Discourse Fluctuation of “Chinese Aerospace” in the Mainstream Media

Abstract

Drawing upon the principles of Critical Discourse Analysis and Usage Fluctuation Analysis, this study investigated the discourse fluctuation of “Chinese aerospace” in the mainstream media of China, the US, the UK, and Russia, covering the initiating, consistent, transient and terminating collocates within the discourse; and also examines the diachronic change of their semantic similarity. It is further explained with an in-depth investigation of the ideology and social causes behind. Results show that Chinese and Russian media’s attention to Chinese aerospace is on the rise, constructing an image of China as a strong nation leading in innovative aerospace technology; while British and American media’s attention fluctuates considerably, conveying an ambitious image. This study offers a new perspective for the discourse analysis of news reports and contributes to the discursive construction of “Chinese aerospace”.