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The Olympic torch relay : a critical analysis of U.S. and Chinese news reporting
Author
Zhang, Quanle
Supervisor
Kramer-Dahl, Anneliese
Teo, Peter
Abstract
This research focuses on a comparative study of the news reports of China’s English newspaper, China Daily (CD), and the American newspaper, New York Times (NYT), to investigate their constructions of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Torch Relay through critical discourse analysis. By analyzing the linguistic strategies and devices used by the reports, it undertakes to probe into the relationship between the representation of the news events and the ideological motivations behind the newspapers.
This research adopts the three-dimensional analytical model of Norman Fairclough and the analytical tools provided by the systemic functional grammar of M. A. K. Halliday. It first focuses on the headlines, macro-structures and quotation patterns of 20 reports on the torch relay and then examines the transitivity pattern and lexical choice of two selected reports. The analysis shows that while CD constructs the torch relay as a joyous occasion for celebrating global friendship and harmony, NYT represents it as an event marked by disruptions and chaos relating to human rights. These vastly divergent constructions of the torch relay indicate that CD aims to convey to the world the rise of China and thus establishes an image of harmony and openness. In contrast, NYT tries to highlight the “human rights issue” that America believes plagues China.
This research reveals that China resorts to nationalism to rally its people and make them feel proud of the Beijing Olympics while America uses its emphasis on human rights and democracy to show its disapproval of China in such areas. This analysis also indicates that CD tends to serve the strategic needs of the country while NYT tends to challenge established social orders.
This research adopts the three-dimensional analytical model of Norman Fairclough and the analytical tools provided by the systemic functional grammar of M. A. K. Halliday. It first focuses on the headlines, macro-structures and quotation patterns of 20 reports on the torch relay and then examines the transitivity pattern and lexical choice of two selected reports. The analysis shows that while CD constructs the torch relay as a joyous occasion for celebrating global friendship and harmony, NYT represents it as an event marked by disruptions and chaos relating to human rights. These vastly divergent constructions of the torch relay indicate that CD aims to convey to the world the rise of China and thus establishes an image of harmony and openness. In contrast, NYT tries to highlight the “human rights issue” that America believes plagues China.
This research reveals that China resorts to nationalism to rally its people and make them feel proud of the Beijing Olympics while America uses its emphasis on human rights and democracy to show its disapproval of China in such areas. This analysis also indicates that CD tends to serve the strategic needs of the country while NYT tends to challenge established social orders.
Date Issued
2012
Call Number
P302 Zha
Date Submitted
2012