A Comparative Study Of Confucian Ecological Thought In News Discourse Of "COVID-19" And "SARS" In China Daily

The philosophy of “ecological civilisation” guides the construction of ecological progress of China in the new era and exerts profound influence on the world ecological value.The present study centres the meaning-making process of the philosophy of “ecological civilisation”: at the social level,the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19)reminds us of the importance of ecological protection to human civilisation.In fact,ecological warnings of this kind occurred in another outbreak—namely Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS)in 2003.Since that time the concepts of protecting animals,preventing environmental pollution and recovering ecological systems are no longer alien to the masses.From SARS to COVID-19,the course of ecological protection is gaining ground.At the national level,the Five-sphere Integrated Plan puts it on all fronts,incorporating it into every aspect and the whole process of achieving economic,political,cultural,and social progress.The 19 th National Congress further stresses the importance of“ensuring harmony between human and nature”.At present,the significance of ecological civilisation is so critical that information is publicised through both national policies and social media to construct and broadcast a narrative.News,too,is one among these means of publicisation.To construct ecological thought regarding ecological civilisation in news discourse is theoretically and practically meaningful to the social progress and moral ethics of the Chinese people.This thesis investigates the diachronic changes in Confucian ecological wisdom in news discourse relating to COVID-19 and SARS via discursive and contextual analyses of news discourse.A sample of anti-epidemic news reports on COVID-19 and SARS from the website of China Daily was collected.By combining corpus linguistics with the discourse–historical approach in critical discourse analysis,this thesis investigates the similarities and differences within ecological thought during these two outbreaks of disease via discursive and contextual analyses of news discourse,and visualises the discursive representation of ideology and culture to discover hidden causation in the social,political and cultural contexts.The study found that the news discourse of these two outbreaks shows an distinctive ecological orientation,which is mainly demonstrated by keywords relating to ecology.According to the analyses of discursive strategies,SARS and COVID-19 news discourses show a negative attitude towards ecologically destructive actions and a positive attitude towards ecologically beneficial actions.Additionally,according to discourse-historical approach,the historical and social contexts were included to conduct critical discourse studies,which showed that Confucian ecological wisdom of benevolence was implied in SARS news discourses,while Confucian ecological wisdom of harmony was conveyed in its counterpart COVID-19 corpus.The former is ethical,equal and self-reflective and the latter is characterised by diversity,inclusiveness and universality.From SARS to COVID-19,news discourse of outbreaks in China integrated Confucian ecological wisdom throughout,but became increasingly open,inclusive and active.This thesis provides guidance on enhancing public ecological awareness,promoting China’s international discursive impacts on ecological progress and developing mutual learning between different civilisations to a certain extent.The aim of the present study is to offer the discipline of CDA studies a new theoretical perspective,and practically advance more constructions of ecological civilisation through various media outlets so as to realize the transaction from theory to practice.