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​

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

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 THEEAST SEA DISPUTE” is the result of my own study It was conducted withscientific guidance of Prof Dr Hoàng Văn Vân

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

Post-graduate student

Nguyễn Đặng Mai Linh

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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 HoàngVăn 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 andstaffs at the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, the University of Languages andInternational Studies, Vietnam National University of Hanoi whose support andconsideration have enabled me to pursue the course

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

Hanoi, April 2017

Nguyễn Đặng Mai Linh

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

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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

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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 onlinenews coverage 35Table 4: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Chinese online newscoverage 35Table 5: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s legal operation in Chineseonline news coverage 37Table 6: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s disruptive activities inChinese online news coverage 38Table 7: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s illegal operation anddisruptive activities in Vietnamese online news coverage 39Table 8: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s legal operation anddefense in Vietnamese online news coverage 40Table 9: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on Vietnam‟sactivities in Chinese online news coverage 40Table 10: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on China‟sactivities in Vietnamese online news coverage 41Table 11: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s peaceful measures andstrategies in Chinese online news coverage 42Table 12: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s peaceful measures andstrategies 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

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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

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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

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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 informationproviding Considered as one of the primary sources of information, news discourse

is generally believed to be objective, impartial, unambiguous and faithful inreporting events However, there are at times different versions of the same eventare presented in a wide array of news sources, leaving room for doubt about thevalue-free and unbiased information journalists provide for news readers Is thereexisting manipulative power towards media? Does news show slanted viewstowards the events? The answers can be found in the light of critical discourseanalysis 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 mediawhen it can influence people‟s cognition and form people‟s attitudes andideologies It is presented clearly when there are at times of political tension andconflict The language use is manipulated by political orientation Media then areexploited drastically by each side to correct their image, persuade people, and gaintheir support against their opponents (Nhung, 2012) Accordingly, in order tounderstand the true nature of news reports, namely the social and powerrelationship, the hidden ideologies, and the way they present people and issues, it isnecessary to employ CDA

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

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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 attractedconsiderable attention among politicians, journalists and scholars For over oneyear, the tension has been covered on the media As a Vietnamese, this issue hasaroused my concerns Moreover, few attempts have so far been made in analyzinglanguage use in online news coverage related to this topic of two directly involvedcountries Therefore, I attempted to conduct a study involving the East Sea dispute

on Chinese and Vietnamese online media coverage in English language under thelight of critical discourse analysis to explore how ideologies of the mediainstitutions 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 Seadispute 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 theconstraint 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 supportany political parties or aim at changing anyone‟s political stance It is for academicpurpose only

3 Aim and objectives of the research

The study primarily aims to analyze Chinese and Vietnamese online mediacoverage 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

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 to explore the journalists‟ underlying ideologies via analyzing thegrammatical and lexical features of the news reports, from which revealing a closerelationship 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 areinfluenced by certain values of the producers, including both the journalists and themedia institutions Second, all news agencies can reflect different viewpoints on thedisputed issue as well as the parties involved Third, and as a result, their ideologiescan be different

4 Significance of the research

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

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Data collection

This paper takes twelve authentic news reports written in English from both China‟sand 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 andapproaches Then Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework, Halliday‟s Systemic-functional theory, especially transitivity are concerned in this chapter Finally, theoverview 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 methodologyand 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-functionaltheory are used to analyze the news reports to find out the connection betweenideologies 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 inonline media coverage of both sides Then suggestions for further research areoffered

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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) andKress and Hodge (1979) It was, after that, further developed in the early 1990s byNorman Fairclough (1989), Ruth Wodak (1989), and Van Dijk (1998) Since then ithas become one of the most influential branches of discourse analysis, marking aturning point in linguistic research from the purely formal to the functional aspect oflanguage

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 onehand, 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, italso affects reversely the society to shape, retain, or change social relationships(Titscher et al, 2000; Fairclough, 2001, Wodak and Meyer, 2001; Jäger andMaier, 2009) Therefore, CDA, seen as an approach to language analysis, identifiesthe correlation between linguistic production and social variables, or more specific,the link of power, struggles over power on the composition of discourse Putdifferently, by means of CDA, the traces of ideologies pertaining to power relationscan be exposed in discourse

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

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Sharing the same idea with Fairclough but specifying in more details the termpower relations in Fairclough‟s definition, Van Dijk, Wodak and Meyer definedCDA as a type of discourse analysis studying how social power abuse, dominance,discrimination and inequality are “expressed, signaled, constituted” (Wodak andMeyer, 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 importantdiagnostic tool for the assessment of social and political dominance”.

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

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

1.1.2 Principles of CDA

Although the pioneers in CDA such as Fairclough, Wodak, and Van Dijkcontributed different methods for CDA, they all shared the same viewpoints ofCDA‟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 andmethodology 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 indiscourse can contribute to reproducing and transforming social structures and practice,including relations of power

 Discourse is ideological because linguistic features and structures are notarbitrary but purposeful in a particular social context By means of discourse, powerrelations 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

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 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 therelationship between discourse, cognition and society

Discourse is not simply an isolated textual or dialogic structure rather it is acomplex communicative event that also embodies a social context, featuringparticipants (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 structuresand social structures, from which social representations, attitudes, and ideologies ofsocial actors are exposed According to Van Dijk, social cognition, or “mentalrepresentations and processes of group members”, controls how people act, speak orwrite 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 identifyhow the mental representations “are often articulated along Us versus Themdimensions” He assumed that generally speakers of one group tend to representthemselves or their own group in positive terms Whereas the other groups aredepicted in negative terms (Van Dijk, 1995:2-22) From the assumption, heproposed a framework to clarify such an ideological dichotomy in discourse as thefollowing:

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

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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 away 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 relationsincluding power relations, and at the same time is also shaped by other socialpractices and structures” (Jørgensen and Phillips, 2002: 65) In other words, it issocially constitutive and socially shaped (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997:258).According to Fairclough (2003), the dialectic relation is realized through threeaspects: social events (texts), social practices (orders of discourse) and socialstructures Consequently, his framework comprises three parts, that is analysis oftext, 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 detailedtextual analysis

2 As Fairclough (2003) defined, “discursive practices” involves the productionand 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 thetext 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)

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As can be seen, though the three-dimension framework of Fairclough is quitesimilar to Van Dijk‟s three dimensions of ideology analysis, Van Dijk consideredsocial cognition mediates between discourse and society while for Fairclough textproduction 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 ofdetailed, concrete suggested questions for textual analysis, Fairclough‟s frameworkwould help analysts, especially the novice analyze more easily Accordingly, theresearcher 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 threeaspects: 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 naturaland social world, using his/her personal knowledge and beliefs; (2) Relational value– the aspect of a text that manifests social relations (3) Expressive value – anevaluation 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 viaten main questions with a number of sub-questions These detailed questions assistthe 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 isseen not only as the end product of the production process but also as a resource in theinterpretation process The features of text and context (situational

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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)

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

c Explanation

This last stage concerns with the “relationship between interaction and socialcontext with the social determination of the processes of production andinterpretation of their social effect” (Fairclough, 2001:21-22) These socialdeterminations and effects are mediated by MR: that is social structures shape MRwhile MR in turn shapes discourses; and discourses sustain or change MR, which inturn 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 languageuse, instead of being the arbitrary selection, seems to be purposeful in a particularsocial context By means of systemic functional approach, formal features of a textare analyzed to discover the producer‟s purposes in employing a particularlinguistic choice, from which the ideologies and the social structures as well asstruggles hidden in the discourse might be unravelled This is actually what criticaldiscourse analysts do and, therefore, that is the reason why this approach isnormally applied in doing a CDA

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In Systemic functional linguistics, language is structured to perform three

metafunctions:

 Ideational metafunction: serves to express both people‟s experience of theoutside world and their inner world of consciousness Halliday and Matthiessen (2013)categorized ideational metafunction into experiential and logical metafunction, of whichthe 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 therelationship between speakers and hearers is focused It is concerned with clauses asexchange 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 ofinformation in a text It involves the creation of a text, or more specifically, it deals withcreating 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 otherpeople, 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 recognizethe thematic structure

1.4 Transitivity

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

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2014) Thus, the selection of “processes” in a text can be ideologically significant.Transitivity is employed to help identify what social, cultural, ideological andpolitical factors determine the selection of process types in a particular discourse(Fairclough, 2001; Mayr, 2008:18-20) In other words, transitivity is seen as auseful analytic means helping unravel the writer‟s underlying meanings andmotivations 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 ofparticipants a clause can have is determined by the process type; thereforetransitivity is strongly focused on the verbal groups in the clauses (Thompson,2004:89)

In Halliday‟s Introduction to Functional Grammar (2013), Halliday and Matthiessenintroduced six process types, each of which consists of three elements, namely theprocess 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 bynominal groups; and the circumstance by an adverbial group or prepositionalphrase

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

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

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

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

 Relational process: is the process of „being‟, „having‟ and „being at‟ Thereare three types of relational clauses, namely intensive, circumstantial, and possessive.Each of these can be cross-classified as either attributive or identifying In attributiveintensive mode, a quality (an Attribute) is ascribed to an entity (the Carrier) Inidentifying intensive mode, an identity (an Identifier) is ascribed to an entity (theIdentified) The possessive mode establishes a relation between a Possessor and thePossessed (things belonging to Possessor)

 Behavioral process: is the process of physiological and psychologicalbehavior 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 themost 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 areVietnamese and Chinese news in English Accordingly, the researcher decided toconduct this study to investigate the ideologies of journalists of both sides whenreporting 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 ortheir allies, they share the same features, that is their positive self-image whilenegative other-representation

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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, whichreflected 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 inNigeria and Cameroon print media The findings showed that newspapers from eachcountry seemed to present their positive images while claiming themselves asvictims of the other side Specifically, Nigerian news vividly portrayed the violation

of human rights and injustice of Cameroon security forces In contrast, Cameroonnewspapers delineated their security forces as responsive and capable of handlingthe 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 reportersbuilt a positive image of the Bush administration as a friendly country and aliberator while the Iraqi community led by a tyrant leader – Saddam Hussein wasportrayed 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 suggestedthat the two newspapers, though shared some similarities, each depicted the Chinese

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

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

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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 andcourteous

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 therepresentations of Iran‟s nuclear program in which each side expressed its favorableattitude towards “us” while unfavorable to “them”

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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 mobileHD-981 drilling rig escorted by a fleet of vessels along with aircraft near Hoang SaArchipelagos (known to China as Xisha Islands), and claimed the waters as itsterritory This led to Vietnam‟s drastic protest In response, Hanoi dispatched 29ships to disrupt the rig‟s placement and operations However, they met fierceresistance from Chinese ships The situation escalated dramatically after threeincidents The first occurred on May 7 when China fired water cannons, resulting insevere damage to Vietnam‟s side Then on May 13 and 14, anti-China protests inVietnam turned into riots targeting Chinese-like corporations and Chinese workers.Finally, on May 26 a Vietnamese fishing boat sank after being rammed by Chinesevessels

2.2 Data collection

The thesis takes twelve authentic news reports written in English from both Chinaand 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 ischosen to investigate the similarities or differences in the way journalists from twocountries report the events, from which unveils ideologies of each party

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

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hierarchy in media management and control, which often draws researcher‟sspeculations about different levels of news censorship and political manipulationimposed 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 language newspaper in China, it is published and distributed in most cities in China andmore than 150 countries and regions outside China Thus, it has wider impacts onreaders

English- 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 theChinese 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 ofInformation 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 areformulated and how they are presented to the foreign audience or what publicdiplomacy messages that the online media of both sides intend to convey to theworld 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 audienceabout the issues

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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 andqualitative methods are used Three stages proposed by Fairclough (2001), namelydescription, interpretation and explanation are intertwined in the thesis, instead ofbeing given separately to show the direct link of each step To be specific, eachformal property of the news at textual analysis is in direct relation with theideologies of the reporters

As Fairclough emphasized that his proposed procedure of doing CDA should not beconsidered a blueprint, but just a guide with which depending on the researchpurposes, some aspects should be taken into consideration Accordingly, in details,based on Fairclough‟s model of ten questions to find out the formal properties ofthe texts, the researcher just focuses on some linguistic features to see howideologies of the journalists are encoded through language choices With regard togrammatical analysis, transitivity is scrutinized In terms of lexical choice, onlyoverwording 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

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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 bothChina‟s and Vietnam‟s online news coverage on the East Sea dispute released fromMay 1, 2014 to July 16, 2014

Vietnamese news Chinese news

As can be seen in the chart in Figure 3, there is a similar transitivity pattern in newscoverage of Vietnam and China delivering the dispute To be more specific, bothsides tended to prefer using material, verbal, and relational processes, followed bymental and existential processes On press coverage of both sides, thedominant 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 byrelational process (15.7% and 13.9%)

That these three processes were utilized more frequently than others seems to bereasonable Regarding relational processes, they were deployed mainly todemonstrate 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 legaloperation in the zone As a result, all the actions of Vietnam in the waters were

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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 surprisebecause the news of two countries were mainly concerned with reporting conflictingactions and events happening in the disputed zone, instead of focusing on how eachside 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 tenseconfrontation between two sides, physiological and psychological behavior are not thefocus of what the journalists aim to convey to the readers

Another point worth noticing is a significant difference in using material and verbalprocesses on press coverage of two countries Percentages of material processes inVietnamese and Chinese news are 61.9% and 44.9% respectively (the variance isnearly 1.5 times) Whereas, the number of verbal processes used in Chinese news isalmost double than one in Vietnamese news It can be deduced that the tendency ofVietnamese online news coverage was using material processes to narrate theactions and events of the dispute while Chinese online media tended to prioritizereporting events The dominant use of material processes in Vietnamese news seems

to show that the journalists are the eyewitnesses of the confrontation between twosides, who afterwards portray precisely bit by bit what was happening to thereaders Meanwhile, reciting what the authorities said about the dispute on the seainstead of telling from their experience, Chinese journalists expected to be seenmore objective

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

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As shown in the chart in Figure 4, the deployment of material processes journalistsfrom two countries utilized is rather similar, in which the most dominant Actors are

of the opponent party Specifically, in Vietnamese news, the most active agent whotakes “aggressive actions” is China, accounting for 53.2% Meanwhile, in Chinesenews, the side that should be blamed for causing the tension in the region because ofits “provocative actions” is Vietnam, taking up 48.3% These obviously indicate thatthe news coverage of China and Vietnam were likely to focus on the activities of theopposing side in the disputed waters

Take the following sentences as examples when the writers presented theircountry‟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.

(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 employedmaterial processes when depicting the opposite party can be seen clearly By usingstrong action verbs such as “deployed”, “rammed”, “slammed”, “smash”, “looted”,

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

“(intentionally) rammed”, “fired”, “beat”, “destroyed”, China was displayed onVietnam‟s media coverage as a bully neighbor who is belligerent and could actbrashly, 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 arerelated 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 mainthemes reveal the ideologies of the journalists Firstly, China was expected to beseen as calm and sensible when prioritizing the stability of the region throughdiplomacy 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)

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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)

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

(see Figure 5), there witnesses a different pattern

Figure 5: The distribution of Goals in the material processes

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Involved party

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

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Whereas in China‟s news, it was the third party, namely the Chinese-like foreigncorporations (6.1%), followed by China‟s citizens (4.1%) They are the main targetsaffected by Vietnam‟s violent actions in the riot against China‟s operation Thus, itcan be affirmed that Vietnam via the negative depiction in Chinese news hasbecome an aggressive country acting recklessly, unwisely because of its blindpatriotism.

(14) …at least two Chinese nationals were killed and more than 100 injured

(globaltimes.cn)

(15) 16 other people described as Chinese were killed on Wednesday night in

rioting (globaltimes.cn)

(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 thepositive “us” side and negative “their” side Put differently, Chinese online newstended to polish the image of its own nation as a peace-lover who was suffering theirrational, hostile manner of Vietnam while operating in its inherent territory.Meanwhile, the opposite side – Vietnam – was likely to be presented as the partywho escalated the dispute; it, thus, should be accused of interfering, causinginstability in the region A similar ideology can also be conveyed in Vietnameseonline press via the favorable attitude towards Vietnam whereas the wrongdoings ofChina were highlighted

However, there is one more interesting feature that can be elucidated That isVietnam‟s news coverage had a tendency to victimize itself to the opponent‟sactions more than its counterpart It reflects more clearly the writers‟ ideology:derogating China‟s representation from which attracts the protest votes of theinternational 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 processtakes up the second highest percentage which indicates the journalists‟ objective

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