What's my image in your reports : rediscussing objectivity in the international news : the case of the New York Times and the People's Daily

Abstract

This is a 15-day research study aimed at showing how two newspapers, the New York Times and the People’s Daily, report on issues relating to each other countries i.e. The United States and China respectively. It is conducted in the comparative and analysis manner with the aim of finding out whether the two newspapers reported each other’s countries objectively. The quantitative and qualitative methods demonstrate that the problems related to objectivity that are reflected in the two newspapers are also connected to quantity and quality. This is because while reporting about Chinese issues, the New York Times had a total percentage of 67 of all its news items having a negative attitude. While reporting on the issues of the United States, the People’s Daily had more news items with a “superficial” neutral attitude. As a result, in certain aspects, the two elite newspapers violate the principle of objectivity.

The differences between the two newspapers, such as the ownership, their writing style, and economy, culture and foreign policy, are the factors that resulted in the problems of the two newspapers that were reflected in this study. Nevertheless, the international integration has evolved into an unstoppable tendency, expanding from the economic field, slowly into the political and cultural field among different countries around the world. Objective international coverage could be the bridge that could connect countries and promote mutual understanding between them. That will further contribute to the peace and stability of the whole world. And that also consists one of the motivations of this study.