Modality in News Reports on Public Health Events from the Perspective of Political Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Since 2020, the Covid-19 epidemic has become a hot issue in the world. Based on the theory of modality combined with political discourse analysis, this study aims to analyze the situation of the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, to dissect American people’s attitudes towards the epidemic and to discuss the influence of American political system with 30 news reports from the New York Times by the combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. The findings are as follows. In terms of Modality, modal operators clearly reflect interviewers’ opinions and interviewees’ attitudes. In terms of political institutions, federalism, differences between two parties, and conflicts between them make it a challenge for the United States to surmount Covid-19.