A critical discourse analysis of chinese and vietnamese online media coverage of the east sea dispute

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN ĐẶNG MAI LINH A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CHINESE AND

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN ĐẶNG MAI LINH

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE

ONLINE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE EAST SEA DISPUTE

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán trên các bài báo điện tử của Việt Nam và

Trung Quốc đưa tin về tranh chấp trên biển Đông

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

HANOI, 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN ĐẶNG MAI LINH

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE

ONLINE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE EAST SEA DISPUTE

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán trên các bài báo điện tử của Việt Nam và

Trung Quốc đưa tin về tranh chấp trên biển Đông

M.A MINOR PROGRAM THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

HANOI, 2017

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

OF CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE ONLINE MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE EAST SEA DISPUTE” is the result of my own study It was conducted with scientific guidance of Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

The data and conclusions of the study presented in the thesis have never been published in any form

Post-graduate student

Nguyễn Đặng Mai Linh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of many people, and I would like

to show my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis

I would like to express my deep gratitude towards my supervisor, Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân, for his constant and invaluable assistance without which my study would

be far from finished

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all my lecturers and staffs at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi whose support and consideration have enabled me to pursue the course

Last but not least, my sincere thanks go to my beloved family and my close friends for their love, encouragement, and support while I was conducting this research

Hanoi, April 2017

Nguyễn Đặng Mai Linh

ABSTRACT

This study is a critical discourse analysis of Chinese and Vietnamese online media coverage of the East Sea dispute from May 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014 A critical discourse analysis was made to delineate the contrasting representations of China and Vietnam With the purpose of discerning the underlying ideologies of the reporters, Fairclough‟s CDA framework and Halliday‟s systemic-functional theory were used to analyze the news reports The study just focused on some linguistic features of the text In terms of lexical choice, only overwording was analyzed Then with respect to grammatical analysis, transitivity was scrutinized The researcher made an attempt to illustrate the relationship between language, ideology and political stance The findings showed that the underlying ideologies hidden in the news discourse revolved around “us” and “them” side The online media coverage of both China and Vietnam intended to present the positive self-representation while disparaging the other-representation In other words, their own country was depicted in favorable light as a rational, peace-loving, law-abiding country Meanwhile, the opponent was portrayed as an aggressor who acted brashly, illegally in the law-based community

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Interpretation stage 10

Figure 2: Explanation stage 11

Figure 3: The distribution of processes in Vietnamese news and Chinese news 19

Figure 4: The distribution of Actors in the material processes 21

Figure 5: The distribution of Goals in the material processes 23

Figure 6: The distribution of Sayers in the verbal processes 25

Figure 7: The distribution of the relational processes 28

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1:The main themes in Vietnamese online news coverage 33Table 2:The main themes in Chinese online news coverage 33Table 3: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Vietnamese online news coverage 35Table 4: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Chinese online news coverage 35Table 5: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s legal operation in Chinese online news coverage 37Table 6: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s disruptive activities in Chinese online news coverage 38Table 7: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s illegal operation and disruptive activities in Vietnamese online news coverage 39Table 8: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s legal operation and defense in Vietnamese online news coverage 40Table 9: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on Vietnam‟s activities in Chinese online news coverage 40Table 10: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on China‟s activities in Vietnamese online news coverage 41Table 11: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s peaceful measures and strategies in Chinese online news coverage 42Table 12: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s peaceful measures and strategies in Vietnamese online news coverage 42Table 13: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Chinese online news coverage 43Table 14: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Vietnamese online news coverage 44

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES v

LIST OF TABLES vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the research 1

2 Scope of the research 2

3 Aim and objectives of the research 2

4 Significance of the research 3

5 Research methodology 3

6 Design of the research 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 An overview of CDA 5

1.1.1 The definitions of CDA 5

1.1.2 Principles of CDA 6

1.1.3 CDA‟s approaches 7

1.2 Fairclough‟s three-dimension framework of CDA 9

1.3 Halliday‟s systemic functional approach and CDA 11

1.4 Transitivity 12

1.5 Overview of related studies 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES 17

2.1 The background to the event 17

2.2 Data collection 17

2.3 Research method 19

2.4 Data analysis procedure 19

CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ONLINE NEWS ABOUT THE EAST SEA DISPUTE 20

3.1 Transitivity analysis 20

3.1.1 Material process 22

3.1.2 Verbal process 25

3.1.3 Relational process 29

3.2 Overwording 33

PART C: CONCLUSION 45

1 A summary of the findings 45

2 Limitation and recommendation for further studies 48

REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: THE 10-QUESTIONS MODEL OF THE DESCRIPTION STAGE (FAIRCLOUGH, 2001:92-93) I APPENDIX 2: CHINESE NEWS REPORTS II APPENDIX 3: VIETNAMESE NEWS REPORTS IX APPENDIX 4: EXTRACTED TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF CHINESE ONLINE NEWS REPORTS XVII APPENDIX 5: EXTRACTED TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF VIETNAMESE ONLINE NEWS REPORTS XXVIII

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the research

In modern times, with the rapid development of technology, the mass media, especially online news are playing an increasingly important role in information providing Considered as one of the primary sources of information, news discourse

is generally believed to be objective, impartial, unambiguous and faithful in reporting events However, there are at times different versions of the same event are presented in a wide array of news sources, leaving room for doubt about the value-free and unbiased information journalists provide for news readers Is there existing manipulative power towards media? Does news show slanted views towards the events? The answers can be found in the light of critical discourse analysis in which according to Fowler (1991), language of the press is never neutral, and news reports are laden with values and ideologies That is the power of media when it can influence people‟s cognition and form people‟s attitudes and ideologies It is presented clearly when there are at times of political tension and conflict The language use is manipulated by political orientation Media then are exploited drastically by each side to correct their image, persuade people, and gain their support against their opponents (Nhung, 2012) Accordingly, in order to understand the true nature of news reports, namely the social and power relationship, the hidden ideologies, and the way they present people and issues, it is necessary to employ CDA

The relationship between Vietnam and China is considered one of the most complicated, tense and conflict-prone, in spite of the geographical link as well as the relational intimacy Efforts have been continuously exerted to maintain cooperative environment between the two antagonist “friends”; the connectedness, however, at times has been interrupted by political tension towards the overlapping claims of sovereignty in the sea The seemingly intractable nature of dispute over

the sovereignty in the South China Sea (or the East Sea as it is called in Vietnam – the name the author used later in the study) in recent years has attracted considerable attention among politicians, journalists and scholars For over one year, the tension has been covered on the media As a Vietnamese, this issue has aroused my concerns Moreover, few attempts have so far been made in analyzing language use in online news coverage related to this topic of two directly involved countries Therefore, I attempted to conduct a study involving the East Sea dispute

on Chinese and Vietnamese online media coverage in English language under the light of critical discourse analysis to explore how ideologies of the media institutions construct their representation of reality to their readers

2 Scope of the research

In this study, I would give spotlight on the online news reports on the East Sea dispute from May 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014 I am well aware that the wider the range

of data achieved, the more reliable the study result will be Nevertheless, due to the constraint of time and the limited length of a minor thesis, in this study, not all

Chinese and Vietnamese news reports were probed, but just twelve from the Global Times, Xinhua Agency News of China and the Vietnamplus, Vietnamnet of Vietnam

As this is a pure linguistic study, the author is not, by any means or in any way, expressing her own political point of view The study, therefore, does not support any political parties or aim at changing anyone‟s political stance It is for academic purpose only

3 Aim and objectives of the research

The study primarily aims to analyze Chinese and Vietnamese online media coverage of the East Sea dispute under the light of critical discourse analysis

To achieve this aim, the following objectives are set:

 to investigate the manner in which the conflict and main participants are approached and represented in the media discourse

 to explore the journalists‟ underlying ideologies via analyzing the grammatical and lexical features of the news reports, from which revealing a close relationship between ideologies and media language for political purposes

In order to realize these objectives, the study is intended to answer the following questions:

 What are the underlying ideologies of each side with respect to the issue of the dispute?

 How are such ideologies encoded in the discourse of the news agencies? These questions are based on several assumptions First, the news reports are influenced by certain values of the producers, including both the journalists and the media institutions Second, all news agencies can reflect different viewpoints on the disputed issue as well as the parties involved Third, and as a result, their ideologies can be different

4 Significance of the research

This study is expected to provide theoretical and practical benefits In relation to theoretical benefit, the findings of this study are expected to enrich the knowledge about critical discourse analysis In relation to practical benefits, the study and its findings are hopefully useful for the researchers and readers on building critical awareness towards the news which is seen in daily life

Data collection

This paper takes twelve authentic news reports written in English from both China‟s and Vietnam‟s new agencies, among which five are from China‟s top three

authoritative media – the Global Times and Xinhua Agency News, and another seven

are collected from Vietnam‟s top authoritative and influential media – the

Vietnamplus, Vietnamnet The news reports in the research are selected in a range of

time from May 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014

For further description of the research method, see chapter 2

6 Design of the research

The study consists of three parts They are:

Part A – Introduction – presents the rationale, scope, aim and objectives,

significance, general methodology, and design of the study

Part B – Development – constitutes the main part and consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Literature review

First, this chapter gives an overview of CDA – its definitions, principles and approaches Then Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework, Halliday‟s Systemic-functional theory, especially transitivity are concerned in this chapter Finally, the overview of related studies is also presented in the chapter

Chapter 2: Methodology and analytical procedures

This chapter presents the background to the dispute After that, the methodology and data analysis procedures are mentioned

Chapter 3: A critical discourse analysis of online news about the East Sea dispute

The CDA procedure addressed by Fairclough and Halliday‟s Systemic-functional theory are used to analyze the news reports to find out the connection between ideologies and language use

Part C – Conclusion – summarizes the main findings of the study, draws the

common and different features in terms of transitivity and overwording utilized in online media coverage of both sides Then suggestions for further research are

offered

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 An overview of CDA

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), stemming out from Critical Linguistics (CL), emerged in the 1970s by a group of linguists including Fowler et al (1979) and Kress and Hodge (1979) It was, after that, further developed in the early 1990s by Norman Fairclough (1989), Ruth Wodak (1989), and Van Dijk (1998) Since then it has become one of the most influential branches of discourse analysis, marking a turning point in linguistic research from the purely formal to the functional aspect of language

1.1.1 The definitions of CDA

According to Fairclough (2001), discourse, written or spoken, is not merely created

by linguistic structures and orders As language is a social semiotic, it is, on one hand, affected systematically by social circumstances, reflecting social structures, and social practices (Titscher et al, 2000; Fairclough, 2001; Weiss and Wodak, 2003; Wodak and Weiss, 2004, Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002) On the other hand, it also affects reversely the society to shape, retain, or change social relationships(Titscher et al, 2000; Fairclough, 2001, Wodak and Meyer, 2001; Jäger and Maier, 2009) Therefore, CDA, seen as an approach to language analysis, identifies the correlation between linguistic production and social variables, or more specific, the link of power, struggles over power on the composition of discourse Put differently, by means of CDA, the traces of ideologies pertaining to power relations can be exposed in discourse

By CDA I mean discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations, and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony (Fairclough, 2001: 132-3)

Sharing the same idea with Fairclough but specifying in more details the term power relations in Fairclough‟s definition, Van Dijk, Wodak and Meyer defined CDA as a type of discourse analysis studying how social power abuse, dominance, discrimination and inequality are “expressed, signaled, constituted” (Wodak and Meyer, 2001:2) as well as resisted in discourse in the social and political context (Van Dijk: 2001:352) CDA is, as Van Dijk (2008:72) compared, “an important diagnostic tool for the assessment of social and political dominance”

From these points of view, it can be stated that CDA is an approach to language analysis encompassing the interdependence of language, power and ideology With thorough description, explanation and critique, CDA aims to defamiliarize the

“naturalized” language used in the discourse, then reveal the power or struggles over power as well as ideologies hidden

1.1.2 Principles of CDA

Although the pioneers in CDA such as Fairclough, Wodak, and Van Dijk contributed different methods for CDA, they all shared the same viewpoints of CDA‟s principles

 CDA‟s primary interest is to address social problems It does not rely solely

on any particular discipline or discourse theory but a multidisciplinary approach and methodology to reveal such problems

 Power relations are discursive That is CDA explains how social relations of power are exercised and negotiated in and through discourse

 Discourse constitutes society and culture It means that the language use in discourse can contribute to reproducing and transforming social structures and practice, including relations of power

 Discourse is ideological because linguistic features and structures are not arbitrary but purposeful in a particular social context By means of discourse, power relations are produced, exercised, and reproduced

 Discourse is historical in the sense that texts attain their meanings by existing

in specific social, cultural and ideological contexts, time and space

 A socio-cognitive approach is needed to understand how relations between texts and society are mediated

 Discourse analysis is interpretive and explanatory

 Discourse is a form of social action

1.1.3 CDA’s approaches

1.1.3.1 Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach

Van Dijk‟s approach to CDA is a socio-cognitive approach It is concerned with the relationship between discourse, cognition and society

Discourse is not simply an isolated textual or dialogic structure rather it is a complex communicative event that also embodies a social context, featuring participants (and their properties) as well as production and reception processes (Van Dijk, 1998:2)

He emphasized the role of social cognition in connecting the discourse structures and social structures, from which social representations, attitudes, and ideologies of social actors are exposed According to Van Dijk, social cognition, or “mental representations and processes of group members”, controls how people act, speak or write or how they understand the social practices of others (Van Dijk 1995:2) Therefore, he developed a socio-cognitive framework consisting of three parts: social analysis, cognitive analysis, and discourse analysis

Van Dijk stated that one of the focal issues when analyzing discourse is to identify how the mental representations “are often articulated along Us versus Them dimensions” He assumed that generally speakers of one group tend to represent themselves or their own group in positive terms Whereas the other groups are depicted in negative terms (Van Dijk, 1995:2-22) From the assumption, he proposed a framework to clarify such an ideological dichotomy in discourse as the following:

1 Examining the context of the discourse: historical, political or social background of a conflict and its main participants

2 Analyzing groups, power relations, and conflicts involved

3 Identifying positive and negative opinions about Us versus Them

4 Making explicit the presupposed and the implied

5 Examining all formal structures: lexical choice and syntactic structure, in a way that helps to (de)emphasize polarized group opinions (Van Dijk, 1998: 61-63)

1.1.3.2 Fairclough’s systemic functional grammar approach

As noted in Jørgensen and Phillips (2002), with Systemic Functional Grammar, Fairclough‟s approach viewed language in a dialectic relationship with society That

is, it “both reproduces and changes knowledge, identities and social relations including power relations, and at the same time is also shaped by other social practices and structures” (Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002: 65) In other words, it is socially constitutive and socially shaped (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997:258) According to Fairclough (2003), the dialectic relation is realized through three aspects: social events (texts), social practices (orders of discourse) and social structures Consequently, his framework comprises three parts, that is analysis of text, analysis of discursive practice and analysis of sociocultural practice

1 Text analysis is concerned with linguistic analysis pertaining to four criteria: vocabulary, grammar, semantics and cohesion-organization above the sentence level (Fairclough, 2003) Halliday‟s Systemic functional linguistics

is exploited for detailed textual analysis

2 As Fairclough (2003) defined, “discursive practices” involves the production and consumption of texts Thus, the second analysis – analysis of discursive practice – is an analysis of how texts are produced, received and interpreted

In other words, this stage of analysis depends on background information the participants have, which affects the text production and consumption process

3 The sociocultural analysis is concerned with economy, politics and culture of

a communicative event (Fairclough, 2003)

(The detailed framework with three stages will be discussed later in Part 1.2)

As can be seen, though the three-dimension framework of Fairclough is quite similar to Van Dijk‟s three dimensions of ideology analysis, Van Dijk considered social cognition mediates between discourse and society while for Fairclough text production and consumption mediate between discourse and the social structures (Wodak and Meyer, 2001)

Proposing a three-dimension framework with a step-by-step analysis and a list of detailed, concrete suggested questions for textual analysis, Fairclough‟s framework would help analysts, especially the novice analyze more easily Accordingly, the researcher chose Fairclough‟s framework for her thesis

1.2 Fairclough’s three-dimension framework of CDA

a Description

The first stage concerns with the formal properties of the text and focuses on three aspects: vocabulary, grammar and textual structure (Fairclough, 2001:21) Fairclough points out that the choice of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures

to make up the formal features of a text is determined by three values: (1) Experiential value – an indication of how the text producer experiences the natural and social world, using his/her personal knowledge and beliefs; (2) Relational value – the aspect of a text that manifests social relations (3) Expressive value – an evaluation of an aspect of reality or social identities (Al Ghazali, 2007: 4) According to Fairclough (2001: 92-93), the text‟s formal properties are realized via ten main questions with a number of sub-questions.These detailed questions assist the analysts in exposing the discourse producer‟s ideologies embedded in the form

of naturalized language use (See Appendix 1)

b Interpretation

This stage involves the relationship between text and interaction At this stage, a text is seen not only as the end product of the production process but also as a resource in the interpretation process The features of text and context (situational

and intertextual context) serve as cues for being interpreted on the basis of a background of common-sense assumptions (MR – Member Resources)

Figure 1: Interpretation stage (Fairclough, 2001:119)

As shown in Figure 1, there are six major elements of MR, in which a distinction should be made between MR for interpreting the situational context (the external cues such as physical situation, properties of participants, what has previously been said), and for intertextual context (Fairclough, 2001) While the former involves knowledge of social orders, the latter needs knowledge of interactional history

Resources Interpretative

procedure (MR)

Interpreting

To sum up, in the interpretative stage, those factors relating to how people produce and interpret the discourse (textual features, context and background assumptions of MR) are taken into consideration for interpreting the discourse

c Explanation

This last stage concerns with the “relationship between interaction and social context with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation of their social effect” (Fairclough, 2001:21-22) These social determinations and effects are mediated by MR: that is social structures shape MR while MR in turn shapes discourses; and discourses sustain or change MR, which in turn sustains or changes structures

At this stage, usually the underlying ideological perspectives are exposed

Figure 2: Explanation stage (Fairclough, 2001:119)

1.3 Halliday’s systemic functional approach and CDA

Systemic functional grammar (SFG) is an approach to language in which language use, instead of being the arbitrary selection, seems to be purposeful in a particular social context By means of systemic functional approach, formal features of a text are analyzed to discover the producer‟s purposes in employing a particular linguistic choice, from which the ideologies and the social structures as well as struggles hidden in the discourse might be unravelled This is actually what critical discourse analysts do and, therefore, that is the reason why this approach is normally applied

in doing a CDA

In Systemic functional linguistics, language is structured to perform three metafunctions:

 Ideational metafunction: serves to express both people‟s experience of the outside world and their inner world of consciousness Halliday and Matthiessen (2013) categorized ideational metafunction into experiential and logical metafunction, of which the former deals with representing experiences, our perceptions of the natural world (Thompson, 2004:39; Halliday and Matthiessen, 2013:30) It deals with the question “What is going on?” and is realized through transitivity system that construes the world of experience into six process types

 Interpersonal metafunction: is about the social world in which the relationship between speakers and hearers is focused It is concerned with clauses as exchange Speakers can use language expressions to convey their comments, attitudes, evaluations and to set up, maintain or change social relationship of interlocutors Helping to find the answer for the question

“How do we use language to exchange?”, it is realized mainly through mood and modality

 The textual metafunction: is about the verbal world, especially the flow of information in a text It involves the creation of a text, or more specifically, it deals with creating relevance between parts of what is being said and between the text and context When people are talking about their experience of the world or interacting with other people, they should make the conveyed message into a coherent whole The question “How is the content of the text organized?” via Theme/Rheme system can help recognize the thematic structure

1.4 Transitivity

Transitivity, in essence, construes the world of experience into a finite set of process types It is a part of the ideational function of clause The “processes” (related to physical or not, state or relation) are the product of our conception of the world or our viewpoints that are transferred through language (Halliday, 1970 cited in Zhang,

2014) Thus, the selection of “processes” in a text can be ideologically significant Transitivity is employed to help identify what social, cultural, ideological and political factors determine the selection of process types in a particular discourse (Fairclough, 2001; Mayr, 2008:18-20) In other words, transitivity is seen as a useful analytic means helping unravel the writer‟s underlying meanings and motivations behind particular linguistic realizations

The system of transitivity consists of different process types (actions taking place), participants (those involved in the action) and circumstances (details about time, place, cause, or the manner with which the process is performed) The type of participants a clause can have is determined by the process type; therefore transitivity is strongly focused on the verbal groups in the clauses (Thompson, 2004:89)

In Halliday‟s Introduction to Functional Grammar (2013), Halliday and Matthiessen introduced six process types, each of which consists of three elements, namely the process itself, the participants involved in the process, and the circumstances, if any The process is typically realized by a verbal group; the participants are realized by nominal groups; and the circumstance by an adverbial group or prepositional phrase

 Material process: concerns actions, events taking place in the domain of

„outer experience‟ In other words, as a process of doing things, it expresses notion that some entity „does‟ something This process is usually physical and tangible action Two essential participants usually appear in material process are the Actor (the doer of the process), and the Goal (the person or entity affected by the process)

 Mental process: indicates the flow of events taking place in the “inner world” Technically speaking, it is a kind of activity in people‟s mind This process includes the sense of perception (see, hear, etc.), affection (like, hate, etc.), and cognition (think, know, understand, etc.) Mental process has two participants: the Senser (the conscious being) and the Phenomenon (thing/person that is felt, thought, or seen by the Senser)

 Verbal process: is the process of saying Besides the verbal process itself, the elements that might appear in a verbal clause are the Sayer (entity that produces the utterance), the Receiver (the addressee), the Verbiage (the content of what is said), and the Target (the entity that is targeted by a process of verbal judgment)

 Relational process: is the process of „being‟, „having‟ and „being at‟ There are three types of relational clauses, namely intensive, circumstantial, and possessive Each of these can be cross-classified as either attributive or identifying In attributive intensive mode, a quality (an Attribute) is ascribed to

an entity (the Carrier) In identifying intensive mode, an identity (an Identifier)

is ascribed to an entity (the Identified) The possessive mode establishes a relation between a Possessor and the Possessed (things belonging to Possessor)

 Behavioral process: is the process of physiological and psychological behavior The obligatory participant is Behaver (a conscious entity that behaves)

 Existential process: is the process of existing, indicating that something or some natural force exists

1.5 Overview of related studies

The confrontation between Vietnam and China in the waters has been one of the most controversial and much cover-newsworthy Nevertheless, so far CDA studies on the news delivering the East Sea dispute have received little critical exploration by critical discourse analysts, especially when the subjects of the study are Vietnamese and Chinese news in English Accordingly, the researcher decided to conduct this study to investigate the ideologies of journalists of both sides when reporting the event

However, in terms of studies utilizing CDA approach to investigate the ideologies

of the media institutions when reporting an issue involving their own countries or their allies, they share the same features, that is their positive self-image while negative other-representation

He and Zhou (2015), probed into the lexical choice of six pieces of news reporting

three safety accidents in China in China Daily and the Washing Post The study

found that the two newspapers represented the same event differently, which reflected the differences in their ideological standpoints and national interests To

be more specific, China Daily chose derogatory terms to portray the accident

causers, the terrorists, but adopted commentary words to describe the government

actions On the contrary, the Washington Post’s reporters utilized neutral terms to

portray the accident causers, and derogatory words to describe the government actions

Taiwo and Ota (2015) analyzed news reports on the Bakassi Peninsula conflicts in Nigeria and Cameroon print media The findings showed that newspapers from each country seemed to present their positive images while claiming themselves as victims of the other side Specifically, Nigerian news vividly portrayed the violation

of human rights and injustice of Cameroon security forces In contrast, Cameroon newspapers delineated their security forces as responsive and capable of handling the conflict

Zhang (2014) examined the political news reports on Iraq war in the New York Times, utilizing Fairclough‟s three-dimension framework and Halliday‟s functional

grammar, to expose different ideologies hidden Results revealed that the reporters built a positive image of the Bush administration as a friendly country and a liberator while the Iraqi community led by a tyrant leader – Saddam Hussein was portrayed negatively, labelled as an enemy

Yang (2012) conducted an analysis on the New York Times and China Daily‟s news

coverage to reveal the portrayal of the Chinese government The study suggested that the two newspapers, though shared some similarities, each depicted the Chinese

government differently While the New York Times tended to apply an Chinese government frame”, a “pro-government frame” is preferable in the China Daily

“anti-Chen (2008), utilizing Fairclough‟s framework and Halliday‟s three metafunctions,

analyzed the news reports on Sino-Japan conflicts in the New York Times He

probed into some linguistics features like lexicalization, transitivity, thematization

to find out the representations of China and Japan The findings indicated that

the New York Times tended to portray China as aggressive, dominant, and violent

In contrast, Japanese government and its people were depicted more rational and courteous

Ahmadian and Farahani (2014) analyzed the editorials of the Los Angeles Times and Tehran Times to investigate ideological differences manifested in two

media outlets when reporting on Iran‟s nuclear program They realized the media bias in the representations of Iran‟s nuclear program in which each side expressed its favorable attitude towards “us” while unfavorable to “them”

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL PROCEDURES

2.1 The background to the event

The tension raised in the East Sea on May 1, 2014 when China deployed the mobile HD-981 drilling rig escorted by a fleet of vessels along with aircraft near Hoang Sa Archipelagos (known to China as Xisha Islands), and claimed the waters as its territory This led to Vietnam‟s drastic protest In response, Hanoi dispatched 29 ships to disrupt the rig‟s placement and operations However, they met

fierce resistance from Chinese ships The situation escalated dramatically after three

incidents The first occurred on May 7 when China fired water cannons, resulting in severe damage to Vietnam‟s side Then on May 13 and 14, anti-China protests in Vietnam turned into riots targeting Chinese-like corporations and Chinese workers Finally, on May 26 a Vietnamese fishing boat sank after being rammed by Chinese vessels

2.2 Data collection

The thesis takes twelve authentic news reports written in English from both China and Vietnam‟s news agencies, among which five are from China‟s top three

authoritative media – the Global Times and Xinhua Agency News; another seven are

collected from Vietnam‟s top authoritative and influential online media – the

Vietnamplus, Vietnamnet The news reports analyzed are selected from a large pool

of articles covering the East Sea dispute during May 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014 Moreover, corresponding to each incident, a pair of news reports from each side is chosen to investigate the similarities or differences in the way journalists from two countries report the events, from which unveils ideologies of each party

The main reason why these specific newspapers are selected is that all of them are representatives of influential and leading newspapers in China and Vietnam Besides theirs popularity, the online newspapers are chosen on the basis of their

hierarchy in media management and control, which often draws researcher‟s speculations about different levels of news censorship and political manipulation imposed on each site (Nhung, 2012)

 The Global Times is run by the state and regarded as one of the most reliable

and authoritative newspapers in China It helps provide China insights and China views on domestic and international events (Olga and Ekaterina, 2015) As a major English-language newspaper in China, it is published and distributed in most cities in China and more than 150 countries and regions outside China Thus, it has wider impacts on readers

 Xinhua is considered as “official mouthpiece” of the Chinese Communist

Party It plays a unique role in creating China‟s national image and in articulating the Chinese government‟s policies with its ideological orientations (Li, 2010)

 Vietnamnet is one of the most popular online newspapers and reliable

sources of information in Vietnam It is under the control of the Ministry of Information and Technology It has great effects on readers‟ feeling and thought, which is considered a potential factor infecting readers with political ideologies (Nhung, 2012)

 Vietnamplus of the Vietnam News Agency is directly under the Communist

Party management Therefore, it is considered as the “mouthpiece” of the Party

The objectives of the thesis are to find out what beliefs about each side‟s actions are formulated and how they are presented to the foreign audience or what public diplomacy messages that the online media of both sides intend to convey to the world Since online news reports written in mother tongue are perceived as a means

of government to “manufacture consent among domestic audience” (Nhung, 2012), English-language media are chosen to serve the role of informing foreign audience about the issues

2.3 Research method

With the purpose of discerning the underlying ideologies of the reporters, Fairclough‟s three-dimensional approach to CDA and Halliday‟s Systemic-functional theory are applied to analyze the news In the study, both quantitative and qualitative methods are used Three stages proposed by Fairclough (2001), namely description, interpretation and explanation are intertwined in the thesis, instead of being given separately to show the direct link of each step To be specific, each formal property of the news at textual analysis is in direct relation with the ideologies of the reporters

As Fairclough emphasized that his proposed procedure of doing CDA should not be considered a blueprint, but just a guide with which depending on the research purposes, some aspects should be taken into consideration Accordingly, in details, based on Fairclough‟s model of ten questions to find out the formal properties of the texts, the researcher just focuses on some linguistic features to see how ideologies

of the journalists are encoded through language choices With regard to grammatical analysis, transitivity is scrutinized In terms of lexical choice, only overwording is analyzed

2.4 Data analysis procedure

To each criterion analyzed, all three steps of Fairclough‟s framework are followed Initially, at the descriptive stage, transitivity and overwording are analyzed to see how ideologies of the journalists are embedded in the news In the next stage – interpretation, context is considered For interpreting situational context, questions given by Fairclough (2001) are utilized as useful suggestions: What is going on?, Who is involved?, What relationships are at issue?, What is the role of langue in what is going on? Finally, in the last stage – explanation, the relationship between interaction and social context is mentioned in order to see how the discourse production and interpretation are determined by social structures and what effects the discourse can have on those structures

CHAPTER 3: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ONLINE

NEWS ABOUT THE EAST SEA DISPUTE

This chapter is devoted to a critical analysis of twelve news reports from both China‟s and Vietnam‟s online news coverage on the East Sea dispute released from May 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014

3.1 Transitivity analysis

As can be seen in the chart in Figure 3, there is a similar transitivity pattern in news coverage of Vietnam and China delivering the dispute To be more specific, both sides tended to prefer using material, verbal, and relational processes, followed by mental and existential processes On press coverage of both sides, the dominant process is material (comprising 61.9% and 44.9% respectively) Verbal process, which accounts for 17.2% in Vietnamese news and 32.9% in Chinese news, is the second most frequent process type, followed by relational process (15.7% and 13.9%)

That these three processes were utilized more frequently than others seems to be reasonable Regarding relational processes, they were deployed mainly to demonstrate the relation of the country to its legitimate ownership of the waters, which led to the conflict of the two countries when each side claimed their legal operation in the zone As a result, all the actions of Vietnam in the waters were

deemed to have the attributes of opposition and disruption to China and vice-versa For the predominance of material and verbal processes, it comes as no surprise because the news of two countries were mainly concerned with reporting conflicting actions and events happening in the disputed zone, instead of focusing on how each side feels or views subjectively

One conspicuous feature is that behavioral process does not record any occurrence

in the news analyzed It is quite natural to understand as in the news reporting the tense confrontation between two sides, physiological and psychological behavior are not the focus of what the journalists aim to convey to the readers

Another point worth noticing is a significant difference in using material and verbal processes on press coverage of two countries Percentages of material processes in Vietnamese and Chinese news are 61.9% and 44.9% respectively (the variance is nearly 1.5 times) Whereas, the number of verbal processes used in Chinese news is almost double than one in Vietnamese news It can be deduced that the tendency of Vietnamese online news coverage was using material processes to narrate the actions and events of the dispute while Chinese online media tended to prioritize reporting events The dominant use of material processes in Vietnamese news seems to show that the journalists are the eyewitnesses of the confrontation between two sides, who afterwards portray precisely bit by bit what was happening to the readers Meanwhile, reciting what the authorities said about the dispute on the sea instead of telling from their experience, Chinese journalists expected to be seen more objective

From the findings, it can be said that the newspapers in both countries were mainly concerned with reporting actions and events, in which the writers seemed to play the role of a third person without posing their own views subjectively However, when going into details relating to the distribution to each side of the three most frequently used processes in the following section, the researcher finds that the news reports are not as objective as they seem to be on the surface

of its “provocative actions” is Vietnam, taking up 48.3% These obviously indicate that the news coverage of China and Vietnam were likely to focus on the activities

of the opposing side in the disputed waters

Take the following sentences as examples when the writers presented their country‟s opponent:

(In Chinese news)

(1) …the Vietnamese side deployed a large number of vessels to forcefully

disrupt and obstruct China's operations, and rammed Chinese

government vessels (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

(2) Vietnam slammed a Chinese oil company's launch of an oil rig

Figure 4: The distribution of Actors in the material processes

(In Vietnamese news)

(5) China has so far deployed many vessels, up to 80 at peak time…

(en.vietnamplus.vn)

(6) Chinese ships encircled and intentionally rammed at, fired high-pressure

water cannons on Vietnamese coast guard and fisheries surveillance

vessels… (english.vietnamnet.vn)

(7) Vietnamese fishermen were beaten with two badly injured and their tools

were destroyed (english.vietnamnet.vn)

(8) China’s recent illegal acts in the East Sea have seriously infringed on Vietnam’s sovereignty, running counter to international law and practices and damaging the trust from the world community (en.vietnamplus.vn)

From the examples (1-4) or (5-8), the similarity in the way journalists employed material processes when depicting the opposite party can be seen clearly By using strong action verbs such as “deployed”, “rammed”, “slammed”, “smash”, “looted”,

“infringed”… Vietnam was described in Chinese online media as an aggressive country with vicious and irrational behavior regardless the law Similarly, as an initiator of the conflict with a series of anti-Vietnam acts like “encircled”,

“(intentionally) rammed”, “fired”, “beat”, “destroyed”, China was displayed on Vietnam‟s media coverage as a bully neighbor who is belligerent and could act brashly, illegally in the rule-based community

However, when portraying their own country, writers rendered the opposite images

In Chinese news, almost all of material processes describing China‟s actions are related to two aspects: peaceful measures to protect its sovereignty and citizens (57.1%) and its normal drilling operation in the Sea (28.6%) These two main themes reveal the ideologies of the journalists Firstly, China was expected to be seen as calm and sensible when prioritizing the stability of the region through diplomacy rather than violence

(9) Taking into consideration the overall bilateral relations and peace and

stability in the South China Sea, China has exercised great restraint

towards Vietnam's actions (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

(10) It would be the last way to organize nationals to withdraw from

Vietnam…to protect our nationals (globaltimes.cn)

Moreover, over a quarter of material processes used to narrate China‟s oil drilling process indicates that the journalists were likely to believe China was operating legally in the sea, and the waters is of course part of China‟s territory

Sharing the same viewpoint in representing the self-image of the country, Vietnamese online news was apt to depict its motherland as a peace-lover but on the basis of sovereign rights being respected A significant proportion of all material processes in Vietnamese news reports (60.4%) employed involves these facets Vietnam was delineated as flexible when precedence was given to peaceful solutions to the dispute although tough and assertive manner should be taken into consideration regarding the sovereignty

(11) The Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance Force has exercised their utmost

restraint (english.vietnamnet.vn)

(12) Vietnam will take all necessary and proper measures to defend its legitimate rights and benefits and safeguard its sovereignty. ( en.vietnamplus.vn)

With respect to the role of participants as Goals taking place in the subject position

(see Figure 5), there witnesses a different pattern

In Vietnam‟s news discourse, the side playing the main Goals is Vietnam, taking up 8.5% Especially, in all cases Vietnam was presented as the victim of an irrational and hegemonic China, like in the following instance:

(13) [Boat DNa 90152] was deliberately encircled by 40 fishing vessels of China before it was attacked by the Chinese ship 11209. ( en.vietnamplus.vn)

Figure 5: The distribution of Goals in the material processes

Whereas in China‟s news, it was the third party, namely the Chinese-like foreign corporations (6.1%), followed by China‟s citizens (4.1%) They are the main targets affected by Vietnam‟s violent actions in the riot against China‟s operation Thus, it can be affirmed that Vietnam via the negative depiction in Chinese news has become an aggressive country acting recklessly, unwisely because of its blind

(16) In addition to plants funded by companies from the Chinese mainland,

Taiwanese-funded plants, which hire many mainland workers, were also

attacked Firms from South Korea and Singapore were also targeted (globaltimes.cn)

Thus, obviously, material processes are inclined to be employed to reflect the positive “us” side and negative “their” side Put differently, Chinese online news tended to polish the image of its own nation as a peace-lover who was suffering the irrational, hostile manner of Vietnam while operating in its inherent territory Meanwhile, the opposite side – Vietnam – was likely to be presented as the party who escalated the dispute; it, thus, should be accused of interfering, causing instability in the region A similar ideology can also be conveyed in Vietnamese online press via the favorable attitude towards Vietnam whereas the wrongdoings of China were highlighted

However, there is one more interesting feature that can be elucidated That is Vietnam‟s news coverage had a tendency to victimize itself to the opponent‟s actions more than its counterpart It reflects more clearly the writers‟ ideology: derogating China‟s representation from which attracts the protest votes of the international world towards China‟s operation as well as claims

3.1.2 Verbal process

In the news analyzed of both China‟s and Vietnam‟s online news, verbal process takes up the second highest percentage which indicates the journalists‟ objective

views on the dispute It, consequently, would make the news more reliable with a pure purpose of transferring the truth to readers However, verbal process is believed to play an important role in prevailing ideology embedded in media discourse because whose statement is reported, or which part of a particular speech

is quoted, can be counted to make significant differences

The chart in Figure 6 illustrates that a majority of verbal clauses is resorted to give favorable voice towards each own side Specifically, in Vietnamese news, of all 56 clauses with verbal processes, the frequency of Vietnam‟s representatives playing the role of Sayers is 45, taking up 80.4% In Chinese news, the number of times China raised its voice is 71 out of 106 (accounting for 67%) However, there is a lack of voice from the opposing party China‟s voice was rarely presented in the Vietnamese news (making up only 1.8%) Likewise, the opportunity for readers to hear the viewpoints from Vietnam in Chinese news is just 11.3% Clearly, these reflect the journalists‟ bias in favor of their own country by giving voice to only one side instead of both sides equally Additionally, the media of both countries tended

to exclude the voice of the “enemy”

Even when voicing the opponent in a very few cases, most of the time the journalists displayed their slanted views by staining the image of the other side For

Figure 6: The distribution of Sayers in the verbal processes

example, in the context of criticizing Vietnam when deploying armed vessels to disrupt and obstruct China‟s operation, the journalist reported that:

(17) The Vietnamese side repeatedly underlined the importance of respecting

international law and international norms (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

The reporter‟s purpose here is to just emphasize the contrast, inconsistency between what Vietnam said, respects and its real actions This suggests that it is not China but Vietnam who violates the international law

In another case, Vietnam was portrayed as a liar when saying the casualty was just one, which, according to reports from China‟s as well as other international media institutions, was at least 16 in one night of the riot Not only that, Vietnam also blamed the other sides for traducing, fabricating “higher casualties”

(18) Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesperson Le Hai Binh only confirmed one death in Ha Tinh, and described media reports and accounts on social

networking sites of higher casualties as "groundless" (globaltimes.cn)

These are times when Vietnam‟s voice was raised in Chinese news How about China‟s voice being mentioned in Vietnamese news?

(19) Turning a deaf ear to the resultant outcry across Vietnam and the world, a

Chinese official brazenly described the rig as “a Chinese border within the

mobile national territory of China” (en.vietnamplus.vn)

In the above instance, China was depicted as an irrational hegemon who is keen to claim its full rights to the waters, disdaining the condemnation of the international

community

As illustrated in the chart (Figure 6), one noticeable point is the voice of the third parties reported, ranking the second It shows the dissimilarity between two countries‟ media coverage In Vietnam‟s news, of six verbal clauses in which the third parties play the Sayer role, five were employed to show the support voice of the other countries towards Vietnam They all considered the actions of China as

“provocative” and “threatening”

(20) Numerous countries from around the world, including Japan, Singapore and

the US, have voiced their concern over the escalation, describing the move

as a provocation and a threat to regional stability (en.vietnamplus.vn)

On the contrary, 54.5% of what were reported from the third parties in China‟s news is to render the image of a lonely China, who was deserted by the international community in the fight for the legal rights to its inherit territory They showed their disapproval of the “provocative” moves of China

(21) US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday that the

US opposes provocative or unilateral actions that jeopardize peace and

security in the South China Sea (globaltimes.cn)

(22) Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday that Japan regards

China's drilling operations in South China Sea waters as "provocative" to regional security (globaltimes.cn)

However, from China‟s perspective, these remarks were made irresponsibly and recklessly It suggests that it is not China who is irrational but these countries –

“countries outside the region” What they said made the tension escalated by encouraging “some countries‟ provocative activities.”

In almost all of the verbal clauses, the Sayers are mainly in high position like China‟s senior diplomat Ouyang Yujing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, Vietnam‟s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Hai Binh, Vice Commander and Chief of Staff of the Vietnam Coast Guard Ngo Ngoc Thu and the like By reporting what these figures said, the journalists seemed to manifest that any comments towards the actions of each side were not from the writers‟ subjective viewpoints Nevertheless, with more attention paid to what were reported (the above examples), the journalists‟ ideologies and attitudes hidden in the news are to some extent uncovered Apparently, the journalists of both sides resorted to the reputation of the diplomats, authorities, experts to make their remarks more reliable and powerful, from which the intended ideological messages are more likely to be conveyed to the readers In addition, by giving voice to high-ranking

authorities, the media would represent certain ideologies and attitudes of the government rather than merely the writer‟s interpretation

In summary, by being politically partisan, the journalists of both sides showed their negative bias against their opposing country in the conflict It is reflected via the unequal distribution of quotation There was a tendency of devoicing and defaming the outgroup while the ingroup playing as Sayers dominated Especially, the voices

of authoritative figures representing “our” side tended to be utilized to enforce the credibility as well as influence of the news reported Accordingly, it can be alluded that by granting scarcely little room for the opposite party‟s explanation, the opponent was foregrounded in an unfavorable light merely with one-sided depiction Thus, the actions of one side were seen, in the opposing eyes, to be incendiary, illegal, threatening to the security of the region

It is noteworthy that the media of two countries also tended to give preference to the third parties to render two opposite images Specifically, while Vietnam was supported in the fight for its territory, China seemed to be a lone warrior protecting its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights when the international community turned their backs on it

3.1.3 Relational process

So far, there have been a number of similar patterns in news delivering of journalists from two countries in terms of material and verbal processes employed However, when it comes to relational processes, both sides seemed to choose different strategy

On Chinese online media coverage, of all news using relational processes, things pertaining to their homeland are focal points (45.5%), followed by issues involving Vietnam (25%) (see chart in Figure 7) To be more exact, the property of the waters and the legitimacy of China‟s oil drilling operation were primarily brought into focus

These are the examples:

(23) Xisha Islands are China's inherent territory… the waters where Chinese company operates is close to China's Xisha Islands, being only 17 nautical

miles away from China's Zhongjian Island and nearly 150 nautical miles away from the coast of Vietnam (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

(24) This drilling operation is a regular continuation to relevant work starting

10 years ago (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

(25) The current operation, which has entered a second phase, is a normal

legitimate offshore drilling task (news.xinhuanet.com/english)

In example 23, the relational processes utilized suggest the fact that the waters where the oil rig located is in the China‟s exclusive economic zone Therefore, China, with no doubt, has the right to conduct the operation in its territorial waters Besides, as stated in examples 24 and 25, China has been operating for 10 years as a

“regular continuation” and “a normal legitimate offshore drilling task” Hence, why does Vietnam, at that time, claim the waters as its territory?

Figure 7: The distribution of the relational processes