Decoding Contradictory Images: The Discursive Construction of Chinese National Oil Companies in Africa in African Media Coverage

The traditional definition of corporate image as being unitary, stable and immutable has been replaced by the understanding that corporate image is invested with more complex and dynamic features and is constructed differently in different situations. This study examines how corporate images of Chinese national oil companies (NOCs) in Africa are discursively constructed in 86 All Africa news texts from a socio-cognitive perspective. The findings show that four images are constructed: contributors to host nations’ development, bearers of social responsibility in local communities, causes of socio-environmental harm in project execution, and unethical actors in cross-border business. These images are constructed through specific language patterns and diverse linguistic devices such as material processes, high-frequency co-occurrence, mood adjuncts, etc. The findings also reveal that the diversity and complexity of the images of Chinese NOCs in Africa is the outcome of the China–Africa relationship as well as the local cultural and sociopolitical contexts and the ideological underpinnings.