A Study on News Media Stance from the Perspective of Proximization—A Corpus-Based Analysis on Reports About "Huawei Threat" in German Media

In this paper, we intend to make a corpus-based analysis of media stance, focusing on the discourses of "Huawei Threat" in German media.Based on the quantitative-qualitative approach that supported by the COSMAS Ⅱ system, which is built by the Institute for German Language, we use the Proximization Theory and discuss the discourse strategies in the "Huawei Threat"-related German reports in term of spatial, temporal and axiological dimensions.It is found that the German media tend to use spatial proximization strategies in the reports, which illustrated the aggressiveness of the USA in asserting the "Huawei Threat Theory" and implicitly questioned the legitimacy of its actions.On temporal axis, the use of modal verbs and parallel contrasting discourses indicated the concerns of German media about the Huawei issue.From the axiological aspect, the reports convey a clear message: the "Huawei Threat Theory" is still a speculation without evidence.