Chan Tayden Fung, Yu Yating
Institute of Policy Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR.
Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR.
Discourse Commun. 2023 Aug;17(4):522-537. doi: 10.1177/17504813231163078. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
'A global community of health for all' has become a dominant concept in China's global health governance system. Although this concept has been investigated by several studies in different domains, little attention has been given to its discursive legitimation in China's media communication from a linguistic perspective. To fill this gap, the present study employs positive discourse analysis to investigate how the aforementioned concept is legitimised via the predominant discourses associated with COVID-19 in state-run Chinese English-language newspapers. The findings show that the Chinese news media attempted to formulate the positive discourses, including cooperation as a win-win solution, people's lives and well-being as the priority and science as the spirit, though the discourses may not resonate with some countries. The findings shed light on the use of language by the media in promoting official ideologies, projecting China's national image and improving China's international relations amid a global health crisis.
“全球全民健康共同体”已成为中国全球健康治理体系中的一个主导概念。尽管这一概念已在不同领域的多项研究中得到探讨，但从语言学角度来看，其在中国媒体传播中的话语合法化问题却很少受到关注。为填补这一空白，本研究运用积极话语分析方法，探讨上述概念如何通过中国官方英文报纸中与新冠疫情相关的主流话语得以合法化。研究结果表明，中国新闻媒体试图构建积极话语，包括将合作作为双赢解决方案、将人民生命和福祉作为优先事项以及将科学作为精神，尽管这些话语可能无法得到一些国家的认同。这些研究结果揭示了在全球健康危机背景下，媒体如何运用语言来宣传官方意识形态、塑造中国国家形象以及改善中国的国际关系。
