The Media Image Construction of Chinese Female Athletes on the Weibo Platform from the Perspective of Self-shaping and Other-shaping

Abstract: The portrayal of public figures, especially female athletes, has undergone quite a bit of transformation due to social media and internet news platforms growing rapidly over the past years. This paper mainly analyzes the Weibo image construction of female Chinese athletes from the two perspectives: self-shaping and other-shaping. Three famous athletes are chosen for this study: Zhang Yufei, Wu Yanni, and Li Wenwen, who have each gained more than a million followers on Weibo. By doing text analysis and case studies, the focus here is placed on how athletes manage their public images and also how media and public reactions shape those images. The findings talk about the main reasons why self-shaping images and other-shaping images show differences, including things like cultural influence and gender roles, as well as the fewer female examples available in sports. This paper may offer some references for people who need to maintain their images in public.