TITLE:
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Different News Reports on the Same Event: Illustrated with Examples from China Daily and The Guardian
AUTHORS:
Xiaofan Yu, Haicui Zheng
KEYWORDS:
Critical Discourse Analysis, Three-Dimensional Framework, News Reports
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.11,
October
24,
2022
ABSTRACT: Since the 1970s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has been widely
applied to the analysis of news reports. News report, as a kind of public
discourse, conveys its state’s political position and ideology and influences
its readers’ opinions. The study takes
Fairclough’s Three-dimensional Model as theoretical framework, analyzing
and comparing 10 reports from The Guardian and China Daily (5 samples each) from the perspectives of wording,
modality, news sources, and sociohistorical contexts. Through analysis,
the study attempts to illustrate different images constructed in the two media
and the two newspapers’ different attitudes towards the Extradition Bill
Incident. The results show that the news
reports in China Daily and The Guardian do differ a lot. The Guardian uses a bunch of derogatory words to describe the police, while deliberately filters information to
glorify the criminal actions of the protesters; it uses “may” and “would” to impose
groundless speculation on Chinese central government and adopts protesters’
remarks for many times. The Guardian shapes a righteous and brave image of protesters, and a brutal image of police,
expressing its support for protesters. China Daily shows the efforts the police have made for the
peace of Hong Kong and the wrongdoings of
protesters with substantial behavioral descriptions; it uses “will”, “should” and “must” to show China’s resolution and action to wind down the riots, and
express strong condemnation for what the protesters have done, building a
positive and responsible image of the police.