A Comparative Study Of2012English Olympic Reports In Chinese And Western Media From Adaptation Theory

For sports world,2012London Olympic Games is another feast. Through the media, the world witnessed the London Olympic Games. As an important component of mass media, newspapers play an irreplaceable role in the dissemination. People get a large portion of the Olympic information from newspapers. Nowadays, many countries have published English newspapers, even China has its own English newspaper-China Daily. However, we can not help to ask if the news published in English-speaking countries are the same as those in non-English-speaking countries?This thesis is a comparative study of the2012London Olympic English news reports in China Daily, The Los Angeles Times and The Guardian under the framework of adaptation theory. The methods used are mainly theoretical, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and comparison, not only including the micro-analysis of the language features, but also containing the macro-analysis of context. Through the analysis of the English Olympic news reports, the thesis summarizes the similarities and differences of the news reports in China and major western countries on the basis of adaptation theory.The data cited in this thesis are2012London Olympic English news reports from the main newspapers in China, the States, and the UK. All data used are quoted from their respective official internet websites:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/, http://www.latimes.com/, and http://www.guardian.co.uk/.As can be seen from the analysis, there truly exist some similarities and differences in the English Olympic news reports due to different reasons. And the choice of the language is not only the adaptation to the objective context but also the adaptation to the reporters’ subjective reasons.The analysis aims to enable the readers have a deeper and clear understanding of the Olympic sports news, not to obey blindly. And then as for the journalists, it aims to enhance the sense of their social responsibility of media information dissemination. On the one hand, they should spread the information effectively, and on the other hand they should prevent spreading bad information. The application of the adaptation theory to Olympic sports news has great significance. It not only enriches the study of the adaptation theory and the news research, but also helps the English learners.The thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter1is the introduction of this research. Chapter2summarizes the literature review of linguistic adaptation theory and news. Chapter3is the theoretical framework-Verschueren’s adaptation theory. The reports analyzed in this thesis are mainly under the framework of the main part of adaptation theory. Chapter4is the body. It analyzes and compares the2012London Olympic English reports in newspapers through concrete data and examples under the framework of the main points of adaptation theory, then summarizes the similarities and differences of the Olympic English news reports in China and major western countries. Chapter5is the conclusion which includes the major findings, limitations and suggestions of the thesis.