Underlying Ideology In Economic News Discourse

The present thesis, adopting the framework of Fairclough's three-dimensional model and Halliday's functional grammar, attempts to analyze economic news discourse on China's exchange rate reform in American media from the perspective of critical discourse analysis, with the aim to reveal the ideological messages embedded within the economic news.Since the birth of critical discourse analysis in the 1970s, critical linguists have dedicated themselves to unveiling the interrelationship between language, ideology and power. Public discourse including news, official reports and political speeches has always been of great interest to CDA. However, most of previous researches are more or less politics-oriented, economic news, one important type of news, draws little attention from linguists. Hence the present study focuses on economic news discourse in the hope of filling the gap.It is known that exchange rate mechanism has always been a controversial issue between the U.S. and China. On July 21st, 2005, China announced its exchange rate reform and started to adopt a managed floating exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies. Renminbi exchange rate reform grabbed the attention of media quickly. The author collects those reports on China's exchange rate reform with duration from January, 2005 to July, 2006 in American media, precisely, Time, The New York Times and FOX They are chosen for their prestige and influence in their given field: newspapers, magazines as well as television stations. One sample is selected from each of them for a detailed textual analysis.The research is conducted within the framework of Fairclough's three-dimensional model: textual analysis, discursive practice analysis as well as social practice analysis. On the level of textual analysis, the author analyzes lexical choice and transitivity in terms of ideational function, modality in terms of interpersonal function. The level of discursive practice is devoted to the examination of discourse representation which comprises analysis of sources and modes of representation to explain discourse production. On the social practice level, such socio-historical factors as a retrospect of the history of China's exchange rate reform, Sino-U.S. relations and American hegemony are investigated for a proper explanation of the ideology-driven choices on the level of textual analysis and discursive practice.A careful study of the three samples finds that certain ideologies are constant: (1) China goes against the order of market economy; (2) China should take responsibilities for America's trade deficit; (3) America is unsatisfied with the advances China has made with its exchange rate; (4) America is superior to China and its authorities. It is obvious to see that China's exchange rate policy is portrayed as a threat to the benefits of the world; China's neighboring countries and the U.S. in particular. Thus China's image and exchange rate reform are distorted. Therefore, it is a safe bet that economic news discourse is not value-free or objective as it claims to be. Like political and cultural news, underlying ideologies also exists in economic news discourse. The research proves that there is a dialectical relationship between language and ideology in economic news discourse.The practical significance of this research lies in the field of foreign language teaching and learning. The study gives some insights to English language teaching, the teaching of journalistic English in particular. It is supposed to assist learners in raising critical language awareness with a view to advancing their reading and writing ability.