Metaphorical Framing of Climate Change in Chinese and American News Media: A Corpus-assisted Discourse Study

Climate change is both a scientific and political issue. Addressing this issue adequately requires not just scientific advancement but also an enhancement of social cognition. China and the United States, as two major global powers, play pivotal roles in shaping international climate policies. Their media outlets provide distinct lenses through which climate change is conceptualised. However, few studies have compared metaphorical framing of climate change in newspapers of the two countries. This study marries framing theory with the analysis of conceptual metaphors to investigate how climate change is conceptualised in two newspapers: China Daily (CD), China’s official English-language newspaper, and the New York Times (NYT), a leading US newspaper that shapes the national media agenda. Findings reveal CD’s preference for WAR, JOURNEY, MORALITY and BUILDING metaphors to emphasise the need to address climate change. It tends to construct the Chinese government as proactive in tackling the issue. By contrast, NYT uses LIE, BUSINESS, DISASTER, and JOURNEY metaphors to emphasise uncertainty, economic concerns, and policy obstacles. These specific metaphorical choices indicate NYT’s critical stance on current climate policies, but may reinforce neoliberal ideology. These findings are expected to offer valuable insights for strengthening governance efforts to address climate change.