A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On "Unmanned Underwater Vehicle"

In the latest years,news reports become the basic source for people to obtain information about the world,and it is a significant tool for reporters to show their ideas and attitudes,which imperceptibly influences people's way of thinking,perception and values.Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA)is a cross-disciplinary method to analyze the relationship between discourse and ideology,and to further reveal the ideology hidden in discourse.On Dec.15,2016,the Chinese Navy discovered and seized an unmanned US drone in the South China Sea,but the US president-elect Donald Trump claimed that China had stolen it,triggering a formal diplomatic protest and a demand for its return.It is requisite to focus on this event and learn about the hidden ideology behind this event from different newspapers which represent different interests by using CDA method.This paper selects 9 samples from all news reports about the incident of the unmanned underwater vehicle from China Daily,The Washington Post as well as Daily Mail from December 15,2016 to December 29,2016.They are important newspapers with great influence in the world,which are mainstream media from China,the United States and the United Kingdom.The selected samples are analyzed based on two theories,namely Norman Fairclough's Three-Dimensional Model Theory and Michael Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar.Generally speaking,this thesis analyzes the selected news reports from three procedures,namely text analysis,discourse practice analysis as well as social practice analysis to address the research questions,which begins with analyzing the linguistic features of the news reports,and then is followed by the elaboration of reporters' real attitudes and intentions,and ends up with the explanation of social and cultural contexts beneath the surface linguistic features.To be specific,the data are analyzed at three levels: first of all,lexical choice as well as transitivity system are the analytical tools applied in the description level(in the textual level);secondly,at the interpretation level,the modes of representation which are composed of news source and reporting mode are employed to analyze the process of text production as well as illustrate reporters' hidden ideologies;and then at the explanation level,we analyze the selected samples from the perspective of social contexts,such as social factors,economic factors,political factors as well as the aspect of media,and find out the relationships between discourse and social practice.Finally,the paper draws the conclusion that the news reports on the incident of the unmanned underwater US vehicle from different countries did not present the reality neutrally and objectively.On the contrary,they reported the incident from their own viewpoints and interests.About the event of the unmanned underwater vehicle,The Washington Post mainly claimed that the Chinese Navy seized it unlawfully or stole it in the international water which was regarded as a calculated,coercive diplomacy instead of adhering to China's peaceful diplomatic policies.At the same time,Daily Mail mainly described the whole event,such as the Chinese and American actions and responses,results and effects and so on,which reflected different attitudes and standpoints towards the event.China should take the major responsibility,but the US also took some responsibility of the occurrence of this incident.Meanwhile,China Daily thought that this incident was an accidental event rather than a calculated or coercive diplomacy.The reasons of China's seizure were simple,lawful and rational,because the unmanned underwater US vehicle has exactly threatened China's security and sovereignty.By the examination of the linguistic features in the selected samples,the three newspapers portrayed different images of the US and China involved in this incident that reflected different ideologies and value judgments.By analyzing the news sources and reporting modes of the selected samples,we can draw a conclusion that news reports are carefully well-designed productions according to reporters' opinions and the stances they represent.By the explanation of sociocultural contexts,we find that news report is meaningful only within a particular social context.On the one hand,the sociocultural context has an effect on the way the reporters report the news.On the other hand,it also influences the way that readers interpret the news reports.The objectives and significance of the present research mainly reside in two aspects.First of all,the way of analyzing the news reports on this event of the unmanned underwater vehicle from the three countries which are composed of both parties involved in this incident and the third party will contribute to reveal the different standpoints and attitudes of the different governments towards this incident.Moreover,this thesis could help readers to enhance their awareness of critical thinking in reading news reports.