Discourse representation of COVID-19 editorials between China Daily and the New York Times.

Abstract

Since the first COVID-19 pandemic hit China in December 2019, there is a “narrative battle” between China and the US. Misleading and prejudicial coverage of the respective countries has arisen, further influencing the public’s opinion and leading to discrimination. Although scholars have begun to explore media reports during the pandemic, very little is known about how the COVID-19 pandemic is reported, discussed, and presented in the Chinese and American media from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. This study investigates linguistic units per se, and further studies the in-depth power relations and social phenomena through employing three-dimensional model (Fairclough, 1992, 1995). It analyzes 2 editorials from China Daily (CD) and the New York Times (NYT) to evaluate how the COVID-19 crisis is represented textually, discursively, and socially in CD and the NYT. It finds that both CD and NYT contribute to the rise in the sentiments of opposing each other. The authors suggest global powers should have the responsibility to cooperate with each other at this critical time instead of the “narrative battle”.