A Comparative Study On The Chinese Image Construction Of Anti-COVID-19 Documentaries From The Perspective Of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

With the development of new media,the object of discourse analysis has been gradually shifted from verbal discourse to multimodal discourse,in which meanings are represented and communicated through multiple of symbolic resources such as images,sounds,and gestures.During the COVID-19 pandemic,documentaries are an important multimodal means for China to tell its anti-COVID-19 stories to the world and for the world to learn more about China.At present,relevant research is mostly conducted in the field of media research,and few adopts a contrastive linguistic approach or combines multimodal discourse analysis and image construction.This study chooses the CGTN documentary and the BBC documentary on the lockdown in Wuhan as corpus to conduct a comparative study on the construction of Chinese image from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis.Drawing on van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network framework,this thesis constructs a model of multimodal discourse analysis for image construction,and adopts qualitative and quantitative research methods over the corpus.The two documentaries are analyzed and compared in three dimensions,namely the constructed Chinese images,the multimodal representations of social actors,and the interaction between representations and viewers.After that,explanations with respect to social-cultural context and underlying ideologies are given.The major findings include:(1)In terms of the constructed Chinese image,the images constructed by the CGTN documentary are more comprehensive and enriched in that it includes representations of ten types of social actors,which portrays Chinese as people who are diligent,dedicated and optimistic in the face of COVID-19,and Chinese government as a responsible image that cares about people’s lives and health and effectively fights against the COVID-19.Chinese images constructed by BBC documentary are relatively not enriched.Only four types of social actors are included,in particular,a bunch of given characters facing COVID-19 such as a nurse who is infected with COVID-19 and a selfless volunteer who helps to deliver medicines.(2)In terms of the multimodal representations of social actors,the CGTN documentary does not clearly exclude some social actors,while the BBC documentary only characterizes several specific social actors,and clearly excludes others.Social actors in the two documentaries are both more frequently characterized as “agents”,reflecting enthusiasm and initiative.The CGTN documentary is more balanced in the use of general representations and specific representations,while the BBC documentary focuses on specific representations to depict social actors.The CGTN documentary uses a combination of group and individual representations,while the BBC documentary represents social actors more as individuals.(3)In terms of the multimodal interaction between representations and viewers,the two documentaries both use more close-ups to show the specific details of the social actors in the social distance dimension.In the social relation dimension,both documentaries focus on depicting social actors from eye level.In the social interaction dimension,the CGTN documentary mainly uses indirect address of social actors while BBC documentary mainly uses direct address.(4)In terms of the social context and underlying ideologies,the lockdown policy has been actively supported and strictly implemented by the general public in China,while such policy has not received widespread support and strict compliance of the western people.Such differences can be associated with Chinese collective consciousness and western individualism.Accordingly,the CGTN documentary is used to show and publicize China’s efforts throughout the country during the lockdown in Wuhan due to COVID-19,while the BBC documentary mainly shows the living status of Chinese people under the lockdown policy and the government’s control over common people.This study provides a new perspective for comparing documentaries about COVID-19 and unveiling the ideologies hidden behind.Besides,the study is conducive to the spread of Chinese image.