THE WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE AS A MEDIATED DISASTER IN CHINA: HOW THE MEDIA REPRESENTED AND RECONSTRUCTED THE DISASTER

Abstract

This thesis reads the Wenchuan Earthquake as a mediated disaster to explore the media-society dynamic of China. It takes the multiple-media reality as a starting point to analyse representations of this earthquake in different media, including televisions and newspapers, the Internet, cell phones, and museums. A wide range of media texts is chosen to include distinct but interconnected aspects and stages of the disaster relief and reconstruction. Through textual analyses of these media texts, the thesis first shows how the media was central to the national mobilization and collective memory through managing the distance between spectators and sufferers in the Chinese contemporary society. Then this thesis combines textual analysis and ethnography to problematize the mediation-induced action as well as its effects on sufferers and disaster areas. The mediated visibility of this disaster could effectively connect the affected population with a larger society but also disintegrate local communities.