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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:2 (2017) ► pp.242–263

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“Contesting the Cynicism of Neoliberalism”

A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Press Representations of the Sino-US Currency Dispute

ORCiD logo with link | Sun Yat-sen University, China
Published online: 21 March 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15010.liu
Abstract
This article aims to expose the hegemony of neoliberalism in media discourse through a corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of the Sino-US currency dispute in two newspapers – China Daily (CD) from China and The New York Times (NYT) from the US. The findings suggest that while neoliberal ideology can be identified in both CD and NYT, it is articulated and appropriated differently in the two newspapers to construct their respective stance towards the issue. Neoliberal beliefs are found pervading different levels of discourse (i.e., thematic, lexical and grammatical) in NYT to construct a combative stance towards China’s exchange rate policies. However, the hegemony of neoliberalism can also be detected through CD’s ambivalent stance towards change and the seemingly contradictory evaluation of the impact of exchange rate changes.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Neoliberalization in China and the Sino-US currency dispute
  • 3.Theoretical framework
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Data collection
    • 4.2Analytic method
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Selective analysis of NYT
      • 5.1.1“Law and order (G2.1)”
      • 5.1.2“Evaluation: Unauthentic (A5.4−)”
      • 5.1.3“Allowed (S7.4+)”
    • 5.2Selective analysis of CD
      • 5.2.1Ambivalent stance towards change
      • 5.2.2Positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation of the impact
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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