A Critical Metaphor Analysis of TikTok’s Image in The Economist

Abstract

The research picks up six reports about TikTok in The Economist and tries to reveal the image of the app in The Economist based on critical metaphor theory. Drawing upon the MIPVU procedure, the research sorted out metaphors in the corpus and classified them into different types by their source domains. According to statistics, human metaphors, journey metaphors, construction metaphors, and conflict metaphors are most frequently used. Food metaphor and light metaphor take up a small portion. These metaphors cover many aspects of the app, reflecting the attitude of The Economist towards TikTok. Some are positive and some are negative. They reflect the magazine’s complicated attitude towards the app.