People's Daily,China and Japan: A narrative analysis

Abstract

This article is a narrative analysis of the People's Daily's coverage of Sino-Japanese relationship since 1978. The point of departure for this article is that propaganda in China can be better understood in the context of Chinese foreign policies news. It argues that criticism of Chinese media needs to avoid a reductionist approach of quantitative content analysis. Studying propaganda as narrative forms and strategies rather than as bias and distortions allows us to delve deeper into the processes by which events are transformed into politically potent symbols.