Critical Analysis Of Reported Speech In News Discourse

The development of mass media has largely increased the influence of culture andideology. News discourse appears to be objective and impartial, but in fact it implicitlyconveys various ideologies which have subtle influence on the readers. Critical discourseanalysis aims to reveal ideologies that are not explicitly expressed and analyse how theseideologies are conveyed through different language resources.News discourse is, to a large degree, about what people say and how they say. Reportedspeech accounts for a large portion in news reports. The early researches on reported speechfocus on those in literary works. With the start of non-literary discourse analysis, researcherscome to realize that the study on the function of reported speech in news discourse isinseparable from analysis of specific context, which reveals some important informationconcerning the international situation and the political background in which the newsdiscourse is produced.Based on Fariclough’s three-dimensional model (1995), and Xin Bin’s classification ofreported speeches (2005), the research studies reported speech in news reports on DiaoyuIslands issue from China Daily and New York Times as regard as news sources, reportingmodes and reporting verbs. This thesis aims to examine the distribution features andpragmatic functions of reported speech in news discourse and how the reporters make use ofthese reported speeches to convey their own stances and eventually safeguard the ideologiesand values of the group they represent.Through quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data, it is found that there exist somedifferences in the reported speech from the two newspapers. Firstly, among all the reportedspeeches in China Daily, accurate news source accounts for58.04%while in New York Timesimplicit news source accounts for57.39%, which indicates that China Daily is more objectivethan New York Times. In New York Times, news sources from Japan are17more than onesfrom China so that the voices from Chinese side are weakened. Secondly, both newspapershave a stronger tendency to make use of indirect speech to blur the voices of reporters and speakers so that readers are not sure whose voice it is. In addition, the ratio of direct speech inboth newspapers is nearly the same. However, many direct speeches from Chinese side arefollowed by negative comments. Thirdly, in both newspapers, neutral reporting verbs take upthe largest proportion,85.88%(CD) and88.34%(NYT) respectively, which increases theobjectivity and creditability of the news reports, but in New York Times, many neutralreporting verbs in the reported speeches from Chinese side are modified by vocabulary withderogatory connotation, and most of the positive reporting verbs are used in reported speechesfrom Japanese side. In a word, the stance and attitude of China Daily and New York Times onDiaoyu Islands issue are clearly revealed by the data analysis. China Daily tries to conveyChinese government’s and people’s determination to safeguard Chinese territory while NewYork Times portrays a bulling, irresponsible and dictatorial image of China. On the issue ofDiaoyu Islands, New York Times is found to be on the side with Japan.In general, newspaper employs reported speech to show objectivity. However, throughanalyses, it is found that the reporters make skillful choices among different reported speechesaccording to their nature and function so as to influence the readers’ attitude toward newsevent. The thesis can help readers to enhance their critical language awareness and criticalreading skill so that they can reanalyse the contents of reports and dig out the hiddenideologies in news discourse.