Positive Discourse Analysis of China’s Aging in News Reports of China Daily

本研究以《中国日报》国际版2025年关于“(China’s) aging society”的123篇新闻报道为语料，结合语料库语言学与积极话语分析(PDA)方法，运用AntConc 4.3.1软件辅助分析。研究采用Fairclough的三维框架(文本实践、话语实践、社会实践)，探讨了《中国日报》如何建构中国老龄化社会的正面形象。研究发现，报道主要聚焦养老保障、医疗健康、政策改革、社会支持四大类议题。在话语层面，态度资源中的“鉴赏”资源占比最高，“情感”次之，“判断”最少。最终，报道塑造了一个政策保障有力、社会支持多元、银发经济活跃、老年生活有尊严的中国老龄化社会形象，契合国家级英文媒体对外叙事定位，向国际受众分享中国老龄治理实践。This study utilizes a corpus of 123 news articles related to “(China’s) aging society” from China Daily in 2025. Combining corpus linguistics with positive discourse analysis (PDA), and employing AntConc 4.3.1 software for auxiliary analysis, this study explores the topic from Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework encompassing textual practice, discourse practice, and social practice. This study examines how China Daily constructs a positive image of China’s aging society. The findings reveal that the reports primarily focus on four major issues: pension security, healthcare, policy reform, and social support. At the discourse level, appreciation resources constituted the largest proportion of attitude resources, followed by affect resources, and judgment resources being the fewest. Ultimately, the reports shaped an image of China’s aging society characterized by robust policy safeguards, diverse social support, a vibrant silver economy, and a dignified life for the elderly. This aligns with the narrative positioning of a Chinese English-language media outlet and serves to share China’s practice in aging governance to international audience.