The Construction Of China's National Identity In The Reports On Shenzhou Ⅵ By Chinese And American News Media

This study adopts multiple methods in the fields of pragmatics, Critical Discourse Analysis and rhetorics to make case studies of the reports on Shenzhouâ…¥by the Chinese and the American news media. The thesis studies the different methods applied by the two kinds of news media and their different political purposes in constructing China's national identity. The author selects six samples from the major media of the two countries, that is, China Daily, People's Daily, 21st Century in China; and Washington Post, New York Times and USA Today in the US. The coverage is from October 11th to 18th in 2005 which covers the launching and returning of Shenzhouâ…¥. The author analyzes the samples through the usage of presupposition, deixis, modality, lexical classification, news source and reporting modes, understatement, irony, generality and specificity. The research aims at revealing what stands and attitudes the news media of the two countries hold in constructing China's national identity.The study shows that, though the news media try to maintain the objectiveness of the news, conclusion can be drawn as follows: the Chinese news media construct a powerful, peaceful and prosperous image of China; while the US news media construct a showy image of China, which depends on other countries'technology. In a word, the two kinds of news media construct China's national identity differently.This study puts forward some suggestions to the traditional pedagogy in teaching English news; applies various research methods in linguistics; it expands the study of identity, which switches the focus to the construction of national identity. Meanwhile, this thesis may be used for reference to other researchers in the study of national identity.