A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Sino-US English News Coverage Of The Copenhagen Climate Summit

Based on the theoretical framework of Faiclough's three-dimensional model and applying Halliday's systemic-functional grammar, this thesis compares and analyzes the English news coverage of Copenhagen climate summit in Sino-US newspapers from the perspective of critical discourse analysis (CAD). By comparing the similarities as well as differences of the two countries'news reports at the linguistic level, the present research aims to examine the ideologies concealed behind them. Furthermore, it also discusses the reasons which account for the foregoing ideologies from the aspects of society, politics, economy and culture. News dated from December 7, 2009 to December19, 2009 are selected as the research samples with thirty-six from China Daily and thirty-five from New York Times. The study is implemented successively from three stages, namely the descriptive stage at the textual level, the interpreting stage at the level of discursive practice and explaining stage at the level of social practice. At the stage of describing and interpreting, the statistical instrument of AntConc3.2.1 and four linguistic instruments of lexical classification, transitivity, modality and reporting verbs are applied.This thesis is composed of six chapters. In the first chapter, it briefly introduces the research background, research questions and research significance and provides the definition of the key terms which will appear in the follow-up research. In the second chapter, it reviews the previous study and the fruits achieved by the domestic learners and learners abroad in the field of news discourse analysis from CDA perspective. In the third chapter, it describes the theoretical framework adopted in the research: three-dimensional model and systemic-functional grammar. The fourth chapter belongs to the section of research design in which research questions are advanced and research methods such as samples'collection, research instruments'selection and research procedures are stated at length. In chapter five, data is analyzed and discussed. In chapter six, the findings of the research are concluded and implications are summarized.It is found that resting on the strategy of choosing different words and expressive patterns, the news coverage in the two kinds of newspapers reveals individual ideologies of the two countries in this period. On the one hand, as the entities of development, Sino-US press each other to maintain the maximal benefit. On the other hand, as the two enormous countries in the world of multi-polarization, both countries manifest the image of model countries and exert all its influence to promote the agreement; however, US shows a comparatively more active and tougher attitude toward this global conference and meanwhile China's consciousness of power of discourse rises to a great extent.The significance of this research can be summarized as follows: First, the subject investigated in this CDA study is concerned with international environmental issue, which is rarely referred to in the previous study. In addition, although the environmental issue touches on the interests of human beings, it still demonstrates ideologies of different countries. Second, the larger amount of the research samples helps to improve research objectivity. Third, when it comes to the interpreting stage at the discursive practice level, the linguistic instrument of reporting verbs is tried out to further explain the meaning of discourse, which enriches and extents the range of research instruments of CDA.Implications obtained form this research contains: To assert one's rights better, news media can express, spread, and reinforce the ideologies held by the interest entities it represents by relying on the linguistic strategies; readers'attention should be drawn to the fact that cultivating their awareness of reading critically enables them to penetrate the literal meaning and discover the hidden meaning; during the process of teaching, teachers should develop students'ability of criticizing, investigating thoroughly, reading critically and the ability of using linguistic strategies.