Divergence Behind Consensus

DIVERGENCE BEHIND CONSENSUS: A critical discourse analysis of Australian and Chinese press coverage of Athens preparations for the 2004 Olympic Games

Lei Gong School of English, Communication and Theatre, The University of New England, Armidale Australia

Presented at The Annual Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Christchurch, New Zealand 4-7 July 2005

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Abstract
Before staging a successful summer Olympic Games, Athens was criticised worldwide for its preparation woes. The global media highlighted the delays in the construction of the host citys sports venues and the Games skyrocketing operating budget. This study focuses on the news coverage of the issue by selected Australian and Chinese newspapers. These newspapers have peculiarly interested perspectives considering their countries roles as hosts of the preceding (2000 Sydney) and succeeding (2008 Beijing) summer Olympic Games. The reportage of the newspapers appears similar, but, given the different ideological positions embodied in their press attitudes and opinions, some divergence can still be found behind the consensus. The research employs the method of critical analysis of media discourse to examine the news coverage of the issue regarding the preparations of the Athens Olympics by the selected Australian (The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald) and Chinese (Peoples Daily and China Daily) newspapers during the period from November 2003 to November 2004. This comparative journalism study explores the ideological underpinning of media discourse and its influence on the newspapers representations. In particular, it establishes the value of lexical and propositional methods of discourse analysis for developing a comparative framework in which to study international perspectives on a complex set of events.

Introduction
At the closing ceremony of the XXVIII Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (hereafter, IOC) president, Dr Jacques Rogge thanked Athens for having organised an unforgettable Games, dream Games. Athens also won an enthusiastic and general approval from the global press for the citys endeavour to stage a wonderful Olympic Games. Safe, well-organised, enthralling, poignant: the global press used many such favourable adjectives to praise the Games and their organization. Amid the shower of international praises, the voices of the newspapers from Australia and China, host countries of the preceding (2000 Sydney) and succeeding (2008 Beijing) summer Olympic Games, respectively, sounded peculiar because of the favouritism to their own Games. The other two Games were frequently mentioned while the papers commended the Greeks for their organising work. The Australian and Chinese newspapers also commented approvingly on the two weeks Games, which obviously did not disappoint those who had been deeply concerned about it before the opening ceremony (Thanks Athens, 2004; Spectators satisfied, 2004). In fact, the Athens Olympics were a surprising success and a triumph beyond expectations, beyond those of an Australian anticipating the customary post host let-down (A thank you, 2004), and beyond those of a Chinese worrying the bar would be set too high for the future organizers. Looking back at the global media coverage of the Athens preparations before the Games, however, few attitudes of satisfaction and gratitude could be seen. Most global media, especially the Australian and

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Chinese newspapers had not given Greek organisers good marks. The newspaper coverage concentrated on delays in the construction of the venues, budget over-spending and security concerns. Many reports made the Games look far from being ready. Based on the coverage from 1 November 2003 to 1 November 2004 by the selected Australian and Chinese newspapers of Athens preparations for the Games, it is easy to find that both countries newspapers, along with most of their counterparts worldwide, did not expect the Athens Olympics to be a success. They both doubted the citys capability to stage the Games. The reportage and commentary of the two countries newspapers on Athens preparations for the Olympics can appear similar, but some significant divergences can be found behind the apparent consensus. This study examines the newspapers attitudes towards and views on the issue of the Athens Olympic Games preparations and the relationship between those attitudes and their underlying ideological positions. The inquiry focuses on this topic of common interest as a way to show that this is a case where the media seem to speak with one voice but actually represent different positions.

Research Methodology
Fairclough (1995) argues that analysis of media language should be recognized as an important element within research on contemporary processes of social and cultural change, a theme that is attracting growing interest in the social sciences. Typically, some other scholars contend that the mainstream research on media discourse has been within the broad framework of critical discourse analysis, which is concerned with such issues as the projection of power through discourse, the instantiation of dominance and inequality in discourse, the ideological underpinning of discourse, and discourses affiliation with social change (Fairclough 1989a, 1989b, 1995; Fowler, 1991; Fowler, Hodge, Kress & Trew, 1979; Hodge & Kress, 1993; van Dijk, 1993). In this study, the ideological underpinning of media discourse will be explored by analysing language usage in media and wordings in news texts. As many scholars point out (Fairclough, 1989b, 1995; Fowler & Kress, 1979), language is regarded as a material form of ideology. The workings of language reflect and in part construct particular social ideas, values and meanings. The analysis of language is thus an indispensable part of any attempt to study ideology in the print media. According to Bell (1991), media discourse can be targeted as the research object in order to discover how the media mask their ideological positions, embodied in their attitudes and opinions, in the way they represent issues. The aim of this article is to make explicit the ideologies underpinning the reportage on the issue in the two countries newspapers through the study of their choice of lexicons and the presence or absence of some propositions in the reportage. The

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relationship between the differences in the coverage and the different underlying ideologies are also interpreted and analysed. In order to initiate the comparative study, four newspapers are chosen for analysis; they are China Daily (hereafter, CD), the most popular English daily in China; the Peoples Daily (hereafter, PD), the official newspaper of the Chinese government with the largest daily circulation in China; the Sydney Morning Herald (hereafter, SMH), located in Sydney but circulated country-wide; and The Australian (hereafter, TA), the Australian national daily. These four are all elite newspapers from China and Australia respectively. Among them, SMH and the Chinese capital city-based PD have always had special interests in the Games since Sydney and Beijing are the sites of preceding and succeeding Games. Besides, their characteristics of opinion-leading and large circulation in their own countries are also the main reasons for them to be selected for the comparative study.

Critical analysis of media discourse

It is widely accepted that choice of words in news reports is by no means arbitrary. To some extent, wording is not a journalists own creation, but the representation or reflection of the social, political or religious ideas shared by the social group the journalist belongs to. In two studies (Trew, 1979a, 1979b), Trew has probed the relations between ideology and wording. According to him, all perception, which is embodied in lexicalisation, involves ideology (Trew, 1979a). In a recent study, Teo (2000) examined the lexical choices for newspaper headlines. He concluded that to analyse the lexical choice would allow the critical discourse analyst a peep into the underlying ideological meaning behind newspaper reporting (Teo, 2000, p. 14). The press coverage of the Athens Olympic preparations will be studied, first of all, at the lexical level, because the choice of words is crucial in presenting the intended information about the news events to readers, and hence is an indication, whether implicit or explicit, of the ideological stances on the part of the press in general and newspapers in particular. Then, propositional analysis will be employed to investigate the inclusion or exclusion of the propositions on the part of the four newspapers in reporting the issue. Considering the comparative analysis will be carried out between forms of press coverage in selected major newspapers in Australia and China, this study provides an opportunity to extend the application of discourse analysis beyond the level of the individual newspaper, and to explore its value for studying the ways in which the press in different countries represent the same major sets of events. The application of the lexical and propositional approaches practises the qualitative research method in international comparison of journalism.

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Lexical analysis of the press coverage of the preparations issue On the basis of a comprehensive review of the last year (from 1 November 2003 to 1 November 2004) of coverage of the issue by the selected newspapers, some typical words appearing in the news texts related to the issue have been selected for analysis. In referring to the same issue, different newspapers used different nouns, as shown in Table 1. As van Dijk (1998) indicated, ideologies are rooted in general beliefs, such as knowledge and opinions; so the lexical choice in news texts more or less mirrors the news professionals views, which are formulated on the basis of their ideological stances.
Table 1: Lexical analysis of the press coverage of the preparations issue Newspaper TA SMH CD PD Date May 5, 2004
1 2 3

Word Hubris; Tragedy Woes Nightmares Urgency, Crisis

Feb. 21, 2004

Aug. 14, 2004

Mar. 18, 20044

Literally, Table 1 shows that the lexical choices by the four newspapers express the similar meaning that Athens preparations were in trouble. However, by employing the lexical analysis, some differences appear. The Australian used hubris and tragedy to describe the Olympic preparations in Athens. The word hubris is a Greek concept that dates as far back as the original Olympic Games. In traditional Greek tragedy, the human hero often suffers from overweening pride or ambition, ignores the advice of the gods because he thinks he knows better and thus plants the seed of his downfall. The newspaper substituted the Athens Olympic Organising Committee (hereafter, ATHOC) for the hero, the IOC and international publicity for the gods, and there was, in the newspapers word, a modern tragedy in the making in Athens. According to The Australian, the hubris of the Greek organisers was best illustrated by organisers stubborn adherence to some unimportant projects, such as the international torch relay, that were designed as showpieces of the Athens Games. In the IOCs view, the Greeks appeared to be more focused on unnecessary flourishes for much of the seven years preparation time they have had to prepare for the Games, rather than on the requirements to run the Games. However, the organisers, just like the Greek human hero, did not care too much about the warning from IOC gods. After the organisers had missed the
1 2 3 4

(Olympics in a photo finish, 2004) (FINA echoes concerns, 2004) (Olympic Games starts in Athens, 2004) (Completion date 2004)

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deadlines on the completion of the venues construction again and again, there was little international confidence that they would meet the final requirements to start the Games. By the allusions to Greek mythology, the newspaper implied that the Games would be doomed if ATHOC ignored the IOCs advice and warning but did everything in their own way. The word hubris sounds pessimistic. It is mildly derogatory and possibly denotes what in some peoples eyes is a Greek characteristic. In the event, however, the Cassandras of the newspaper have finally been proven wrong. SMH referred to the issue as woes. This word denotes helplessness, sorrow and regret while hubris suggests something heroic and capable but unlucky. In a sense, TA did not say anything explicitly negative but tried to find some cultural backgrounds, such as the ancient Greek myth, as arguments to explain the Greeks seeming failure and pave the way for speculation on the hosts supposedly doomed fate. The allusions made by TA give the impression that the newspaper understands the Greeks and their national ways of doing things that is start late, but finish on time. But, metaphorically, the newspaper used the word to criticise the organisers stubborn obstinacy. Comparatively speaking, SMH was more straightforward in stating its view than TA was. It just pointed out the sad state of the Olympic venues construction and did not pay much attention to discovering the causes of the problems. On the Chinese side, CD regarded the case as a nightmare. The careful selection of this word shows that the newspaper has really given much thought to the matter. While the noun has strong negative connotation, nightmare is a kind of dream after all. No matter how horrible or frightening a dream is, it is not a reality anyway, and a great relief waits wakening. Although a terrifying dream can only be realised when a person wakes up, sometimes, nightmare has been used in Chinese with goodwill to express a kind of wish that bad results remain illusory and will never happen in reality. To some extent, the newspaper took this word to leave an option to vary the negative comments on the Games. Compared to the words chosen by the Australian press, the word nightmare sounds less critical but more sympathetic. In accordance with the Chinese press tradition of being prudent in wording, CD deemed that ATHOC would finally make good the Greeks promise of the last minute completion and work it out, but could not help expressing concern about the progress of the Games preparations and whether the troublesome problems would be solved. As an official newspaper of the Chinese government and the ruling party, PD is always prudent in wording its reportage on international issues. The political and diplomatic stance of the Government must be treated as having the utmost importance. On the Athens preparations, PD regarded the case as a matter of great urgency . The newspaper also used the terms like concern and crisis

Divergence Behind Consensus .

In PDs references, the issue appeared to be more serious and diplomatic than

in CD. PD produced less coverage of the issue and its comment on the issue was the most moderate among the four. One explanation of its delicate reportage could be that PD, in line with its policy under the Chinese Communist Party, can only carry short but straightforward coverage of those sensitive affairs. Another possible reason for this restraint is that because of Beijings current preparations for the 2008 Games, the less criticism on Athens issues appears in PD, the less recrimination on possible flaws in the 2008 Games the Chinese organisers might suffer later from the Greeks. PDs reporting approach is different from that of CD, TA and SMH. Although expressing its concern too, PD took a diplomatic rather than severely critical tone. The discrepancy is not sharp but noticeable. Although they agreed that the preparations were in trouble, the four newspapers were not in fact concordant in their coverage of the issue. The choice of words varies with their points of view on the issue. It is interesting that the ways in which CD and PD reported the issue appear slightly different despite the fact that both newspapers are under the control of the Chinese government. The above comparative findings can be further supported by propositional analysis in the following section. Lexical analysis of the press concerns with the Games While reporting the preparation problems, the press in both countries press expressed concerns about the Games. In a sense, the press coverage of the Games preparations could be regarded as the prelude to the coverage of the Games. It is by no means accidental that the coverage of the preparations issues reflected the newspapers deep concerns about the Games. The coverage of the Games preparations showed the uncertainty about whether the Games would be ready on time (for instance, Near enough good, 2004; Heres hoping, 2004; Fine tuning, 2004; Smaller, costlier, better 2004; Greeces spending, 2004; Olympic Games, 2004). Less than four months before the Games began, the fact that 60 per cent of the venues were incomplete brought constant expressions of concerns about whether the city would be ready in time. Furthermore, as for staging the first Olympics since the 9/11 terrorist attack in the US, the October 2002 bombing in Bali and the March 2004 attack on Madrid, Athens was under great pressure to ensure security for the homecoming Games. For the sake of the athletes safety, a small and ordinary local fire could excite global journalists sensitive nerves and make the Olympics participants frightened. Furthermore, it was estimated that last-minute construction and soaring security expenses would push total spending on Olympics projects to 7 billion euros, around 18 per cent more than budgeted. In referring to reporting the concerns about the Athens Olympic Games, different newspapers used different noun or adjective phrases as listed in Table 2.

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Table 2: Lexical analysis of the press concerns with the Games Newspaper TA SMH Date May 5, 2004
5

Phrase A symbol of Greek failures; Doom-saying; A near run thing; High on passion and emotion, and spectacularly low on organization National pride;

Apr. 24, 2004

Apr. 17, 2004 CD May 8, 2004

the potential national disgrace higher-than-planned spending Games

May 18,20049

PD

Nov. 12, 200310 Aug. 4, 200411

cooperative relation with Beijing; that Athens is ready to stage a successful Olympic Games

In TAs 5/5/2004 edition, two articles, commenting on the Games, appeared on different pages. In the articles, it was predicted that the Athens Olympic Games would be a symbol of Greek failures or a near run thing. TAs predictions, or in its own word doom-saying indicated the same point that the Games would not be held on time. It could be seen that after the foreshadowing coverage of the preparations issues and the exploration of some cultural or mythological arguments, the newspaper then put forward its point of view on the Games more directly. It is noticeable here that the Greek failure does not refer only to a supposedly unsuccessful Games, but also to the newspaper-mentioned Greeks national way of doing things start late, finish on time. Because TA had repeatedly mentioned that sort of Greek characteristic, the newspapers pessimistic prediction could be regarded as a metaphor for criticising Athens preparations problems.

5 6

(IOC hits roof, 2004; Olympic spirit, 2004) (Coming, Ready, 2004) 7 (Bottom line, 2004) 8 (Olympics make Greece, 2004) 9 (Olympic spending 2004) 10 (We will be ready, 2003) 11 (Athens is, 2004)

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To be consistent with its reportage of the hosts preparatory chaos, SMHs reference is hard on the Games itself too. The newspaper put the blame on Greeks national pride for the supposed failure of the Games and implied that the Games would become a potential national disgrace if the host kept their own way of carrying out the preparations. Straightforwardly, the newspaper pointed out that the Greeks were too dependent on passion and emotion and overconfident about their ability and time of organization. So, SMH set the reporting keynote by putting the finger on Athens national pride, which was more or less the same as the attitude TA carried. Here, the difference between the two newspapers references is, as we mentioned before, that TA is implicit rather than outspoken in the expression of its criticism. On the Chinese side again, CD paid much attention to describing the details of the Games preparations. Compared with its large quantity of reports on the budget overspending, venues construction delaying and security warning, CDs reference to the Games is minimal. Actually, it is not easy to find an opinion-giving phrase in its reference to the Games. However, CD repeatedly mentioned that the Games would be a higher-than-planned spending Games, from which the newspapers deep concern about the Games, at least on the skyrocketing budget, could be perceived. PDs reference is sharply different from the other threes. It does not put a negative slant on the Games at all, but mentions Athens cooperative relation with Beijing in staging the Olympic Games. Although having reported those urgent preparations issues too, the newspaper does not question the organisers capability and their brave words of last-minute completion. In fact, while expressing the concern about the Games preparations, PD shows diplomatic support to the organization of the Athens Olympics. That could be because PD is an official national newspaper, and its perspective is always bound up with the Chinese governments will. TAs point of failures is stemming from the ancient Greek myths, which has been regarded by the newspaper as an explanation for the cause of the preparations problems. SMH, by contrast, did not mention Greek myths, but highlighted the so-called Greeks national characteristic. CDs coverage seemed to be more comprehensive and objective, as it covered various aspects of the issue. To some extent, CDs coverage was similar to SMHs except CD showing more in its coverage of the issue than in the references it used. CD seldom referred to the Games in its coverage in the same way as TA and PD, which ignored some features but highlighted those in line with their views. To sum up, the comparative analyses reveal the newspapers different attitudes while showing their concern about the issue. The mentioned aspects could be the signposts of newspapers reporting strategies, which relate to their ideological underpinning. The lexical analysis will be reinforced by a propositional analysis in the following section, with the intention of seeking further support for the findings of the previous

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analysis, as the propositional analysis presents a more explicit view of the whole coverage. Propositional analysis of the press coverage of the Games The notion of proposition, derived from formal logic, is applied flexibly in text analysis (Brown & Yule, 1983). A proposition is basically represented as a relationship between a predicate and its arguments. Van Dijk (1988) says that propositions are the smallest independent meaning constructs of language and thought, which are typically expressed by single sentences or clauses. On the basis of propositions, Van Dijk works out the thematic structure of a news story in the form of topics in a hierarchical structure and argues that the societal structure is, through ideology, related to discourse structure. In this study, a proposition is defined as an idea unit, in the form of a single sentence or several sentences, segmented simply from the whole news story. A proposition is a unit of convenience for comparison. I will employ propositional analysis to investigate the inclusion or exclusion of the propositions on the part of the four newspapers in reporting the preparations issue. In Hartleys (1982) terms, it is a matter of medias treatment of the news events, that is, the media will decide whose comments and opinions as well as what details will be adopted in the news reporting. And their choice will be congruent with their ideological stance. Even if some newspapers claim to be politically neutral or ideology-free, their discourse choice will certainly fit in with their institutional policies which are ideological themselves, for they are not timeless and neutral, but have a history and a politics (Cameron, 1993, p. 316). The close study of the propositions made in the complete text may enable us to look at the news discourse as a whole and thus have a comprehensive view of the events as reported by the newspapers. The news discourse on the preparations issue from four newspapers will be segmented into propositions, according to their original sentence order. This is a rather subjective process (Kintsch, 1974) on the part of the researcher. However, since the segmentation will be done by one single researcher, it is assumed that the comparison and contrasting of the news discourse is on an equal basis. I intend to find out the propositions that are conveyed or missing in the reports about the same news event around a certain date. The significance of the presence or absence of the proposition will be probed. It is hypothesized that the inclusion or exclusion of some details (realised in propositions) is not random, but purposeful and hence ideological. As Fang (1994) indicates, in the process of news making, media institutions construct reality in accordance with their underlying ideological positions. Two cross-sectional moments will be studied using propositional analysis. One is the ending stage of the issue, which is around 11-14 August 2004 when the Games

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started on time. The other moment is after the Games, which is around 30 August 2004 while the newspapers wound up their reportage of the Games. At this stage, some conclusive wordings of the issue appear. Four news texts were chosen around the first date (11-14 August)12 and one more was selected from PD and SMH respectively around the other date (30 August)13, since Beijing and Sydney were obviously the two main news actors in this issue. Approaching the date of the opening ceremony, Athens preparations work went well so that they were completed in time for the Games to start. After a long-term reportage of the preparations issue, many journalists in the world reached the consensus that there was no longer any need to use words such as chaos or catastrophe to describe the citys readiness to host the Games (TA, 14/8/2004: 23). The newspapers, which had been highly critical in their coverage of the preparations issue were facing the fact that their doom-sayings to bill organisers as the modern Greek ruins would prove false. Although winning a can-do image successfully, Athens was labelled as Cinderella going to the ball. The sparkling but hurried princess could never become the best ever. Spontaneously, all the selected newspapers carried articles comparing the Athens Games with the previous host Sydney and meanwhile, anticipating Beijings preparations for the 2008 Games. The comparison of the propositions of the six news texts from the four newspapers enables us to discover that the proposition consists of three parts: 1) the Athens Games achieved unexpected success, 2) but could not match Sydney 2000 in the size and slickness of the organization, 3) and Athens 2004 lowered the bar for the preparations of the Beijing Olympics. The first part was included by every newspaper. The second part could be found in every newspaper except PD. The third part only appeared in the two Australian newspapers. The first part of the proposition was a common consent by all newspapers, although the consent was not reached until the Games finished. The second part of the proposition was missing in PDs coverage, though the newspaper mentioned that Athens spent more money than Sydney did. This finding echoes with PDs lexical choice, which indicates that its evaluation of the issue is more careful. The propositions third part was quoted in a headline by SMH on 30 August, but was missing in PD and CD. This difference is worth consideration. This could be a signal that Beijing might want to play down the massive image of the 2008 Games and keep low profile. It is noticeable that PD carried an article (IOC chief refuses to compare Olympic Games, 29 August 2004: 7) that denied the validity or usefulness of comparing different Olympic Games. The reason for that might be the
(Heavy spending, 2004; Olympic Games starts in Athens, 2004; The Olympic ideal, 2004; Smaller, costlier, better, 2004) 13 (IOC chief, 2004; Athens lowered, 2004)
12

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Chinese hosts changing attitude to staging the Beijing 2008 Games. An article in TA (2004) pointed out that after Athens 2004 Games, Chinas common boast heard from president Hu Jintao down, that Beijings Olympics in 2008 would be the best ever, was banned. The former slogan attached to every mention of the groundbreaking, avant-garde, cutting-edge Beijing Olympics has deflated into more modest terms: the Olympics should be frugal, workable and good. Beijing 2008 will be state-controlled excellence (SMH, 2004). In line with the changing attitude of the Chinese authorities and the Games organisers, the PD pointed out that Beijing 2008 should have Chinas own characteristics and the preparations should be efficient and frugal14. PDs opinion was undoubtedly not in accordance with the Australian newspapers, which held the views that Beijing should meet the high expectations by sparing no efforts. In summary, the propositions missing in the Chinese newspapers could be highlighted by the Australian newspapers. The inclusion of the proposition in the Australian newspapers suggests that they think Beijing 2008 should be the Games that will meet high expectations and better than Athens. The exclusion of the proposition, together with the inclusion of the first two parts in the proposition, in the Chinese newspapers seems to send a message that Beijing did not intend to compare its own Games with the predecessors.

Discussion
Why has the same issue been given discrepant labels? Why has the same Games Athens 2004 been referred to in various ways? Why has the proposition in the Australian newspapers been excluded by the Chinese newspapers? The answers could lie in the different ideologies out of which opinions were formed and judgements made. The concept of ideology is one of the most controversial and elusive academic issues. In this study, I utilize Simpsons definition of ideology - ideology is a mosaic of cultural assumptions, political stance and institutional practices (Simpson, 1993, p. 176). In line with this definition of ideology, the discussion will be organised around these three aspects. First, the political stance. The journalists political stances as well as the newspapers political orientation will give rise to varied opinions. Among the preparations issues of the Athens Games, security concerns were undoubtedly in the international political spotlight. As Athens would stage the first Olympics since the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, the October 2002 Bali bombing and the attack on Madrid in March 2004, terrorism fears cast clouds over the Games organisers and participants. As a very close partner of US and Britain in the global
14

(Adopt the idea, 2004)

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counter-terrorism war, Australia has long been targeted by the terrorists like Al-qaida. To warn its citizens of the threatening terrorism, the Australian government issued a travel advisory, which made particular reference to Australians planning to attend the Olympic Games. After the advisory issued on April 2004, TA and SMH massively overreacted to any accident, even small local blasts, possibly linked to terrorism or related to the security problems in the hosts preparations. It is no wonder that Athens organisers always complained about the Australian press negative reportage and criticism, which formed an unsafe image of the host city. Comparatively, although concerned about the Games and participants safety, PD and CD did not try hard to cover the issue as worriedly as the Australian newspapers did. This was probably because China does not share the same international political stance with the US-led alliance. It adopts an independent stance in international affairs and is not in the high risk countries list. Apart from that, to keep good and friendly relations but to avoid diplomatic rows with Greece and its people might be another reason why China and its press did not criticise the organisers preparations work too much. Second are the cultural assumptions embodied in the different value systems. As observed by Tannen (1998), Asian cultures, including Chinese culture, place great value on avoiding open expression of disagreement and conflict because those cultures emphasize harmony. As a result, CD just objectively and comprehensively reported the details of the issues while PD only expressed the governments views or even avoided some sensitive news facts. A common feature of Chinese newspapers is that they rarely criticise or blame others. As Confucius said, Be strict with yourself but least reproachful of others and complaint is kept afar (Cheung, 1996), Furthermore, what is emphasized in Chinese values is a sense of collectiveness, that is, the collective interest is much more important than that of the individual. When the Greeks boasted that their national pride and collective spirit would ensure and guarantee the completion of the venues construction, the Chinese sympathy was aroused and the Chinese press showed much understanding and support. By contrast, Western values are quite the opposite. In arguing the relations between independence and involvement in Western relations, Scollon (1995) notes that the individuality of the participants is emphasized. People could express openly what they would like to express. For instance, when being asked by Athenians why the Australians kept picking on Athens, Australian ambassador to Greece Stuart Hume comforted (Greeks bearing, 2004) the hosts by saying that the Australian press scrutiny and occasional criticism of the preparations in Athens was nothing compared with its treatment of the Sydney Games. Stuart indicates that expressing opinions straightforwardly is a characteristic of the Australian press, and is not aimed only at others, but at Australians too. The third ideological aspect to be considered covers institutional practices. PD and

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CD represent the Chinese government, so faithfully reflecting the governments point of view is their duty. The little difference between them is that CD is more comprehensive and entertaining as it is mainly published for the audience outside China. However, in delivering the governments message, CD performs the similar function as PD. Learning from the Athens lessons, the early Chinese ambitions of staging the best ever Games have given way to concerns about cost overruns. Since the government changed its attitude, the two Chinese newspapers have been in accordance with the government. Both have kept a low profile in coverage of the Athens Olympics and avoided comparing Beijing with its predecessors. Compared with the Chinese newspapers modest representations, TA and SMH always mentioned the best ever accolade of the Sydney 2000 while viewing Athens preparations with scepticism and criticism. Although TA and SMH are all private profit-driven organizations, the national interests are still primary considerations. Before the Games, a Greek journalist pointed out (Shadow of Terror, 2004) that the Athenians had wondered aloud that the Australian Government and press criticism of the preparations was about them wanting to win more contracts for Australian companies. So, placing high expectations on the Beijing Games might be another strategy by the Australian press to seek more business opportunities for Aussie companies to be involved in the preparations of 2008 Games. Furthermore, the disparity in the nature of the newspapers will consequently have some effects on the media output, leading to different opinions. In the coverage of the preparations of the Athens Games, all four newspapers gave more or less criticism on the issue. What we see is that all the sentiments are negative but those expressed by the Chinese media are much more restrained. That might be why the concern or urgency in PD became the hubris, tragedy and woes in TA and SMH. The reporting features of the Chinese official daily newspapers, the PD and CD, are not quite the same. CDs reportage is comparatively comprehensive and detailed in contrast to PDs short and succinct articles. This could result from the new institutional practices CD adopted, which emphasize the market considerations while PD is still totally dependent on the subsidy from the state.

Conclusions
In the discourse analysis of the four newspapers coverage of the Athens Games preparations, some findings can be established. The lexical and propositional study opens up for consideration of certain differences between the selected newspapers of the two countries, but also between press treatments within the same country. PD excluded some propositions, which are in discordance with the Chinese governments attitude on the issue. So, while expressing concern about the preparations issue of the Athens Games, the newspaper showed much diplomatic support to the organisers. As an official English newspaper of the state, CDs coverage is comparatively

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comprehensive and detailed. Even though it shares PDs approach of being prudent in wordings on sensitive issues, its reportage manifests more freedom and flexibility than PDs. TAs coverage appears to be academic by frequently employing historic and literary quotations like ancient Greek mythology to reinforce its arguments on the issue. The academic style of the reportage and the in-depth news analysis in this all-round country newspaper reflect its quality as a broadsheet. By contrast, SMHs coverage was more straightforward in stating its view than TA was. Being positioned as a metropolitan daily, SMH concentrated on telling its audience popular and readable stories about what was going on in Athens. Although differences in cultural values and communication behaviours of those newspapers, which are from different socio-political and cultural backgrounds, are imaginable, their coverage of the same issue sometimes seemingly reaches a consensus, which may somehow mask a diversity of opinions on the issue. However, a close textual analysis, applying methods of discourse analysis to initiate national and international comparisons, enabled us to see a clearer picture of what is really different and what causes that. It is obvious that the preparations problems before the Athens Games brought the attention of the four newspapers, which expressed common concerns about the Games. All of the reportage of the issues had similarities. But, the similar coverage of the same issue disguised the varied points of view held by the individual newspapers, which, as discussed, are rooted in their different political stances, cultural assumptions and institutional practices in short, their ideological positions. Discursively speaking, their different ideologies are instantiated in their choice of lexicons and the inclusion or exclusion of some specific propositions in their coverage of the Athens preparations issues. What is emphasized in this article is that a similar view in the coverage of a same issue is more or less influenced qualitatively by the medias own ideologies. This is what is meant by divergence behind consensus.

Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Associate Professor Dugald Williamson and Dr. Paul Adams who are his PhD supervisors for their valuable suggestions and comments on the paper. This research is supported by International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) and UNE Research Assistantship (UNERA).

References
A thank you to Greeks and their gift (2004, August 31). The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Adopt the idea of encouraging frugality in hosting the Olympics (2004, August 23). Peoples Daily, 7 Athens lowered the bar but Beijing may set it too high( 2004, August 30). The Sydney

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Address for correspondence Lei Gong PhD candidate School of English, Communication and Theatre The University of New England Armidale NSW 2351 Australia E-Mail: lgong@pobox.une.edu.au