Abstract
Media, as important windows for the public to get to know timely information, play a vital role in influencing citizens’ attitudes as well as behaviors. From 2019, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a global health emergency, has aroused great concern of the international community, including media. Varied in cultural context, political stand, and people’s ideology, however, media in different countries reported the COVID-19 dissimilarly. According to Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) model, it is posited that the discrepancies in the reports of the COVID-19 can reflect ideological differences and have explanatory power in the development of the COVID-19 in distinct countries. Based on this premise, by utilizing the database analysis software AntConc 3.2.4w on self-built corpora, this study analyzed the news reports of different stages on the COVID-19 in China and the UK, i.e., in China Daily and The Guardian, respectively, and attempted to reveal the discourse characteristics in the two media, together with the discussion on their possible relations to the pandemic-controlling practices. The corpus-based analysis showed that China Daily used more objective and neutral words in the descriptions of the COVID-19 and expressed more active attitudes in fighting against the epidemic, whereas The Guardian used more negative words in describing the pandemic and words with weak restricting force when reporting policies concerning the control and prevention of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the comparison between the discourse before and after the lockdown demonstrated that the descriptions of the COVID-19 in the UK media transformed into a more objective and neutral one than before with an increased use of expressions of restriction and social conflicts. The same comparison in the discourse of China Daily found that words about sharing experience and promoting cooperation augmented noticeably. The above-mentioned findings were also discussed together with these two countries’ domestic epidemic situations and ideological differences, respectively.
Highlights
Ever since the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries around the globe have adopted various measures to fight against the pandemic, among which sealing cities from the outside was a common practice, but the corresponding effect varied
According to Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) model, it is posited that the discrepancies in the reports of the COVID-19 can reflect ideological differences and have explanatory power in the development of the COVID-19 in distinct countries
By exploring the characteristics of news discourse related to the COVID-19 in two countries, this study aimed to explore the distinct focus and stances of the media in the two countries, as well as the ideological differences behind them
Summary
Ever since the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, countries around the globe have adopted various measures to fight against the pandemic, among which sealing cities from the outside was a common practice, but the corresponding effect varied. Taking China and the UK as examples, ever since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and the UK have implemented mandatory lockdowns on April 8, 2020, and on March 23, 2020, respectively, there were significant differences in the effectiveness of epidemic prevention, as evidenced by the fact that China has quickly contained the spread of the epidemic within a few months, while the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK has continued to increase Such differences are related to many reasons, such as the early policies and administrative orders, social-economic disparity and vulnerability, mobility and social distancing, the availability of healthcare facilities, climate, economic issues, balancing the open data and privacy protection policies (e.g., Yang et al, 2020), the difference in the levels of promulgated social distancing measures, as well as the difference at the time of promulgation among countries (e.g., Thu, Ngoc, Hai, & Tuan, 2020). This study attempted to reveal how news discourse was related to the ideological differences of countries, and might remind readers of interpreting news with a critical and open mind
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