A Study on the Video Communication Strategies of the “China-Russia Headlines” Account on VK Platform from the Perspective of Framing Theory

Abstract

As the global landscape undergoes profound changes, it is urgent to reconstruct the international communication structure. In recent years, China-Russia relations have continued to improve, and the need to enhance the cultural export mechanism has become increasingly apparent. VKontakte, a major Russian local social media platform, plays a significant role in communication with Russian audiences. This study examines the top VK account China-Russia Headlines (CRH) and applies Zang’s three-tier framing theory to analyze its communication strategies. The findings reveal that the framing features include diverse subjects, authoritative sources, and a mainstream narrative tone at the macro level; the narratives tend to be conservative, structurally uniform, and short in length at the meso level; the discourse is rhetorically rich with prominent Chinese cultural symbols at the micro level. However, the account still faces challenges such as significant variations in view counts and limited audience interaction. To enhance the efficacy of China’s international communication, this study proposes prioritizing audience-relevant content, integrating multidisciplinary themes, diversifying presentation formats, and fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration.