A Discourse-Historical Analysis Of News Reports On U.S. Restraining Huawei

As a kind of media information,news reports play an important role in modern society,which mainly focuses on narration.News reports inevitably reveal certain viewpoints and value tendencies while presenting events.Therefore,it is necessary to have clear judgment and analyze with a critical sight when reading news.As a leader in 5G field,Huawei has grown rapidly in recent years and also contributes to China’s leadership in 5G.On May 15,2019,the U.S.announced that Huawei and its subsidiaries were added in the Entity List under export control.Mainstream media in China and the United States have also carried a lot of coverage.This paper selects news reports on this event published in The Washington Post and China Daily between May and December 2019.Based on Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach,this paper tends to find the values and attitudes conveyed by the mainstream media in China and the United States through a comparative analysis of discursive strategies and contextual components respectively.The following three questions are answered in specific:(1)What are the differences of discursive strategies used in the news reports of the U.S.restraining Huawei between China Daily and The Washington Post?(2)What are the contextual components used in China Daily and The Washington Post?(3)What are the hidden ideologies expressed through discursive strategies and contextual components in China Daily and The Washington Post?The study found that the mainstream media in China and the United States differs in their attitudes toward the U.S.sanctions against Huawei in the following two ways:1.The linguistic features are different in terms of disc ursive strategies.(1)In nomination strategy,the U.S.mainstream media chooses negative representations to describe Huawei,portraying Huawei as an out-group image that is dangerous to the U.S.;the Chinese mainstream media selects positive representatio ns to describe Huawei,constructing Huawei as a positive in-group image,expressing strong dissatisfaction with the unrestrained tactics of the US,and using negative representations to describe a series of illegal actions such as sanctions against Huawe i by the US.(2)In the predication strategy,the selected reports have obvious differences in linguistic features such as predicates,adjectives,and parallel structures.The Washington Post views Huawei as a threat and adopts a negative discourse description,while China Daily criticizes the unreasonable sanctions from The US and adopts a positive discourse description of Huawei.(3)In terms of argumentation strategy,The Washington Post uses history,law,danger and threat topoi to argue the rightness of sanctioning against Huawei,while China Daily uses history and number topoi to argue the short-sightedness of the US.(4)In the perspectivization strategy,this paper analyzes direct speech and quotation marks to determine the attitudes of both China and the United States toward Huawei.The Washington Post expresses its approval of sanctions against Huawei,but China Daily expresses its disapproval of such actions as the U.S.damaging Huawei’s reputation and supports Chinese companies seeking trade fairness.(5)In intensification strategy,The Washington Post uses questions and hyperbole to emphasize that restrictions on Huawei cannot be eased,while China Daily uses questions to stress that U.S.sanctions against Huawei are politically motivated.2.Contextual components influence the attitude s of medias.This study focuses on situational context,socio-historical context,technological context and political context to find out that the government influences the direction of media opinion and makes the media serve the national interest in different ways.The image construction of Huawei and C hina by American mainstream media will be affected by factors such as American hegemony and ‘America First’;And Chinese mainstream media adheres to China’s usual principle of seeking truth from facts to reveal the real reason for Huawei’s sanctions.Combined with contextual factors,the analysis uses non-verbal features to provide an in-depth interpretation of the reasons behind the Huawe i case and is helpful to better explain the differences in their positions and values.Through comparative analysis,this study is not only helpful to reveal the differences between the two mainstream media in attitudes and values,but also help s readers to use critical thinking to read news reports and enhance their pragmatic awareness.