Corpus-Driven Analysis on Covid-19 Discourse in China Daily
Keywords:
Covid-19, China Daily, corpus-driven, positive discourse, recontextualizationAbstract
The Covid-19 pandemic triggered a global crisis. It has had an impact on people’s health, disrupted the economy, and posed a threat to social cohesion and global order. Previous research on Covid-19 discourse constructions revealed the hidden powers of media discourses in shaping public perception. While the majority of information disseminated elsewhere via the media tends to be fearful and negative, there remains a research gap regarding the potential contribution of dominant newspapers in promoting positive discourse during the crisis. Therefore, this study examines the discursive construction of Covid-19 in China Daily, with the aim of exploring how dominant newspapers portrayed the pandemic and its implications, particularly in terms of crisis management and the global order. Using corpus-driven critical discourse analysis, 312 news pieces from China Daily in 2020 were collected, forming a 10,536,625-word corpus. Collocations of “Covid-19” were collected via Antconc and semantically categorized. The three semantic groups of collocates are (1) responses, such as ‘fight’ and “solidarity”; (2) influences, such as “infection” and “recovery”; and (3) positioning, such as “asymptomatic” and “confirmed”. Discursive constructions were found to be recontextualized, revealing the positive likelihood in senses. The results indicated that the news agency focused on solidarity, dedicated actions, vaccination, and low death toll implying positivity in the public. Covid-19 discourse in dominant newspapers, which is frequently interpreted as ideological with the aim of sustaining power relations, could convey a positive message during this pandemic of monumental global importance, shaping healthier positive attitudes, and promoting more effective international cooperation.
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