ABSTRACT

News comment is a way for journalists to make comments on the important events at home and abroad by using mass media like TV, newspaper and broadcast. Because of the important role that news comment plays in the cognition of the public on such big events, the research on news comment discourse is very significant. The strategy of “appeal to fear” is a common argumentative mean used in news comment discourse, it is a way to make an argumentation by using the fear of audiences. This article uses the methods of “comparison” and “case study”, and takes “appeal to fear” as the key point. It concludes four different types of this strategy and evaluates the strategy from “Individual health”, “personal and society security”, “natural diasater” and “national interests”.

Key words: news comment discourse; appeal to fear (Argumentum ad metum); pragama-dialectical perspective

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Objective and Significance-2

1.3 Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Previous Studies on News Comment Discourse-3

2.2 Previous Studies on Strategy of “Appeal to Fear”-6

2.2.1 Definition of “Appeal to Fear”-6

2.2.2 Characteristics of “Appeal to Fear”-7

2.3 Summary-7

Chapter Three  RESEARCH DESIGN-9

3.1 Theoretical Foundation: Pragma-dialectics-9

3.1.1 Four Stages of a Critical Discussion-9

3.1.2 Ten Rules for Critical Discussion of Pragma-dialectics-10

3.2 Research Questions-11

3.3 Research Method and Data Collection-12

Chapter Four  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-13

4.1 Types of “Appeal to Fear”-13

4.1.1 Fear of Individual Health-13

4.1.2 Fear of Personal and Society Security-14

4.1.3 Fear of Natural Disaster-14

4.1.4 Fear of National Interests-15

4.2 Evaluation of the Application of “Appeal to Fear”-15

4.2.1 Reasonable Use of the Strategy of “Appeal to Fear”-16

4.2.2 Unreasonable Use of the Strategy of “Appeal to Fear”-18

4.2.3 Comparison of Cases from the Perspective of Strategic Function-20

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-21

5.1 Major Findings-21

5.2 Implications-22

5.3 Limitations and Further Researches-22

References-24