VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LƯU THỊ KIM NHUNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MEDIA TEXTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE A thesis submitted to the University of Languages and International Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Field: English Linguistics Code: 62 22 15 01 Hanoi, 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LƯU THỊ KIM NHUNG A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH MEDIA TEXTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE A thesis submitted to the University of Languages and International Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Field: English Linguistics Code: 62 22 15 01 Supervisors: Ha Cam Tam, Ph. Tran Xuan Diep, Asso. Hanoi, 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author.
Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. Hanoi, 18th May, 2016 Signature Luu Thi Kim Nhung i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Abstract This study critically analyzed how the power relation between the developed and developing countries as well as the ideologies about these countries‘ responsibilities for climate change were discursively constructed in The Independent and The New York Times‟ coverage of the Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC between 2004 and 2013.
The method of analysis was a qualitative critical discourse analysis with the support of corpus techniques. The findings from the study showed that although the altering but consistent ideologies were struggling with each other, they were all important. Three main ideologies were decoded in response to the research questions. First, both unity and conflict existed in the power relation between the developed and developing countries at the global climate conferences, with the heavier weight on the conflict.
Second, the developed countries seemed reluctant and indifferent towards their responsibility for climate change. Third, the developing countries were required to take responsibility for climate change due to their rapid growth but they still demanded aid from the developed countries. Consequently, no consensus could be reached on a common framework for climate change, and the lengthy process of global climate conferences yielded nothing but confusion and delayed action. The linguistic features of lexical choice, lexical relation, metaphor, passivization, nominalization and modality were found ideologically invested in the newspapers‘ portrayal of the power relation and ideologies.
Also, the ideologies and the language features that conveyed these ideologies were influenced by the two media outlets‘ political commitments, news values, news agenda, and the socio-economic and historical background that embedded the discourse. All in all, the media bolstered the asymmetrical power nexus and the ideologies about the responsibilities for climate change in the interest of the developed nations. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Acknowledgements First and foremost, I am especially indebted to my supervisors, Doctor Ha Cam Tam and Associate Professor Tran Xuan Diep, for their challenging questions, immeasurable guidance and support through every stage of my PhD journey so far. I do really appreciate their astute advice, kind encouragement and insightful feedback on my work.
I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to Professor Nguyen Hoa, Professor Hoang Van Van, Associate Professor Le Hung Tien, Professor Nguyen Quang, who, in one way or another, have inspired me into the field of linguistics in general and critical discourse analysis in particular; to Doctor Huynh Anh Tuan, Associate Professor Ngo Huu Hoang, Associate Professor Nguyen Van Do, and numerous other lecturers at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their immensely helpful guidance and support during my study. I would also like to thank the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, and all its staff members for their constant supply of information and advice on stages of my study; my fellow graduate students who have built such a pleasant community to be part of. I am really grateful to my colleagues at Faculty of English in particular, at Hanoi National University of Education in general, for supporting me throughout my study. My final but definitely not least thanks go to my beloved big family for their unconditional support all along the way.
I am particularly indebted to my late father for his absolute confidence in my learning capacity and my devoted mother for guiding me into this field of study since my very early years in life. A special thank goes to my husband for showing his continuing concern during my studies and beyond. Ultimately, a most loving thank to my son and daughter for their always being proud of their mom, and for always being there to remind me of the real significance in life. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com List of Tables and Figures Table 2.
Time frame for data collection .2 Adjectival collocates of the nodewords ―countries,‖ ―nations,‖ and ―states‖ .3 Collocation profile of the nodewords ―developed countries‖ in The Independent corpus. Part of the concordance lines for the nodewords ―developing countries‖ in The Independent corpus. Elements in the research design. Summary of language features in Chapter 3.
Summary of language features in Chapter 4. Summary of language features in Chapter 5. Discourse as text, interaction and context (Fairclough, 1989). Total tokens in the study corpora .68 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com List of Abbreviations Abbreviation Meaning CDA critical discourse analysis COP Conference of the Parties DHA Discourse-Historical Approach EU European Union IC The Independent corpus IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development NYTC The New York Times corpus UN FCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CONTENTS Declaration.
iii List of Tables and Figures .iv List of Abbreviations. Rationale for the study. Aim and objectives of the study. Significance of the study.
Scope of the study. Structure of the thesis .1 Critical Discourse Analysis .1 Basic notions in CDA.2 Major tenets in CDA .3 CDA as a Conceptual Framework and Methodology .4 Critiques of CDA .2 Corpus techniques in CDA.3 Previous research on climate change discourse .1 Content analysis of media discourse on global warming and/or climate change .37 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 Discourse analysis of media discourse on global warming and/or climate change.3 CDA of media discourse on global warming and/or climate change .2 The study corpora .1 Corpus tools used in this study .2 Fairclough‘s Dialectical-Relational analytical framework adopted in this study .1 Newsworthiness of the COPs in The Independent and The New York Times .2 The contextual background .3 The unity discourse .4 The conflict discourse .1 The conflict between the developed and developing countries .2 The conflict among the developed, developing, and small countries. THE DEVELOPED COUNTRIES’ RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE .1 The developed countries‘ responsibility for climate change .2 The developed countries‘ responsibility for climate change is a possibility, not a reality.3 The developed countries‘ attitudes towards their responsibility. THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES’ RESPONSIBILITY FOR CLIMATE CHANGE .1 The developing countries‘ responsibility for climate change .2 The developing countries‘ attitudes towards their responsibility .3 The developing countries‘ demands .137 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 For the media.
Suggestions for further research. CLXXII viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Rationale for the study This research work originated in our interest in the climate change issues and the applicability of critical discourse analysis in exploring the manipulative power exercised through media discourse on climate change. Climate change has been considered one of the most crucial challenges that faces every nation of the world today (see Betsill and Bulkeley, 2004; de Blij, 2005; Dow and Downing, 2007; Hoffman and Woody, 2008; Held, Theros and Fane- Hervey, 2011; Singer, 2011; Filho and Manolas, 2012; Klein, 2014; Dunlap and Brulle, 2015; to name but a few).
It has adversely affected the lives of all people, regardless of their socio-economic status. As a globally comprehensive response to climate change, the annual United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change‘s (UNFCCC) Conferences of the Parties (COPs) – the biggest international climate conferences - have been going on for over twenty years now. Every year, assurances are said and expectations are raised but only partial solutions are produced and little is achieved in terms of concrete tangible outcomes. As the world is becoming ever more polarized between the developed and the developing countries, the rich and the poor countries, even among the rich developed countries themselves and among the developing countries themselves, more and more parties with conflicting interests and benefits are joining the negotiation table at the climate conferences.
Particularly, when the issues of responsibility distribution and economic contribution have become more apparent on the agenda of the conferences, such conflicting interests and benefits have contributed to the increased complexity and complication of the contested global debates about climate change issues. Certainly, such a pivotal issue in such a lengthy process involving so many governments and people must definitely resort to particular 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com linguistic and discursive means in the media to justify the different parties‘ interests, attitudes and behaviors in ways that they appear fair on the one hand and avoid or delay taking action for their own benefits on the other hand. The situation inspires us to conduct this research to uncover how media language has been manipulated to convey the power relation between the developed and developing countries as well as their responsibilities for climate change. As the climate change debate has become such a globally sophisticated arena, multiple voices are getting heard.
Among them, linguists have delved into the analyses of rhetorical devices, discourse strategies, metaphors, framing, and other aspects of text and talk on climate change. Typical examples include Arnal et al. (2014), Boykoff and Boykoff (2004, 2007), Carvalho (2005, 2007), Doulton and Brown (2009), Ereaut and Segnit (2006), Grundmann and Krishnamurthy (2010), Moser and Dilling (2004, 2007), Nerlich and Koteyko (2009, 2011), Painter (2011), Thaker and Leiserowitz (2014), Tillinghast and McCann (2013), Ukonu et al. (2013), Wang (2009), Ward (2008), Wodak and Meyer (2012) who have all commented on the significance of the language used in communicating climate change issues.
Despite such a body of literature, however, to our best knowledge, virtually no study has focused on the linguistic realizations of the ideologies about the developed and developing countries‘ responsibilities for climate change which are discursively constructed in the media so as to interpret and explain these countries‘ attitudes, behaviours and actions at the global climate debate. In consideration of the increasingly changing power relations among countries in the world, we believe it is significant to conduct a systematic and critical (discourse) analysis employing linguistic tools with a fairly large sample of media language focusing on the developed and developing countries at the global climate conferences. In so doing, it is expected that the media‘s use of language and the ideologies about these dichotomous countries‘ responsibilities for climate change will be deciphered through the lens of the discursive and social practices that embed the language in the media. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Aim and objectives of the study According to the prominent CDA scholars, such as Billig, Chilton, Fairclough, van Dijk, van Leeuwen, and Wodak, one of the most significant purposes of CDA is to decode the ideology embedded in language use.