| Since Deng Xiaoping first proposed the concept of “reform and opening up” in1978,it has attracted the attention and interpretation of Western media.“Reform and opening up” has carried China’s development for more than 40 years and played a vital role in Chinese history,so it is significant.In this study,the news reports of China’s “reform and opening up”(1978-2022)from four British news media,namely The Times,The Guardian,Financial Times and Reuters are selected as samples for analysis.Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics,these samples are analyzed from three dimensions: textual analysis,discursive practice and social practice.At the level of textual analysis,this paper describes from the aspects of classification and transitivity system;At the level of discursive practice,this paper analyzes from two aspects of news sources and reporting modes;At the level of social practice,this paper explains the reasons behind the textual analysis and the discourse practice from political,economic and social-cultural aspects,so as to further reveal the relationship between language,ideology and power.The results show that most of British media hold a neutral or positive attitude towards “reform and opening up” while there inevitably exist some misunderstandings and contortions from the media,e.g.,the true intention of “reform and opening up” is deem as quasi-capitalism and hegemonism in their opinions.Firstly,at the level of textual analysis,classification analysis shows the changes in attitudes,and the number of news reports with negative attitudes decreased.In terms of transitivity,news discourses are dominated by material processes,verbal processes and relational processes,and the minorities are mental processes.Material processes are mostly used to describe the advantages of “reform and opening up”,but some expressions are full of prejudice.While mental processes are mostly used to express negative attitudes.Secondly,at the level of discourse practice,through the analysis of news sources it can be found that there are large differences in the distribution of news sources.The British media tend to use a large number of specific sources to strengthen authority.In terms of reporting modes,DD(direct discourse)is the most frequently used.The media tend to use DD to express their identification and ID(indirect quotes)to express their negative attitudes.Finally,at the level of social practice,the attitude of the British media towards “reform and opening up” is influenced by political,economic and socialcultural reasons.In conclusion,through the critical analysis of the news discourse of “reform and opening up”,this study helps readers better understand the underlying ideology in news reports.At the same time,in the face of the distorted interpretation of “reform and opening up” from the Western media,China should take active measures to timely respond to their questioning and build a good national image. |
