Luận văn a critical discourse analysis of cnn online and bbc online news on beijing olympics 2008

NGUYEN THU TRANG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CNN ONLINE AND BBC ONLINE NEWS ON BELJING OLYMPICS 2008 PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN 'NGÔN PIÊ PHÁN TIN TỨC TRUYEN THONG VE OLYMPICS BAC KINTI 2008

NGUYEN THU TRANG

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CNN ONLINE AND BBC ONLINE NEWS

ON BELJING OLYMPICS 2008 (PHÂN TÍCH DIỄN 'NGÔN PIÊ PHÁN TIN TỨC

TRUYEN THONG VE OLYMPICS BAC KINTI 2008

TREN BAO ĐIỆN TU CNN VA BBC)

M.A minor thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

HANOT, 2009

2.1.1 What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)2 àccceseriee 4

2.2 24 review of media news discourse XiẪïÈ3 teeee ities 8

2.3, Systematic fimetional granmuur and ils role itt CDA £0

Chapter HI: A Critical Discourse Analysis of CNN Online and BBC Online News on

Table 1 Summary of process types (adapted from Ilalliday, 1994)

Table 2: Topics focused in BBC online

Table 3: Topics focused in CNN online

‘Table 4: Wording of competition fields in headlines of BBC online and CNN online

Table S References to Olympics Beijing 2008 in BBC and CNN online

‘Table 6 Number of transitive and intransitive sentences in two sample texts

Table 7 Active and passive voices used in BBC and CNN texts

Table 8 Passive clauses found in the BBC article “Beijing bids farewell to Olympics”

Table 9 Passive clauses found in the CNN article “Grand spectacle closes Beijing’s

Olympics”

Table 10, Conjunctions used in BBC article “Beijing bids farewell to Olympics”

Table 11 Conjunctions used in “Grand spectacle closes Beijing's Olympics” of CNN

Table 12 Referring words/phrases used in BBC article “Beijing bids farewell to Olympics”

‘Table 13, Referring words/phrases used in “Grand spectacle closes Beijing’s Olympies” of

CNN

Table 14, Analysis of transitivity used in BBC lex

Table 15, Andlysis of transitivity used in CNN text

Table 16: Summary of transitivity analysis data

‘The Beijing Olympics 2008, which took place fiom the 8th August to 24th August 2008 in China, is one of the most successful Olympic Games which won great approval from the

inedia world, With a total of 11,468 athletes ftom 204 countries and regions, aboul 100,000

Olympic voluntccrs, 400,000 city vohuntccrs, and 1 million social volunteers, Beijing saw

the largest number of female athletes competing in the history of the Games

As the NBC Universal assesses, the Beijing Olympics is the most-watched U.S television cvoul of all lime More tum 220 iclevision azencics and over 25,000 journulists covered the event The IOC site logged 5 million clicks during the entire process of the Beijing Games, whereas it logged 2.8 million clicks during the Athens Olympics

More than 80 heads of states and governments participated in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games About 80 percent of the people in China and aboul half of the people in the United States and Europe watched the opening ceremony on television This was a record

nuuuber Few other events have received so much attention

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics recewed wide coverage by most U.S media outlets, with many praising the Games as the most memorable summer Olympics It

was described as "the mosl memorable Olympics ever.”

Ina picce tilled "Truly exceptional Games," NBC said the Beijing Olympies made history

“in virtually every regard.” Beside, many U.S media outlets heaped praises on the Chinese volunteers at the Beijing Games; the Los Angeles ‘limes praised the Chinese volunteers for

their friendhiness and efficiency

BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation) and CNN (Cable News Network) are the world's largest broadcasters which are very familiar with English users BBC has bases or correspondents in more than 200 countries and, as officially surveyed, is available to more

than 274 million households, Ihough also possibly far more individual persous and groups tham smveys can gather, and iL is the oldest surviving entity of ils kind and is more widely known internationally than any other news organization As of Junz 2008, CNN is

available in over 93 million U.S households Broadcast coverage extends to over 890,000

While According to Alsxa's Trafic Rank system, in July 2008 BBC Online was the 27th most popular English Language website in the world, and the 46th most popular overall, CNN.comris now one of the mast papular news websites in Ihe world,

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has made the study of language into an interdisciplinary tool A great number of researchers with various backgrounds, including media criticism use it, Most significantly, it offers the opportunity to adopt a social perspective in the

cross-cultural study of media (exis, While mos! forms of discourse analysis

provide a better understanding of socio-cultural aspects of texts," CDA “aims to provide

accounts of the production, internal structure, and overall organization of texts." One

tìm to

crucial difference is thal CDA "aims to provide a critical dimension im ils Iheorctical and

descriptive accounls af taxts."

With all above reasons, the author has the temptation to carry out a study named; “A Critical Discourse Analysis of CNN Online and BEC Online News on Beijing Olympics

2008”,

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

‘The study aims at

- Providing an analysis of CNN Online and BBC Online News on Beijing Olympics 2008 in the light of Crilical Discourse Amalysis,

- Giving an illustration of CDA approach,

- Raising language users as well as newspaper readers’ awareness of the power and ideology of diseour

1.3 Scope of the study

Tn critically analyzing CNN and BBC News on Beijing Olympics 2008, the author concentrates ouly on the coverage in the CNN and BBC online, not the other kinds like printed or radio news Specifically in this study, the writer particularly examines the

conlenl and presentation of the articles, ths asc af word, grammar (transitive and

1.4 Methods of the study

Tn orler Lo obtain the aims of the sludy, the following activities will be carricd out

Inthe first place, a literature review will be carried out to pravide a theoretical background

for the study

Then, a munber af articles on BBC online and CNN online about Baijing Olympics will be analyzed in the light of critical discourse analysis The research method applied in this part

is both quantitative and qualitative

‘The analysis will be made in terms of the content and presentation Apart ftom that, voeubulary, syntactic structure and cohesion are also arvilyzed

From the analy

interpreted and analyzed

s, a comparison belween the news reporied in (he lwo newspapers will be

1.5 Designs of the study

The thesis is divided into 4 chapters:

Chapter I is the Introduction which provides the rationale, the aims, the methods and the design of the study

Chapter II naming Theoretical background first gives an overview of Critical Discourse Analysis, In this part, the history of CDA and some aspects such as critical, ideology and power arc mentioned and analyze Then, it deals with media discourse studios and systematic fimctional grammar,

Chapter Ill is entitled A Critical Discowse Analysis of CNN Online and BBC Online News on Beijing Olympics 2008 ‘'his is the main focus of the thesis which provides and discusses the main findings of the stusly

Chapter TV is the Conclusion summarizing the main findings of the study, drawing

important conclusions and offers suggestions for further rescarch,

and references are also inchided

Apart from these main parts, appendie

2.1.1, What is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)?

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way sovial power abusc, dominance, and incqualily are enacted, raproduced, and resisted by text and talk in thc social and political context, With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultinmlely resist social inequalily Some of the leneis of CDA cam already be found in the critical theory of the Frankfint School before the Second World War (Agger

19926) Its current focus on language and discourse was initiated with the "oritical

linguistics" thai ernergsd (rnoslly in the UE and Australia) at the end of the 1970s (Fowler

at al 1979), CDA has also counterparts in “critical” developments in sociolinguistics, psychology, and the social sciences, some already dating back to the early 1970s As is the case in these neighboring disciplines, CDA may he scan asa reuction against the daminant formal (oflen "asooial" or “umentical”) paratkigms of the 1960s and 1970s,

CDA is not so much a dircction, school, or specialization next to the many other

"approaches" in discourse studies Rather, it aims to offer a different "mode" or

*perspeclive" of theorizing, aralysis, arel application throughoul the whots fistd We may find 2 more or less critical perspective im such diverse arcas as pragmatics, conversation analysis, narrative analysis, rhetoric, stylistics, soviolingnisties, ethnography, or media analysis, among others

Crucial for critical discourse analysts is the explicit awareness of their role in society Continuing a tradition that rejects the possibilily of a “valus-free" science, they argue thal science, and especially scholarly discourse, are inherently part of and influenced by social structure, and produced in social interaction Instead of denying or ignoring such a relation bolwoon scholarship and socicty, they plend that such relations be studied and accounted for in their own tight, and that scholarly practices be based on such insights Theory formation, description, and explanation, also in discourse analysis, are socio-politically

“situated,” whelhar we like it or nol, Reflsction on the rokz of scholars in socicty and the polity thus becomes an inherent part of the discourse analytical enterprise This may mean,

2.1.2 The history of CDA

In the Yate 19708, Crifival Lingnisties (CL) was dovelopod by # group of linguists and

y of Fast, Anglia (Fowtcr of al, 1979; Kross & Hodge,

literary theorists at the Univers

1979),

‘Their approach was hased on Halliday's Systemic Funetional Linguistics (SFL) CL

praclitioners such as Trew (1979a, p 155) aimed al “isolaling ideology in discourse" and showing “how ideology and ideological processes are manifested as systems of linguistic characteristics and processes,” This aim was pursued by developing CL's analytical tools

(Fowler et al., 1979: Fowler, 1991) based on SIL

Following [Jalliday, these CL practitioners view language in use as simultancously performing thice functions: idcational, interpersonal, and textual fimctions According to Fowler (1994, p 71), and Fairclough (1995b, p, 25), whereas the ideational function refers

to the experience of the speakers of the world and its phenomena, the interpersonal function cmbadiss the inscrtion of speakers’ own altitudes and ovaluations aboul the phenomena in question, and establishing a relationshup between speakers and listeners

Instrumental to these two functions is the textual function It is through the textual

function of tanguage that speakers are able to produce texts that are understood by listeners Tis an enabling fimetion comecling discourse to the co-text and corelext in

based According to Fowler et al (1979), the “relation between form and content is not arbilrary or conventional, bul form signifies conlent" Tn sum, language is a sovial act

and it is ideologically driven

Further development of CDA

Over the years CL and what recently is more ficquently referred to as CDA (Chouliaraki

& Fairclough, 1999; van Dijk, 1998a) has been further developed and broadened, Recent work has raised some concerns with the earlier work in CL Among (he concerns was, first, taking into consideration the role of audiences and their interpretations of discourse possibly different ftom that of the discourse analyst ‘The second concern has called for troadening the scope of analysis beyond the textual, extending i to the inlorlextual analysis,

Fairclough (1995b) has raised both issues He claims that the carlicst work in CL did not adequately focus on the "interpretive practices of audiences.” In other words, he claims

that Cl has, for the most part, assumed that the audiences interpret texts the same way the

analysis do Ina similar vein, commenting on Fowler (1991), Boyd-Barrslt (L994) asserts that there is “a tendency towards the classic fallacy of aftributing particular ‘readings’ to readers, or media ‘effects, solely on the basis of textual analysis”

“The other issue put forward by Fairclough (199Sb) is that while earlier contributions in CL were very thorough in their grammatical and lexical analysis they were less attentive to the intertextual analysis of texts; “the linguistic analysis is very much focused upon clauses, with little attention to higher-level organization properties of whole texts" Despite raising these issues with regards Lo earlier works in CL, Fairclough (19956) inserts thal "mention

of these limitations is not meant to minimize the achievement of critical linguistios—they largely reflect shifts of focus and developments of theory in the past twenty years or so”

The “shills of fous and developments of theory" which Fairclough (1995b) talks about, however, have not resulted in the creation of a single theoretical framework, What is known today as CDA, according to Bell & Garret (1998), "is best viewed as a shared

perspective encompassing a range of approaches rather than as just one schoo!", Also van Dijk (19984) tells us thal CDA “is nal a specific direction of reszarch" hence “il docs nol

have a unitary theoretical Htamework." But, van Dijk (1998a) asserts, "given the common perspective and the general aims of CDA, we may also find overall conceptual and theoretical frameworks thal are closely related”

2.1.3 Critiaal, idcology and power

In order to have better knowledge of CDA as a new linguistic approach, some core notions, such as “Critical”, “idcology” and “power” should be mentioned,

According to Fairclough, “Critical is used in the special sense of aiming to show up comections may be hidden fom people such as the connections between language, power and ideology referred above them,”

In Ruth Wodak’s opinion, however, “Critical” is understood as having distance to the data, cmbedding the data in the social, taking a political stance cxplicitly, and a focus on sclf retlection as scholars doing research

“[deology” is among the most controversial concepts For Thompson, ideology refers to social forms and processes within which, and by means of which, symbolic forms circulate

in the s

ciat world The study of idgology is, therefore, a study of “the ways in which

meaning is constructed and conveyed by symbolic fonns of various kinds”

According to Simpson, ideology 1s “a mosaic of cultural assumptions, political beliefs and

institutional practices

Kress (1990) stresses that the defined and delimited set of statements that constitute a discourse are themselves expressive of, and organized by a specific ideology Language, therefore, can never appear by itsclf — it always appears as the representative of a system of linguistic terms, which themselves reflect the prevailing discursive and ideological

challenge power, to subvert it, to alter distributions af power in the short and long term.”

2.2 A review of media news discourse studies

The undeniable power of the media has inspired many critical studies in many disciplines: linguistics, semiotics, pragmatics, and discourse studies Concerning media news discourse studies, Toun van Dijk has a made great contributions In his work “Structures of News in the Press”, Van Dijk proposes an analytical framework for the structures of news discourse

oul, and nonverbal propertics of news, such as photographs Tn other words, he is concemed with macro phenomena, rather than with the micro-organization of news discourse Finally, he limits the discussion to news in the daily press, and do not analyze

TV- and radio news

Many researchers analyze critical discourse in various newspapers” reports of a wide range

of social issues in different languages Craig and Lee (1992), for example, study how US newspaper report labor issues in South Korea and Poland with a view to disceming the idcotogical framework of US inicrnational potitical reportage with a textual analysis The study indicates that while in the dispute of South Korea, US mainstream newspapers does not focus on the issue and the demands of strikers, US newspapers provide readers on its

Peter Teo (2000) fouuses on news reports relating to # Vizlnarnesc gang in Australia whose

violent and drag-dealing activities have received publicity im two Sydney-based newspapers: The Sydney Morning Ilerald and The Daily Telegraph The analysis of these ropoits adheres to the analytic paradigm of Critical Discourse Analysis and is undertaken

evidence of a racist ideology manifest in an asymmetrical power discourse between the

(ethutic) law-breakers and Ihe (white) law-enforcers, The sludy concludes with a discussion

to explain the evidence of ‘Racism in the News', which both reflects and reinforces the

marginalization of recent Vietnamese migrants imto Australia

Different from above researchers, some other researchers take a multi-perspective view by cxamining both internationat and domestic coverage of an event, For instance, in the stutly

“Intertextuality and national identity: discourse of national conflicts in daily newspapers in the United States and China”, Juan Li examines the efléets of intertextuality on the discursive construction afnationat identities in the prass It does so by comparing how twa daily newspapers in the United States and China cmploy specific discursive strategics to construct national identities and positions in their discourse of two particular events that represent maments of crisis and conflict in US—China relatrons, Focusing on discourse, siyle, and genre, which are respectively associated with representational, identifieational, and actionable meanings of discourse (Fairclough, 2003), this study aims to show how news texts draw on, echo, and bring together different intertextual resources realized in the

forms of discos:

intertextual relations in particular contexts construct specific understandings of national

identities and positions

styles, and genres, and how the circulations and combinations of these

Another method that gains interests fiom researchers is analysis of a discourse written by a well-known person Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2004) carrid oul a study “Critical discourse analysis of President Bush’s ultimatum to President Saddam Hussein”, The study investigates the power and ideology hidden behind the discourse of President Bush’s

ultimatum to President Saddam Husscin, The analysis consists of text description, the relationship between the processes of the discourse and that between discourse processes and social processes

‘The reviewed studies only focus on newspapers reporting political, diplomatic or social events, None of Ihern have done any researches on a sporl event thal draws attention from

all over the world as Beijing Olympics 'herefore, í hope (hat this study will contribute te

the diversification of critical discourse anal

2.3 Systematic functional grammar and its role in CDA

Syslermie functional grammar (SFG) or systamic fimeliomit linguistics (SFL) is am approach lo language devcloped by Mickacl Halliday in the 1960s TLis part of'a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic linguistics The term "systemic" here refers to the view of language as “a network of systems, or interrelated sets of options for making meaning", The term “famctional” shows that the approach is conccmed with meaning rather than word classes as formal grammar

SFG is concemed primarily with the choices the grammar makes available to speakers and writers, These choices relate sperkers' and writers’ intentions to the concrete forms of a language Traditionally the "choices" arc viewed in terms of either the content or the structure of the language used In SFG, language is analyzed in three different ways (strata): semantics, phonology, and lexico-grammar SFG presents a view of language in tems of both structure (grammar) and words (Icxis), The term "Iexico-grammar" deseribes this combined approach

Mctafunctions

As far as SFG is conccened, functional bases of grammatical phenomena are divided into

three broad areas, called metafiunctions: the ‘deational, the interpersonal and the textual Wrilten and spoken texts can be examined with respect to each of these inglafunctions in

register analyses,

The ideational metafunction

There arc two types of idcational: cxpericntial and logical metafunctions, The first metafunction organizes our experience and understanding of the world, It is the potential of the language to construe figures witlt elements (such as screen shois ofa moving piclnre or

‘Transitivity is a key component in the ideational metafunetion It provides us with the potential to the infinite varicly of eccurrenees

no a finite sot of process types including Material, Mental, Relational, Behavioral, Verbal and Existent Process Table 1 below summarizes these process types

Table 1 Summary of process types

1 Material | potion thal same city ‘doing’ Actor, (Goal)

“does” something

which may be done

“to” some other entity

breathing, coughing, dreaming, staring

Akind of activity in

3 Mental people’s sind, ‘sensing’ Senser,

Toquires a conscious Phenomenon

participant

that

Processes of saying Sayer, Target, | Jolm told me the

aptpicnL

5 Relational: | Processes of “being”, ‹naịng:

“being at” and

“happening”

‘The Interpersonal metafunction

The interpersonal metafunction relates to a text's aspects of tenor or interactivity Like ficld, tenor comprises thre component arcas: the spcaker/writer persona, social distance, and relative social status Social distance and relative social status are applicable only to

spoken lexis, Note - thú

nol so, looking al the text of O’Tlalloran we are told that we no

longer have the option to contrast the various speakers but we can examine "how the individual authors present themselves to the reader", therefore, we are able to look at social

distance and relative social status in texts where there is only ons author.

‘The speaker/writer persona concerns the stance, personalization and standing of the speaker or writer This involves looking at whether the writsr or speaker has a neutral attitude, which can be seen through the use of positive or negative language Social distance means how close the speakers ars, e.g how the use of nicknames shows the

degree to which they are intiinale Relative social status asks whether they ave equal in tarms of power and knowledge on a subject, for example, the relationship between a mother and child would be considered unequal Focuses here are on speech acts (eg, whether ane person tonds to ask questions and the other speaker tends lo answer), who chooses the topic, turn management, and how capable both speakers are of evaluating the

subject

The textual metafunction

‘The textual metafimction relates to mode; the internal organization and communicative

nalurs of a text This comprises textual inleractivily, spontaneity and cormumicative

Cohesion is analyzed in the context of lexical and grammatical as well as intonational aspects with reference to lexical chains and, in the speech register, tonality, tonicity, and tone The lexical aspect focuses on sense relations anil lexical repetitions, while the grammatical aspect looks at repetition of meaning shown through retzrence, substitution and ellipsis, as well as the role of linking adverbials

Systemic fimctional grammar deals with all of these areas of meaning equally within the grammatical system itself

Among all this variety and heterogensity of methods, SFL has traditionally provided the analytical Lools for a large cxtent of critical discourse analysts since il was first develop:

in the decade of the 70’s The main reason is that Halliday and fimctional linguistics in

general regard language as a societal phenomenon and thus study it in relation to its use in socicly (Halliday, 1994) As such, i cstublishes the rchitionship between grarmmatical structures of language and their context of use Thus, with such a conception of language, SPL provides the appropriate grounds for the kind of linguistic analysis the critical

discourse arulyst intends Lo carry oul Systemic fimetional categories have been present in the analysis of CDA since its early stages in works such as Fowler, Kress, Hodge and Trew (1979), Fairclough (1989), and Fowler (1996) More recently, some authors have offered a review of warks thal both analytically and thoorctically illustralc this CDA-SFL comection, Furthermore, as Renkema (2004) has suggested, a Hallidayan approach to

CDA is an attempt to cary it out ina more systematic way, so as to counter the criticism of

compositionality (Representational | Interpersonal | ‘Textual)]

Te emphasizes the use of | compositionality in counting the meaning of the sentence (with added cullural values) among the total meaning of text which is very crucial 1a CDA in general

Hence, one of the strengths of applying a SFL analysis to CDA is that its detailed and rigorous analysis of texts helps to preserve the interpretation from ideological bias

In short, this chapter reviews the theories of CDA, different media news discourse studies and provides some fealres of systematic functional gramomar and its role in CDA This creates a background for the main pat of the study that is chapter IIL

Chapter IIT: A Critical Discourse Analysis of CNN Online and

BBC Online News on Beijing Olympics 2008

3.4 Content and presentation analysis

3.1.1 Highlighted topies

In this part, the aulhor investigales the fooused topics fonnd in both BRC and CNN

online Table 2 and table 3 illustrate these topics

Table 2: Tapics focused in BBC onBne

1 Results

2 | Medals table

3 | Olympics map

4 ‘Team Great Britain

$ 29 Competition sports: archery, alhlcties, badminton, baschall, basketball,

boxing, canoeing, cycling, diving, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, modem pentathlon, rowing, sailing, shooting, softball, swimming, lable tennis, tackwondo, lenis, trialhton, volleyball, waightlifing, wrestling

6 |Paralympiss

Six athletes heading to the Games despits huge obstacles

Table 3: Topics focused in BBC and CNN online

1 Schedules and results (by sport and by date)

2 ‘| Athletes (by name, by nation, by sport);

issues such as everyday people preparing for the 2008 Summer Games, and monetary issue

as well as the host nation and the fisl of alliletes

In addition, on the ftont page on the Olympic Games, both e-newspapers highlight the closing ccremony of the Olympics Games, and many have videos on the Games

Regarding competition fields, BBC have a greater number of headlines than CNN This

does not include articles on schedule and results of the games

From table 4, it can be seen that all the headlines examined in the two newspapers are short and clear Most of the headlines highlight medal wimmer athletes as well as medal winner

countriss.

Federer and Nadal make last eight

‘Nadal to face Gonzalez in final

Federer and Williams sisters crash out

Federer, Nadal and Djokovic cruise through

Collins leaves UK athletic post

Frodeno claims gold as Brits fade

UK sprinter fails in bid to beat Beijing ban

‘Blade Runner’ keeps Olympic hope alive

“overpowers”, “beautiful game”, “glory” to show their praise for success of the athletes

and the games

Most of the examined headlines formed a simple sentence of structure SVO However,

CNN has some noun phrases as its headlines, such as: “Spanish Olympic basketball team

in ‘racist’ photo row”, “Phelps on course with third gold medal”, “Endorsements pure gold for

Phelps” With these headlines, CNN would like to focus on the actors, not the actions

From above analysis, we can see that both newspapers devote many columns to praise success of

athletes and countnes that win in competitions

3.1.2 The use of pictures and videos:

Both BBC and CNN use pictures to demonstrate their desired contents For example, when

studying coverage on swimming in the two newspapers, we can find that CNN put pictures

highlighting the number of medals Michael Phelps grab and the swimmer’s happiness

when winning the competition By adding the pictures, writer’s respect to the greatest swimmer as well as one of the greatest Olympians of all time is highly emphasized

BBC, however, chose 8 pictures of Phelps holding gold medals These pictures show both

historic records of the “US swimming legend” and his happiness of winning competitions

(see picture 3)

Picture 3: US swimming star Michael Phelps has broken Mark Spitz's

36-year-old record of seven gold medals in a single Olympic Games (BBC, Saturday 16 August 2008, “Phelps’ eight steps to greatness”)

‘The writer’s implication is that Phelps has made international titles and record breaking performances have helped him become the award professional collectors This reminds

readers of the awards that he earned including World Swimmer of the Year Award in 2003,

2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and American Swimmer of the Year Award in 2001, 2002,

Besides, BBC also provided some video clips to better illustrate Phatps’s success, With

these videos, the British instifution seems to better visualize the extraordinary

achievements of the US swimmer than CNN Readers can watch how modal was cancd as well as the way the medal holder celebrates his winning

3.2 Lexical analysis

In this part, references to Olympics Beijing 2008 in the two e-sewspapers BBC and CNN will be investigated Table 5 below illustrates different referring expressions used in different articles of the two newspapers

‘Table 5 References to Olympics Beijing 2008 BBC and CNN online

Referring Cited in the Referring Cited in the

1 | One of the best Beijing bids The games in | Traq cleared to

organized Games farcwcllto Beijing compete in

Olympics

2 | The29"Gamesof Beijing bids The Beijing Grand spectacle

the modem, farewell to Games close Beijing’s

3 The Beijing Beijing bids The Sưnmar | Emetionkicks

4 | Ths Olympics Beijing bids The 2008 Fination kicks

3 The sporting Beijing bids | The 29" Olympic | Olynpie show

2008

6 | Swxteendays of Organizers hail | The Summer | Olympic show

action, staring — 'glorious Games Olympics opens with a

7 | 16 glorious days Organizers hail ‘The race Back home:

golden adventure

8 | The 2008 Games Organizershail | The greatest | Viewers react to

'glorious Games | Olympics ever the Beijing

Otympies

9, This year’s China Delighted | Next month's | baqciearsdio

summer Games with Olympics, | Olympic Games compete in

Olympics

10.| This particular China Delighted Beijing's Grand spectacle

Games with Olympics, Olympics close Beijing’s

3.2.1 Use of neutral referring expressions for the even

Olympics

are: “Beijing's Olympics”, “The games in Beijing”,

Games”, “The 2008 Olympic Games”, “The 29 Olympic Games”, “The race”, “Next month's Olympic Games” With these references, the authors have no intentions to judge,

“The sporting action’ “This year’s summer Games”, while CNN’s choices

‘The Beijing Cams”, “The Summer

they just wauld like lo mention the Garr

1s a normal spor! evant only

3.2.2 Use positive refbrzneos lo indioale the Games:

In covering the Beijing Olympic Games, there are some referring expressions for the event that were opinion-led, showing the media institutions’ viewpoint explicitly, The table 5

suggests that more positive expressions referring to the sport games are used in BBC than CNN (3 oul of 10 references in BRC as compared with | out of 10 in CNN) In order to

fal Olympic Games, BBC and CNN add

provide readers wilh praise for the really sup

some comotative expressions For instance:

Thanks to the adjective “particular” (in “This particular Games”), “best organized” (in

“Ome of the best organized Games in history”), “starring” in “Sixteen days of action,

starring 10,000 athletes fram 204 mations”, “glorious” (in “6 glorious days”), The Brilain- based media agency zetérs Beijing Games to the Games that are really different from the past, the one of the most successfill Olympic Games which were best organized with the altendbnce of thousands of athletas, the Games of snecass and glory

CNN, however, uses the adjective “greatest” (in “The greatest Olympics ever”) to describe the event as the grand Games which are most-watched by viewers, the summer sport event with exceptional opening and closing ceremonies

By these references, it can also be implied that the media institutions highly appreciate China for hosting one of the most memorable Olympic Games

3.3 An analysis of two sample texts:

3.3.1, Syntactic structure analysis

3.3.1.1 The use of transitive and intransitive sentences

Table 6, Number of transitive and intransitive sentences in two sample texts

BBC article “Beijing bids CNN “Grand spectacle

farewell to Olympics” closes Beijing’ s Olympics”

Number of | Percentage Number of | Percentage

The table shows that both media instimtions use far more intransitive sentences than

transitive sontenecs The number of transitive sentonecs in BBC article is 7 out of 22,

accounting for 31.818%, while CNN’s indicator is 6 out of 21, making up 28.5729

Closer exploring intransitive form, we can find that in the article “Beijing bids farewell to Olympics”, intransitive clauses are used to show reporters’ attitude Let fake some

seni $ ant example

- ‘The Olympic games have drawn to a close with a glittering ecremony inside

Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium”

- “Beijing’s dramatic farewell to the 29th Games of the modem Olympiad got under way with a magnificent firework display, which quickly segued into an amazing display of dancing andl drumning”

= “Thwas a more cclebratory affair, as oxnbarant athictos, dimcars and musicians gol

into the party spirit”

In thesc sentences, no objectives arc mentioned, The writer just wants to highlight the things happening Some prepositional phrases (the 2 former example sentences) and subordinate clause (the last sentence in above example) are added after the intransitive

Tntransitive sentences also help BBC express iis posilive judgment, For instance, intransitive verbs like “brought to a close”, “were” and “was”, in combination with opinion-led words in the sentences below show the newspaper's favor for the great closing ceremony, Ihe axceptional Games and China — ths host nalion of the Games

- “Grand fireworks and spectacular choreography brought to a close the Beijing Games Sunday as onc of the most remarkable Olympics in recent history were declared at an end”,

- These were truly exceptional Games’, he said, declaring them formally closed”

- Also impressive was the emergence of a new world supporting superpower the

host nation.”

3.3.1.2 The use of active and passive voices

Results in table 7 show that in the reportage of closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics, there are many similarities in the use of active and passive voices

88 usad Than active

The common faalure that BBC and CNN share is thal passive voigs is

voice when reporting farewell to the Olympic Games in the eapital of China Tatle 7 below shows that the parcentage of passive form used in BBC is 17.1 while in CNN it is

125

‘Table 7 Active and passive voice used in BBC and CNN texts

BBC artic “Beijing CNN “Grand spectacle closes Jarewell to Olympics” Belting’ s Olympics”

Number of clauses Percentage | Number of | Percentas

on the actions themselves, not the persons who cause those actions Instead of the conventional “by i the causer of action” to show Ihe doers of action in passive voice, the two media agencies use prepositional phrases, for example

- The Olympic flag was handed to London mayor Boris Johnson,

- Before Johnson was handed the Clympic flag from Guo Jinlong, the major of

Beijing, and Rogge

- The sporting action was finally brought to an end eaalier in the day,

- One of the most remarkable Olympics in recent history were declared at an end

- Other spectacular sporting accomplishments were recorded at the Beijing

Olympics

- Another shadow was cast during the opening weekend,

More illustrations can be seen in the 2 tables below:

Table § Passive clauses found in the BBC article “Beijing bids farcwell to Olympics”

The Olympie flag was landed to London mayor 8 Without agcut

Boris Johnson,

‘The Beijing Games were officially declared to 14 Without agent

be over

The British flag was raised and "God Save the 38 With agent

Queen" sume by the choir

Before Johnson was handed the Olympic Mug 39 Without agent