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Media representations of the Chinese government in the Wuhan lockdown related events : a critical discourse analysis of China daily, New York times, the Guardian, and Reuters
Author
Liu, Miaomiao
Supervisor
Teo, Shi Ling
Abstract
This study compares the representations of the Chinese government in the Wuhan lockdown related events across four English-language news outlets, China Daily, New York Times, The Guardian, and Reuters, through the lens of critical discourse analysis. It aims to reveal how the Chinese government is differently represented with various linguistic resources. Adopting the transitivity analysis of Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar as the research framework, this study also employs other analytical tools. It first analyses the news headlines and quotation patterns of 13 selected news articles and continues to examine nuanced representations of the Chinese government with transitivity analysis in four media outlets. It reveals that China Daily and the three British/American news outlets have construed the Chinese government in a continuum with different degrees of positivity and negativity. China Daily portrays the government most positively, characterizing it as highly responsible and informative, and the Wuhan lockdown related activities are depicted as appropriate and legitimate under the guidelines of the World Health Organization. New York Times, in contrast, depicts the government most negatively, portraying it as authoritarian, exceptionally brutal and lacking in transparency due to excessive concern of face. The Guardian offers a factual and moderately negative image, depicting the Chinese government as draconian, irrational, lacking in transparency and a violator of human rights. Reuters presents it more factually and least negatively where the Chinese government is criticised on one hand for being draconian and lacking in transparency; Reuters also acknowledges the Chinese government for being committed and responding promptly. This study indicated that differentiated representations were revealed in the four news outlets and despite a predominant negative portrayal, positive representations can also be identified in the examined British/American news outlets.
Date Issued
2023
Call Number
P302.15.C6 Liu