Universities and Media: New Strategies to Engage Local Chinese Communities

The growing affluence of China’s economy and the premium attached to quality education within its culture has seen students from China become one of the largest groups of international students enrolling in European schools and institutes of higher education. Despite the rising numbers of these students in France, their experience in the country is not so well researched. Little is known about what sources of information they rely on; whether, as students coming from a country with non-transparent access to information, their views and media habits are challenged, transformed, or consolidated during their overseas experience; and whether they consider French media as a trust-worthy source to expand their knowledge on China or an instrument of Western propaganda. Building on a research on Chinese students in Australia conducted in Melbourne in 2016/2017 (Astarita et al, 2019), this paper interrogates the reasons why Chinese international students, despite the impact of their international experience, prefer Chinese media sources especially when looking for information about China. Where does the broad scepticism about the reliability of foreign media in reporting Chinese news come from? What do students mean when they refer to an “alleged incapacity of foreign media to understand what is good for China”? The conclusion proposes strategies to address the perceived biases and offers advice to foreign media on how to better engage Chinese international students’ communities.