A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected News Reports on the “Virtual Meeting Between President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden” 关于“中美元首视频会晤”中外新闻语篇的批评性话语分析开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

1.introduction1.1 research backgrounda virtual meeting between chinese president xi jinping and us president joe biden kicked off on november 16, 2021. the meeting, which followed two phone calls between the two leaders in february and september, went on for three-and-a-half hours. the presidents had in-depth exchanges on issues of strategic, overarching and fundamental importance that shape the development of bilateral relations and on important issues of mutual interest. at present, both china and the us are at critical stages of development, and the "global village" of humanity faces multiple challenges. as the world's two largest economies and permanent members of the un security council, china and the us need to increase communication and cooperation, each run their domestic affairs well and, at the same time, shoulder their share of international responsibilities, and work together to advance the noble cause of world peace and development. this is the shared desire of the people of the two countries and around the world, and the joint mission of chinese and american leaders. the meeting is a crucial diplomatic event, which not only helps strengthen mutual understanding between the two sides, but also increases the international community's positive expectation of china-us relations, sending a strong signal to the two countries and the world at large.since ancient times, the survival of mankind and the development of civilization have always been accompanied by information dissemination activities (wang, 2011). at present, the process of globalization is accelerating and international relations are becoming increasingly complex. mass media play an unshakable role and status in promoting social information exchanges, and they are also important media for people to perceive the world and connect with the world. the public tends to believe that the news reports in the mass media are true and reliable. news reporting serves as an indispensable channel for people to acquire knowledge about the diplomacy between china and the america and in the meantime, influences social values and beliefs via news texts. the public are inclined to treat news as reflection of truth, for the professional concept of the news media advocates objectivity and impartiality. however, news is not neutral as is claimed. fairclough points out that the way to transfer news into text "can be seen as an ideological process of considerable social importance" (fairclough, 1995: 65). newspapers cater to the interests of specific groups and convey their own stances and attitudes between the lines in a subtle way. as such, it is necessary and conducive to expose the ideology embedded in news language. critical discourse analysis (cda), which emerged in the 1970s, is an important means of revealing the underlying ideologies and power relations in news discourses owing to its combination of linguistics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology (widdowson, 1995). the cda of news reports can not only improve the audience's awareness of the ideologies and power relations concealed behind discourses, but also prevent the audience from being influenced and misled by news reports. cda pays close attention to inequalities and injustices in society and provides an effective means to explore the real meaning and purpose of news reports.china daily and the new york times choose different expressions and hold different media stances to report the virtual meeting between president xi jinping and us president joe biden. therefore, this study selects relevant news reports from china daily and the new york times to deeply understand the meaning behind discourses and explore the attitudes of these two media.1.2 significance of the studythe research makes an analysis of 20 texts in order to figure out the similarities and differences in chinese and us newspaper reports on virtual meeting between chinese president xi jinping and us president joe biden. three aspects are looked into by applying cda. the first aspect is to find out the reporting focuses in chinese and us newspaper coverage of this conference. the second aspect is to unravel ideologies that are reflected in those reporting focuses. the third is to figure out factors that affect the formation of ideologies. this thesis is designed to conduct a critical discourse analysisof news reports on the virtual meeting between chinese president xi jinping and us president joe biden under the theoretical framework of fairclough's three-dimensional model and halliday's systemic-functional grammar. the research significance is summarized as follows.first and foremost, the present study attempts to inject vitality into cda. by employing probabilistic method for analyzing linguistic devices, at the same time, it can broaden research scope of ca by applying cda to the understanding of political news. this is because the previous studies of da on political news discourse are far from enough and leave room for further supplement.secondly, as ca implies, media discourse forms versions of reality and also intervenes the social construction of reality. this study involves specific diplomatic affairs between china and the usa and shows the process and current state of sino-us diplomacy, which is helpful to analyze the essence of this virtual meeting and grasp the current situation.thirdly, this research intends to enhance the readers' critical consciousness. ideological assumptions behind discourse come to be taken as "common sense" that is actually in the service of sustaining unequal relations of power (fairclough, 1989). the public take such implicit assumptions for granted and seldom reflect on, question or challenge them. when people read varieties of news reports, they should interpret the news reports from a historical and open perspective, get rid of ideological control, and form their own opinions and attitudes. this thesis tries to explain the different ideologies concealed in american and chinese media, which can help readers gain insight into the two countries from political, economic, and cultural aspects. in a more and more interdependent and dynamic global village, it is essential to reinforce mutual understanding and establish more effective dialogue mechanism for the sake of peace diplomacy and interaction of other forms.2.literature review2.1introduction to cdacritical discourse analysis (cda) is an interdisciplinary approach to the study ofwritten and spoken texts that views language as a form of social practice and aims todisclose the relations of discourse, power and ideology (fairclough, 1995). news discourse has long beenestablished as a major research subject in cda studies. as huang (2008) notes that newsdiscourse, like any other types of discourse, incorporates or reflects the journalists' stanceand viewpoint and therefore, cannot be an absolutely objective reflection of truth and socialreality.2.2previous studies on news discourse from cda perspectivecritical discourse analysis gained rapid development in the 1970s, usually based on systemic functional linguistics. the news discourse research on critical discourse analysis usually focuses on sociopolitical issues related to text and text generation, and studies discourse. the relationship between the theme and society and ideology pays attention to the rights, prejudices and hypocrisy implied in the dialogue.critical discourse analysis emphasizes the function of news discourse to reproduce the world, the function of recreating social relations, and the function of recreating social status and identity. the generation of news texts is the result of multiple choices in vocabulary and grammar. in recent years, studying news discourse from the perspective of critical discourse analysis has become a new research hot spot for domestic scholars. domestic research can be divided into the following aspects.2.2.1 discussion and application analysis of the theory this type of analysis focuses on the introduction of critical discourse analysis theory and the analysis of its possibilities and specific application methods for various types of research in news discourse. for example, wu (2012) explored the guiding significance of critical discourse analysis on news discourse translation, and believed that critical discourse analysis theory is conducive toimproving the translator's ability to understand the language structure and ideology differences of source language and target language, and thus help translators to conduct accurate translation activities. fan (2016) believes that critical discourse analysis can introduce new ideas and methods for news commentary research, and discusses the relevance of the research path of critical discourse analysis and the practice of news commentary discourse. such studies are relatively small in number but have guiding significance. 2.2.2 cda on major news events reported by domestic and foreign media such research focuses on how the news media express specific ideologies and construct specific news images through news language when reporting major news events. the news can be divided into hard news and soft news. hard news is often more serious, usually political, economic, and scientific news. relatively speaking, soft news is written in more relaxed and lively tone, usually in all kinds of entertainment and social news. in such critical discourse analysis studies, the research object is usually hard news. wei (2018) used the framework theory of news reports to outline the german media's expression of the image of refugee groups since the outbreak of the refugee crisis. li (2017) explored the attitude of the british and american media on the syrian refugee incident by studying the reports of the syrian refugees in the timesand the washington post.2.2.3 cda on major chinese news events reportsuch research can be divided into two categories, one is to study the news discourses reported by foreign media in chinese events, and the other is to analyze the reports of the same news events in china by chinese and foreign media.(1)cda on foreign media reports to chinasuch research mainly focuses on analyzing the news discourses of mainstream foreign media such as cnn, bbc, new york timesand other reports on china, exploring how foreign media construct the image of china and the attitude towards china reflected in news discourse. since the research news texts are time-sensitive and hot-spotted, such research is a popular research content in domestic critical discourse analysis. yuan ( 2018 )analyzed the news reports from washington poston china's belt and road construction, and pointed out that washington posthas shaped china's belt and road advocacy into a hegemonic image of new colonial expansion, holding a skeptical and hostile attitude towards china's development. wang (2018) conducted a critical discourse analysis on chinese food safety report of the new york times.the research found that the us media spotlighted on the china's overall poor food safety environment, and believed that the chinese media should establish an effective sense of discourse communication.(2)comparative critical discourse analysis of chinese and foreign media reportsthis kind of analysis focuses on comparing the similarities and differences of chinese and foreign news media discourses in the construction of critical discourse in the perspective of critical discourse analysis and to analyze how different ideologies influence the construction of news language and the generation of news discourse. studies have shown that the mainstream news media in china and the west have generally constructed a positive confucius image, but the western media's reports on confucius and confucianism have been deliberately misunderstood and the political purpose is obvious. by comparing the news reports from new york timesand china dailyon hong kongs occupy central incident，xu liangjuan(2016) found that the news reports from new york timestend to beautify the "occupy centrar,incident, and the report has a certain one-sidedness. the reporters of china dailystrive to clarify the truth and just and objectively. in this type of comparative analysis, fairbanks three-dimensional theoretical framework has been widely used. overall, foreign and domestic research on critical discourse analysis is showing a prosperous development. in the theoretical framework, scholars at home and abroad tend to use the early classical works of critical discourse analysis represented by fairclough, which shows that these theories have far-reaching influence. in terms of analysis methods, with the development and progress of technology, corpus has become a convenient and practical technical means, and began to occupy a place in the field of critical discourse analysis. at the same time, halliday's systemic functional grammar theory is still widely used. with the continuous development of relevant theories, the application of critical discourse analysis in various fields gradually occupies a dominant position, and interdisciplinary research is also developing. this is the main manifestation of critical discourse analysis as a problem-oriented method, focusing on the nature of discourse and social research and this trend will continue.referencesanderson, l. b. (1986). evidentials, paths of change, and mental maps: typologically regular asymmetries. advances in discourse processes, 20, 273-312.bell, a. (1991). the language of news media. oxford: blackwell. biber, d., 以转述华语的翻译为例，《外语与外语教学 》，(3)：54-58。

吕万英（2005），英文新闻标题批评性分析，《广东外语外贸大学学报》，（3）：49-52。

苗兴伟、穆军芳（2016），批评华语分析的马克思主义哲学观和方法论， 《当代语言学》，（4）：532-543。

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

1.Research Questions The research makes an analysis of 20 texts in order to figure out the similarities and differences in Chinese and US newspaper reports on virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden. Three aspects are looked into by applying CDA. The first aspect is to find out the reporting focuses in Chinese and US newspaper coverage of this conferences. The second aspect is to unravel ideologies that are reflected in those reporting focuses. The third is to figure out factors that affect the formation of ideologies. This thesis is designed to conduct a critical discourse analysis of news reports on the virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden under the theoretical framework of Fairclough's three-dimensional model and Halliday' systemic-functional grammar.2.Research MethodsThe particular analytical approaches this study covers are: classification, lexical cohesion and modality. Classification. Classificationis value-laden and ideologically charged. Words are at the surface, butthe bases of classification, which determines the structure of a language, constitute deeply. In this thesis, keyword analysis will be conducted in order to investigate the selectionof words in the press when reporting the virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden .Lexical cohesion. Cohesion is another main analytical approach at the stage of description. It makes up textual resources for realizing textual function of language. In broad outline Halliday (2004: 524-585) distinguishes two levels in analysis of cohesion: the analysis of cohesive functional relations and the analysis of surface cohesive marking. At the latter level, there are four main ways of creating cohesion in English: reference, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. It is lexical cohesion that is of interest to the present study. Lexical cohesion takes advantage of the patterns inherent in either the paradigmatic or the syntagmatic organization of lexis. The syntagmatic relations hold between lexical items that collocate, that is, words or phrases which belong to the same semantic domain and tend to occur together. Modality. Modality is a dimension of grammar of the clause which corresponds to theinterpersonal function of language (Halliday, 2004: 146-150). A simple starting definition of modality is that it is the space between "yes" and "no". The speaker must signal a higher or lower degree of certainty about the validity of a proposition, or a higher or lower degree of confidence about the eventual success of the exchange. There are four modality types: usuality, probability, obligation and inclination. The various ways of expressing modality include modal auxiliary verbs, tense, modal adverbs, modal adjectives, hedges, etc.