A Comparative Analysis of News Discourse

Abstract

In December, 2012, two Tibetan monks involved in the immolation of a Tibetan were detained by Chinese police. The event drew considerable attention from worldwide news agencies. However, the event was presented differently in terms of the different ways of reporting and the different languages employed. This paper examines the two representations of the event that appeared in Chinese and US news media. Processes of text production and linguistic choices are discussed, along with the possible reasons underlying those choices. In this case, the interplay between discourse and ideology is illustrated. Also, it is argued that the comparative analysis of discourse can be considered as an effective way to decode the ideology embedded in a discourse.