Chen Xinyi Huang Rihan: Yunnan elephants move north: Warm ecological protection stories help build a national image
Author: Xinyi Chen, Research Assistant, Research Assistant, Center for Dialogue of World Civilizations, Huaqiao University; Huang Rihan, Director of the Research Center for Dialogue of World Civilizations, Huaqiao University
Source: World Knowledge, No. 19, 2021; World Knowledge
WeChat platform editor: Zhou Yue
At the end of May 2021, 16 elephants from Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, moved all the way north, and on the way, a photo of them lying down and sleeping together detonated public opinion at home and abroad, and this group of cute elephants "circled" countless "circles" around the world, and the Western media that are usually keen to demonize China have also tracked and reported the whereabouts of the elephant herd, facing up to China's efforts in ecological and environmental protection issues, and truthfully introducing the specific measures taken by the Chinese government in the process of protecting the elephant herd and the safety of residents. Why has an occasional natural event become a successful case of "telling the Chinese story well"?
Since May 2021, a herd of elephants from xishuangbanna national reserve has traveled north through forests, pastures and villages where people live. The phenomenon of elephant migration has aroused the attention of Chinese and foreign media.
Based on the image of the object, explore common emotions
"Object image" refers to the "objective reality" of a country's political, economic, cultural and other material and spiritual levels, and is an objective existence in the media mirror. Whether it is the Chinese government's measures to deal with the relationship between man and nature, the great scenery of the southwest or the friendly and benevolent people, these are objective "object images" and the basis for shaping the image of the country; the media acts as channels and mirrors between the two, conditionally reflecting the "object image" to foreign people and helping them form an impression and cognition of China, that is, "identity image". We must pay attention to the importance of the "object image" as a fundamental element.
"Natural Events". This elephant migration, both in scope and in number, exceeded the norm, and was a natural event. The wild Asian elephants in Yunnan have grown by up to 52% in 40 years, which is in line with the current issues of biodiversity conservation in global environmental governance, and shows the practical results of biodiversity conservation, which can cross the political barriers and get rid of the shackles of ideology, and arouse global concern and discussion. In early August, these Asian elephants slowly disappeared into the jungle on the south bank of the Yuan River in Yunnan. For more than two months, global media and netizens have been "chasing" the whereabouts of elephant herds, constantly watching and paying attention to ecological issues such as "why elephants migrate" and "how to deal with the harmonious coexistence of people and nature", which have also focused global attention on China's response to this incident.
"Occasional Events". Such an accidental event cannot be planned in advance, and therefore the most intuitive test of China's first response from the government to the people to deal with emergencies. China's positive and warm response from top to bottom presents the most authentic attitude and behavior of people and elephants, which is the most touching place.
"A metaphor for friendliness and peace". "Elephant" is like "panda", with a "metaphor" of friendship and peace. Their images are already loved by people, and on the way north, they lie down and sleep en masse, and they break into the farmhouse to steal drinks, which makes people can't help but be amused; the interaction between the mother elephant and the baby elephant also reminds people of "motherly love" and "family affection", which will unconsciously make people empathize with this group of elephants.
Participate in agenda setting and grasp the media image
For a long time, the Western media-led "he plastic" is full of prejudice and misreading of China, resulting in the formation of "inherent prejudices" about China among the people of other countries. In this incident, the domestic media continued to track the elephant herd, deeply analyzed the main body of the national image shaping such as the government, the city, and the public, combined with a large number of first-hand exclusive pictures and videos, actively participated in the agenda setting, and did a good job in the "self-shaping" of China's national image.
Truthfully report on government initiatives and show a responsible and responsible image of the government. The media reviewed the local government's long-term animal protection measures and followed up the feedback in real time: the local command center was set up to closely track and monitor the activities of the elephant herd, coordinate human and material resources to ensure the safety of the local people and the elephants; the government cooperated with insurance companies to fully compensate the local people for the economic losses caused by the migration of the elephant herd; the daily notification of the migration of the elephant herd, and the disclosure of the material allocation and evacuation data of the day.
Flexibly report on city information and present a beautiful and rich city image. While providing information on chasing "elephants", the media link Yunnan's economic development, history and humanities, etc., show the good mountains and rivers of Yunnan, build the image of Yunnan's beautiful and hospitable city, and further build Yunnan's good reputation while enhancing China's national image.
Focus on the vivid image of the people and show the civilized and friendly national quality. Chinese's touching act of loving elephants and protecting elephants has also been reported: farmers whose crops have been chewed by elephants and trampled on are worried that the elephants will not have enough to eat; enthusiastic people are worried that the elephants will not adapt to the new environment, and according to the reminders of experts, they will give the elephants food and guide the way... Netizens around the world also pay close attention to the dynamics of elephants, participate in the discussion through the way of "making stems" and "telling paragraphs", and show the cheerful and enthusiastic national character of the Chinese people in network interaction.
The national image of "self-plasticization" and the self-set issues are also the original materials for the media of other countries to carry out "other plastic". Foreign media reports quoted a large number of Chinese media information and audio-visual materials, China's elephant protection work, the economic losses caused by elephant migration, the optimistic reaction of the people whose production and life were affected by elephant migration, the interviews of domestic professional scholars and other words were truthfully relayed, and even some Western media also quoted the "paragraphs" of Chinese netizens in the report, And China gently dissolved the "human-elephant conflict" and paid attention to the protection of Asian elephant populations became the consensus of most foreign media reports.
Diversified means of communication, updating narrative skills
With the continuous development of information technology, the emergence of new media, the popularity of new communication methods, the communication mode of the short video era has broken the bottleneck of knowledge dissemination in the past, everyone has a microphone, can participate in the communication, smooth the channel of cross-cultural communication, so that the story of the elephant in Yunnan instantly became popular all over the world.
It is inseparable from the role of short videos. Both individuals and the media can take videos of elephant herds and quickly share them on the Internet. The video of just tens of seconds vividly shows the "cuteness" of elephants and the beautiful scenery of Yunnan, which makes people deeply immersed in it and willing to take the initiative to spread. In addition, live streaming also plays an important role. The media and government affairs departments jointly integrated the aerial pictures provided by Yunnan Forest Fire Protection to launch a multi-camera, no editing, no time difference of the elephant group dynamic live broadcast, which also caused many netizens at home and abroad to watch and interact, and many Internet celebrities also used their own lenses to live broadcast to share the elephant's "trip".
The media pays attention to the micro-level narrative and uses the reporting of "people" to shape the image of the country. The members of the monitoring team of the northward elephant herd and the villagers who saw the elephants for the first time all took the microphone and told the daily life of the Yunnan people and the elephants in simple and plain words. At the same time, the image of the government is also reported in a vivid and lively tone, and the image of the amiable government and the image of the kind people have been clearly and comprehensively expressed.
The media makes good use of "anthropomorphic" strategies to make audiences emotionally resonate with elephants. Words such as "uprooted from home" and "north drift" are used to describe the migration phenomenon of elephants, and "fancy exercises" and "spoiled" are the daily life of naughty baby elephants, and the use of these words makes elephants closer to humans.
The media also plays the role of science popularizers: publish relevant serious reports to guide the public not to look at the elephant northward migration incident with a hunting mentality; carry out a series of reports, popularizers encounter how to ensure the safety of life and why elephants migrate, etc.; take the initiative to set up topics to guide the topic to the current situation of China's ecological civilization construction behind the northward migration of elephants.
For international communication, sometimes we often use too much force, but we can't find the cause and direction, but this Yunnan elephant northward migration incident provides a new perspective. By digging up common topics, Chinese media and netizens have actively set agendas, tracked and reported with diversified and three-dimensional communication means, and shown the world a credible, lovely and respectable image of a big country with a small view.
*Disclaimer: This article only represents the personal views of the author and does not represent the position of this official account
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