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Article published In:
Media Language and Discourse in Cultural China
Edited by Doreen D. Wu, Ming Liu and David C.S. Li
[Chinese Language and Discourse 13:1] 2022
► pp. 99–121

Multiculturalism in media representation

Examining news reporting of Sino-US trade war in China Daily and the South China Morning Post

ORCID logo | Hainan University | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
This study explores the issue of multiculturalism in China’s journalism practice through the analysis of news coverage on the Sino-US trade war in China Daily (CD) and the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Following a corpus-based critical discourse analysis approach, the study compares thematic dimensions as well as recurring semantic patterns associated with them that denote two newspapers’ evaluative positioning. The findings reveal that CD’s reporting seems to be nationalistic-centric with overly positive representation of China’s practices and policies, while SCMP’s representation is multiculturalism-oriented with the representation of multiple discourses and articulation of competing and diversified viewpoints towards the evaluation of China’s market access and economic reform. The study concludes by recommending China’s official media practice continues to explore a multiculturalism approach to build dialogues with the international community in tandem with efforts made in promoting political, economic and cultural power.
Keywords: comparative media discourse studies, multiculturalism, media representation, Sino-US trade war, critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature review
  • Data and methodology
    • Data sampling
    • Research methodology
  • Findings
    • Analysis of themes and concepts in CD and SCMP
    • Analysis of shared themes in CD and SCMP
      • Patterns of Co-selection with market in China Daily
      • Patterns of co-selection with market in the South China Morning Post
      • Patterns of co-selection with economy in China Daily
      • Patterns of co-selection with economy in the South China Morning Post
  • Discussion and conclusion
  • References
Published online: 29 March 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.21002.zha
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