媒体话语对美军海外基地形象的建构——van Leeuwen社会行为者理论的视角

Media Discursive Construction of the Legitimacy of U.S. Military Bases Overseas: A van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Theory Perspective

本文以美联社一则关于美军海外基地遇袭事件的新闻报道为语料,通过批评话语分析路径,借鉴van Leeuwen社会行为者理论,质化分析了媒体话语中社会行为者的构成、多模态的再现方式及其合法化策略。美军海外基地经历危机时,媒体新闻报道使用权威化、道德评价、合理化等合法化策略,试图建构美军海外基地的正当性。本文是从van Leeuwen社会行为者理论视角研究美军海外基地形象问题的一次尝试,旨在揭示美国主流媒体如何运用话语策略,赋予原本正当性存疑的事物以正当的地位,粉饰美国的霸权主义和强权政治。

This paper analyzes the news report from the Associated Press on an attack on a U.S. overseas military base. Through Critical Discourse Analysis, the social actors and their multimodal representations,as well as legitimation strategies in media discourse are qualitatively analyzed according to van Leeuwen’s social actor theory. The paper studies how media news reports utilize legitimation strategies of authorization,moral evaluation, and rationalization to construct the legitimacy of the U.S. military bases overseas in times of crisis. The paper is an attempt to study the issue of U.S. military bases overseas from the perspective of van Leeuwen’s social actor theory, aiming to reveal how the American mainstream media skillfully use discursive strategies to give legitimate status to things with questionable legitimacy, and to whitewash American hegemonism and power politics.