长期以来美国媒体对中国的报道以负面居多且常存在偏见，其塑造的中国形象也有负面倾向，学者研究认为造成这种现象的原因是中美两国的文化和意识形态差异。在美国媒体涉华报道的研究中，学者曾指出“Communist”一词的使用存在偏见色彩且经常被误用。本研究以《纽约时报》为研究对象，分析其报道中呈现的中国共产党形象。研究考察了1993年到2012年间340篇以中国共产党为主题的报道并对其进行了内容分析和文本分析，总结了20年间中国共产党在《纽约时报》中的大致形象，分析了其报道特点及成因。研究发现《纽约时报》对于中国共产党的报道基本保持平稳增长，但报道量在中国共产党召开重大会议或换届的年份增多，报道主要以长篇深度报道或分析评论为主，涉及政治、经济、社会等多个领域。全篇围绕中国共产党展开的报道并不占大多数，但《纽约时报》比较善于通过其他社会问题的报道间接呈现中国共产党形象。1993至2012年间中国共产党的形象出现了一定变化，但总体来看《纽约时报》对中国共产党的关注重点在于其“内部存在分歧和斗争”，其在中国处于“一党执政”的地位，其“担忧自身执政地位”以及“一切以维持执政地位为目的”。研究认为《纽约时报》对中国共产党的报道存在基于客观事实的呈现，但其对事实的选择体现着美国固有的偏见和意识形态。与此同时，《纽约时报》对中国共产党的报道存在一定“主观想象”的成分，其对中国共产党的一些报道缺乏事实根据，属于作者的主观判断。本研究结合了新闻话语的意识形态属性、“他者”形象的再现和“他者”对国家认同的构建等理论，认为《纽约时报》对中国共产党形象的呈现存在意识形态方面的刻板印象，强调了中国共产党与西方政党不同的“一党执政”地位，强化了其作为“他者”的形象，而这一与美国价值相悖的形象有助于增强美国对自身价值观和文化的认同。

In a long period of time, the US media tend to cover the negative sides of China when reporting the country and their news stories always contain stereotypes toward China. Consequently, the image of China in the US media is always negative that according to some scholars is the result of the US and China’s different culture and ideology. In their studies concerning the US media coverage of China, scholars used to point out that the word “Communist”, while indicating ideological stereotypes, is sometimes misused in those reports.This research investigates the image of the Communist Party of China in The New York Times from 1993 to 2012. With the methodology of both content analysis and textual analysis, the study examines 340 pieces of reports during the 20 years, illustrating the overall image of the Communist Party of China that is presented in the time span and discussing the possible reasons behind such an image.Results show that when there were big events concerning the Party, not the state, there would be more reports about it. The image of the Communist Party of China is more frequently displayed in long stories like in-depth reports, analyses or comments. The image is also frequently presented in indirect ways when the reporters write on other aspects of China.This study finds that the Communist Party of China is portrayed as a party “with inner disputes and conflicts”, a party that “has monopoly on power in China”, a party “whose legitimacy is challenged” and who “is always struggling for survival”.The study refers to the theories concerning news discourse and ideology, the representation of the “others” in media and the relations between the existence of “others” and national identity building. It argues that the reports on the Communist Party of China in The New York Times do reflect some facts that however give place to objective judgments sometimes. Reports emphasize the US and China’s difference on political system and represent China as the “other”, through which they help build a consensus on the value of the US.