A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On Mattel's Recall Of Chinese-made Toys In The New York Times And China Daily

This thesis carries out a critical discourse analysis of two economic news reports in China Daily and The New York Times respectively. Both of them are on the world's largest toy company Mattel's recall of Chinese-made toys.Drawing upon Fairclough's three-dimensional model of CDA and Halliday's theory of Metafunctions, a new analytical framework is proposed. It adopts Fairclough's three-dimensional model of CDA as the basic theoretical framework and Halliday's theory of Metafunctions as the analytical tool. Within the framework, data analysis is conducted at the levels of text, discursive practice and social practice. At the level of text, the linguistic features are described under the headings of transitivity, mood and modality, and theme-rheme structure. At the level of discursive practice, discourse representations are discussed to study the intertextuality of news discourse. At the level of social practice, the data is situated in situational, institutional and social contexts to justify the interpretation made at the level of discursive practice.Findings reveal that the adopted news reports in both China Daily and The New York Times are principally objective, but favor of their own nations can't be concealed either. One reason for such journalistic practice of the two newspapers lies in that news media are in nature in service of governments. Besides, an unequal power relation between China and the United States is another influential reason. However, when it comes to international news, cultural factors play a decisive role in the representation of news discourses. It proves that economic news, commonly regarded as neutral, is not value-free but ideologically invested and determined by the underlying socio-cultural contexts.The findings imply that it is necessary to raise people's critical language awareness in news reading. Pedagogically, if it is possible, CDA should also be taught in schools' language courses as a supplement to linguistic knowledge to help promote language learners' awareness of how discourse molds readers' view. As we are in a global society, Chinese journalists must increase their awareness of the basic values of our own and other cultures to help foreigner know about China and accelerate China's integration with the international community.The significance of this research is threefold. First is the extension of research scope of CDA. Previously, CDA is interested in analyzing such news discourse as politics, racism, and gender discrimination. But little attention is paid to economic news reports in this field. Second, the proposed analytical framework is proved to be applicable. Fairclough's three-dimensional model of CDA and Halliday's theory of Metafunctions can be integrated in CDA. Last, it may help raise people's critical language awareness in news reading.