| As a field in discourse study, critical discourse analysis focuses on the critical researches of social discourses, especially of public discourses such as public speeches, advertisements as well as news discourse etc. Nowadays, people begin to pay increasingly attention to news discourse since news discourse is a primary method in mass media. CDA is an effective approach to help people not to be manipulated by public news discourses. According to CDA, news agencies are in the service of certain power and ideologies rather than follow the impartial and objective principle as they boast. This point in particular is worth special attention. So great emphasis should be laid on uncover the power and ideologies concealed in this non-fiction discourse.The current study aims at conducting a critical analysis of20reports selected from two mainstream news media China Daily and The Washington Post about the Crimea Crisis under the theoretical foundation of CDA. The thesis attempts to answer the following questions:(1) What are the features of lexical classifications of Russia and the use of transitivity in the news reports adopted from China Daily and The Washington Post?(2) What are the features of news sources, the reporting modes and the use of modal auxiliary verbs in the two newspaper?(3) Are the news reports in China Daily and The Washington Post on Crimea Crisis between Russia and Ukraine objective and neutral? If not, what kind of ideologies and intentions are carried by the news discourse?Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, a comparative study is conducted on ten news reports from China Daily and The Washington Post respectively about the Crimea Crisis. Analysis is made at three levels:a) the descriptive level, at which the differences of linguistic features and ideational meanings of news discourses from the two newspapers are explored through transitivity, lexical choices and modality; b) the interpretive level, at which the differences of intertextuality and interpersonal implications of news discourses from the two newspapers are investigated by virtue of news sources and reporting modes; c) the explanatory level, at which the differences of social environment and textual functions of news discourses from the two newspapers are discussed by the examination of social, cultural and political contexts between China and America, and the power and ideologies hidden in the news discourse are unveiled at last.The findings of the thesis mainly include two aspects:First, the two newspapers share some common linguistic features, but the disparities are more evident. As to lexical choices of words referring to Russia and transitivity, China Daily emphasizes Putin’s defensive nature and regards him as a normal president; The Washington Post stresses the aggressive nature of Putin and describes him as a hegemonist like Hitler. The use of transitivity shows that to some extent China Daily is more objective than The Washington Post, but China Daily is not absolutely objective at the same time. As to news sources and reporting modes, it is obvious that China Daily quotes various news sources including authorities’words of China, Russia, America and Ukraine and presents them by direct speech. The Washington Post quotes more national words and words of American interest groups including the European Union’s words and Ukraine’s words which are mostly quoted by direct speech. However, The Washington Post adopts indirect speech to report the Russian’s violence. When it comes to modality, a great difference exists in using modal auxiliary verbs by Chinese and American news agencies. Median value modal auxiliary verbs in China Daily express China’s moderate attitude, but high value modal auxiliary verbs in The Washington Post convey America’s commanding tone. The reason why linguistic features in the two newspapers are different is that China and America have different value orientation and political stances. Second, both China Daily and The Washington Post carry views and attitudes which reflect their own country’s ideologies. Neither of the two newspapers are totally factual and impartial due to the influences of their own national interests and ideological background.Significance of the thesis mainly falls into two aspects:Theoretically, it once again proves the applicability of Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework and Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar in analyzing news discourse, and reveals the injustice of news discourse. Practically, it activates people’s ability to appreciate news and helps them acquire real information from news reports by exploring news discourses from CDA perspective. Moreover, with the irreversible intercultural communication, Foreign news discourse is a window for Chinese teachers and students to know the colorful world abroad. Critical investigations in news discourse are helpful for Chinese teachers and students to enhance the foreign language teaching and learning. |
PDF Full Text Request