Ecocritical Discourse Analysis Of English News Reports

Ecocritical discourse analysis is a subdiscipline of critical ecolinguistics.Different researchers try to analyze environmental discourse by applying differentresearch methods. But they haven’t well explored Faiclough’s three-dimensionalmodel of discourse analysis and the news reports on elephant poaching. Therefore,the thesis conducts an ecocritical discourse analysis research on20pieces of newsreports on elephant poaching by applying Fairclough’s three-dimensional model ofanalysis. Both the quantitative and qualitative research methods are employed toanalyze the transitivity features of the news reports, to explore the anthropocentrismembedded in the news reports and therefore to interpret the relationships andinteractions between language, nature and society.According to the analysis, the following conclusions are drawn. Firstly, theexploration of the transitivity features at the description stage shows that all the sixprocess types are employed in the news reports. Material processes account for morethan half of the whole discourse followed by relational and verbal processes, whilemental, existential and behavioural processes are less employed. In addition, themain participants functioning as the subjects are elephant, government, ivory,anti-poaching organizations and poachers. Secondly, the analysis at the interpretationstage reveals that anthropocentrism can be concealed in material, relational andexistential clauses. These clauses are anthropocentric in that material processes canabsolve the responsible agents of responsibilities and the relational and existentialprocesses emphasize on effects but disregarding the actions and processes. Thirdly,the explanation stage presents the two-way relationship between the news discourseand society. The news reports on elephant poaching are socially shaped and sociallyconstructive. Given that language plays a significant role in constructing ourexperience, reality, and therefore our actions, news reports should employ moreecological benign terms to raise people’s environmental consciousness.The research is theoretically and practically meaningful. Theoretically, the research contributes to the application of Fairclough’s model of critical discourseanalysis within the paradigm of ecocritical discourse analysis. Practically, theresearch will help to raise people’s environmental consciousness and to cultivatetheir sense of critical reading.