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identification of the readers with the cast in the stones, either for political or social purposes. The only question is whether these could really have integrative impact on the readers.
Face And News Reporting
The processes of "deciding what's news" go on and on as daily routines in the newsrooms of the People's Daily. It is interesting to see how editors and reporters have come up with pictures of the athletes and their country in the concern of face, how collective face(s) have been sprinkled in news reports or editorials supposed to cover the four big events. However, whether this has been the result of conscious or subconscious efforts of the news makers remains unknown and without the scope of the present study. Nevertheless, this paper sheds light upon one aspect of news making: that of stereotyping in international news reporting.
Many studies have previously contrasted stereotypes of different countries by a single newspaper or generally by the press in a country, Stagner and Rossbacher's studies are good examples. In the former, the images of the USA and USSR are compared and the author found two different sets of images each of special characteristics. In the latter, Rossbacher examined the style of Soviet papers and found that it was of an excessive enthusiasm by using solemn words and hyperbolas. But for the "enemy", it was of an “accusatory-derogatory" flavour, displaying hostility to the West.
In this paper, the image of China in the press looked good. It was a country with honour, a government with influence, her strength was seen in the good performance of her athletes, the People's Daily said. If it could not be concluded whether these were stereotypes or not and whether these stereotypes remained to be so in the press in these countries, it could be safely said that these stereotypes or images presented by the press were pro-state if not pro-government. This seemed to coincide with previous studies.
In a research project quoted by Edelstein, newspapers from East and West Germany were compared. It was found that although 'the emphasis in the news in the West sample was the reverse of that in the East sample, similar results were found in favourableness toward their own and unfavourableness about other systems' (Edelstein, 1982: 85). In works concerning the media coverage of sports, the results are also alike. Only