Audiences, in the context of new media, usually value communication in a perceptual and story-telling way. Photo shows that on the second day of the second lunar month, tens of thousands of citizens and tourists in Sanya, Hainan Province, worship the dragon king of the South China Sea, praying for good harvest.

 

China’s contest with Japan in the battleground of public opinion is a focal point of world attention. On the surface, the Diaoyu Islands and Yasukuni Shrine disputes are driving this antagonism, but the underlying reason is the shift in the balance of power now that the Chinese economy has overtaken that of Japan.

Currently, new media has a profound impact on global public opinion. For China, new perspectives need to be brought to public opinion on Japan, particularly in the context of the new status quo of power and new media.

In the context of new media, the increasingly powerful voices of ordinary people are vital to the new forms of international communication.
 

It is indisputable that the grassroots elements of public opinion are worthy of attention. Since World War II, many American cultural projects have been launched in Japan under the auspices of the US government and the US Embassy. But the US side emphasizes that the purpose of cultural communication has nothing to do with government policy, but rather it is aimed at ordinary people.

In the era of new media, the model of public opinion in which the agenda comes down from on high has been weakened. Disordered and extreme voices of ordinary people tend to be more influential. For example, the “grumbles” of Chinese Internet users have become an index that Japanese media use to observe the emotions of Chinese citizens.
 

For the new media, much weight should be attached to global public opinion. Audiences, in the context of new media, usually value communication in an engaging, narrative format. Whether the news content is substantial, whether the players on the battlefield of information are persuasive, and whether the strategy adopted is appropriate are all directly related to whether a country can take a proactive stance in politics, diplomacy and strategy. The new media is a platform in which big data can be valued and exploited to a larger extent. In the arena of international communication, the status quo of China’s application of new media, explicitly, has great potential to improve.
 

In regard to public opinion on Japan, the following step could be taken.
 

China should change its approach to Japan from a bifurcated to a multifaceted one. In the past, the bifurcated approach toward Japan played a significant role. During the War of Resistance against Japan, the Communist Party of China adopted the approach by distinguishing between Japanese militarists and the common people, which was effective in demoralizing the Japanese troops.
 

In the new era, China has continued to argue that the real saboteurs of China-Japan relations are a small handful of conservative forces and individual politicians, while common Japanese people are vigorous supporters of the bilateral friendship.The bifurcated approach remains the cornerstone of China’s policy toward Japan.
 

Today’s Japanese society is undergoing profound transformation. Simply taking the bifurcated approach, apparently, is far from sufficient to resolve bilateral issues. It is thus necessary to scientifically investigate the public opinion of Japan, based on the result of which, the approach taken toward Japan could gradually transition from the bifurcated approach to a multiple one.
 

Dispelling the misperception that “big powers seek hegemony” is also important. In addition to GDP, the military power and global influence of China are also rapidly rising. Many overseas people and media wrongfully believe that China will follow the path of other countries and seek hegemony as it grows in size. And on the Diaoyu Islands disputes between China and Japan and the South China Sea disputes between China and Vietnam, Japanese media took advantage of the hype, smearing China as outrageous and overbearing.
 

To react to the aforementioned distortion, China needs to not only inform the global public of its stance but also familiarize them with and persuade them of the cause, reason and evidence for such a stance. This calls for active attempts to reason with and persuade the global public.

 

Zhao Xinli and Huang Shengmin are from the School of Advertising at the Communication University of China.