Cognitive perception of Chinese audience on media image of foreign media

Since China entered the WTO in 2002, many international media groups have gradually entered China’s media market in the fields ranging from television, films, music soundtrack to theme parks, network games and electronic business. However, it is difficult for foreign media to expand its scale in China. Even some multinational media groups find it difficult to make profits from the Chinese media market.

For these reasons, the primary concern of the study is the cognitive perception of Chinese audience on foreign media, assuming that another factor that contributes to the lack of profitability of these media groups, the tight regulation of media policies by Chinese government is not to be changed around in any foreseeable future. It is important for foreign media to learn about how their media images can be effectively conveyed to Chinese audience by grabbing and retaining the attention of Chinese audience, in order to further exert their existing influence. However, even with the deepening globalization and advances in the development of international media, there is relatively a lack of research on the cognitive perception of international media by Chinese audience.

The research aims to examine the cognitive perception on media images of foreign media from the receiving end, namely, Chinese audiences, to measure the conceptual constructs of media effects and cognitive perception and three dimensions (media communication capacity / media credibility / media popularity) under the two constructs. Moreover, the key factors exerting influence on the cognitive perception of foreign media by Chinese audience will also be further elaborated in an exploratory manner in the research.

Quantitative methods with surveys will be utilized to implement the research. Four cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be chosen as the target cities for sampling. However, only university students majoring in media and communication with relatively good understanding and sound knowledge of communication and media studies will be selected as respondents. The core issues of the research are listed as follows:

1. What are the images of foreign media conveyed to Chinese audience? Is there any existing alienation among Chinese audience in their cognitive perception towards foreign media?

2. What are the factors that exert influence on the cognitive perception of foreign media among Chinese audience?

3. What measure can foreign media take to cater to the cognitive needs of Chinese audience to maximize its media effects? The purpose of the research is to further understand the cognitive perception of Chinese audience on international media. Besides, the study also endeavors to explore appropriate communicative means for foreign media corporations to further develop in the mainland China.

The findings of this research are also expected to supply empirical data for the ‘Media Image’ studies. It is worth noting that the practical significance of the study lies in its efforts to magnify the communicative effects of foreign media in China and further develop international communication theories by means of making an exploration into the media images of foreign media conveyed to Chinese audience.