A Review of Ideology in News

李婕昕　郭磊

【Abstract】Based on the theories of Critical Discourse Analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics， this paper explores the political power， social conventions and ideology behind mass media. With the help of thematic structure analysis and information structure analysis， the relationship between political power and media will be unveiled in this paper.

【Key words】critical discourse analysis； news； ideology

【作者簡介】李婕昕，云南師范大學；郭磊，云南大學

【基金項目】本文受云南大學第四批中青年骨干項目支持。

1. Introduction

With the fast development of mass media， news does not only provide information， but also influence or even control our minds. Actually， the emergence of a knowledge-based world is essentially a ‘discourse-based one in the sense that new technologies and knowledge are produced， circulated and applied in the production of news. On the one hand， newspapers provide the readers with vast opportunities of being immerged in the authentic information resources. On the other hand， they may gradually steer the attitudes of the readers by using certain kinds of expressions and structures. This is one of the reasons why Critical Discourse Analysis （henceforth CDA） practitioners attention has been attracted to explore the hidden information of news texts.

Based upon the theory of CDA， the present study is designed to testify that although news reports are always claimed to be impartial， credible and neutral， they are still ideology-loaded.

2. News Analysis

Discourse analysis is made up of a number of different academic disciplines and its field is broad. The focuses on most of the approaches have great relevance to applied linguistics and text analysis. As one of the most practical texts， news provides vast opportunities for linguists to do the research from different perspectives. However， there is a contradictory nature in news. On the one hand， it should be impartial. On the other hand， it is selected. News reporters can choose what to report and they have special powers to manufacture the rhetoric elements in the news. That is why many linguists are questioning its objectivity.

In 1979， Fowler and his associates published the book entitled Language and Control. They systematically analyzed language use in various situations， especially the news reporting. Fowler and his colleagues （1979） gave out the assumptions of ideology and power issues encoded in linguistic structures. At the same time， some explanations and tools of doing the research were mentioned such as the use of systemic-functional linguistics. Hallidayan-based approaches to literacy and culture， especially the transitivity of syntactic patterns of sentences， were highly valued in their works. In China， Xin Bin （2005） once suggested a hardly touched approach to investigate the political elements from a new perspective. He put forward that in addition to the comparison between different countries， the same institution might change its attitude toward the same kind of thing over different period of time. Therefore， the exploration of political connotation in news discourse has aroused many scholars interest.

3. CDA in News

CDA is known as a form of discourse analysis that takes a critical stance towards how language is used or analyzes texts and other discourse types in order to identify the ideology and values underlying them. It concerns the relationship between language， ideology and power. Its approach is influenced by Halliday and systemic linguistics . In other words， the use of language has certain power to control or at least some persuasive effects. The analysis of texts should involve the writers perception of the world.

Some linguistic approaches are socially oriented， to which SFL and CDA belong. According to Halliday， media discourse analysis has its special role for both， because political elements always associate with media （Miao Xingwei， 2008， p. 243 ）.

Distinctive to SFL is the notion that the language system has three main functional orientations referred to as the matafunctions. These three functions serve to represent the world （ideational function）， create cohesive text （textual function） and engage interpersonally （interpersonal function） （Hu Zhuanglin， 2001）. In addition， the organization of the three metafunctions is reflected at clause rank， which can be illustrated below in Table 1：

Halliday （1990） also takes the view that the textual matafunction is to create text. It is an enabling function which is concerned with organizing ideational and interpersonal meaning because meaning is contextualized and shared in discourse. And at the same time， matafunction brings into being a world of its own. From this point of view， we try to see how speakers construct their messages and ideology in a way which make them fit smoothly into the unfolding language event.

In SFL， there are two structures representatively show the distributions of the information： thematic structure and information structure （Huang Guowen et. al， 2006）. The former presents the speakers intention and the latter presents the information from the listeners angle. Normally， the theme which locates at the beginning of a sentence， is ‘what I am starting out from while the rheme can be explained as being the rest of the new information. （Bloor & Bloor， 2001）. Regarding language as an instrument of social practice， CDA employs Hallidays systemic-functional grammar as descriptive apparatus.

4. Conclusion

Although the media is considered objective， the politic factors have influenced it a lot. Those language features， which may change in accordance with the shifts of value， are proved to be one kind of the choices to spread ideology. News readers， then， are suggested to take reflective and critical approaches to grasp the implied， hidden or even taken for granted ideas in news reports.

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