Double Space Of Anti-Epidemic In Wuhan:Research On The Discourse Strategies Of Chinese And American Media Based On Proximization Theory

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the similarities and differences in the discourse strategies used by Chinese and American media in news reports on the same issues and the reasons for them.The research media are the People’s Daily Online and The New York Times,and the study is about Wuhan fighting COVID-19 by locking down the city.On the one hand,the semantic network analysis of news is assisted by the feature of word co-occurrence at the macro level to grasp the characteristics of topics that the media pay attention to.On the other hand,in the micro level,based on the “Proximization Theory”,from Spatial Proximization,Temporal Proximization,Axiological Proximization to make qualitative critical discourse analysis.The study also established a three-dimensional model of news discourse in Chinese and American media to present the dynamic process of discourse space construction more intuitively.The results of the study found that the Chinese and American media focus on different perspectives of issues,with the Chinese side focusing on the domestic situation and the American side on the global perspective.As a speaker,the media can construct a state of threat proximity in the mind of the receiver through news discourse,and export relevant ideology through it,so that the receiver can accept the interpretation angle of its discourse,so as to realize the legitimacy of the speaker’s discourse.The discourse strategies of the two sides are relatively similar in terms of Spatial Proximization and Temporal Proximization,both emphasizing the negative impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on human beings,but the two sides have major differences in terms of Axiological Proximization,with the Chinese side calling for stronger collaboration and building a community,while the U.S.side is concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the international community,and the discourse on the responsibility for the outbreak has a strong political tone.The analysis of the international social context shows that the news coverage of international media reflects concern,the competition for international discourse in their countries,which is essentially a contest of national interests.This study also proves that Proximization Theory can facilitate the interpretation of media content with different ideologies,and enriches the field of Critical Discourse Analysis,making up for the lack of “emphasising on words but not context”,combining words,discourse spaces,and current contexts to achieve a multi-dimensional interpretation of discourse and deconstruction of ideology,providing new methods and perspectives for future research.The once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes in the international landscape.Facing the ever-changing and complex international society in the future,selecting typical issues of international concern to explore appropriate international discourse strategies and accumulate coping experience will play an important role in China’s mastery of international discourse and improvement of its status in the international community.