Mediation discourse in safeguarding the rights of the elderly: a critical discourse analysis based on televised mediation

Purpose This study examines how televised mediation of family eldercare disputes contributes to grassroots governance in the context of China’s rapidly aging population. This study aims to uncover how mediators construct authority and shape filial responsibilities through discourse. Design/methodology/approach Using Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework, the study conducts a critical discourse analysis of ten televised mediation cases. It systematically analyzes discursive strategies − including nomination, argumentation, predication, perspectivization and intensification/mitigation − to reveal how legal, ethical and institutional meanings are constructed. Findings The analysis shows that mediators draw on a coordinated set of discursive strategies to construct a mode of convivial authoritarianism, integrating institutional authority with ethical affectivity. Through this discourse model, filial obligations are reframed from legal imperatives into moral duties, enabling a discursive alignment of legal norms, ethical values and governance objectives. Originality/value This study moves beyond culturally deterministic interpretations of filial piety by demonstrating how power and ideology are mediated through language in institutional interactions. It contributes a context-sensitive analytical framework for mediation discourse and provides new theoretical and methodological insights into how discourse practices support the modernization of grassroots governance in contemporary China.