The Construction of China’s National Image under the COVID-19 Epidemic by the American News Media

As the coronavirus presents a serious challenge to the international public opinion towards China, more recent attention has focused on China’s national image under the Covid-19 outlined by the Chinese and Western media. This paper aims to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to investigate the construction of China’s national image under the Covid-19 epidemic by The New York Times and analyze the social power and ideologies behind the reports. Using the analytical framework of DHA, we find that the American mainstream media seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China to promote Trump government’s “America First” doctrine by politicizing the epidemic and stigmatizing and smearing China. China has borne the brunt of the hostility and attack from the negative public opinion across the globe.