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Volume 23, Issue 4
  • ISSN 1569-2159
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Abstract

Abstract

There have been limited studies comparing Chinese and American news media in their descriptions of vaccines, especially their use of metaphors in the context of COVID-19. Hence, this paper employs a corpus-assisted critical approach to examine the metaphors used in constructing crisis discourses relating to vaccines in Chinese and American newspapers. The study reveals four conceptual metaphors: WEAPON, MACHINE, TRAVELLER, and CONTEST. The usage of these metaphors is intertwined with wider discursive contexts, which are shaped by the two countries’ distinct journalistic and geopolitical/sociocultural contexts. These have resulted in the adoption of different strategies for handling the COVID-19 crisis, reflecting the ideologies of collectivism in China and capitalism in America. The study highlights the significance of metaphors in shaping the ideologies of governments and/or the public towards vaccines through news media. Additionally, this paper provides a useful framework for comparing metaphor usage in two large corpora using Wmatrix.

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2023-11-30
2026-03-07

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/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.22153.lu
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The use of metaphors to construct crisis discourses in describing COVID-19 vaccines in the Chinese and the American news media
Journal of Language and Politics 23, 520 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22153.lu
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis; COVID-19 vaccines; crisis discourse; the Chinese and the American news media

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