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This work explores China's African public relations and image‐building effort, focusing on Nigeria. Thus, the paper's purpose is twofold: first, to investigate whether China's conduct of public diplomacy through its soft power resource—development assistance—has effectively shaped positive Nigerian public perception of China, and second, to determine the media's role in advancing China's public diplomacy in Nigeria. Specifically, it explores the interaction of economic development assistance, media, and public relations. I do this by comparing China's foreign direct investment (FDI) in Nigeria (2010–2019) with the public's perception of the FDI's influence on the Nigerian economy (2016 and 2020) and the media's role in shaping public support toward the investments. Utilizing a range of datasets, I find that Chinese economic investment alone is insufficient to substantially shape positive Nigerian public perception of China. Within a framework of mediated public diplomacy, I demonstrate that the Chinese image‐building effort in Nigeria would likely enhance when the country links economic investments with public relations to make the investments more visible through effective media representation. Related Articles: Ayhan, Kadir Jun, and Nancy Snow. 2021. "Introduction to the Special Issue—Global Korea Scholarship: Empirical Evaluation of a Non‐Western Scholarship Program from a Public Diplomacy Perspective." Politics & Policy 49(6): 1282–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12440. Hodzi, Obert, and John H. S. Åberg. 2020. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Strategic Deployment of the China Model in Africa." Politics & Policy 48(5): 804–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12378. Huijgh, Ellen. 2017. "Indonesia's 'Intermestic' Public Diplomacy: Features and Future." Politics & Policy 45(5): 762–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12221. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Nigeria to explore the interplay of China's economic investments and the media as image-building instruments of Nigerians' perception of China. Thus, the purpose is to investigate whether China's development assistance has shaped the desired outcome—Nigerian public support of China—and to explore the media's role in this process. How effective are China's economic and infrastructural investments as strategies for influencing a positive public image in Nigeria? How can visibility—the amount of media coverage and exposure—of China's investments in Nigeria shape favourable Nigerian public support? Utilising a range of datasets and a longitudinal analysis, I find that Chinese investments may improve Nigeria's economic growth and people's standard of living, but are insufficient to build a positive public image of China. However, China could create a long-lasting favourable public image from its investments if the programmes were supported with effective media representation that made them more visible through the public's news sources. I employed a qualitative research technique and rested the theoretical argument on mediated public diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]