed with Shi, emphasizing The Paper and its English sister publication Sixth Tone are to tell everyday stories of ordinary people with a modest narrative. In addition, he stressed the importance of professionalism, high-quality content, fact-checking and multimedia reporting in modern journalism in his keynote speech.
Liu Yonggang during his keynote speech.
As the final keynote speaker, Dean Guo said China’s discursive power should match China’s status quo in the world. He said China needs to improve its storytelling techniques and build up its cultural confidence so that the world can better understand and show appreciation for China’s successful model of social development and control of COVID-19 and poverty alleviation in the past years. And China needs to explain more and better about its own logic and philosophy of social governance, so as to effectively avoid misinterpretation and even hostility from the outside world.
Guo said China can build up a globally-resonant Chinese discourse that demonstrates China’s confidence in its own developmental theories and a new discursive strategy that can work to break through current Western-dominance in academic discourse research and can explain China’s performance-based logic of social development.
Professor Guo Ke during his keynote speech.
In the foreign scholars’ panel, Dr. Shahira S. Fahmy, professor at the American University in Cairo’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, said she found an influence of journalists’ nationality in their news coverage.
Dr. Jörg Matthes, chair of the University of Vienna’s Department of Communication, found that most adolescents do not use social media for political purposes, neither do they access high-quality political content on social media.
Dr. Jiro Takai, president of the Japan Communication Association and professor at Nagoya University’s Department of Psychology and Human Developmental Sciences, noted a Western hegemony in academia and highlighted advantages of a high context research method in uncovering aspects of social psychology traditionally overlooked by Western individual-focused research. “Maybe we need to look at an Asian hegemony in social sciences research rather than sticking with the old Western system,” he said.
Dr. Mohan J. Dutta, dean’s chair in communication and director of Massey University’s Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation, said the structural inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are born out of communication and voice inequalities. Drawing from observations of Indian Facebook groups, Dutta said such inequalities include marginalized communities’ lack of access to health education resources and lack of political voice to influence decision-makers.
As the last speaker, Dr. Oscar Westlund, professor at Oslo Metropolitan University’s Department of Journalism and Media Studies, and Sherwin Chua, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Gothenburg, discussed contemporary news publishers’ platform counterbalancing techniques to regain control over their media content from social media platforms and search engines and drew from a Singaporean legacy publisher examples of such techniques. Deputy Dean Chen, as the discussant for this panel, highlighted the importance of balancing profit against the quality of news contents, a common dilemma among contemporary news publishers.
Panel for Foreign Scholars after the Opening Ceremony.
Following the morning panel, Tang Jingtai, professor at School of Journalism and Communication of Jinan University, said existing scholarship predominantly focuses on a self-centered approach to China’s global communication. He proposed investigating the core discourses and discourse frameworks of the U.S.’s China-related discourse. Xiong Jiabao, master’s student at Hubei University’s School of Journalism and Communication, pointed to fundamentally diverging discourse frameworks in China and the U.S. regarding mask-wearing, demonstrating fundamental differences in the two countries’ logical framework in referencing her research with her mentor Hu Yuanzhen from the same school.
Ma Deyong, professor at the School of International Studies of Renmin University of China, referenced his research finding that American netizens’ cultural values and world views, such as collectivism, have a much stronger influence on their view of China than their media exposure. He said people preferring collectivist values are more likely to view collectivist countries favorably. Fan Xiaoxian, editor of the Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences), said China’s unique higher education model is playing an important part in improving its image globally, especially in third-world countries and countries with large populations.
Dean Guo concluded the one-day forum by advocating that interdisciplinary research is the new trend in media and communication research and is key to increasing China’s self-confidence in its academic achievements and to fueling academic innovation.
Scholars and experts during the conference.
The forum, titled the Fourth International Forum on China’s Image and Global Communication, was organized by SISU in association with The Paper and Global Times Online and co-sponsored by the Chinese Collegial Association for Visual Art’s International Communication Committee for Visual Art, and co-hosted by SISU’s School of Journalism and Communication and Center for Global Public Opinion of China.
Photos by Fan Xuehan, Zheng Chuang
Editor: Lin Yan
