A Stylistic Analysis Of Online English News

English news is a style that covers very wide range and mainly refers to a genre spreading the information to the public in the fastest speed. With the development of society, computer and internet are widely used, and then more and more people get information and news through this medium. In this case, Online English News appeared and gradually forms a new sub-style of English news, named "The Fourth News Medium".So far, stylists have done a lot for the study of newspaper English news, but unfortunately comprehensive and systematic research on the stylistic features of Online English News was seldom referred. Therefore, there is an urgent need for comprehensive and multi-dimensional description and research on Online English News from the perspective of stylistic analysis so as to help us understand this new English genre more deeply and obtain the global information efficiently.The main purposes of this thesis are:Firstly, the thesis is intended to give a detailed study of Online English News based on the four levels of layout, vocabulary, syntax, and discourse, according to stylistic theories of English news;Secondly, the thesis is oriented to make a comparative analysis of the following three English News genres of Online English News, Newspaper English News, Radio & TV English News and make the differences between them with the aim of revealing the stylistic features of Online English News, which is proved to be different from the other two news sub-styles;Thirdly, this thesis is briefly sketching the differences among several major English news websites from the levels of layouts, news style, target audience, language features so as to better access to global information through the carrier of internet.The thesis is inspired by and derived from the following questions:1. As one of English news sub-genres, whether stylistic features of Online English News fully follow English news stylistic theories or not?2. Comparing Online English News to other sub-genres of English news (newspaper English news, radio& TV English news), are there any stylistic differences or similarities between them?3. Be based on the premise that following the stylistic theories of English news, whether there exists some differences among major English news websites on their news reports (People Daily's Online, The Times Online, Daily Mirror), for what reason are differences caused?4. For what essential reason are differences of stylistic features caused among Online English News, English news and other sub-genres of English news?The major expected findings of the thesis are concluded as follows:First of all, the study shows that both the headline and visual aids of Online English News have distinctive features of their own due to the uniqueness of internet space. In terms of vocabulary, syntax and discourse are based on the premise that following the basic stylistic features of English news, the Online English News takes the unique form of various words and sentence structures and thus makes its discourse more diversified.Furthermore, the comparison between Online English News and other sub-styles shows that Online English News is an integration of both newspapers, radio & television news and is able to overcome the two defects of other two sub-styles:timeliness and space.Finally, the comparative study of different English news websites reveals that the stylistic features of each website will be significantly different even if they all are news websites due to different factors.To state succinctly, Online English News not only has the common features of English news, but also has the unique advantage of internet. Without restrictions of time, space, location, nationality, and many other factors, Online English News owns large amount of information and audiences, extensive and quick updating of contents, rapid spread and so on. The traditional reading habits are changed and audience's interests are inspired. Online English News is an important way to acquire new information and knowledge.With the development of science and technology, computer and internet spread quickly and widely, how to get information and news efficiently and accurately from the internet has became a subject requiring more concern and consideration, there must be more attention to stylistic research on Online English News. This thesis only carried out preliminary and tentative exploration and the author hopes that more scholars can be inspired to do further researches on this subject and the author also hopes that the results of the study can beneficial in providing references and guidance for the future researchers and English learners on their exploration into the stylistic features of Online English News.