Is State (NATA) Owned Media Influencing Information about Athletic Training?

How closely are the National Athletic Trainers'​ Association organizational operations to the Chinese state-owned media in national branding attempts?

A study was conducted on China's attempt to create national brand recognition during a Chinese hosted mega soccer tournament to achieve political gains. The goal was to establish stakeholder relationship management by using social media to shape the minds and behaviors of receivers to create an authentic national brand identity.

The main aim of this study is to examine stakeholder engagement on social media in national branding and explore the implication for the brand meaning to the country of China.

Engagement is defined as positive affectivity, affective commitment and empowerment in a relationship between two parties.

Through the limited interaction of the Chinese state-owned media platforms, it created barriers of implementation of authentic stakeholder engagement. There was neglect that limited the creation of grassroot public identity in relation to their home country during the tournament. The attempt to minimize the engagement to the basic level (public communication) rather than driving to the advanced level (public participation) suggests the pro-government stakeholders had no obvious desire to cultivate an inclusive and collaborative online community.

Social media engagement is conducive towards building trust and commitment - the contributors to the quality of brand relationships with stakeholders. The success of that is dependent on the role of power distribution in shaping the relationship between social media users and the organization that sends out the messages.

Chinese state-owned media is viewed as the mouthpiece of the political party and credibility is the concern, users can generate a lower level of trust towards their messages and their digital presence.

The one-way communication mode could make the narrative of the Chinese brand appear unified but less representative of the people. It creates tension with the oversight of "censorship." This is in conflict with the nature of authentic stakeholder engagement, which requires two-way communication to facilitate ongoing conversations between a brand and stakeholders.

The media was looking to advance the Chinese governance via projecting soccer as an entertainment activity and downplaying the sport as a value-building entity through participation.

Li, X., Feng, J. Empowerment or disempowerment: Exploring stakeholder engagement in nation branding through a mixed method approach to social network analysis. Public Relations Review. 2021:47(3)

Shelby 8/2024