A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Diaoyu Islands Issue Reports In The USA, UK And Japan

As a newly-developed linguistic branch, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) notonly concerns the structure and meaning of language but also takes language’sconcrete application in social discourses into consideration. With the lucubration tothe relationship between language and ideology, more and more linguists have begunto analyze the linguistic features of public discourses with the aid of CDA. As one ofthe main public discourses, although news discourses often emphasize theirobjectivity and credibility, they are indeed not ideology-free or completely objectivebut with hidden prejudice and subjectivity as the reported events happen under certainsocial background influenced by social, cultural and political aspects and thereporters’ value and ideologies will be transmitted to readers indirectly through thenews discourses. As a matter of fact, CDA is of great importance to the revelation ofthe hidden ideologies behind news discourses.In this thesis, fifteen news samples about the Diaoyu Islands issue are selectedfrom each medium of New York Times, The Guardian and Asahi Shimbun and arecompared with the aid of Fairclough’s Three-dimensional theory from three aspects:text, discourse practice and sociocultural practice. At the stage of text analysis, thelanguage features have been described and analyzed with the tools of transitivity,classification and transformation. At the stage of discourse practice analysis, theproduction and understanding of the news discourses have been interpreted from theaspects of news sources and reporting modes. At the stage of sociocultural practiceanalysis, the explanation has been made from the institutional contexts of the threemedia institutions and the international and societal contexts of the Diaoyu Islandsissue. Through the analysis of the three steps, the author intends to uncover theinter-relations of language, ideology and power and to discuss how news mediapenetrate different political stands to the news reports.The study has shown that the similarity of the three media is to fabricate anegative image of China with vulnerable economy, ambitions and full of violence andturbulence. Besides, they also deny China’s ownership of Diaoyu Islands and defameboth Chinese government and people. The minute differences in the three media are asfollows: New York Times describes China as a negative role with the most trenchanttone of the three media. The Guardian keeps responding to the appeals of the UnitedStates and keeps in mind to praise the United States in its news reports. As for Asahi Shimbun, it always emphasizes Japan as the victim so that readers will consider Chinashould be responsible for all that has happened. All of the media stand on the side oftheir governments and are representatives of the values of their own countries’political and economic systems. Therefore, readers should improve their criticalawareness and comprehend news reports of different countries’ media withappropriate attitude.