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 ONLIN[.]
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 ngơn phê phán báo điện tử Việt Nam Trung Quốc đưa tin tranh chấp 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 báo điện tử Việt Nam Trung Quốc đưa tin tranh chấp 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 i 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 ii 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 selfrepresentation 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 iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Meaning A Actor Att Attribute C China Car Carrier E Existent G Goal Id Identified In Initiator Ir Identifier O Other parties P Phenomenon Pb Behavioral process Pm Material process Pmen Mental process Pr Relational process Pv Verbal process Px Existential process S Sayer Sen Senser T Target V Vietnam Ver Verbiage iv 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 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1:The main themes in Vietnamese online news coverage 33 Table 2:The main themes in Chinese online news coverage 33 Table 3: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Vietnamese online news coverage 35 Table 4: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Chinese online news coverage 35 Table 5: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s legal operation in Chinese online news coverage 37 Table 6: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s disruptive activities in Chinese online news coverage 38 Table 7: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s illegal operation and disruptive activities in Vietnamese online news coverage 39 Table 8: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s legal operation and defense in Vietnamese online news coverage 40 Table 9: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on Vietnam‟s activities in Chinese online news coverage 40 Table 10: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on China‟s activities in Vietnamese online news coverage 41 Table 11: The frequency of inter-related words to China‟s peaceful measures and strategies in Chinese online news coverage 42 Table 12: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam‟s peaceful measures and strategies in Vietnamese online news coverage 42 Table 13: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Chinese online news coverage 43 Table 14: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Vietnamese online news coverage 44 vi 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 Rationale of the research Scope of the research Aim and objectives of the research Significance of the research Research methodology Design of the research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 An overview of CDA 1.1.1 The definitions of CDA 1.1.2 Principles of CDA 1.1.3 CDA‟s approaches 1.2 Fairclough‟s three-dimension framework of CDA 1.3 Halliday‟s systemic functional approach and CDA 11 1.4 Transitivity 12 1.5 Overview of related studies 14 vii 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 A summary of the findings 45 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 viii international community Vietnam‟s peaceful measures and strategies International law/Acts China‟s viewpoints on 23 Vietnam‟s activities 16 International law/Acts 27 13 As shown in Tables and 2, it is no surprise when the news delivered by the media institutions of both nations revolved around these six main topics Here comes the same story that Vietnamese and Chinese journalists would like to narrate to their readers The motherland has the legitimate ownership of the waters where its citizens are conducting their work as usual Hence, the intrusion of another country into the exclusive economic zone together with its disruptive and threatening actions is always considered illegal and provoking These activities also show its disrespect to the international law signed by involving parties However, no matter how aggressive the opponent is, the land still prioritizes peace-related measures The violence-related maneuver is just the last resort to defend itself from the enemy Although sharing a similar plot, how the story is made depends on the skill of the storytellers, from which their ideologies are revealed Therefore, the researcher will analyze in details the six key concepts to demonstrate how journalists made use of reiteration to convey their ideologies to the readers However, at first, it can be seen easily in Tables and 2, news of two countries chose different approaches to the story In such story, China‟s media paid quite equal attention to its sovereign rights over the waters and Vietnam‟s provoking moves (69 and 66 times of occurrence respectively) If seen from China‟s perspective, it is sensible to mention these topics equally As analyzed above, China was criticized by the world for claiming irrationally its ownership of the area and illegally operating in the disputed waters; thus the job of Chinese reporters was to persuade the international community its eligibility Furthermore, a series of aggressive, hostile moves of Vietnam towards China was necessarily reported to uncover the true nature of an irrational Vietnam to the whole world 34 On the contrary, a substantial portion of Vietnam‟s news coverage was spent on China‟s illegal operation and disruptive activities (170 times), followed by the topic related to its sovereign rights (95 times) It clearly suggests that what Vietnam prioritizes is quite different from China It is because Vietnam has already been advocated by the world, so the attention should be steered to how to present the image of a belligerent, law-breaking China Nevertheless, Vietnam‟s legitimate proprietorship of the waters is undeniable That is why sovereignty-related items were repeated 95 times, ranking the second most highly used in the discourse Sovereignty As can be seen in Tables and 4, sovereignty-related matter is one of the two most important points journalists focus on It was mentioned 95 and 69 times in Vietnam‟s and China‟s news respectively Table 3: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence Vietnam’s sovereignty over the waters 95 (Vietnam‟s/ its/ Vietnamese) waters 12 sovereignty, sovereign rights, jurisdiction continental shelf of Vietnam, Vietnam‟s continental shelf mainland coast of Vietnam, its coast exclusive economic zone 22 15 13 the East Sea Hoang Sa (archipelago/area), Tri Ton Island, Ly Son Island 16 14 Table 4: The frequency of inter-related words to sovereignty in Chinese online news coverage Times of occurrence China’s sovereignty over the waters 69 35 (Chinese/ its/ territorial) waters 21 sovereignty, sovereign rights, jurisdiction 12 Xisha Islands, China‟s islands the South China Sea (waters) 14 14 China‟s inherent territory, Chinese territory China‟s maritime rights disputed waters, controversial islands It is shown clearly via the phrases referring to the area such as “Vietnamese continental shelf”, “mainland coast of Vietnam”, “Vietnam‟s waters”, “Vietnam‟s exclusive economic zone” (in Vietnam‟s news), or “China‟s inherent territory”, “Chinese territorial waters” (in China‟s news) To make that territorial claim more persuasive, the exact position of the zone was also described Take these following as examples: (37) “The location was 80 nautical miles deep in Vietnam’s continental shelf and was 119 nautical miles to Vietnam’s Ly Son Island and 130 nautical miles to its coast.” (en.vietnamplus.vn) (38) “…the waters where Chinese company operates is close to China's Xisha Islands, being only 17 nautical miles away from China's Zhongjian Island…” (news.xinhuanet.com/english) Additionally, with any territorial violation, “sovereignty”, “sovereign rights” and “jurisdiction” were always stated as an affirmation of their motherland‟s entitlement of the waters (39) “China has irrefutable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and their adjacent waters.” (globaltimes.com) (40) “Vietnam has full legal and historical grounds to prove its sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos as well as its sovereign right and jurisdiction over its exclusive economic zones and continental shelf” (en.vietnamplus.vn) Another interesting feature representing the ownership is the name designated to the zone In Chinese news coverage, “South China Sea” was used 14 times to indicate the waters, whereas Vietnamese journalists called it the “East Sea” 16 times 36 Likewise, the islands by which the oil rig was located were named Xisha in Chinese but “Hoang Sa” in Vietnamese (14 and 16 times respectively) Apparently, the use of overwording indicates the reporters‟ political stance However, it is noteworthy that in Chinese news, there are three times “disputed” and “controversial” was tagged as the attribute of the zone It shows the reporters‟ strong belief to China‟s legal ownership of the waters, to some degree, seemed to be shaken Legal or illegal operation Because of the strong belief of each side that the waters is of their country‟s maritime territory, the activities of residents in their area with no doubt are legal Moreover, any intrusion or activity in the zone from the opposing party is considered to be illegal and to endanger the sovereignty and jurisdiction Accordingly, it can be deduced that of both parties, the reporters‟ tendency is to present their own side in a favorable light, which is completely contrast with the disparaging effect on the opponent Table 5: The frequency of inter-related words to China’s legal operation in Chinese online news coverage Times of occurrence China’s legal operation 33 China's (legal/normal) drilling operations(s), (legal/ normal/ 10 legitimate) oil drilling operate/ operating/ (normal) operation 10 drilling field investigation/ drilling task, oil and gas exploration and development activities civil vessels, government vessels (on escort and security missions) Specifically, to China, as its claim to the territory, China, needless to say, has authority to perform its “oil and gas exploration and development activities” For that reason, lexical items indicating China‟s “normal operation” like “China‟s legal drilling operation”, “legitimate oil drilling” were repeated totally 24 times (shown in Table 5) This alludes that China does not violate juridical norms Moreover, within 37 its territory, the presence of civil vessels conducting their usual work, and government vessels “on escort and security missions” (9 times of occurrence in the news) is justifiable With respect to Vietnam‟s activities, they are seen as an illegal obstruction to the normal operation of Chinese companies It is the reason why Vietnam was presented as hostile and unreasoning The repetition of “armed” or ”military” vessels (12 times), the use of strong action verbs and words with negative connotation indicating Vietnam‟s actions such as “rammed”, “slammed”, “smashed”, “rampaged”, “damage”, “collision”, “disruptive” (28 times) portrayed a vivid picture of Vietnam‟s ferocious “disruption” (See Table 6) Moreover, by reiterating the inter-related terms involving riots like “atrocity", “rioting”, “rioters” 13 times, the brutality and blind patriotism of Vietnam citizens were also presented It can be seen clearly that the reporters evinced their negative attitude towards Vietnam Table 6: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam’s disruptive activities in Chinese online news coverage Times of occurrence Vietnam’s disruptive activities 66 (armed/ military) vessels 12 impede, rammed, rampaged, deployed, dispatched, placed 28 marched, slammed, targeted, cast, smashed, ran into, attack(ed)/ attacking/ attacks, damage(d)/ damaging, collision/ collide(d) disruption/ disrupt/ disruptive, obstruct/ obstruction 13 riot(s)/ rioters/ rioting, atrocity 13 The story, however, was told differently from the perspective of the Vietnamese Chinese illegal operation and disruptive activities become the focal points in the news reports The lexical terms related to this theme were repeated 170 times, 38 ranking the first out of utmost important matters mentioned in the discourse analyzed Table 7: The frequency of inter-related words to China’s illegal operation and disruptive activities in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence China’s illegal operation and disruptive activities 170 (illegal) oil rig, HD-981 oil rig, Haiyang Shiyou-981 (armed/ military/ fishing/ semi-armed fishing) vessels, (battle/ war/ 27 68 marine surveillance/ coast guard/ refuelling) ships, planes/ (military) aircraft, (armed fishing/ law enforcement) boats, boats of marine police, (fast attack missile/ fast patrol attack) craft, freighters rammed, encircled, deployed, fired (water cannons/ guns), dispatched, lay siege, bore directly down on, beat(en), sank, assailed, chased, intimidating, provoking, surrounding, constrained, prowling, positioned, placed, anchored, attack(ed)/ attacking, damage(d)/ damaging, destroyed, injured/ injuring operate(d)/ operating/ operation 67 As displayed in Table 7, the number of times China‟s illegal oil rig accompanied with a fleet of military, police and fishing vessels was reiterated is 95 times Especially, unlike China‟s news in which general terms like “armed” or “military” were used to describe the opponent force, the flotilla of escorted vessels was mentioned in Vietnam‟s news in more detail The terms like “semi-armed fishing vessels”, “battle ships”, “marine surveillance ships”, “refuelling ships”, “military aircraft”, “fast attack missile craft” were employed 68 times It indicates that this was not solely the transgression of an individual oil corporation but the Chinese government backed up and encouraged its violation Similar to China‟s journalism in reporting Vietnamese illegal activities in details, such infringement of China was displayed in Vietnamese news via a series of disruptive actions such as “rammed”, “encircled”, “fired water cannons”, “lay 39 siege”, “bore directly down on”, “assailed” and the like These concrete, visualizable verbs were reiterated in almost every news, occurring 67 times totally In face of China‟s illegal trespassing as well as continuous aggressive activities, Vietnam had to take proper measures to safeguard its sovereignty and protect its citizens From the Vietnam‟s perspective, what China considers as law-breaking and disruptive is just a legitimate operation as well as a sensible defense Table 8: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam’s legal operation and defense in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence Vietnam’s legal operation and defense 49 (Vietnam's fishery/ fishing) boat(s), (Vietnamese fishing/ Vietnam‟s 35 coast guard) vessels, (Vietnam‟s law enforcement/ Vietnam Fisheries Surveillance) ships, Vietnam‟s enforcement forces operating normally/ (normal/ regular) operation traditional fishing ground on duty, carrying out/ undertaking (maritime management/ law enforcement) missions, doing their duty counterattack As can be seen in Table 8, the inter-related terms pertaining to this concept were repeated 49 times, ranking the third most frequently mentioned topic Within Vietnam‟s territory, the presence of fishing boats “operating normally” in their “traditional fishing ground” or the law enforcement forces “undertaking their maritime management mission” obviously violated no rules Furthermore, Vietnam‟s coast guard was not the initiator but just “counter-attacked” the aggressor - China Viewpoints on each side’s activities The analysis so far has proven that the reporters were inclined to disparage the “outgroup” in order to glorify “ingroup” Such strategy was still utilized when they selected words showing their critical attitudes towards the enemy‟s activities Table 9: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on Vietnam’s activities in Chinese online news coverage 40 Viewpoints on Vietnam’s activities provocative, aggressive, violent/ violence illegal(ly), (gravely) violated reckless, recklessness threats, endangered, jeopardizing/ jeopardize, disturbing not conducive, not helpful Times of occurrence 26 10 6 Table 10: The frequency of inter-related words expressing viewpoints on China’s activities in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence Viewpoints on China’s activities 43 provocation aggressive(ly), aggressors, aggressiveness trick, heavy-handed approach, irrational illegal(ly), wrongful acts, violated, violating, violation 21 a threat, threaten detrimental, damaging the trust, negative effect on the political trust, adversely affecting bilateral relations, undermine Vietnam – China relations As shown in Tables and 10, all of the repetitive words expressing the viewpoints of each side towards the other, like “illegal”, “violent”, “provocative”, “aggressive”, “reckless”, “irrational” are with negative connotation Thus, it can be alluded that both sides preferred using negative lexical terms to refer to the ill-nature of the acts of the other party One noteworthy feature is that, besides the attribute of the acts, their “detrimental” effects were also mentioned The repetition of such words as “threats” “endangered”, “jeopardize peace and security”, “not conducive to regional peace and stability” (8 times in Chinese news) or “detrimental”, “damaging the trust”, “negative effect on the political trust”, “adversely affecting bilateral relations” (9 times in Vietnamese 41 news) illustrates other main concerns of two sides: peace, stability, and relation, which actually affect the measures two countries are in favor of Measures and strategies As mentioned above, besides the sovereignty, other goals that both countries stated to prioritize are peace, stability and bilateral relations That is why a hefty words relating to peaceful measures and strategies were repeated in the Chinese and Vietnamese news coverage (see Tables 11 and 12) Table 11: The frequency of inter-related words to China’s peaceful measures and strategies in Chinese online news coverage Times of occurrence China’s peaceful measures and strategies 32 stability, peace 16 (self-)restraint communication, phone call/conversation, consultations, negotiations bilateral relations, joint/concerted efforts handle disputes in a constructive way Table 12: The frequency of inter-related words to Vietnam’s peaceful measures and strategies in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence Vietnam’s peaceful measures and strategies 23 peace, peaceful (measures/ means) settle peacefully/satisfactorily, 14 amicable settlement, stability dialogue, negotiations, discussing utmost restraint cooperation, friendship, mutual respect and mutual trust building 42 For example, the two high-frequency words in Chinese news are “peace” and “stability”, appearing 16 times Vietnam‟s news reiterated “peaceful measures”, “peaceful means”, “amicable settlement”, “stability”, and the like 14 times It seemed that both sides would like to express their good will in this dispute That is, in order to retain peace and stability as well as bilateral relations, the practice of peaceful measures such as exercising the “utmost restraint”, directing towards “communication”, “joint efforts” was emphasized International law compliance So far, while the journalists have shown their pejorative views on their foe, their motherland seems to be presented on the opposite spectrum Once again, it is clearly illustrated via the number of times terms related to law and regulations were repeated All are for the purpose of portraying a rational, law-abiding country For example, as can be seen in Tables 13 and 14, China‟s news reports mentioned 13 times a list of laws and acts, namely “the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation”, “the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf”, “the UN Charter”, “the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea”, “the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation” A little bit higher, 15 times of occurrence of such terms were in Vietnam‟s news Table 13: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Chinese online news coverage Times of occurrence International law/Acts 13 international law/norms the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf 43 the UN Charter the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea the Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea, Code of Conduct 1 Table 14: The frequency of inter-related words to international law and act in Vietnamese online news coverage Times of occurrence International law/Acts 15 international law, practices, regulations the Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea, Code of Conduct of the Parties in the East Sea (COC) the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Six-point Principle on the East Sea issue In brief, with the discussion of using overwording, it can be affirmed that deliberate choice of words with repetition truly carries the values and reflects the reporters‟ ideological intentions embedded Both sides applied the same strategy to reflect their own country‟s representation favorably via the use of neutral and positive expressions Meanwhile, the use of strong and negative lexis plays a role in the negative presentation of the opponent as a violator, a regional peace-breaker with violating actions 44 PART C: CONCLUSION A summary of the findings Through the analysis based on Fairclough‟s three-dimension framework and Halliday‟s Systemic functional grammar, the researcher has made an attempt to illustrate the relationship between language, ideology and political stance It can be seen clearly in the analysis the underlying ideologies revolving around “us” and “them” side that the online media coverage of both sides intended to inculcate to readers That is presenting their positive self-representation while disparaging the other-representation The following will summarize the similarities and differences in how journalists of two countries exploited transitivity and overwording to convey their ideologies a Similarities: Regarding transitivity, it seems that reporters preferred using material clauses the most, followed by verbal and relational In material clauses, both sides were likely to draw readers‟ attention to the “aggressive” and “irrational” activities of the opposing party who was seen the agent of the regional tension Notwithstanding, of their own side‟s activities, maneuvers displaying their legal operation and peace-loving nature became the focal points Besides, self-victimization strategy was apt to be used in order to accentuate the quality of their opponent‟s actions – illegal, reckless and vicious, from which the image of the enemy was damaged In verbal clauses, there was an unequal distribution of voice, in which a majority of voice raised showed favorable attitudes towards each own side The voice of the “other” tended to be excluded These illustrated the bias in favor of “our” side and prejudice against of the other side Relational clauses also witnessed similar features of media coverage of both nations The property of the waters and the legitimacy of each side‟s operation or interference were brought into focus in order to legalize what were considered “wrongdoings” from the opposite side Moreover, the attribute of the opponent‟s obstruction against the law was employed to emphasize the illegitimacy and 45 disrespect to the international law of the other side, from which the image of a warmonger, law-breaker and regional troublemaker was depicted Based on the frequency of repeated words, it can be seen that both sides shared the same six main themes involving their own country‟s legitimate rights and operation in the area, their preference of peaceful measures and strategies when facing the opponent‟s “provoking” and “conducive” activities, and their respect to the international law Relating to the sovereignty, both sides had a tendency to mark their ownership via the name designated to the disputed region While Vietnam used the “East Sea” and “Hoang Sa Archipelagos” to refer to the zone, China insisted on the “South China Sea” and “Xisha Islands” Another similarity is in the lexical choices used to depict each side Positive or neutral lexis was likely to be employed to portray “our” side Meanwhile, negative lexicalization was for “their” side It was clearly shown through a list of strong verbs and words with negative connotations to indicate the law-breaking maneuvers of the opposite party which, from the opponent‟s perspective, were considered totally legal These common features discussed above have apparently demonstrated the ideologies of the news reporters, that is presenting their own countries in favorable light to gain the support of the world in the dispute of the water ownership Meanwhile, the opponent was portrayed negatively as an aggressor who acted brashly, illegally in the rule-based community b Differences: Tải FULL (99 trang): https://bit.ly/3ZrFR99 Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net The differences between the online media coverage of both sides mainly lay in the proportion of their attention paid to each matter With respect to transitivity, Vietnamese online news coverage had a tendency to exploit more material processes to describe China‟s “disruptive” acts and to victimize itself to China‟s aggression It reflects more clearly the journalists‟ ideologies in derogating the image of China By doing so, it was expected to raise the disapproving attitudes of the international world towards China‟s operation as well as claims In verbal clauses, it seems that Chinese online media tended to prioritize reporting 46 events, which shows theirs attempt in distancing themselves from the discourse However, if investigated thoroughly, the ideologies of the reporters were exposed The third parties‟ voice tended to be employed to delineate the image of a lonely China in the fight for its proprietorship of the territory because the world expressed their disapproval of China On the contrary, there witnessed an opposite effect of using the outsiders‟ voice in Vietnam‟s online news coverage with the supportive voice towards Vietnam They all considered the actions of China as belligerent and threatening Concerning the relational clauses, the focus of two sides was different From Chinese perspective, the property of the waters and the legitimacy of its oil drilling operation were paid more attention Then came the issue related to Vietnam‟s illegal disruption However, Vietnamese reporters spent much of the time on displaying the illegal attributes of China‟s operations and actions These showed clearly the purposes of the journalists Firstly, it was reinforcing the process of materializing the disputed waters by convincing the international community its rightful to the zone Secondly, an aggressive, irrational and hostile Vietnam was successfully depicted Tải FULL (99 trang): https://bit.ly/3ZrFR99 Dự phòng: fb.com/TaiHo123doc.net In terms of lexical choices, a significant difference in the proportion of each key concept suggested that each party had their own priorities in order to convey the ideologies to the readers In China‟s online media coverage, the attention was more likely to be paid equally on sovereign rights over the waters and Vietnam‟s provoking moves They served the purpose of persuading the international community of China‟s eligibility, from which materializing the area legally Besides, by exposing the true nature of an irrational, aggressive, and law-breaking Vietnam to the whole world, China expected to gain the international world‟s support Whereas in Vietnamese news, China‟s illegal operation and disruptive activities seem to be the most important information Then following is sovereignty Such priorities of Vietnam displayed the writers‟ purpose of presenting the image of a warlike, lawbreaking China, from which more supportive votes from the community were expected to achieve Moreover, it is worth noting that Chinese journalists did not 47 seem to be fully convinced with China‟s jurisdiction over the waters when mentioning “the disputed waters” three times in the news, which was not shown in Vietnam‟s news From the findings with the significant differences in depicting two parties in the news, it can be confirmed that there is actually a relationship between news reports and their political ideologies Simply speaking, the journalists in particular or the media institutions in general are politically manipulated In conclusion, through the analysis, it can be stated that language is an effective means to assert power and ideology; thus it can be used to control readers‟ actions and minds Such power of manipulation can have immense effect if it is used with newspapers Therefore, it is recommended that readers should be aware of how particular uses of language are exploited in news to uncover the ideological representations embedded Limitation and recommendation for further studies The first limitation of the study is its small-scale database Because the study has just been conducted on twelve news reports, the findings of the study can, unavoidably, not be generalized as the characteristics of Vietnamese and Chinese news coverage on the dispute Besides, due to the researcher‟s limited ability and time, the study has exploited some features of language at textual level Therefore, further studies can be conducted on the news discourse in some other aspects such as passivization, nominalization, modes of sentences, and thematization 48 6812141 ... 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... 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. .. 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