Linguistic Choices in News Reports on Social Incidents and Public Perception
Abstract
With the increasing influence of news media on the spread of social events, linguistic choice in news reporting has gradually become an important factor affecting public cognition. Taking the language in news reports as the research object, this paper discusses how different linguistic choices shape the public's understanding and evaluation of events. The research object mainly selects the different naming methods of the South Korean The Cho Doo-soon case in the Chinese and South Korean media, as well as The Guardian 's language adjustment on climate issues. Through case analysis and literature analysis, the research is conducted from the perspective of news text, academic literature and normative theory. The study found that the language in news reports not only plays the role of information transmission, but also emphasizes specific facts through different language choices, guides the public to pay attention to different aspects of events, and constructs a framework to affect the public's value position. Therefore, when the news media express the news content, they should pay more attention to the standardization of language expression and social influence, carefully choose words, reasonably and properly use language on the basis of ensuring the accuracy of facts, and promote the public to form a more comprehensive and rational perception.
References
- Christians, C. G. (2009).Normative theories of the media: Journalism in democratic societies. University of Illinois Press. Urbana.
- Flusberg, S. J., Holmes, K. J., Thibodeau, P. H., Nabi, R. L., & Matlock, T. (2024). The psychology of framing: How everyday language shapes the way we think, feel, and act.Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 25(3), 105-161. https://doi.org/10.1177/15291006241246966
- Ishchuk, A., & Sokorchuk, V. (2025). The impact of stylistic devices on journalism and public perception.Humanities Science Current Issues, 2(85), 183-188. https://doi.org/10.24919/2308-4863/85-2-28
- Li, B. (2025). Analysis and improvement measures of language norm violations in news reports.China City Newspaper People, (6), 125-127. https://doi.org/10.16763/j.cnki.1007-4643.2025.06.017
- Babayeva, I. (2025). Semantic and structural analysis of titles in journalism and literature.Spanish Journal of Innovation and Integrity, 39, 184-187. https://www.sjii.es/index.php/journal/article/view/274
- Shah, M. M. (2025). Manipulating public perception: A critical discourse analysis of political headlines on Pakistani social media.Journal of Development and Social Sciences, 6(1), 554-563. https://doi.org/10.47205/jdss.2025(6-I)48
- Dark Korea. (2026, July 28). Cho Doo-soon case (Na-young case).Dark Korea. https://darkkorea.net/blog/2026-07-29-cho-doo-soon-case.html
- Hwang, D. I. (2009, October 6). <Notification> The 'Na-young case' is named the 'Cho Doo-soon case'.Yonhap News Agency. https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20091006086100004
- Zeldin-O'Neill, S. (2019, October 16). "It's a crisis, not a change": The six Guardian language changes on climate matters.The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/16/guardian-language-changes-climate-environment
- Teneva, E. V. (2025). Emotionalization of the 2021-2022 global energy crisis coverage: Analyzing the rhetorical appeals as manipulation means in the mainstream media.Journalism and Media, 6(1), 14-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6010014
- Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. InResearchGate. Oxford University Press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/209409849_Framing_Toward_Clarification_of_A_Fractured_Paradigm