A Corpus-Based Critical Discourse Analysis Of News Reports On National Security In China Daily And The New York Times

In recent years,with the emergence of various traditional and non-traditional security threats,national security has become a primary concern for many countries.Based on a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis,this study investigates and compares the discursive construction of national security from 2015 to 2021 in Chinese and American mainstream and authoritative media,i.e.,China Daily and The New York Times.Corpus tools Wmatrix and Lancs Box are adopted to conduct a microanalysis of linguistic features including keyword,collocation and concordances of the news reports,and the discoveries are explained through a macroanalysis of social contexts,as instructed by Critical Discourse Analysis.The major findings of this study are concluded as follows:(1)Both newspapers report on security types,threats,measures and actors.In both newspapers,traditional military security still plays a critical role,and non-traditional security types such as cybersecurity are gaining increasing attention.However,the security types in CD including food and public security are more people-oriented with people being an important referent object.In NYT,state is the major referent object,and security issues are concerned with other countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.(2)Regarding security threats,both newspapers report on terrorism and economic threats,but the NYT portrays various external threats in a more specific way to build a discourse of insecurity,constructing Russia,Iran,China,and Chinese tech companies like TikTok as threats.Apart from deconstructing the American China threat discourse,CD also focuses on domestic cybersecurity,biosecurity and health threats.(3)In CD,China adopts constructive security measures,defending its internal interests through law-based governance,international cooperation,peaceful and stable development.In NYT,both military tactics and sanctions serve as essential measures for the US aggressive security strategies.(4)Regarding security actors,central government is the main actor in China while actors in the U.S.are more diverse including national security adviser,council,agency and secretary.(5)Both CD and NYT perceive China and the U.S.as the main security concerns,and have a positive self-portrayal and negative portrayal of each other as hegemonic U.S.and authoritarian China,respectively.(6)National security discourse is the result of complex social,political,and discursive constructions.The different discursive constructions of national security are influenced by the different sociopolitical backgrounds in and power struggles between China and the U.S.Combining Corpus Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis,this study supplements the existing studies on national security media discourse based on large corpus data.It conduces to a better understanding of not only the practices of national security governance in the two major powers but also the underlying values,ideologies and power relations that contribute to the different constructions of national security in China and the U.S.