This study explored the relationship between Chinese national identity and media framing and priming effect by combining the two paradigms, the literature of group identity and the discourses of media cognitive effect. Extending social identity theory (Tajfel, 1981), self-categorization theory (Turner, et al., 1987) and subjective group dynamics theory (Marques, Paez, & Abrams, 1998), the current study drew the distinction between descriptive (cognitive/perceptual) and prescriptive (affective/subjective) fit of the social norms that contributed to social identity. After deliberating the macro concept (the ascribed vs. acquired) of a national identity (Westle, 2014), as well as the social, political, economic and cultural conditions in China, the structure of Chinese national identity (CNI) were delineated by three content-based categories: the meta-structure of the ethnic-cultural (MEC), the flexible ethnic-cultural (FEC), and the civic-institutional (CI) component, with each of which possessed the dichotomy of psychological dimension. The 3×2 matrix of Chinese national identity was hypothesized to have an impact, with structural variation, on evaluative judgments of alternative media frames of stories involving international disputes in China. To maximize internal and external validity, the empirical data had been collected through an online survey experiment with a sample size of 738. The theoretically argued relationship between the CNI, media framing, and the evaluative judgment was in accordance with the results derived from a series structural equation modeling analyses.

Netflix is currently the world's largest subscription-based streaming platform, with 221.8 million subscribers worldwide (Maglio, 2022). Part of Netflix's enormous global appeal is its Netflix Original brand of films and TV shows - content it produces specifically for broadcast on its streaming platform. To make its content accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, Netflix subcontracts the creation of closed captioning to vendors, instructing them to follow the Timed Text Style Guide (TTSG), which it makes freely available online. My study examines how closed captions for Netflix Original content endeavour to make audiovisual content accessible to deaf audiences, and I demonstrate how the platonic ideal of "equal access" is out of reach due to the limitations of timed text. The objective of my study is to highlight and critique the transformations of meaning that occur when captions translate sound and spoken dialogue into timed text. Drawing on D'Acci's circuit model of media studies (2004) my thesis links the sociohistorical conditions from which captioning techniques and technologies were developed, the conditions of caption production, and the way in which the needs of deaf audiences are articulated in the TTSG. I explore how these three forces affect the content of closed captions. To this end, I engage in a close reading of the TTSG and a selection of closed captions for Netflix Original series and films, borrowing from Berman's (2000) theories regarding the deforming tendencies of translation to describe the changes that result from the intralingual and intersemiotic translation involved in captioning (Jakobson, 2004). My study is informed and inspired by my personal experience as a professional captioner.