| Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is widely used to analyze all the types ofdiscourses such as novels, poetries, academic writings as well as mass mediadiscourses and so on. Today, more and more scholars and researchers pay attentionto the field of mass media to reveal the relationship between language and hiddenideologies behind the language by analyzing the public discourses. CDA primarilykeeps a watchful eye on public discourses because that people always passivelyaccept public discourses and public discourse exerts shaping effect upon the attitudeand ideology in a society. Among those things, news discourse in particular is worthspecial attention. News agencies always boast that they are always following theobjective and impartial principle in their reports.The current research focuses on the critical analysis of the reports on twoAmerican mainstream news media The Washington Post and Los Angeles Timesabout the capital city of China—Beijing’s air pollution problem under the theoreticalframework of Critical Discourse Analysis. This paper attempts to answer thefollowing three questions:(1) What linguistic devices are employed by Americannewspapers to present news relevant to air pollution of China?(2) What ideologiesare embedded in American news discourses, with regard to the issue of China’s airpollution?(3) How ideologies subtly influence reader’s cognition?The present thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces thepurposes, significance and methodology of the present research briefly. The secondchapter presents a brief review of the former researches of the critical discourseanalysis, and the previous critical studies on news discourses both abroad and athome. The third chapter introduces the theoretical basis of the thesis, this paperconducts analysis under Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional framework and Halliday’sSystemic-Functional Grammar. The selected news discourses are analyzed by someanalytical tools in the forth chapter, and the relationships between news discourse and the hidden ideology is revealed. The last chapter answers in conclusion, thequestions which are raised in the thesis. In addition, the limitations as well assuggestions for the further research are pointed out in this chapter.The analysis proves that news discourse could not possibly reproduce socialreality in an absolute objective and impartial way. Many linguistic devices areutilized in American news reports to present the news relevant to air pollution ofChina, for instance lexical choice, transitivity, transformation, mood, modality andso on. The systematic analysis of above linguistic devices in the paper shows thatconcerning the issue of air pollution and coping strategy, American newspapers carryhidden ideologies and accusation against China from the environmental andeconomic perspectives, and construe a relatively negative image of China, insinuatethe negative effects that brought by Chinese government against the smog. Howeverideologies exert constraining effect on the choices of potential linguistic forms andstructures available to discourse producer and influence reader’s cognition about theevent through the transformation from ideology to language. |
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