Critical Discourse Analysis Of The News Reports On Kunming Event And Woolwich Event In The New York Times

Terrorism is defined as violent acts or threat of violent acts, which intends to create fear or terror. Perpetrators use it to achieve religious, political, or ideological goals. Terrorist activities are condemned by people and countries around the world. However, terrorist activities unceasingly happened all over the world, which leads to the death of many innocent people. In May 22nd 2013, two people stabbed an off-duty police to death on a busy street in Woolwich, London, which is called Woolwich event. In March 1st 2014, several people carried out an attack at a train station in Kunming, Yunnan, leaving at least 29 innocent people dead and 130 wounded, which is called Kunming event. Both of the events caused great shock and criticism of their violent acts, and have attracted attentions domestically and internationally. And the New York Times reported the two events. What ideologies have been hidden in the reports on the two events is worth studying.The study adopts Fairclough’s Three-Model Dimension as the methodology and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar as the analytical tool. The corpus is selected from the New York Times respectively dated from May 22nd,2013 to June 22nd,2013 and from March 1st,2014 to April 1st,2014 in order to make a comparative study to find what ideologies in the reports on the two events are hidden, how they are reflected in the reports, and why such ideologies appear in the reports.The major findings are as follows:(1) In the reports on Kunming event, the reporters depict an autocratic Chinese government which prohibits any bad words from domestic citizens and foreign countries and tightly controls over people. However, in the reports on Woolwich event, the reporters put an emphasis on the quick actions of the British government towards the event, which depicts a good image of the British government, and try to lead readers to blame the assailants for their merciless attack. (2) In the reports on Kunming event, the sources from Uighurs and Han Chinese take up a large percentage and the sources reflect the sharp conflicts between Uighurs and Han Chinese. However, in the reports on Woolwich reports, the sources are mainly from the British officials who describe that the British government and officials have done great efforts towards the event. (3) The different ideologies in the reports on the two events are determined by institutional factors, societal factors, political factors, cultural factors, and so on.The theoretical significance of the study lies in that it is a beneficial attempt to apply CD A to analyze news reports. The practical significance of the study lies in that it helps to develop and improve critical reading ability and critical language awareness of English learners and teachers, and shows implications for English newspaper readers and teachers.