A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reports on Sino-Japan Boat Collision

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) aims to reveal the embedded ideologies by integrating the textual analysis with the wider socio-cultural context and further brings to light the relationship among language, power and ideologies. Based upon the theoretical framework of Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, the paper makes a critical discourse analysis of the ten news reports from China Daily and New York Times respectively. The study shows that news discourse could not simply reproduce social reality in an absolute objective and unbiased way. The choice of linguistic forms carries particular ideological orientations. Theoretically, it validates that CDA is an effective tool in revealing the relationship between language and ideologies. It also proves that Fairclough’s three-dimensional model can be applied in the study of news discourse. Practically, it draws people’s attention to the ideologies embedded in news discourse and encourages them to improve their critical reading.