China in the media, 12
The broad trends within China coverage in Canadian media, as demonstrated by the Globe, speak to the way the media helps to construct national identity, and subsequently place the nation within an international realm.
Benedict Anderson indicates that print media is one of the key elements in the development of national consciousness.¹ By drawing citizens together, distributing uniform knowledge, and relying heavily upon national categorizations, the media helps to create imagined communities such as Canada.
Key to this task in present-day media - which operates in the late nationalist era - is the national framework used in reportage. News is either regional, national or international. Stories that happen outside of Canada are categorized by national origin. Thus, anything occurring within China is by definition both international and Chinese. This framework seems natural to contemporary readers, and enforces national categorizations and enhances international differences. More importantly for a study of Chinese coverage, this national framework clearly defines China as an other.
The Chinese other is not only a different country, it is the key state in a different - some would say competing - civilization. On top of a national framework the media often utilizes a civilizational framework when it speaks of the "Islamic world" or "European countries" or "Asia" as some sort of distinct unified entity. While it is doubtful that many reporters have internalized Huntington's Clash of Civilization's thesis and are actively pitting civilizations against one another, a civilizational framework has similar end results as a national framework. It creates a distinct 'us' and a distinct 'them.'² China coverage in Canada often displays this civilizational framework. It speaks of an impending rise of Asia led by both China and Japan. More nuance - as always - and a recognition that the national and civilizational frameworks are necessary evils would help the media to present a less divisive, more enlightening view of China and other foreign regions.
1 Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (New York: Verso, 1991), p. 43.
2 Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, (London: Simon & Schuster, 1996).