A Discourse Study Of Western Mainstream Media Coverage Of China’s Haze(2011-2021)

As global warming and ecological problems become increasingly prominent,the concern for climate change and ecological governance has increased worldwide,and environmental issues have become one of the most important issues affecting international relations and international public opinion.As the world’s largest developing country,China has been committed to ecological construction and environmental protection,and its initiatives in climate control have been widely watched by the international community.On October 31,2011,the U.S.Embassy Beijing Twitter account "Beijing Air" posted 16 AQI(Air Quality Index)readings,10 of which exceeded the "dangerous" value of 300,drawing widespread attention to China’s haze problem and making the related air pollution issue a focus of international discussion.In the following decade,China has continued to drive green and low-carbon transformation,consolidated and increased the results of pollution control,and introduced a number of environmental management policies,the ecological and environmental quality has been continuously improved.2021,the average ratio of good air quality days in 339 cities at the prefecture level and above reached 87.5%,and the annual average air quality index was stabilized at the normal level,China’s haze problem after ten years of treatment The problem has been effectively alleviated.At the same time,media reports on haze are also on the decline.In the past decade,international media coverage of the haze problem in China has mainly focused on the generation and attribution of the haze phenomenon,and many of the reports selectively ignored the Chinese government’s determination and progress in combating the air pollution problem,with obvious subjective bias.Therefore,in order to understand the mirror image of China’s haze problem presented by Western media,this study selected the New York Times and The Guardian,the representative media in the UK and the US,and collected a sample of 225 reports after screening the decade from 2011 to 2021 as a time point.By combining Fairclough and Van Dijk’s discourse analysis theory,using content analysis and discourse analysis,the study analyzes the dynamic presentation of Western mainstream media reports on China’s haze and analyzes the discourse construction methods and influencing factors from both macro and micro perspectives,so as to understand the international mainstream media’s tendency and attitude toward reporting on China’s environmental issues.It also provides some reference for Chinese media to respond to international public opinion in a more targeted manner and enhance the communication power and influence of Chinese environmental issues.Specifically,this study first analyzes the content of two international media reports on China’s haze in terms of the number of reports,reporting genres,reporting tendencies,sources,and thematic frameworks,and shows that the reports are cyclical;the reporting genres are mainly news and newsletters,which are longer in length;the sources reflect the characteristics of diversity and civilianism;the content of the reports focuses on shaping the risky factual framework,and a large number of reports The content of the stories focuses on framing risk facts,and a large number of stories have a negative bias and ignore facts.Secondly,the study uses discourse analysis to analyze the text of the reports,and through the interpretation of discourse rhetoric and style,it shows the mirror image of China’s environmental imbalance between people and the environment in the pursuit of economic growth as constructed by the Western media.Finally,the study suggests countermeasures for the future discourse construction and international communication of environmental issues in China in light of the discursive construction characteristics of the Western media on Chinese environmental issues.