The Discursive Representation Of Migrant Workers In The People's Daily (1987-2007)

Since the Chinese economic reform, farmers have started to leave the countryside and hunt for jobs in the city. Migrant workers, as a special product of Chinese social change, have become the indispensable part of the city. However, due to the Chinese dualistic (urban and rural) social structure and household registration system, this special group of people has encountered many problems. In recent years, many theoretical and empirical studies on migrant workers have been done from various perspectives, such as sociology, demography, economics, politics, law, management, journalism, mass communication, education, etc. (刘芳,2005;周大鸣,秦红增,2004), but little work has been done within the field of linguistics. This dissertation, from linguistics perspective, attempts to explore how "migrant workers" are constructed and represented diachronically in Chinese mainstream press, namely the People's Daily, as well as what motivates such representations. More precisely, we mainly address the following interrelated questions in this research:(1) What are the most frequent topics of the news coverage for migrant workers in the People's Daily (1987-2007)? Are there any diachronic variations along with social change?(2) How are migrant workers represented and constructed discursively in the People's Daily (1987-2007)? Are there any differences along with social change?(3) What are the underlying ideologies constructed and transparentised in the People's Daily (1987-2007)?The methodology of this study is embedded in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework pertaining to discourse, social cognition, and society. Due to the lack of existent systematic and workable analytical framework for probing into the above mentioned research questions, it is hoped that, by integrating (critical) discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics, the present study may establish a feasible framework for analyzing the representation of social actors and the embedded ideologies in Chinese discourse. More specifically, the analytical framework is mainly drawn from van Dijk's (1988a,1988b,1991,2001a,2001b,2001c,2006a,2006c) socio-cognitive discourse analysis approach, Johnson and Lakoff (1980,1999) and Lakoff s (1987,1993) cognitive metaphor theory, Fauconnier (1985,1997) and Fauconnier and Turner's (1998a,1998b, 2002) conceptual blending theory and van Leeuwen's (1993b,1995,1996) toolkits for the analysis of discursive representations of social actors and social action in discourse.The corpus of the study is based on the news texts surrounding the subject of migrant workers. The data are retrieved through a keyword search from the online electronic database of the People's Daily from January 1,1987 to December 31,2007, spanning 20 years, consisting of 2076 news texts, which have been divided into two periods:1987-2002 and 2003-2007. This study combines qualitative approach with quantitative approach, hoping to provide a complete description of the representation of migrant workers in Chinese mainstream news media as well as some implications for the Chinese government and media producers.The result of the study demonstrates that the variation of genres and topics of the news coverage, to some extent, reflects the evolvement of society and politics, especially the change of mainstream political ideologies. Compared with the 1987-2002 period, more variety of genres can be found in the 2003-2007 period. Though the majority of the reports are about the living and working status of migrant workers and social aids during these two periods, the negative reports about migrant workers have greatly decreased during the period of 2003 to 2007; instead, the reports show more concerns about their social security, insurance, medicare, and the life and education of their children. The genres and topics of the reports reveal the historical transformation the Chinese society and social cognition have experienced during the past 20 years.The referential strategies and concordance analysis have shown that during the 20-year period, the migrant workers have changed from "blind flow", "chuff", "hick" and "burden" into "friend" and "brother". They have changed from "nuisance" or "trouble" of the city into the "indispensable main force" of the city. Many changes have brought about to "migrant workers" along with the social change. The diachronic analysis of the corpus reveals the different attitudes, that is, from negative to positive, of the news producers, the government and the society towards the migrant workers. However, though their living and working conditions have been greatly improved, their farmer identity have not been changed. They are still labeled and represented as "aliens" or "outlanders" of the city and belong to "their" group instead of completely merging into "our" group. "Delayed payment" has been one of the worst problems harassing the migrant workers in the past 20 years. "They" are represented and constructed as nameless, voicelss, marginalized, rootless and wandering people who need "our" care, help and protection.There are five most salient conceptual metaphors in the corpus:(1) MIGRANT WORKERS AS WATER; (2) MIGRATION AS BUSINESS; (3) CITY AS CONTAINER; (4) CITY AS HOUSE and (5) CITY AS BATTLEFIELD, which reflect the living and working status of migrant workers and the attitude of the text producers towards migrant workers. People's attitudes towards migrant workers have been changing with the advancement of the society. Migrant workers have changed from "the disorderly blind flow" which brought about a lot of troubles to the city and the society in the past into "the useful hydraulic power" or "the main force" which is indispensable to the city and the society at present. However, due to the Chinese dualistic household registration system, they are merely "transient guests" with temporary residence permits. Though they live and work in the city, their farmer identity can not be changed. There is still a long way for them to gain the absolutely equal rights with the local urban residents and to fully merge into the local urban residents and city life both physically and mentally.The analysis of the representation of migrant workers and their social action in the sample headlines and sample texts shows that the majority of migrant workers are represented as groups rather than identifiable individuals and most of the actions they are involved in are represented as passive and non-transactive. They are represented as powerless, lower status social actors who are in bad need of care and help of the government and the society.The results of the study may have the implications for both the government and the media producers. For one thing, more concerted efforts should be made and more effective measures should be taken by the government and the society to radically solve all the problems encountered by the migrant workers. For another, the media should not show any bias over the migrant workers and give them more rights to speak in the public media.This study is an attempt to make corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics and (critical) discourse analysis into an integrated whole, hoping to carry out a complementary methodology so as to fully exploit their respective strengths and eliminate the weaknesses. Furthermore, it makes an attempt to adapt the theories and approaches of discourse analysis in Western countries to apply it to the analysis of Chinese discourse in Chinese social context. In future research, more theoretical and empirical explorations will be made in this aspect. Besides, more research can be done from the linguistic perspective about other vulnerable groups.