Exploring China’s Image through News Coverage of Sports Events from a Media Framing Perspective: Taking Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games as an Example<sup>*</sup>

Abstract

With the aim of investigating China's image in relation to a sporting event, this study employs media frames as a technique of analysis to investigate how the Chinese media covered the Hangzhou Asian Games. Based on corpus analysis and content analysis, it was found that eight frames, such as the opening and closing ceremonies, event organization, sporting agenda, the spirit of the Asian Games, Hangzhou Asian Games in the eyes of different people, the host city, new technologies in the Hangzhou Asian Games, and environmental protection in the Hangzhou Asian Games were identified; and images of a country upholding sportsmanship and unity, a country with long history and profound culture, a country empowered by modernization and cutting-edge technologies, a country devoted to sustainability of humankind were established based on the reports. This study offers implications for media framing theory application and image construction strategies in a changing global landscape.