On Cultural Misreading In English News Reports From A Cross-Cultural Perspective

English news report, as a communicative medium, has become an important part of people’s life. However, the phenomena of cultural misreading in English news reports occur from time to time, affecting normal cross-cultural communication. This thesis starts with the variables of cross-cultural communication and analyzes reporters’ cultural misreading in English news reports and readers’misreading caused by reporters’use of language, on the basis of the misreading theory from perspectives of hermeneutics and cultural relativism. The thesis arrives at the conclusion that cultural misreading is common in English news reports. Most misreading phenomena happen in an unconscious way. Within the theoretical framework of cross-cultural communication, the thesis summarizes the phenomena of cultural misreading in English news reports into mainly five categories at two levels, including misreading of perceptual elements such as worldviews and cultural values and misreading of verbal language like diction, rhetorical devices and cultural images.Cultural misreading is an inevitable phenomenon in English news reports because the differences between cultures can never be diminished. Generally speaking, different thinking patterns, different cultural backgrounds, and different values and ideology are causes of cultural misreading in English news reports. The effects of cultural misreading are two-sided. Cultural misreading, if interpreted in an adaptive way, can promote cultural development. But most of the time, it results in the failure in cross-cultural communication and would build negative national images. It even leads to severe cultural conflicts. To solve the problem of cultural misreading in English news reports, reporters and readers should make full use of its positive effects and try to get rid of its negative effects. They are advised to have a comprehensive understanding of other cultures as well as cultural differences, to abandon prejudice and ethnocentrism in interpreting cultural misreading, and to develop cultural tolerance.