Chinese reporting on the Ukraine war. A comparative CADS study of CGTN’S coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Vol.17,No.2(2024)
Discourse and Interaction
Ruth Breeze
María Fernanda Novoa-Jaso
During the first months of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the attitude of the Chinese authorities was the object of much speculation. This paper sheds light on the Chinese official position by examining how the Chinese global channel CGTN presented the main actors and actions in the conflict over the first three months. By conducting a corpus assisted discourse study of all the reports published about the conflict on CGTN from February to May 2022, and comparing them with two similar corpora from international news providers Al Jazeera and Euronews, we identify the main trends in representation of nations, leaders and actions in all three channels. We trace how CGTN negotiated the discursive dilemma posed by China’s neutral position and consider how it used reporting on this conflict to pursue certain strategic goals, possibly with a view to influencing public opinion in areas of the world where audiences may be receptive to stances that are not overtly pro-Russian yet are sceptical of the West.
conflict reporting; Ukraine; Russia; Chinese media; corpus assisted discourse analysis; international relations
Ruth Breeze
Universidad de Navarra
Ruth Breeze is Full Professor of English at the University of Navarra, Spain, and PI of the GradUN Research Group in the Instituto Cultura y Sociedad. She has published widely on scientific discourse, legal discourse and specialised communication. Her most recent co-edited books are Narrating Migrations from Africa and the Middle East: A Spatio-Temporal Approach (Bloomsbury), Pandemic and Crisis Discourse: Communicating COVID-19 and Public Health Strategy (Bloomsbury) and Imagining the Peoples of Europe: Populist Discourses across the Political Spectrum (John Benjamins). She is co-editor in chief of Ibérica journal.
María Fernanda Novoa-Jaso
Universidad de Navarra
María Fernanda Novoa-Jaso is Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Communication at the University of Navarra, Spain, where she teaches International Relations and Communication. She has been a visiting fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. She is the author of the volume International Communication and Public Opinion, and several articles in international journals.
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Copyright © 2024 Ruth Breeze, María Fernanda Novoa