Constructing meaning: A critical linguistic perspective on news discourse.

摘要

The goal of this study is to identify the linguistic structures and processes used for propagating specific ideologies by examining the news reports about social and political issues in South Korea published in four English language newspapers, one published in South Korea, two in the USA, and one in England. It is argued in this study that news discourse in the mainstream newspapers construes ideological representations of events and situations in the world for the readers.; The theoretical and analytical frameworks of this study are derived from the approaches to critical linguistics which seek to explore the constructive and functional nature of language and to uncover how language works in texts to produce meanings that give rise to the ideological representations of people, objects and events in the world.; The analysis of the data illustrates that news reports represent the unequal power relations between states and classes, render dominant ideologies in society into neutral forms, present particular interests as general and national interests, and thus legitimate the existing social structures and unequal power relations in the minds of readers. This is achieved through linguistic means, e.g., the coding of participant roles and processes in transitivity structures, macropropositions, lexical choices, thematic patterns, metaphors, and the rhetorical devices at the textual level in the news texts.; The recurrent manifestation of asymmetry at the lexical, syntactic and textual levels in the news texts supports the claim that news media do not simply reflect and express social reality but serve to represent, sustain and reproduce the dominant ideologies. Therefore, this study leads to the conclusion that news reports on the social and political issues in South Korea in two major English newspapers, the New York Times and the Korea Herald, articulate and legitimate the dominant ideologies of each country through linguistic transformations.; This study has implications for teaching critical language awareness to adults as well as students in and out of a school setting, and opens new grounds for research that would help devise strategies and methods of achieving this educational goal.