Media Effect

This research study aims at investigating or ascertaining whether the concept of soft power creates a new approach towards analyzing a rising power. The research study seeks to explain why the term soft power has got great attention among the media, the scholars and the general public since it was coined in 1990 by the Harvard Professor, Joseph Nye. Empirical connections between the rise of China and empirical connections are established through the discussion of soft power according to the Chinese idea. China's rise to a status quo and its wielding of soft power as a result of its adoption of a soft power based global strategy are also discussed in this research study. Soft power resources are described as being assets which produce attraction that rests on the culture, political values and foreign policies as primary resources. For more than two millennia, the soft power idea has been comprehensively utilized and constituently been advocated by ancient Chinese rulers. The soft power development by China is therefore very critical especially in its dream of becoming a great power since its power resources are far behind those of the United States (Ding, 2010, p.2).

Media can change people's perception because it helps in shifting people's beliefs and concerns. The mass media can change people's perception since it is a vital cultural phenomenon which all people must understand in order to be informed about the cognitive processes but not to be influenced by it. The dramatic advances in transport and mass communication during the past 50 years have created a global village in a mass society in which anything occurring anywhere in the world can be instantly or quickly be known everywhere. Media can change a people's perception through provision of overwhelming information and through sorting it out. People's perception is changed by media because the emotional arousal which is caused by media normally drives people's attention which in turn drives conscious behavior and learning. Most media programmers will therefore present to the people content which will emotionally arouse them and therefore affecting their perception (Sylwester, 2001, p.3).

The Framing analysis and the Framing theory present a broad theological approach in which most analysts have used in news, communication studies, social movements, politics and other applications. The Framing Theory has over the years, steadily developed as a means of understanding how the media is capable of influencing people perceptions concerning the social world. The major basis of the Framing Theory is based on the fact that the media normally places its attention on some events and then puts them within a field or range of meaning. The Framing Theory is sued by the media to draw people attention concerning some specific topics as well as deciding where the public thinks about (Simpson, et al, 2008, p.54).

The Frame in this perspective therefore means the way in which the media arrange and present issues and events they cover, and how the public interprets what they have been provided with. Frames therefore influence how the people perceive the news and it is such a kind of agenda setting that not only tells about how to think about the news but also what to think about. It is also through the Framing theory that it can be discovered that the major effect of media is to set agenda by telling people what not to think but telling them what to think about (Simpson, et al, 2008, p.54).