Mass Media and Crisis Communication in China

Abstract

Crisis communication has been an important area of investigation in international politics The examination of reactions of China's mass media to international conflict will help political scientists and China specialists understand the reliability of using the mass media to infer Peking's foreign policy The major purpose of this research is to examine two general hy potheses in the context of the reactive behavior of the mass media in China in the prewar crisis of the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict The first hypothesis is that the more information politically interested people in two or more states have about each other, the more likely these states are to resolve their differences without violence. The second hypothesis is that the more accurately and dispassionately communication is transmitted to people of different nations, the more likely their leaders are to find ways of resolving conflicts peacefully In order to investigate these two hypotheses, the factor or factors affecting the increase of publicity and hostility reflected in China's mass media will be examined