Critical Discourse Analysis Of New York Times’s Reports On Air Pollution In China

Nowadays, air pollution is a major threat to human health. China, as one of the big countries, has serious air pollution problem over 20 years. Different media have reported the problem from different perspectives. However, news is not the unbiased recording of realistic events. This thesis analyzes the ideology behind these reports by using critical linguistics.Critical discourse analysis, which is a subject that appeared in England at the beginning of 1980 s. It analyzes the social ideology behind the language structure and reveals the relationship between language, power and ideology by using semantic, pragmatic and social history of language. This research method is widely used in various types of discourse analysis up to now, such as novels, poems, academic work and mass media, etc.The data for the study collect from New York Times’ s website on the China’s air pollution issues within a fixed time period. All together, there are 35 essays about China’s air pollution. Based on the critical discourse analysis and the study on the 35 reports of New York Times about air pollution in China, this study answers two research questions: 1. What linguistic strategies are employed on the issue of China’s air pollution in New York Times? 2. What ideologies are implied in the New York Times reports on air pollution in China?The study makes a detailed critical analysis of news reports on air pollution within the three dimensional analytical framework of Norman Fairclough and Van Dijk’s structure theory. There are two findings in this study. Firstly, some linguistic tools such as headlines, over-lexicalization, semantic macrostructure and quotation analysis are adopted at the three stages. Secondly, through headline analysis, over-lexicalization, semantic macrostructure and quotations, New York Times enhances the complain against Chinese government, even builds a relatively negative image of China through criticizing the behavior of Chinese government dealing with air pollution issues.Through these analyses, the study not only aims at helping readers have an objective view of China and building a more positive international image of China, but also improving the readers’ screening and critical thinking ability.