A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On Un Climate Change Conferences From Chinese And US Mainstream Newspapers

Since the time of the Industrial Revolution,human activities have been the main cause for various environmental issues.Under the circumstances,climate change,which puts the mere survival of human beings at risk,has become one of the biggest global concerns.With such a great urgency,UN climate change conferences,which provide forums for countries around the world to negotiate on the issue of climate change,have increasingly come into the spotlight of news media.In an attempt to figure out reporting focuses of both Chinese and US newspaper reports on those conferences,the research,under the guidance of critical discourse analysis(CDA),analyzed 792 newspaper reports on UN climate change conferences from 2015 to 2019,namely,on COP21,COP22,COP23,COP24 and COP25 with the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods.The quantitative method involves the corpus analysis,and the qualitative method entails Fairclough’s three stages of discourse analysis.The research also aims at uncovering hidden ideologies reflected in those reporting focuses,and factors affecting the formation of those ideologies.In the stage of description,the results show that both Chinese and US newspapers have a particular focus on their own countries and highest leaders,with emphases on different specific aspects.In Chinese newspaper articles,China’s national image,action and contribution in fighting against climate change,and cooperative interactions with other countries are specific areas of focus.In US newspapers,individualism in terms of government officials,the division between the central and local governments,and less cooperative international relationships are the main focuses.As for interactions between the highest leaders of the two countries,cooperation is the main focus for President Xi and President Obama.In terms of President Trump,however,his dropping out of the Paris Agreement is the reporting emphasis,which indicates his deviation from the cooperative path set by the Obama administration.In the stage of interpretation,in terms of news sources,it is found that journalists from both countries value the objectivity and reliability of reporting,applying reliable sources from people with influence.With regard to reporting modes,the application of direct discourse increases the authenticity and reliability of news reporting,and indirect discourse allows more room for journalists’ interpretation,affecting the truthfulness of reporting to some extent.Based on the two stages above,in the stage of explanation,the differences in reports indicate the two countries’ different political,economic,and cultural conditions.China is an emerging large country under the influence of Confucianism,which values collectivism and rules.Therefore,China tends to have consistence in climate change policies,and always shows cooperative attitudes to the global fight against climate change.In contrast,the US is an established great power that appreciates individualism and freedom because of the influence from Christianity.Hence,the US is inclined to emphasize the importance of individual roles,and tends to be inconsistent with its climate change policies because of the two-party system.The research provides an example of applying CDA to the field of climate change conferences,and gives an insight into the different ideologies that are reflected in Chinese and US newspapers.By knowing the reporting focuses and ideologies in US newspaper reports,Chinese media can better adjust and improve their reports so that Chinese stories can be more easily accepted among international readers.