我国英文媒体报道中老年人形象的话语建构

Discursive Construction of the Elderly Images in News Reports of CHINA DAILY

全球老龄化趋势日益明显,老年群体成为社会关注焦点。在传播媒介高度发达的今天,探究媒介话语如何呈现老年人形象尤其重要,有利于展现老年群体真实鲜活的存在,逐步消除负面化、刻板化和边缘化困扰。基于我国英文媒体《中国日报》的涉老新闻报道语料,考察媒体报道的主题内容及话语策略,探究其建构的老年人形象。媒体话语呈现老年人形象时更注重个人特征与社会价值,多用指称、述谓、强化、弱化和论证话语策略,建构孤独衰弱的无助者、因循守旧的顽固派、宝刀未老的年轻态、老有所为的奋斗者、热爱生活的乐居者、乐善好施的奉献者、身陷囹圄的弱势者和社会发展的拖累者八种老年人形象,反映其复杂性、多面性、动态性的建构特征。

With the increasingly serious problem of global population aging,the elders have become the focus of social attention.And in a context with highly developed media dissemination,there is a great need to explore how media discourses present the elderly,which is significant in facilitating the display of old people's authentic existence,and gradually eliminating the bothering of negative,stereotyped and marginalized problems.Based on the elders-related news reports in CHINA DAILY,the present study investigates the themes,discourse strategies,and the images of the elderly constructed.The study finds that the news reports focus on their personal characteristics and social values when presenting the elders.By utilizing discursive strategies of referential,predication,intensification,and argumentation,the media discourse constructs eight images of the elderly,namely the lonely powerless,the stubborn conformist,the capable energetic,the achieved striver,the life-loving resident,the caring helper,the trapped weak,and the dragger of social development,which reflect the complex,multi-faceted,and dynamic features of the images of the elderly.