A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On China-Africa Relationship From The West Media

In the past 20 years,thanks to the establishment of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation(FOCAC),China-Africa trade cooperation has increased substantially.China has been Africa‘s largest trading partner for consecutive nine years.The seventh FOCAC was held in Beijing in 2018,which pushed China-Africa relationship into the global political and economic stage once more.From the perspective of critical discourse analysis,this study explores China-Africa relationship in western media reports and how the ideology in these news reports is reflected in language.This thesis chooses news reports about China-Africa relationship in The New York Times from 2005 to 2019 as research data,and takes Fairclough‘s three-dimensional analysis framework as the theoretical guidance to analyze and discuss the data mainly from the three dimensions of description,interpretation and explanation.On the first text level,high frequency words,word clusters and keywords are extracted by the use of corpus software called Ant Conc 3.5.8,and word collocation and context analysis are carried out through index lines.From the perspective of discourse practice,the thesis mainly conducts the analysis concerning the forms and sources of reported speech.On the level of social practice,interpretation will be carried out on the standpoint and ideology generated by the reports in the fields of politics,economy and ideology.The study finds that American media‘s attitude towards China presents a diachronic change.Through text analysis,it is revealed that every time around FOCAC,faced with increasingly close China-Africa relationship,the American press feels threatened and tends to report in their own positions.Its reports on China‘s image and China‘s investment and construction in Africa obviously show the characteristics of being biased and exaggerating facts.The New York Times mainly reports on sensitive topics,such as political and economic news.However,with the rapid improvement of China‘s comprehensive national strength,especially after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,its reports have gradually shifted from the usual serious style to the reporting style mixed with sports and cultural differences,and this style is more obvious in the time dimension of FOCAC.It is hoped that this paper can help readers realize the ideological problems reflected behind the news reports through discourse analysis when reading western news reports.At the same time,it will encourage Chinese journalists to respond positively to the non-objective views put forward by western media and make targeted reports on the basis of respecting facts.Only in this way can China‘s cultural and economic exports to Africa be more effective and form a sound and long-term development of China-Africa cooperative relationship.