Media Relations and Aggressive Questioning

The relationship between Chinese officials and foreign reporters based in China had been very tense, but the Chinese government has recently begun to appreciate the importance of soft power in improving its image overseas. The Chinese government has enhanced its international media relations efforts systematically over the past decade. However, no previous studies examined this interplay in a quantitative and systematic fashion, and analyzed the extent to which such efforts have paid off. To fill the gap in the literature, this study uses news conferences as a context to examine their interplay and compare it with the ensuing news coverage. This study is innovative in its methodology by content analyzing their verbal exchanges recorded in the scripts of the news conferences. The results suggest that foreign reporters’ predetermined agenda does influence the valence of news coverage of the Chinese government, but the association becomes weak when Chinese officials are more open.