关键词: 老年人形象；媒体话语；话语策略；形象建构

Abstract: With the increasingly serious problem of global population aging， the elders have become the focus of social attention. And in a context with highly developed media dissemination， there is a great need to explore how media discourses present the elderly， which is significant in facilitating the display of old peoples authentic existence， and gradually eliminating the bothering of negative， stereotyped and marginalized problems. Based on the eldersrelated news reports in CHINA DAILY， the present study investigates the themes， discourse strategies， and the images of the elderly constructed. The study finds that the news reports focus on their personal characteristics and social values when presenting the elders. By utilizing discursive strategies of referential， predication， intensification， and argumentation， the media discourse constructs eight images of the elderly， namely the lonely powerless， the stubborn conformist， the capable energetic， the achieved striver， the lifeloving resident， the caring helper， the trapped weak， and the dragger of social development， which reflect the complex， multifaceted， and dynamic features of the images of the elderly.

Key words: the elderly image; media discourse; discourse strategies; image construction