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Article
Affiliation(s)

Shanghai University for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

ABSTRACT

Mass media has become an important platform for countries to connect with the outside world and exchange information. However, due to the differences in values, beliefs, and conventions of each country, misunderstandings are likely to occur in the processes of reading, translation, and communication. Catastrophic news, as an indispensable part of news reporting, is worth studying, especially the differences in this kind of news between China and American, to find out the cultural reasons leading to inconsistencies. This study selects some of the disaster reports in People’s Daily and Washington Post to examine what are reported and how they are reported, and then uses Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural Dimension to explore the cultural values reflected in the different features of Chinese and American catastrophic news. The results show that China and the US are quiet different in power distance, collectivism or individualism, and uncertainty avoidance.

KEYWORDS

disaster reports, cultural differences, Hofstede’s Theory of Cultural Dimension

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References

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