Branding China to the World: A Pilot Study on China in the 2009 UN Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

Authors

  • Guangfeng Chen University of Alberta

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/md24837

Abstract

This study pilots an appraisal analysis of news articles on environmental reports from China Daily, with its twofold purpose to 1) examine the ideological discursive construction of China’s image in China Daily, and 2) show how attitudes encoded in news articles can be unveiled through the use of linguistic tools provided by the appraisal theory of Martin and White. The results showed that the contrast of a positive China vs. a negative US constituted a dominant pattern in the analyzed article on Copenhagen conference, which coincided with the "otherization" strategy in Western press. It is also showed that the appraisal analysis conducted in this paper was very productive and strong in revealing the image of China constructed in the China Daily news article analyzed, as well as the detailed way of the image construction through lexicogrammatical items of affect, judgment and appreciation. 

Author Biography

Guangfeng Chen, University of Alberta

Guangfeng Chen is currently a PhD candidate in French applied linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies at University of Alberta. Her research interests lie in Critical Discourse Analysis, Media Studies, and Intercultural Communication. She is currently working on her thesis on media representation of China in France.

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Published

2015-06-09