| With the deepening development of economic globalization and world multi-polarization,the world today is undergoing “profound changes unseen in a century.” In December 2019,the outbreak of COVID-19 threatened the safety and health of human life to a certain extent and posed huge challenges to the economic development of China and even the world,arousing the deep concern of people and the close attention of the media around the world.How has the Chinese government responded to this internationally public health emergency becomes an issue of international concern,and China has suddenly become the focus of international media.Western media led by America took the chance to public such statements as “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus,” distorting China’s national image and causing other countries to misunderstand China.After China accepted the sourcing investigation carried out by the World Health Organization,America has refused international cooperation in tracing the source of the virus and has been trying to blame China through news reports.At present,there are many studies on news reports of COVID-19,but few studies on virus origin of this pandemic,and most of them are conducted from the perspective of critical discourse analysis.The theory of Cultural Discourse Studies is the theoretical framework of this study,and a total of 50 valid news reports from January 1,2020 to December 31,2021 in the New York Times about the origin of novel coronavirus are selected as a self-built corpus.With the help of corpus tool Ant Conc 3.5.9,an analysis of the subjects,intents/forms,discursive strategies,purposes/effects,and cultural and historical factors hidden behind the discourse about virus origin of COVID-19 in the New York Times is carried out in this study.In order to complete the analysis better,the following four research questions are put forward: Who are the subjects in the news reports on virus origin of COVID-19 in the New York Times? What kind of discursive strategies are used and what are the intents/forms in the news reports? What are the purposes/effects of the news reports? What are the cultural and historical factors hidden behind the news reports?The major findings of this study are as follows:(1)The subjects in these news reports on virus origin of COVID-19 in the New York Times are mainly divided into two categories: foreign speakers and Chinese speakers.Each category includes six types of subjects: government and officials,experts and scholars,organizations and institutes,media,speakers with ambiguous identities,and the public.(2)As to the intents/forms,there are objective descriptions of tracing progress and difficulties,and some slanders in China in news reports.The analysis of discursive strategies involves the headlines and main body of news reports,including word selection and interrogative sentences in headlines,and the quotation and vagueness in main body of news reports.(3)In terms of purposes/effects,the objective descriptions can help readers understand the sourcing progress and difficulties,but news reports that try to distort the national image of China lead other countries to misunderstand China.(4)Based on cultural dimension theory and analysis of historical factors,there are the characteristics of individualism,low power distance,and shortterm orientation of American culture.Historically,deeply influenced by religious thoughts,America has always considered itself as the “God’s selection” and the “world police.” The characteristics of American culture and history lead to bias and misunderstanding of China in the news reports.This study not only further verifies the feasibility of interpreting the discourse of news reports with the theory of Cultural Discourse Studies,but also helps people correctly interpret the news reports on virus origin of COVID-19 in the New York Times.Besides,it provides references and examples for Chinese media workers to better report internationally public health emergencies. |
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