How Attitudes Towards Sino-US Trade War Are Expressed Via Projection

As an important medium of dissemination,newspapers are supposed to report news events and transmit information objectively and impartially.However,in fact they will be affected by the viewpoints and positions of reporters and the mainstream national consciousness.Therefore,news reports will influence readers’attitudes in a subtle way.Projection,which reports others’words or thoughts,is a prominent linguistic phenomenon in news discourse,for news reporters often use projection to express their own views.In 2019,the trade war between China and the United States further escalated,attracting wide attention both at home and abroad.The major media in China and the United States have covered the trade war between the two countries extensively.The attitudes and stances of the reporters and the newspapers must have been reflected in the projection of news discourse concerning the trade war.Up to now,there are few studies that explore the attitude resources in the projection of news discourse.Within the framework of the attitude system in appraisal theory,this thesis selects 25 news texts concerning the Sino-US trade war respectively from China Daily and Washington Post(50 in total)as the research corpus.By comparing the attitude resources in the projection of Chinese and American news,this thesis attempts to explore different attitudes of different people towards the same event,and unravels the reporters’stance and reveals the ideology behind the news discourse.It is found that there are abundant attitude resources in the projection of Chinese and American newspapers.Politicians,experts,and the general public are quoted as expressing their appraisals about the issue and the words of politicians are projected most frequently,followed by those of experts and the public.The main appraisal objects are trade war,China,America and Trump.The attitude resources on trade war account for the largest proportion,while other three objects receive different attention in the two newspapers.In terms of attitudes towards these objects,different people in Chinese news tend to have similar attitudes,while opinions are often divided in American news.Specifically speaking,most people use more negative attitude resources to evaluate the trade war,Trump and the United States,but more positive attitude resources to evaluate China.However,a few people in American news,especially politicians,choose to hold the opposite attitudes against most people in order to maintain the interest of Trump and the US government.As far as the attitudes of the news reporters are concerned,Chinese reporters have a clear standpoint that they object to the trade war and America’s policy,thus constructing a strong national image for China.American reporters have different attitudes,most of them opposing the trade war,while a small part of them support Trump and the United States,and try to discredit China.The different stances of the Chinese and American newspapers can be attributed to the different ideologies of the two countries.This study can not only further confirm the feasibility and efficiency of the appraisal theory in analyzing news discourse,but also expand the scope of research on projection in news discourse.Additionally,this study can help readers to understand the deep meaning behind news discourse and improve their critical thinking capacity.