A Comparative Ecological Analysis of Chinese and American Media Reports on Emergency Disasters from the Perspective of Transitivity System

Abstract

This article is based on the transitivity analysis framework proposed by He and Wei (2017), and adopts a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to compare and analyze the ecological properties of domestic and foreign emergency reporting in the United States and China. It finds that overall, both China Daily and The New York Times have a certain degree of ecological ambiguity, with the beneficial presentation of China Daily being greater than The New York Times, and the destructive presentation of China Daily being smaller than The New York Times, with a smaller difference in ambiguity. In addition, China Daily presents more ecological benefits in domestic reports and uses more ecological ambiguities in foreign reports, while The New York Times uses more ecological ambiguities in domestic reports and more ecological destructiveness in foreign reports. Therefore, this article aims to stimulate the public’s vigilance and awareness towards sudden accidents and disasters by studying the ecological properties of report, and to attach more importance to such public accidents.