Currency Wars with China and Japan in Western Newsmagazines

Description

This book explores China’s currency wars with its trading partners in four Western newsmagazines: Time, The Economist, L’Express, and Der Spiegel. Based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches, the interdisciplinary approach adopted in the research draws on two analytical frameworks from the realm of critical discourse analysis; van Leeuwen’s socio-semantic inventory of social-actor representation, and van Dijk’s concepts of macro-rules as the overarching approaches to understand the changing dynamics of international relations and the global economy through Western media. The sample in this study consists of 160 texts, half of which are focused on China and the other half on Japan, across a period of 12 months in 2010 (China) and in 1987 (Japan). Through the comparison of Western representation betwen China and Japan, the similarities and differences in their coverage have been revealed as even more striking, with regards to global politics and the international economy. The findings obtained from the empirical research have revealed that China was not only reported more unfavourably than Japan in terms of depth, but also across a broader range of areas spanning economics, politics, and military affairs. It has also emerged that all the four Western newsmagazines tended to centre their coverage on the United States and China in 2010, and the United States and Japan in 1987, although they did not speak in one collective voice with regard to their coverage of China and Japan. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of figures List of tables Acknowledgement List of abbreviations Chapter 1 Setting the scene: brewing tensions 1.1 Setting the scene: brewing tensions 1.1.1 Simmering tensions 1.1.2 Historical background: from rags to riches 1.1.3 Rationale and significance of the study 1.1.4 Research questions and hypothesis 1.1.5 Theories and methods 1.1.6 Contribution (filling the gap) 1.1.7 Structure of the monograph Notes Chapter 2 Critical discourse analysis and Western representations of China and Japan 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Critical discourse analysis 2.2.1 What is discourse? 2.2.2 Overview of critical discourse analysis 2.2.3 What is ideology? 2.3 Shifting Western representations of China 2.3.1 China in the English-language literature: Largely driven by bilateral relations and political developments 2.3.2 China in the French-language literature: largely focused on the Age of Enlightenment 2.3.3 China in the German-language literature: largely driven by events 2.4 Shifting Western representations of Japan 2.5 Closing remarks Notes Chapter 3 Data collection and analysis procedures 3.1 Data collection: decisions and procedures 3.2 Selection of Western countries 3.3 Selection of Western newsmagazines 3.3.1 Time – the US 3.3.2 The Economist – the UK 3.3.3 L’Express – France 3.3.4 Der Spiegel – Germany 3.4 Time period under study 3.5 Purposive-representative sampling 3.6 Corpus description 3.6.1 Headlines 3.6.2 Lead texts 3.6.3 Translation 3.7 Critical discourse analysis application I: van Dijk’s macro-rules 3.7.1 Deletion 3.7.2 Generalisation 3.7.3 Construction 3.7.4 Zero-rule 3.7.5 Analytical procedures: deriving the topics of lead texts 3.8 Critical discourse analysis application II: van Leeuwen’s socio-semantic inventory 3.8.1 Representational categories 3.8.2 Analytical procedures: representation of social actors 3.9 Closing remarks Notes Chapter 4 Case study 1: China in 2010 – Social actors in the lead texts 4.1 Introduction 4.2 American perspective – Time 4.2.1 Overview 4.2.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 4.3 British perspective – The Economist 4.3.1 Overview 4.3.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 4.4 French perspective – L’Express 4.4.1 Overview 4.4.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 4.5 German perspective – Der Spiegel 4.5.1 Overview 4.5.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 4.6 Closing remarks Notes Chapter 5 Case study 2: Japan in 1987 – Social actors in the lead texts 5.1 Introduction 5.2 American perspective – Time 5.2.1 Overview 5.2.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 5.3 British perspective – The Economist 5.3.1 Overview 5.3.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 5.4 French perspective – L’Express 5.4.1 Overview 5.4.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 5.5 German perspective – Der Spiegel 5.5.1 Overview 5.5.2 Representation of actors in frequency and categories 5.6 Closing remarks Notes Chapter 6 Answering the research questions 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Answering the research questions 6.2.1 Question 2: What were the prevailing topics surrounding the rise of China and Japan in 2010 and 1987, respectively, in the lead texts of each of the four newsmagazines? 6.2.2 Question 3: What were the main representational categories used to construct the social actors in the lead texts of the four newsmagazines? 6.2.3 Question 4a: Who were the main social actors involved in the representation of China and Japan in the lead texts of each of the four newsmagazines? 6.2.4 Question 4b: How were they discursively represented in relation to one another across the four newsmagazines? 6.2.5 Question 5: Were China and Japan predominantly appraised positively or negatively? 6.2.6 Question 1: What are the prevailing ideological discourse(s) and dominant representations of China and Japan in Time, The Economist, L’Express, and Der Spiegel? Chapter 7 Discussions and conclusions 7.1 Hypothesis: China was reported more unfavourably than Japan 7.1.1 Challenging America’s hegemony by an Economic Other 7.1.2 Liberal international order threatened by a Political Other 7.1.3 Ideological leanings of the newsmagazines 7.1.4 Discrepancy between L’Express and the other three newsmagazines 7.2 Socio-cognitive level: enhancing van Dijk’s ideological square 7.2.1 Dominant ideological discourses on China 7.2.2 Dominant ideological discourses on Japan 7.2.3 The ‘discourse of harm’ 7.3 Recent US–China relations and the ‘discourse of harm’ 7.3.1 US 2021 Interim National Security Strategy Guidance 7.3.2 China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and outlook 7.4 Contributions of the study 7.4.1 Drawing on information from non-English primary sources 7.4.2 Complementing the Anglo-American with Franco-German perspectives 7.4.3 The author’s proposed ‘discourse of harm’ 7.5 Challenges and limitations encountered 7.5.1 Tackling challenges along the way 7.5.2 Limitations of the study 7.6 The road ahead Notes Bibliography Appendix Index