Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Media Representations Of Bangladesh-China Relations

Bangladesh established the diplomatic relation with China on 4 October 1975.Since then the bilateral relations have been stable and smooth.Bangladesh media have shown great interest in the relationship between the two countries.This study,within the framework of Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA),aims to explore how Bangladesh's news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha(BSS)represents Bangladesh-China relations from 1975 to 2016.CDA has established a close relationship with Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar(SFG)as a tool for textual analysis since its early stage.In SFG,“Ideational Meaning” is one of the three main functions,which is grammatically achieved in discourse through Transitivity System.Accordingly,this study attaches Fairclough's three-dimensional model with Halliday's Transitivity System as a key device,which gives an accurate analysis of the media representations of Bangladesh-China relations.As for methodology,three methods are employed:(i)Corpus-based content analysis of the 41-year media coverage,(ii)interviews,and(iii)observations in the newsrooms.These methods serve the macro and micro levels of analysis.The macro-level analysis focuses on the news coverage,ownership,and control factors of the BSS,which may explicitly or implicitly influence the reporting of Bangladesh-China relations.At the macro-level,the findings show that the BSS journalists have concentrated more on home news items occurring in Dhaka than in Beijing.Among the news items in the data,diplomatic news items are reported with the high frequency with the quotes of government officials and other definite sources.Most news items about Bangladesh-China relations in the form of news reports are given to the BSS by the country's information offices.Though there is a period of transition between the establishment of the diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and China,and its full implementation,the news coverage is often concerned with the high-level state visits of the two countries.These reports are the ready-made news items from the Ministry of Information.Thus,the study demonstrates the high control of the government over the news reports.Such domestic media context reflects the government's positive attitudes towards China and Bangladesh-China relations over the years.The macro-level analysis lays the foundation for the critical study of the BSS's reports on Bangladesh-China relations,especially for the interpretative dimension of CDA.As a central part of the thesis,the micro-level adopts the framework of CDA,carrying out three-dimensional analysis — text,discursive practice,and social practice to illustrate how the BSS represents Bangladesh-China relations.Using Transitivity System as a tool for the first dimensional analysis of CDA,this study investigates the social meanings of Bangladesh-China relations to the linkage between discourse,ideology,and power.The first dimension discusses the transitivity analysis of the news headlines,and the corpus-based word frequency in the news bodies.The results show that most of the actions and situations that involve China are realized as actors,whereas those of Bangladesh are represented as goals.The choice of the Actor and the Goal represents the historical changes of Bangladesh-China relations.The word “China” and China-related actors and activities enjoy high frequency in the reporting.Such variations in lexis and texts reveal the China-orientated reporting tendency.The second dimension is the discursive practice concerning the news production,which focuses on the reporting modes and the news sources in the BSS's reporting of BangladeshChina relations.The findings show that the BSS most frequently uses the mode of Direct Discourse(DD),and that the BSS news articles are full of the quotations of other people,which is under the instructions of the Ministry of Information.There are a larger quantity of reports representing the voices and attitudes of China,and more positive news reports about BangladeshChina relations.As an official source of the government,the BSS covers 72.8% of news items on Bangladesh-China relations.The findings show that the government affects the power and ideology of the BSS's reporting through the gate-keeping and editorial processes.At the national level,Bangladesh keeps a positive,friendly,and cooperative relationship with China.The third dimension explains the relationship between linguistic features of the news reports and domestic and global contexts of Bangladesh-China relations within which the news articles are located.The findings show that the institutional,social contexts,as well as the regional and global contexts have a strong impact on the BSS news reporting.Economic tie and strategic partner are the BSS's main ideological factors for changing the relationship between Bangladesh and China.The relation between the two countries is identified as both “economic tie” in social context and “strategic partner” in regional context.By contrast,the regional and global factors are negatively influencing the BSS news reports.The location of the Bay of Bengal has made Bangladesh important to India,Myanmar,China,and the US.In this sense,the game of geopolitics plays a role in the BSS reporting.By utilizing Fairclough's three-dimensional framework,this case study shows that news as a product of social practice is inevitably influenced by ideology and power.Analysis of the news discourse practice may contribute to the readers for developing their critical language awareness in the relationship between Bangladesh and China.This study is also helpful to understand the textual features of the media representations of Bangladesh-China relations,and the historical,social,and geopolitical contexts,and thus offers some insight into a promising future for the two countries.