Critical Contrastive Analysis Of "the Belt And Road Initiative" News Reports In The Major Chinese And American Newspapers Based On Three-dimensional Model

President Xi Jinping proposes “the Belt and Road Initiative”,namely “the Silk Road Economic Belt” and “the 21 st Century Maritime Silk Road” in September and October of2013 during his visit to Central Asia and Southeast Asia.The initiative has attracted plenty of attention from the news media at home and abroad since its proposal.However,not all news reports are as objective as they claim to be.With critical discourse analysis as the analytical perspective,Fairclough's three-dimensional model as the analytical framework and qualitative and quantitative methods as the analytical methods,the thesis makes a contrastive analysis of the news reports on the initiative in the major Chinese and American newspapers,namely China Daily and New York Times for the purpose of finding out the hidden ideologies behind the news reports and the reasons for the differences of the ideologies in these two papers.The thesis picks up seven news reports on the initiative from China Daily and New York Times respectively and through the analysis on word classification and transitivity at the stage of description,the analysis on news source and reporting mode at the stage of interpretation and the analysis of the differences of economy,politics and socio-culture between China and America at the stage of explanation attempts to answer the following questions: 1)What are the differences between the news reports on“the Belt and Road Initiative” in China Daily and those in New York Times at the stage of description based on three-dimensional model? 2)What are the differences between the news reports on “the Belt and Road Initiative” in China Daily and those in New York Times at the stage of interpretation based on three-dimensional model? 3)What are the reasons that account for these differences based on three-dimensional model?The research shows that,at the descriptive stage,the first three most frequently used transitivity process types are material process,verbal process and relational process.China Daily mainly reports the executing procedure of the initiative,the positive influences of the initiative on regional or world economy,safety,diplomatic relations,other countries' positive attitude to the initiative and other countries' support for the initiative.While on the other hand,New York Times shows its doubt about the intention of the initiative and query of the prospect of the initiative and criticizes China,communism and the countries that cooperate with China.At the interpretive stage,the specific news source is the most frequently used news source both in China Daily and New York Times and indirect discourse is the most frequently used reporting mode in these two newspapers.China Daily uses these news sources and reporting modes to build a positive and responsible image of China and Chinese initiative.While New York Times uses these news sources and reporting modes to express their doubts towards China and Chinese initiative.The reasons for the differences in the news reports on “the Belt and Road Initiative” in China Daily and New York Times can be concluded in political,economic and socio-cultural aspects.The thesis may further prove the indispensable role of critical discourse analysis in the disclosure of hidden ideologies in the news reports.The thesis may also help the readers to realize how China Daily and New York Times convey their ideologies in the news reports on the initiative in the language choices of the news reports and it may be helpful for the readers to cultivate a critical thinking of reading.