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1. Introduction Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a new linguistic tool that aims to
discover inequality in language. One of the main targets of CDA is news report. W.
Lance Bennett (1983, p. 125) defines news as information that is timely, relevantto
the concerns of its audience, and presented in a form that is easy to grasp. As an
important channel of information transmission, news report always advocates itshard factsunbiased information-releasing. However, with the systematical
analysis of CDA, this is not the case any more. The world that the news report tries
to deliver is not objective straightforward but the one that has already been
understood and processed. In other words, news is the end-product of a complex
process which begins with a systematic sorting and selecting of events and topics
according to a socially constructed set of criteria of news worthiness. It is not a
natural phenomenon emerging straight from reality, but essentially a kind of social
practice (Fower, 1979, p. 12). Driven by concerns, values and ideologies, news
report tends to strategically deal with the facts by mentioning and stressing some
purposely-selective facts to influence the readers emotion and make them follow a
rational line to accept its idea. Not understanding procedures of news making, thegeneral public confronts the obstacles to see the material-controlling of the news
report which leads them to turning blind eyes to the ideologies hide in the news,
ultimately being misled. From the linguistic perspective, CDA can serve as the
powerful analytical tool to expose the true nature of news report language and bring
the rational judgment back to the readers by offering critically understanding of
their tendency and characteristics. 2. The concept of Critical Discourse Analysis
Theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was first established by
Fowler, Kressand and Trew (1979) in their book Language and control since CDA
became a new linguistic method. It is mainly to expose the influence of the ideology
on discourse and the retroaction of discourse on ideology, as well as how ideology
and discourse originate from the social structure and how they serve differentpower groups with the support of linguistics, psychology and communication
theories. It is intended to discover the usage of language and expose its connection
with social relations.
3. The main methods of Critical Discourse Analysis The methods of linguistics
analysis serve as the foundation for the methods of analysis in CDA. With the
analysis on the language level, it generally adopts the theory of Systemic Functional
Linguistics that at least provides assistances in three perspectives to realize its
objective of analysis on discourse from CDA: (1) Hallidays theory of Systemic
Functional Linguistics has the function of social semeiology which reveals that
language can be fully understood only when it is set in cultural environment; (2)
Systemic Functional Linguistics takes semantics rather than syntax as its base to bein accordance to the opinion of some critical linguistics expressed as meaning serves
for power and language serves for ideology; (3) The three meta-functions of
Systemic Functional Linguistics provide the concrete methods for CDA. CDA belongs
to tool linguistics whose research objective is to expound other matters such as
social system. Halliday generalizes the innumerous functions of language into three
abstract meta-functions, namely ideational function, interpersonal function and
textual function. (1) Ideational function: The function of the language is to express
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the speakers experience of the real world, including the inner world of his own
consciousness and logical relations among different matters. It is realized by the
system of transitivity; (2) Interpersonal function: The function to express the
authors identity, attitude, motivation and his ability of judgment. Being directly
involved in position and opinion, it is a shortcut to carry out the ideology; (3)
Textual function: The function of making links between itself and the features of thesituation in which it is used. Generally speaking, the linguists of CDA connect
language forms with all these functions, especially by applying the methods of
transitivity, modality, classification, nominalization, passivation and quotation in
line with the specific characteristics of discourse. From which we can conclude that
language is not to allege of transparency but to control the understanding of the
audiences with their own opinions on purpose or not. The focus of CDA is not only
laid on discourse itself but on historical and social context. 4. The Critical Discourse
Analysis of a report on Barack Obama This paper concentrates on a report with the
title of Barack Obama for president from The New York Times (2008). When Barack
Obama was born in 1961, many states had laws in their books on enforced
segregation, banned mixed-race union like that of their parents and restrictedvoting rights. This year American can claim more credibly than any other western
country to have at last become politically color-blind by launching a black president
candidate to the worlds political center stage. The media of course will not miss this
great opportunity to create or participate in the magnitude of the American or even
the world history by offering overwhelming reports on Obama. The New York Times
is one of the most famous United States media serves as the mouthpiece of the
Americans politics. The way Obama was presented or portrayed by it is of great
influence to the audiences. With this advantage, The New York Times carries its tool
to make the audiences believe that Obama is the right choice for the new president.
This paper will look into this piece of report and expound its intention from the
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