A Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On Arms Sales To Taiwan In The New York Times And China Daily

The thesis carries out a comparative analysis of the related reports about arms salesto Taiwan in The New York Times and China Daily from the perspective of CDA.This thesis proposes the analytical framework which combines NormalFairclough’s three-dimensional model with Halliday’s theory of Metafunctions. Itadopts Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDA as the basic theoreticalframework and Halliday’s theory of Metafunctions as the analytical tool. Within theframework, discourse analysis is conducted at the levels of text, discursive practice andsocial practice. At the text level, the linguistic feature of transitivity, lexicalclassification and modality is analyzed. At the level of discursive practice, theintertextuality of news discourse from the news source and mode of discourserepresentation is studied. At the level of social practice, the institutional, situational andsocial contexts are examined and justified the interpretation made at the level ofdiscursive practice. How the three levels express the hidden ideology is explored.Findings demonstrate that the data in The New York Times and China Daily arebasically objective. However, concerning China’s stance towards the event, The NewYork Times reflects the skillful ability of manipulating the discourse which is seeminglyimpartial but actually hostile. Compared with the reports of The New York Times, ChinaDaily is better committed to the news principle of objectivity. As we all know, massmedia are undeniably in the service of their governments. The unequal power relationsbetween U.S. and China greatly affect the way of describing the event closely related tothe two nation’s interests, especially the large military sales package with regard to thenational sovereignty and security. So it is inevitable that the two newspapers are in favorof their own nations. Certainly, cultural factors play a decisive role in the representationof international news discourses. The study indicates that the military news discoursesare also ideologically embedded and subjected to the socio-cultural contexts. Newsdiscourse does not simply reflect the fact, which presents the society and constructs it atthe same time.The significance of this study is as follows: a) It narrows the political discoursescope into the specific military reports study of CDA. This thesis discloses that themilitary reports are also the important carrier of ideology. b) It is feasible to conductCDA of news reports by incorporating Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of CDAand Halliday’s theory of Metafunctions. c) It helps raise people’s critical language awareness in news reading and is of practical significance in English teaching andjournalism to some extent. It is necessary to arouse people’s cultural awarenessbecause ideology is always embedded in news discourses.