A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On Tianjin Blasts

The study aims to analyze news reports on Tianjin blasts in China Daily and The Guardian from the perspective of critical discourse analysis,which is based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Halliday’s systemic functional grammar.By collecting a corpus of 40 news samples,among which 20 from China Daily and 20 from The Guardian,the comparative analysis of the study is carried out from three stages,namely,description stage,interpretation stage and explanation stage.At the description stage,analytic tools like transitivity and passive voice are adopted.News source and reporting mode are adopted at the interpretation stage.Social,cultural,economic as well as political factors are explored at the explanation stage.Meanwhile,both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in the study.Through the analysis of the news reports on Tianjin blasts in China Daily and The Guardian,conclusions can be drawn in the following three aspects:(1)At the description stage,there are different opinions on transitivity and passive voice in the collected news reports on Tianjin blasts in China Daily and The Guardian.In the analysis of news reports on China Daily and The Guardian,the proportion of the material process in China Daily is 59.5%,and 61.0% in The Guardian,which are both more than 50%.The extensive use of the material process illustrates that both China Daily and The Guardian attempt to ensure the objectivity and credibility of the news reports.But China Daily and The Guardian express their own ideology secretly in the aspect of the different use of verbs in the material process.When it comes to the passive voice,the subjects are emphasized in China Daily,which tries to praise the high spirit of the firefighters.However,the subjects are ignored in The Guardian.(2)At the interpretation stage,there are also some differences in news source and reporting mode.The proportion of the specific source adopted by China Daily is 84.7%,while The Guardian accounts for 60.8%.In the meanwhile,the semi-identified source employed in The Guardian is 37.1%.The research findings exemplify the fact that the reports in The Guardian are less objective and credible than the reports in China Daily.When it comes to reporting mode,the proportion of indirect speech adopted by China Daily is 58.7%,while The Guardian takes up 47.1%.At the same time,the proportion of direct speech quoted by China Daily is 32.5%,while The Guardian accounts for 28.1%,which conveys the fact that China Daily is more objective than The Guardian in this respect.(3)At the explanation stage,social,cultural,economic and political factors have a great influence on news report on Tianjin blasts in China Daily and The Guardian.