The Language of Violent Jihad

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Baker ◽  
Rachelle Vessey ◽  
Tony McEnery

How do violent jihadists use language to try to persuade people to carry out violent acts? This book analyses over two million words of texts produced by violent jihadists to identify and examine the linguistic strategies employed. Taking a mixed methods approach, the authors combine quantitative methods from corpus linguistics, which allows the identification of frequent words and phrases, alongside close reading of texts via discourse analysis. The analysis compares language use across three sets of texts: those which advocate violence, those which take a hostile but non-violent standpoint, and those which take a moderate perspective, identifying the different uses of language associated with different stages of radicalization. The book also discusses how strategies including use of Arabic, romanisation, formal English, quotation, metaphor, dehumanisation and collectivisation are used to create in- and out-groups and justify violence.

Journeys ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jörg Lehmann ◽  
Thomas Stodulka

How can travel books and narrative ethnography be compared? This article systematically examines the works of an eminent travel writer and an anthropologist with respect to paratexts, themes, lexis, named entities, and narrative positions. It combines quantitative methods with a close reading of three books. The article discusses whether a mixed-methods approach of close reading and quantitative analysis can be applied to comparing larger corpora of travel writing and ethnography.


2021 ◽  
pp. 155868982098627
Author(s):  
Diego Romaioli

In order to enhance core mixed methods research designs, social scientists need an approach that incorporates developments in the social constructionist perspective. This work describes a study that aimed to promote occupational well-being in hospital departments where employees are at risk of burnout, based on a constructionist inquiry developed starting from the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Taking this study as an example, we define a “generative sequential mixed methods approach” as a process that involves consulting quantitative studies to identify criticalities on which to conduct focused, transformative investigations. The article contributes by envisaging ways to mix qualitative and quantitative methods that consider a “generative” and “future-forming” orientation to research, in line with recent shifts in social psychology.


2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Bax

The indirect conveyance of functional meaning is a conspicuous and thoroughly studied characteristic of contemporary linguistic practice. Even so, in addition to seeming “something natural” indirect language use appears to be a universally spread phenomenon, and both factors may have caused students in the fields of pragmatics and discourse analysis to generally overlook the significant issue of whether or not indirectness was a characteristic feature of earlier forms of linguistic communication as well and, if such is the case, how in bygone eras non-literal meanings were imparted. The overall lack of historical and diachronic perspectives on indirect language use implies that there are to date no theories explaining its origin and development over time. In this article, I shall argue that currently prevailing modes such as conventional and inferential indirectness are historically speaking rather recent innovations, and that in pre-modern times indirect pragmatic meaning was established in a markedly different fashion. Taking the mediaeval pre-combat dialogue and some of its earlier manifestations as my focal material, I will try to establish that ritual interaction, more particularly the time-honoured altercation rite, marks a primary stage in the development of indirect communication. Considering the conceptual links between ritual behaviour and indirect language use, I will contend that oral ritual is a precursor of the now prevailing linguistic strategies for being indirect.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-315
Author(s):  
Cristina Mayor-Goicoechea ◽  
Jesús Romero-Trillo

Abstract The threat of the Islamic State is realised both in its attacks and its discourse. To illustrate the role of linguistic threats, the present study investigates the ISIS online propaganda magazine Dabiq by combining Critical Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics (Romero-Trillo 2008; Baker et al. 2008). Following the two groups described by van Dijk (2003), which are represented by the in-group (ISIS) and the out-group (against ISIS), we propose a third element: the translocal group (i.e., the people in between). The results show the substantial presence of linguistic strategies enhanced by Dangerous Speech (Benesch 2013) to create a high segregation between the groups. Also, the analysis shows the inextricable relationship between conflict and dangerous language and the need to investigate this link further, with special reference to the polarisation of the groups and to the subsequent escalation of violence in discourse.


First Monday ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Recuero ◽  
Felipe Soares ◽  
Otávio Vinhas

This paper aims to analyze and compare the discursive strategies used to spread and legitimate disinformation on Twitter and WhatsApp during the 2018 Brazilian presidential election. Our case study is the disinformation campaign used to discredit the electronic ballot that was used for the election. In this paper, we use a mixed methods approach that combined critical discourse analysis and a quantitative aggregate approach to discuss a dataset of 53 original tweets and 54 original WhatsApp messages. We focused on identifying the most used strategies in each platform. Our results show that: (1) messages on both platforms used structural strategies to portray urgency and create a negative emotional framing; (2) tweets often framed disinformation as a “rational” explanation; and, (3) while WhatsApp messages frequently relied on authorities and shared conspiracy theories, spreading less truthful stories than tweets.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512094069
Author(s):  
Samantha Close ◽  
Cynthia Wang

The platformization of crafting in an unequal world encourages discriminatory attitudes toward ethnic Others. Imagining that the “magic circle” of a subcultural platform can insulate users from racism is deeply misguided. We examine this thesis through a mixed-methods approach combining an online survey assessing perceived experiences of racism online and willingness to communicate with people of different ethnicities, discourse analysis of crafters’ online posts, and ethnographic interviews. As the e-commerce platform Etsy allowed “manufactured goods” to be sold in their marketplace as handmade, Western crafters channel their frustrations with a broken platform economy into racist sentiment against Chinese crafters. This study explores the implications of these Orientalist sentiments as a reinforcement of Western exceptionalism around originality and creativity, and it analyzes White fragility and the assumption of Whiteness within the crafting subculture.


Author(s):  
Phyllis Ghim Lian Chew

This paper focuses on language use and discoursal strategies in an Islamic boys camp and draws from theoretical frameworks such as the ethnography of speaking, conversation analysis and discourse analysis as a means to examine the phenomena of religious mentoring and socialization.   The article found that mentees were socialized through senior peers’ linguistic strategies such as language choice and code-switching and discoursal strategies such as humor, mock-demonstrations  – all of which played a major role in building solidarity, group support and brotherly bonding.


Author(s):  
Ian Jones

Sports fandom consists of cognitive and affective, as well as behavioural components. Existing sports fan research utilises either strong qualitative, or more often, strong quantitative methodologies. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are outlined, developing the argument that the use of a single methodology often fails to explore all of these components. The use of a mixed methods approach is suggested to counteract this weakness and to enhance research into the sports fan.


Author(s):  
Deepthiman Gowda ◽  
Tayla Curran ◽  
Dorene F. Balmer

Program evaluations explore the effectiveness and feasibility of new programs. An evaluation method using a mixed methods approach combines qualitative and quantitative data; this approach enables triangulation of data to provide more comprehensive understanding of a program and increase the trustworthiness of evaluation findings. Mixed methods evaluation can be resource intensive and requires expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods. Program evaluation questions should be informed by program stakeholders and by the concerns of the field. In this chapter, the authors describe how to conduct a mixed methods program evaluation and explore its benefits and limitations. The authors draw on their experience of using a mixed methods approach to evaluate a year-long narrative medicine program in primary care clinics. Though not appropriate for all health humanities program evaluation, a mixed methods evaluation offers rich, multidimensional understandings of programs.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annika Bailey ◽  
Tom Dening ◽  
Kevin Harvey

AbstractMedia coverage of dementia can influence public and professional attitudes towards the syndrome, shaping societal knowledge of dementia and impacting how people with dementia are cared for. This paper reports on a study of news articles about dementia published in the British press in the years 2012–2017. The analysis combines the tools of corpus linguistics, a methodology for quantitatively surveying a vast amount of electronic linguistic data, with the qualitative perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis, which seeks to uncover dominant discourses and ideologies. The most salient discourse that emerged from this analysis was the portrayal of dementia in biomedical terms, with a particular focus on the pathological processes of dementia, and pharmaceutical treatments and research. Keywords relating to this discourse are interrogated in detail, illuminating the linguistic strategies through which the pathology of dementia and people with dementia are depicted. This study highlights the challenges that this type of reporting presents to people living with dementia and their families, and points to the relevance of a discursive approach to understanding societal perceptions of dementia.


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