A Study on Mystification Strategies of China’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative in American Mainstream Newspaper

Abstract

Newspaper is an important carrier of mass communication, which plays the role of orientating values and guiding public opinions.The content in the mainstream news coverage can mirror, steer and even mystify public consciousness, values and behaviors.This paper, based on critical cognitive linguistics, in particular, the discursive strategies proposed by Hart, aims to examine how news on Chinese's carbon neutrality initiative is constructed and how news discourse mystifies text-consumers in three American newspapers from 22 September 2020 to 31 December 2021.In addition, a detailed account of high-frequency words in American coverage and a high-frequency visualized network guide readers to probe into particular themes of news.Via an array of illustrations, the study shows that employment of Hart's discursive strategies reveals the ideological mystification or bias implied in news discourse through specific construction means, thus shaping China as an irresponsible country, a nation that ignores public environmental interests and seeks political right to gain global climate governance.

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