Definisi written discourse

 As Van Dijk (1993, 36) says, media discourse is the main source of knowledge, attitudes and
ideology of elites and ordinary citizens. In the context of global international communication,
international news as a specific public discourse is becoming increasingly important in building
the country’s image and expressing attitudes and positions. Therefore, studying the influence
and transmission of ideology in discourse is very important.
 Fairclough combines text analysis with the theoretical orientation of social criticism, and
proposes a three-dimensional analysis framework, which can not only study language changes
from the textual level, but also rise to the social level, placing the discourse in a broader context
and discussing Its deep meaning. This three-dimensional framework includes text, discourse
practice and social practice. On this basis, Fairclough (1992) divides discourse analysis into three
stages: description, interpretation, and explanation.
 Halliday (2004, 29) believes that language is a social symbol system, and meaning is not created
out of thin air. He focused on establishing a method to explain ‘what is language’ and ‘how
language works. This complete meta-functional ideological theoretical system is an important
part of Halliday’s theory of functional linguistics and one of the core ideas of systemic functional
grammar. It plays an important role in linguistics. Metafunctions includes three aspects:
ideational function, interpersonal function, textual function.

Theory used

This article will use Halliday’s analysis tools within Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework to analyze
the relevant reports of the People’s Daily and The New York Times in terms of lexical classification,
transitivity, modal verbs, news sources, reporting mode, and explore the attitude and ideology implied
in this incident from mainstream media of the two countries.

Text

In the news discourse, the writer chooses different words to have different effects on the same event.
Therefore, it is very important to start from the most basic vocabulary to classify and analyze. The
following is a specific analysis of the words used by the Chinese and American media in reporting on the
Covid-19 epidemic

1. Lexical classification
“Millions of people are without health insurance, and millions of others live close to the edge… They are
much less likely to go to a doctor or clinic at the first sign of a fever or cough,” [...] “Medicare for All is
now desperately needed,” one netizen exclaimed, noting that rural hospitals are often underfunded, and
the middle class and the poor are neglected in many ways. (Sample 1, PD)

In this example, the PD chose the word ‘edge’ to describe the difficult situation of many Americans
without medical insurance in the epidemic. This shows that many uninsured people in the United States
are marginalized in the epidemic. In addition, ‘neglected’ is also used to modify the middle class and the
poor in the United States. The government, which is responsible for its own people, has ignored the
poor and even the middle-class people because of insurance issues during the epidemic. PD described
the epidemic condition in the U.S., most of the people were unable to receive government assistance
despite the shortage of protective equipment.

2. Modality

Modality refers to the estimation and uncertainty of the language user’s knowledge of something, that
is to say, modality is an expression of indeterminacy (Halliday, 2004, 148). At the same time, Halliday
(2004, 135) divides modal verbs into high-value, medium-value and low-value. Modality is a useful
analysis tool for describing textual ideology. It can reveal the true attitudes and opinions of the speaker
and the author on the event. In news reports, the use of modality strategies can reflect the author’s
views and beliefs about the event.

It's now become global popular demand that China and the US must shun their differences to defeat the
coronavirus for the sake of humanity. (Sample 3, PD)

In example (11), the high-value modal verb ‘must’ show a firm stand. PD think that at this stage, China
and most countries in the world hold the same opinion and believe that China and the United States
must cooperate, in order to effectively fight the epidemic. And the US’s approach is contrary to the
wishes of most countries in the world. At the same time, it also expressed China’s firmness in choosing
cooperation to fight the epidemic.

3. Transitivity

Transitivity is the focus of CDA in the textual dimension. It originated from Michael Halliday’s systemic
functional grammar. Halliday believes that the transitivity system refers to the various processes that
humans can use to describe the real world. And he said that “the transitivity system construes the world
of experience into a manageable set of process types” (2004, 170). The transitivity system contains six
processes: material process, mental process, behavioral process, relational process, existential process,
and verbal process. Material process refers to the process of doing something. In this process, there
needs to be an action verb, a subject makes the action (actor), and the target of the action (goal). The
material process is a process of describing events in detail and is considered to be the most objective
process among the six processes (Halliday, 2004, 179).

4. Verbal process:

According to Sachs, the Trump administration’s claims that the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory are
“reckless and dangerous”, which could “push the world to conflict just as the Bush Administration's lies
about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq pushed the US into war in 2003.” (Sample 5, PD)

In this example, sayer is Sachs, professor and director of the Center for Sustainable Development at
Columbia University. He disagreed with the statement from the Trump administration that virus came
from the Wuhan laboratory. He compared Trump’s actions this time with the Bush administration’s
practices in Iraq, and believed that both were lies. PD used his words to state its position, indicating that
China firmly resists and disagrees with the Trump administration’s unfounded speculation.