Research on the Construction of National Ecological Image in Marine Environmental Reporting by China’s Mainstream Media

Abstract

Marine environmental reporting by China’s mainstream media is an important subject for research on the self-construction of national ecological image. This paper takes marine environmental reports from China Daily and other mainstream media between 2015 and 2025 as examples, establishing a specialized corpus. By integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and corpus methods, this paper analyzes the lexical and grammatical features of high-frequency ecological vocabulary from the dimensions of text, discourse, and social practice. The study finds that through lexical selection and narrative logic, China’s mainstream media successfully constructs a tripartite national ecological image as a “responsible governor”, a “practitioner of sustainable development”, and a “global cooperation contributor”. This research fills a gap in the study of national ecological image in the context of marine ecology discourse to some extent, providing theoretical reference and data support for enhancing China’s international discourse power in marine ecological governance and optimizing marine environmental communication strategies.