"Mass Line" In Media Discourse

The expression of media discourse for ideology is one significant proposition of communication research. "Mass line" is a vital key word in the ideology discourse system, which is also the hitting-point of this research. In order to examine the developing path and orientation of ideology, this research utilized word frequency analysis and discourse analysis. Also, by combining content analysis with discourse analysis and other research methods, the strategies of using People's Daily as "ideological state apparatus" are examined through analyzing themes, genres, sources of quotation as well as connotation evolution of "mass" and "mass line" of mass line related reports of People's Daily since founded in 1946.The frequency analysis of co-occurrence words of "mass line" is the main basis. "Mass line", as the key word of ideology, its signifier has been kept in report texts through times. In the news discourse, ideas are molded by interpreting diverse concepts of " mass" and describing certain connotation of "mass line". In the evolution of mainstream ideology, high-frequency words that are utilized in news discourse to explain "mass line"variously can embody the developing path of mainstream ideology in reports. Besides, when taking high-frequencyco-occurrence words of "mass line" into consideration, the identity modification from "leading" to "serving", and the transformation from indoctrination to mobilization through interests are exhibited in the evolution of mainstream ideology.In terms of the macroscopic strategy of communicating mainstream ideology in People's Daily, through analyzing, government documents "produced" the key words of ideology in media discourse. Then the legitimacies of key words are illustrated through editorial, commentary, speech, viewpoint and thought. Eventually, those key words were brought into discourse of genres like information, news letter, etc. Plus, a large number of repetitions in multi-field theme reports were used to establish the communication effect of "familiarity" in psychology. From microscopic view, legitimacy interpretive strategies of ideology in reporting discourse changed with the evolution of mainstream ideology. In the early reports, legitimacy was interpreted by molding the "Chari-smatic Authority" and quoting discourse of leaders. Since the reform and opening-up, it can be seen that the legal authority is being built gradually. And this modification of legitimacy interpretation was conducted by quoting resolutions of the Communist Party of China as well as legal provision. After the reform and opening-up, in order to solidify the basis of ideological legitimacy, the CPC blazed new trails of ideology. During the process of new ideology gaining legitimacy, People's Daily employed articulation to connect "mass line" with semanteme of new ideology in its reports, which leads to the increase of legitimacy of new ideology. Moreover, the "incorporation" of multi-discourse in report also provides evidence for ideology legitimacy.