A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Mainstream Media Reports On Sino-US Trade War

This study collects relevant reports on the “Sino-US trade war” from July 6,2018,to February 29,2020 on the official websites of CGTN and CNN to build two closed corpora based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model,exploring the ideologies hidden behind them and explaining the causes.The linguistic characteristics of selected news discourses are analyzed from the textual dimension(word cloud,transitivity process,mood,modality,and thematic system);the process of generating news discourses is interpreted from the discursive practice dimension(reporting topics,reporting modes and news sources);the textual description and discursive practice of the analyzed discourse are explained from the social practice dimension(the perspective of socio-culture).The study finds that there are some differences between both media’s reporting language.In textual dimension,from the view of word clouds,although both use“China” as the main perspective,CGTN tends to introduce objective facts and conveys the Chinese attitude while CNN tries to describe “China” as the responsible party to cover up the US’s hegemony.From the perspective of three-meta functions:(1)CGTN uses more mental processes to reflect China’s attitude of peaceful development while CNN tries to use more verbal processes to increase its persuasiveness and affect readers’ understanding;(2)CGTN uses more median-value modal verbs while CNN tends to use more low-value modal verbs,and the use of modal verbs with different values is just a refection of reporter’s attitude.In discursive practice dimension,from the perspective of agenda-setting,CGTN mostly presents the expectation for a win-win situation while CNN mainly renders“China threat theory” and “Chinese original sin”.From the perspective of intertextuality,CNN selects and uses more direct quotes and quotes with a specific or implicit source,thus affecting reader’s opinions.Influenced by the unequal communication power and different socio-culturalfactors,the ideologies of the two media differ with each other.The underlying ideologies in CGTN’s reports:(1)China is more willing to reach a “win-win” situation with the US;(2)the US is responsible for the trade war;(3)the US-initiated trade war not only has adverse effects on China but also on the US and even the world;(4)China will actively respond to this trade war to defend its own legitimate interests.The underlying ideologies in CNN’s reports:(1)the US will be the winner of this trade war;(2)the US is dissatisfied with China’s approach to handling issues;(3)China violates the world market’s economic order and it should bear responsibility for the trade war;(4)China’s continuous development may affect the international status of the US.In conclusion,the readers should cultivate a critical reading awareness to correctly understand subjective attitudes conveyed by written news reports that are more or less influenced by certain factors.