A Comparative Study Of Sino-American Officials’ Speech Reported In Chinese And American News Reports

The use of reported speech in news discourse may enhance the objectivity and veracity of the reports.This reporting form may also impress the audiences that something is so because somebody says so.However,there are no reports that are totally objective.Subjective factors are bound to interfere to some extent as a result of political biases,different value systems or ideologies.In the case of reported speech,reporters may construct a particular reporting angle to guide audiences’ opinions through choices of reporting modes and news sources.This thesis compares reported speech from Chinese and American officials in New York Times and People’s Daily in the setting of the South China Sea Arbitration.Power and ideology which are hidden in the discourse also have been discussed based on the comparison.In order to combine qualitative and quantitative analysis,the basic theoretical framework tries to integrate corpus study into Critical Discourse Analysis.The self-built corpus may provide reliable statistical evidence for the qualitative analysis.The main objects of the study include reporting modes and accuracy rating of reporters and the identity of news sources.From the comparative analysis,we can see that during the process of the South China Sea Arbitration,New York Times shows a natural confidence in American military,culture and value system based on the flexible use of reporting modes,the fuzzy choice of reporting sources and the relative reduction of accuracy rating of reporting sources.At the same time,under immense pressure,People ’s Daily tries its best to make effective responses by the choice of reporting modes,the diversification of news sources and commitment to reporting accuracy.Owing to the rapid economic,political and cultural development in recent years,’China is increasingly paying more and more attention to the public opinion of the world and its own international image.To strengthen its ’soft power’,it is essential for China to realize not only the importance of what to say,but also of how to say.To make other countries "understand" Chinese official discourse is still the main task and responsibility of the Chinese media.