International Journal of Social Sciences and Economic Management, 2026, 7(1); doi: 10.3807/IJSSEM.2026.070113.
Jinxuan Chen, Zhongchen Wang, Yihuan Wu, Zheng Zhang
Jinan University, Shenzhen 518053, Guangdong, China
This study adopts the corpus-assisted discourse study(CADS)method, taking relevant reports from China's mainstream English media China Daily and the US mainstream media The New York Times after China proposed its “dual-carbon” goals in September 2020 as research corpora, to explore the similarities and differences in the discursive construction of China's carbon emissions issues by Chinese and foreign media. The findings reveal that both Chinese and foreign media take “environmental governance” as their core cognitive framework and narrate around dimensions such as the impacts of carbon emissions and governance measures, but there are significant discursive divides: Chinese media focus on evidence-based narratives such as policy advancement and technological breakthroughs to construct an image of China proactively assuming climate responsibilities and promoting green transition; in contrast, US media tend to adopt strategies such as responsibility attribution and risk amplification, focusing on the global impacts and governance challenges of carbon emissions, with some reports exhibiting ideological interpretation tendencies. This study not only provides empirical support for understanding the discursive game of environmental issues in cross-cultural contexts but also offers references for optimizing the international discourse communication strategy of China's carbon emission governance and enhancing the discourse power in global climate governance.
China's carbon emissions; media discourse; corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS); cross-cultural representation; dual-carbon goals
Jinxuan Chen, Zhongchen Wang, Yihuan Wu, Zheng Zhang. A Study on the Cross-Media Discursive Construction of China's Dual Carbon Goals —— A Corpus-Assisted Comparison of Representations in China Daily and the New York Times. International Journal of Social Sciences and Economic Management (2026), Vol. 7, Issue 1: 115-131. https://doi.doi.org/10.3807/IJSSEM.2026.070113.
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