ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how stories about China are presented in The New York Times. Using critical discourse analysis as a general theoretical foundation and taking van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach as a particular analytical framework, we explore how The New York Times aims to influence its target audience with certain discourse patterns or discourse strategies. We find that the discourse strategies it uses include presenting a dichotomy (two contradictory parties), using many voices (dialogistic expansion), pretending to be balanced in its use of voices, presenting information in a detailed way and presenting a negative image of China through the eyes of witnesses. It seems that The New York Times is representing events objectively, but a detailed analysis of the discourse strategies it uses shows that it supports the voices of “protestors” or those involved in “riots”, while the other protagonists in these news stories are not accorded due importance. Voices and positions which favor the Chinese government are thus backgrounded. In this sense, The New York Times manipulates its audience via the discourse strategies it employs in news stories about China.
