A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Mediated Sports Discourse On Daley’s Rediving Event

Since Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter CDA) came into being, experts and scholars at home and abroad have paid much attention to the analysis of mediated discourses, among which social and political news has definitely been the most favored data due to its full controversy and different ideologies while sports news reports have attracted much less attention because people always regard it as a representative of justice and fairness and only few people have touched this field. However, every mass-media agency serves a certain value and ideology directly or indirectly and sports news is no exception. In order to reveal the underlying ideology in mediated discourse and help the readers to have a better understanding of the controversy over sports events, this thesis will employ analytical framework for CDA on mediated sports discourse on the basis of SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS (hereafter SFL), focusing particularly on transitivity and APPRAISAL SYSTEM. A comparative critical analysis of Chinese and British mediated reports will be conducted with the controversial "Daley’s Rediving Event" during the 30th Olympic Games in London in 2012 as a case study. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to help readers to develop an awareness of critical thinking in media literacy and learn to be free from any bias underlying the seemingly objective lexicogrammatical expressions.This thesis seeks to address two research questions:(1) Is there any stance or ideology concealed under the seemingly objective lexicogrammatical expressions in sports reports? (2) If so, how can it be revealed in the way of CDA by using Halliday’s SFL and Martin’s Appraisal Theory?To answer these questions, this thesis employs Halliday’s SFL and Martin’s Appraisal Theory as the basic tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. It analyzes 12 news reports on Daley’s rediving event which selected from Chinese and British news agencies from the aspect of transitivity (the sub-system of SFL) and attitude, engagement and graduation (the sub-systems of Appraisal Theory). The critical discourse analysis of the data indicates that stance and ideology really exist behind the seemingly objective mediated sports discourses and it is concealed by apparently impartial lexicogrammatical expressions.The significance of this thesis are mainly threefold:First, it incorporates Halliday’s SFL and Martin’s Appraisal Theory into the analytical framework for critical analysis of mediated sports discourse to reveal how mass media disguise their ideology to influence their readers in an unconscious way. Second, it reveals the stance and ideology concealed under the seemingly objective lexicogrammatical expressions in sports news. Third, it aims to develop the readers’ media literacy and improvement of their competence in critical reading.