Research Essay: Portrayal of China in Western Media

Portrayal of China in Western Media

1. Media formats: many to cover

2. East vs. West; China and West

3. Portrayals, representations, depictions

Media and Communication Studies

• Explore the ways that the various media of communication have an impact on individuals and societies. • One of the key aspects to explore

is media representation.

There are several approaches to the study of media in this way

• For instance, given that the media foster the creation of communities (by enabling belonging through a shared cultural background) we may as well ask how the media sustain these communities.

Ways in which the Media foster Community (Silverstone)

The Media Allow As in

Expression Community building & reflecting, as in cinema, offering a cultural framework for collective identification

Refraction The media also allow a definition of social limits, by showing some transgression of these. Examples: Some rituals, talk shows. These depend on local associations for their meaning.

Compensation The way diasporas use the media to continue living their cultures abroad

And yet…

• We might as well also ask: do the media have an impact on the kind of community that is created in the first place?

• And if so, how? • Deterministic: • Technological improvement determines social

change • Mutually Constitutive:

• The technical apparatus of the mass media are considered to be constitutive rather than merely incidental to the shaping of contemporary social relations

Social Formations & Media In the West:

Past Capitalist Post-industrial

Political Power Theocratic state Secular state Supranational state

Economic power Feudal economy Capitalist economy Service sector, exchange of info.

Main media of communication

Church, ecclesiastical law, clerical education

Institutions and the rule of law; public schools and newspapers

Satellite TV, international agencies, computarised learning; electronic media

Ideology Religion Nationalism Globalisation

Coercion Holy wars Patriotic Wars Ideological wars?

However, media representation is not always about reality…

• Media produces texts which contain certain meaning and are open for interpretation. • Power • Hegemony (conflict theory) • Colonialism, post-colonialism and Orientalism • See some video clips

Videos – China in the News

Is western-centric media theory applicable in China?

• How China is portrayed in Western media? • Does this tell us something about the power

relationship between the East and the West? • Which China is ‘real’ – again, is it an ontological

question? • Are portrayal of China true or fair? • What are their purposes? • How to respond to such portrayal and

representation?

Is western-centric media theory applicable in China?

• How China is portrayed in Western media? • Does this tell us something about the power

relationship between the East and the West? • Which China is ‘real’ – again, is it an ontological

question? • Are portrayal of China true or fair? • What are their purposes? • How to respond to such portrayal and

representation?

Video: Stuart Hall on Media Representation

Is western-centric media theory applicable in China?

• How China is portrayed in Western media? • Does this tell us something about the power

relationship between the East and the West? • Which China is ‘real’ – again, is it an ontological

question? • Are portrayal of China true or fair? • What are their purposes? • How to respond to such portrayal and

representation?

theory features strongly as…

• Theory is necessary to • understand (identifying concepts or variables) • and explain phenomena (identifying causes and

effects)

• It guides our actions • As a sort of ‘map’

Example: Some theories about the Audience

• The audience is a mass of a-critical dupes (the Frankfurt School) • ‘Effects’ study

• The audience consists of empowered, extremely intelligent and discerning individuals, who use the media for their own creative purposes (neo-liberal theories) • Creative consumer, prosumer, participatory culture • How to respond comes under this – subjectivity and

agency How we’ll approach an audience will depend on which

theory we believe is right (or closer)

Example: Some theories about Representation

• Encoding and decoding (Stuart Hall) • Accept, negotiate and reject • https://www.bilibili.com/video/av10646135?from=searc

h&seid=16648466427499077831 • A short video on Stuart Hall’s key thoughts

• (Social) Semiotics

• Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Media can be studied Media to Write on

Audio-Visual Media Digital and Interactive Media

Throughout the Media: Advertising

Media To Write On • From stone and clay tablets…

…to manuscripts, newspapers and magazines

Audio-visual Media • From Film to Television

Fu Manchu; New Amsterdam EP8

Throughout the Media: Advertising

Digital and Interactive Media • The Internet, new (social) media

And the kinds of societies?

From empires And nations

From global To local networks

Date Topic Focus

27 Feb 0. Orientation & testing systems Test Big blue button (BBB), ICE, Platform

5 Mar 1. Introduction Course structure, learning outcomes, etc

12 Mar 2. History: Eight Centuries: A Timeline of Western Contact with China

Scholarship on China; paradigm(s) in China Studies/Sinology

19 Mar 3. Orientalism in Trans Film, M. Butterfly

Cinema; gender and queer theory Sino-philia and Sino-phobia

26 Mar 4. Eastern Approaches to Media and Communication

Theory, media and communication, cultural difference, Cherishing people from afar

2 April 5. Analysing representation through Journalism and Framing

Beijing Olympics in British mass media theory and methodology

9 April 6. Western reception of Chinese cinema

Cinema; reception study; theory and methodology

16 April 7. Reading week Essay writing

First assignment –Essay due 5 pm, 16th April, 2020

Date Topic Focus

23 April 8. The Age of Sinophilia History continues

30 April 9. European Imperialism and the Rise of Sinophobia

Academia and European expansion US and China Trade War

7 May 10. Guest lecture By Dr Hui Miao on Detective Chinatown 唐人街探案 (to be confirmed)

Film studies, formal analysis, etc

14 May 11. Orientalism in Fiction and Non- fiction (to be confirmed)

Novel and academia; Film: The Painted Veil

21 May 12. Chinoiserie and European appropriation of Chinese visual style

Aesthetics, fashion (clothing) and design Ceramics documentary

28 May 13. Orientalism through Cinema – other Asian images

Film: The Last Samurai

4 June 14. Conclusion Media project due in Week 15

Second assignment – Media Project due

5pm, 4 June, 2020