| Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a socially-oriented application of linguistic analysis, which adopts the concepts and methods associated with the systemic-functional linguistics developed by Halliday. It aims to make clear the relationships between language and its social conditions, especially the relationship between language and ideology, which has frequently been taken for granted as commonsense by most people. CDA aims to uncover those connections through linguistic analysis so as to help readers realize the ideologies hidden in the language and avoid accepting them passively or uncritically.This dissertation conducts a critical analysis of the 2008 Beijing Olympics-related news in People's Daily and The New York Times. By drawing upon the theory of critical discourse analysis, this dissertation conducts a textual analysis of some relevant news reports in both newspapers by applying the analytical methods in terms of lexical classification, derogatory vocabulary, transitivity, modality, and intertextuality. The author aims to show that there are ideologies and attitudes hidden in the seemingly objective and impartial language, which is the significance of the present research. This dissertation argues that the 2008 Beijing Olympics-related news discourse, like any discourse, is never an instrument neutrally conveying information, but ideologically invested. Therefore the dissertation aims first to provide a theoretical background and the analytical tools for the analysis of ideologies in the Beijing Olympics-related news discourse, and secondly to apply the analytical tools to six Olympics-related reports to examine how they represent ideologies through the use of language, for the purpose of revealing that the Beijing Olympics-related news items in the two newspapers, which seem to be neutral and impartial, are ideology-loaded.Fairclough's three-dimensional model is adopted as the analytical framework. In the practice of text analysis, the dissertation borrows the idea of Halliday's three metafunctions of language and examines the linguistic features of six news discourses from multiple angles such as lexical classification, transitivity, and modality. In the practice of discursive analysis, the concept of"intertextuality"is introduced to describe the phenomenon that discourses are connected and intertextuality is the process of inheriting, reforming and upgrading historical discourses. In the practice of social analysis, theories in the discipline of communication such as news value standard and news policy standard are applied to explain the differences among the six news discourses in material choice, emphasis, technique and ideological tendencies.The critical analysis of the six samples reveals that dominant ideologies are embedded in Olympics-related news, which directly or indirectly affects and controls the cognition of the public, and has important functions in shaping the attitudes and ideologies of the public. Through a comparative analysis of news coverage in the two newspapers, we find that the two newspapers show quite different ideologies. People's Daily highlights the Beijing Olympic themes of"Human-oriented Olympics","Technological Olympics", and"Green Olympics"in its news reporting. Through various Olympic reports, People's Daily creates the image of China as a vibrant, harmonious, and prosperous country which has made great achievements in its reform and opening up, and enjoys a high reputation in the world. However, The New York Times pays much more attention to the Chinese society other than the Olympic events. Although it recognizes the success of China in hosting the Beijing Olympics, The New York Times always involves something other than the Games such as human rights and the Tibet issue in its reporting. Its reports of China describe the Chinese Communist Party as a dictatorial party which treats its people rudely. Furthermore, China is distorted as a politically unstable country without any democracy. These negative descriptions of China not only impose derogatory impressions on the readers but also damage China's reputation in the world. These biased attitudes towards China are manifested by its news discursive strategies. American ideologies are embedded by The New York Times in the Olympic news reports, which on the surface seem to be impartial and unbiased. Finally, the dissertation achieves its original intention to promote the readers'critical sensibility and awareness when they read Olympics-related news so as to strengthen the anti-control awareness of public discourses. |
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