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Due to the prevalent use of English and the primary international status of United States, American news media are one of the most important vehicles to transmit China’s image to the readers all over the world. China’s image laid out in these media takes up a lion’s share in the process during which public opinions towards China are established and consolidated. Therefore, it is never too much to underscore the importance of researching how China is presented and depicted in the media of the United States.
1.2 Research Questions and Significance of the Study
This paper aims to investigate how China’s image is described and constructed in the coverage of American’s most popular media and what discourse devices are employed to achieve these goals. And a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach will be taken to illustrate the way language is utilized in the China-centered reports and examine how China’s image is distorted. With critical linguistic analysis, this study primarily intends to answer the following research questions.
1 What is China’s image constructed in American mainstream media?
2 What linguistic tools are employed by American media to inject the readers with negative impressions on China?
2 Literature Review
2.1 National Image
National image is not a new concept to most of Chinese people since the official media has long been emphasizing the gravity of building a favorable China image in international community .While its exact definition varies from version to version, a commonly accepted definition given by Liu Xiaoyan (2002:61-66) is that national image is a comprehensive reflection of impressions, opinions, attitudes and comments of the public and a sum of public emotions to the nation. This definition, however, obscures one of the most important means of conveyance of national image - media in building a country’s figure. In this regard, the author hereby adopts the definition of Wang Lijun (2008). National image is a sum of recognition and evaluation towards a particular country formed by the general public of a foreign country. It is a reflection of a country’s economic, political, military, technological impression established through an intricate process of communication. According to Wang, A country’s image, including material elements, spiritual elements, institutional elements, and cultural elements, is a representation of a country’s power and a nation’s spirit. As a valuable intangible asset, it also reflects a country’s comprehensive national strength.
Along with the gravity of a favorable image, specifically, a negative image may cause pervasive dissent and alienation from the rest of the world, whereas a positive image can help win international support and smooth national development. (Liu, 2002:61-66) Politically, a good national image renders a country a great discourse power on the international stage. Economically, the ability of finance, attracting foreign investments and tourists also has a positive correlation with the image of a country. Furthermore, a positive national image would help a country drum supports from other countries in international affairs.
China, a country which has enjoyed 30 years of fast economic development, is brought to the center stage in international community for its more and more crucial roles. However, its image, especially political image is often found “negative” in the reports from some prevalent American newspapers and magazines. Such image indicated does not only tarnish China’s reputation around the world, but also impedes the country’s diplomatic relations with other countries, leaving certainly no benefits to the world progress.（Xie, 2009）
2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical discourse analysis (often abbreviated to CDA) is first introduced by Fowler, Hodge, Kress and Trew in the book Language and Control, critical discourse analysis proposes that language has greater social significance and linguistic research should consider social environment and historical background and context of language (Xie,2009). Instead of focusing on “what” in language and language application, they put more emphasis on “Why” and “How” language is used. (Huang, 2006)