Critical Discourse Analysis Of Libya Reports In CNN News: A Cognitive Perspective

This thesis attempts to apply cognitive linguistics to the critical analysis ofpolitical news and discusses that ideology is vested in political news. Based on therelations between language, power and ideology, Critical Discourse Analysis tries todiscover the ideologically hidden in language. Halliday’s Systemic-Functional Theorywas commonly used by tradition analysts in critical analysis. They focus on theprocess of production. Most scholars neglect the active roles of the readers and thediversity of their interpretive practices. In order to solve the problems in traditionalCDA study, O’Halloran (2003) highlights the combination of critical discourseanalysis and cognitive approach which can enrich the CDA. Cognitive approach is themost important part. Without the contribution analysis of human cognition, theanalysis will be of no consequence. In the thesis analysis political news essay todemonstrate that prototype and categorization can analyze political news discourses.This thesis deals with the ideological significance in Libya war of CNN news reportand studies levels of categories uncover the hidden ideology. Cognitive theories canbe integrated in CDA studies.The thesis contains five chapters:The first chapter provides an introduction of the thesis as a whole, including thepurpose and significance of the study, methods and thesis organization.The second chapter briefly reviews previous and current studies of someresearches into Critical Discourse Analysis and cognition approach at abroad andhome.In the third chapter, we start with introduction of the definition of CDA,philosophy background of Critical Discourse Analysis and the development of CDA.Then we’ll explore the diverse approaches in the field of CDA. At last, we discuss therelationship between language, power and ideology.In the fourth chapter, we first review the prototype and categorization of Cognitive Linguistic. Then we deal with the levels of categories--basic levelcategories, superordinate categories, subordinate categories. At last, we will analyzeLibya war reports of CNN based on prototype and categorization approach.The last chapter is the concluding part, in which the major findings, limitationsand directions for future study are stated.