对比《白宫博客》与《华盛顿邮报》对奥巴马的形象呈现-新闻学专业论文.docxVIP

Abstract Generally speaking, politicians seldom communicate with the publics directly, and their (public) image is often presented by the mass media. Before the widely use of internet, politicians image is presented by the traditional media, such as TV, newspapers, movies, etc. As far as the Western democracies, the politicians image is often presented passively. Journalists and editors usually choose themes and angles as requested, setting the issues to do reports about the politician. However, with the development of new media, such as blogs, pod-casts and social medias, more and more politicians start to focus on the area of internet. They use the new media to distribute political information and to promote their policies, actively presenting their public image. The US president Barack Obama is a typical politician as an example of that kind. Due to the coexistence of traditional media and new media, on one hand, Obamas public image is passively presented by the traditional media as his important political position. On the other hand, Obama and his aides also have the right to use the new media to formed his self-image. This article will take president Obama as an example, to explore the difference of US presidents image which is presented in U.S. government blog and U.S. mainstream newspaper. The White House Blog and The Washington Post will be chosen as the research objects. The content analysis will be chosen as the research method. 115 articles from The White House Blog and 319 articles from The Washington Post which were published during the past period of Obamas presidency will be selected as the research samples, and the total sample size is 434. According to the result of the research, The White House Blog mainly use the platform as a stage of showing president Obamas social ability. From The White House Blog, we see a picture Obama always visits home and abroad. But The Washington Post often show Obamas performance on dealing with political and econom