Abstract:

This paper adopts the perspective of appraisal theory to conduct a critical discourse analysis based on China’s and America’s news reports about COVID-19 in the mainstream media. The results revealed that both “judgment” and “appreciation” accounted for a high proportion in China Daily and the Los Angeles Times, although there were differences in the distribution of attitude resources. With regard to judgment, China Daily tended to use tenacity and capacity, while the Los Angeles Times tended to use capacity and normality; with regard to appreciation, both China Daily and the Los Angeles Times tended to use valuation. China Daily used more positive attitude resources than did the Los Angeles Times. Based on our analysis, we can see that China Daily provided a more positive and objective evaluation of this epidemic, thus affirming the Chinese government’s policies and actions to combat the epidemic, and expressing the belief that, under the leadership of the government, combined with the active cooperation of the Chinese medical team, the epidemic would soon be under control. Although the Los Angeles Times largely recognized the efforts and contributions of China in the fight against COVID-19, the numerous negative evaluations also revealed suspicion of and even prejudice against China’s measures to prevent and control the disease. Such prejudice is not conducive to the establishment of China’s international image.

Keywords: Appraisal theory; news report; COVID-19; critical discourse analysis; China’s and America’s mainstream media; attitude resources

摘要：

本文以评价理论为视角,运用批评话语分析的方法,探究中美媒体在关于新冠肺炎疫情的新闻报道中所呈现出的态度。研究发现,整体而言,中美新闻报道中“判断”和“鉴赏”均占有较高的比例,但中美新闻报道的态度资源分布仍存在差异。在判断资源中,China Daily侧重于使用“坚忍不拔”和“能力”,而Los Angeles Times侧重于使用“能力”和“行为规范”;在鉴赏资源中,China Daily和Los Angeles Times均侧重于使用“价值”。China Daily中的正面态度资源明显多于Los Angeles Times。

关键词: 评价理论, 新闻报道, 新冠肺炎疫情, 批评话语分析, 中美媒体, 态度资源