Comparative Analysis of News Discourse on Public Health Emergencies from a Proximization Theory Perspective
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- Keywords: China Daily; SARS; COVID-19; proximization strategies; metonymic words
- Abstract: This paper describes a study built on a small corpus based on China Daily’s coverage of SARS and COVID-19 and analyzes the proximization strategies and metonymic words used on the spatial, temporal, and axiological axes. The study findsthat the two public health emergencies’ coverage at differenttimes utilizes a large number of proximization strategies and metonymic words. The differenceis that the COVID-19 news draws upon significantlymore proximization strategies than the SARS news. The findingssuggest that from SARS to COVID-19, Chinese media have accumulated substantial experience in practice and have become increasingly professional in their reporting. Specifically, during the COVID-19 outbreak, they were more skillful at employing discursive strategies to guide the public to respond to the central government’s call for anti-epidemic actively and capitalizing on discursive strategies to establish a harmonious atmosphere for all individuals to combat the epidemic and enhance the determination and cohesion in the fight.
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