A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On Expo 2010 Shanghai In American Mainstream Media

Critical discourse analysis aims to explore the dialectical relationship between discourse and ideology and to reveal the underlying ideologies hidden in the language. It provides theories and methods for the study of news discourse, which is helpful for the readers and researchers to know about the news reporters'real intentions and the historical and social background of the news discourse.This thesis is a study about the news reports on Expo 2010 Shanghai in the American mainstream media, with the aim to unveil the hidden messages and underlying ideologies and examine the image of China depicted in American media through the analysis of news discourse. The analyzing data is selected from four American mainstream newspapers, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Wallstreet Journal, the publication time is from August 14, 2009 to November 2, 2010, i.e. from the early preparation period to the very end of the Expo. The detailed analysis is conducted based on the theoretical framework of Fairclough's three-dimensional model and Halliday's systemic-functional grammar, and it is carried out at three stages, namely, description, interpretation and explanation. To analyze the linguistic features at the textual level is the main concern at the stage of description, and news language is analyzed from the perspective of lexical classification and transformation. At the stage of interpretation, the present researcher mainly does intertextual analysis on the reported speech in terms of news source, reporting modes and reporting verbs. After critical analysis of the news samples at descriptive and interpretative stages, the American news reporters'skills of controlling language become clear, and the embedded ideologies have been revealed. Therefore, at the stage of explanation, the social, historical, cultural and economic factors which affect the construction of news discourse are analyzed respectively.The research illustrates that the American mainstream media make negative descriptions about the Expo held in Shanghai, China and they try every means to distort China's image. The news discourse is not neutral and far from value-free, but ideology-driven and controlled by the power. It is proved that CDA is applicable in offering effective analytical tools to expose the hidden ideologies in the research of news discourse on Expo. It is suggested in this thesis that people's critical reading awareness should be raised and China should strengthen the international exchange, improve the means of news communication, and create the top media brand of China.