‘Feminism rules! Now, where’s my swimsuit?’ Re-evaluating feminist discourse in print media 1968–2008

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 554-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaitlynn Mendes

Using both content and critical discourse analysis, this article traces the emergence of and changes in the ways feminism has been discursively constructed in 998 British and American news articles between 1968 and 1982 – which I define as the ‘height’ of the Second Feminist Wave, and 2008 – marking 40 years after feminism began gaining momentum in both nations. In analysing the British Times, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, and Guardian newspapers, as well as the American New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Washington Times, I argue that not only has there been an erasure of feminist activism from these newspapers over time, but that discourses of feminism have become both de-politicized and de-radicalized since the 1960s, and can now largely be considered neoliberal in nature – a problematic construction for those seeking collective social change.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamta Gelashvili

This thesis critically examines the US media framing of the Egyptian Uprisings in 2011 and 2013 to examine whether the coverage was relatively value-neutral or had a value-laden (Neo-Orientalist) perspective. The thesis aims to examine whether the Neo-Orientalist tendency among the Western societies to view religion as the key driving force behind political processesis manifest in the US media as well, or whether the two newspapers try to represent the abovementioned political and economic processes and grievances. To this end, the thesis looks at the articles published in The New York Times and The Washington Post during and after two major events: Mubarak‟s resignation in 2011 and Morsi‟s removal in 2013. A combination of quantitative (content analysis) and qualitative (critical discourse analysis) research demonstrates that news articles and editorials about the 2011 and 2013 uprisings include Neo-Orientalist frames. These articles consider liberal democracy as a universal normative model and contrast it with Islam, portrayed as a fundamentally different, homogeneous and antidemocratic phenomenon linked with instability and violence and singlehandedly influencing democratization process. Compared to 2011, Neo-Orientalist frames become more frequent in 2013; if in 2011, most units adhere to Fukuyama‟s view that Egypt would join the teleological march to liberal democracy, in 2013, the trend reverses and most units, like Huntington, exclude any possibility of democratization. The textual practices of naming, sourcing, presupposition, fore- and backgrounding, used to construct Neo-Orientalist frames, can be related to discursive practices, or the production of text, and larger social practices. As critical discourse analysis shows, the units show pro-Israeli bias and align with the US foreign policy priorities: both the general policy of liberal democracy promotion and the specific strategic interests in Egypt.


Cultura ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Saman REZAEI ◽  
Kamyar KOBARI ◽  
Ali SALAMI

With the realization of the promised global village, media, particularly online newspapers, play a significant role in delivering news to the world. However, such means of news circulation can propagate different ideologies in line with the dominant power. This, coupled with the emergence of so-called Islamic terrorist groups, has turned the focus largely on Islam and Muslims. This study attempts to shed light on the image of Islam being portrayed in Western societies through a Critical Discourse Analysis approach. To this end, a number of headlines about Islam or Muslims have been randomly culled from three leading newspapers in Western print media namely The Guardian, The Independent and The New York Times (2015). This study utilizes “ideological square” notion of Van Dijk characterized by “positive presentation” of selves and “negative presentation” of others alongside his socio-cognitive approach. Moreover, this study will take the linguistic discourses introduced by Van Leeuwen regarding “representing social actors and social practices” into consideration. The findings can be employed to unravel the mystery behind the concept of “Islamophobia” in Western societies. Besides, it can reveal how specific lexical items, as well as grammatical structures are being employed by Western media to distort the notion of impartiality.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852098744
Author(s):  
Ke Li ◽  
Qiang Zhang

Media representations have significant power to shape opinions and influence public response to communities or groups around the world. This study investigates media representations of Islam and Muslims in the American media, drawing upon an analysis of reports in the New York Times over a 17-year period (from Jan.1, 2000 to Dec. 31, 2016) within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. It examines how Islam and Muslims are represented in media coverage and how discursive power is penetrated step by step through such media representations. Most important, it investigates whether Islam and Muslims have been stigmatized through stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. The findings reveal that the New York Times’ representations of Islam and Muslims are negative and stereotypical: Islam is stereotyped as the unacclimatized outsider and the turmoil maker and Muslims as the negative receiver. The stereotypes contribute to people’s prejudice, such as Islamophobia from the “us” group and fear of the “them” group but do not support a strong conclusion of discrimination.


Author(s):  
Julia Lefkowitz

Since internationally renowned film director Roman Polanski was arrested on six charges of misconduct directed at a minor in 1977, his legal case has drawn strong reactions in connection to a range of political, social, and moral issues. Responses to the scandal have differed sharply across French and American national lines and as such, prestige press coverage of the director’s 2009 arrest in France and the U.S. reflects differences in dominant national ideologies. This paper applies a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to analyze two specific sets of national ideologies connected to the case – those connected to that of the artist’s worth and those relevant to perceptions of sexual misconduct. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 296-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastasia Smirnova ◽  
Helena Laranetto ◽  
Nicholas Kolenda

This article continues the line of research that combines the paradigm of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with quantitative methods. We propose that Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a software for automated text analysis widely used in social sciences, can enrich the CDA toolkit. The methodological advantage of LIWC is that its semantic categorization was developed and validated independently, which addresses the concerns about subjectivity. In two case studies we use LIWC to analyze the construction and representation of the ‘Other’ in mass media. Study 1 focuses on the representation of Russia in The New York Times (NYT) before and after its annexation of Crimea; Study 2 analyzes the change in sentiment toward Islam in NYT before and after 9/11. We find that in both cases the change in attitude is driven by an increase in negative emotion words rather than by a decrease in positive words.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Yakoub Abu Taha ◽  
Rajai Al-Khanji

The current study aimed at discovering biases through comparing the used journalistic and lexicalizations practices in quotations patterns and representations of social actors in news coverage of the Gaza Marches of Return. The selected newspapers were The Guardian, the New York Times, The Jordan Times and Haaretz. The study sample comprised 32 news articles and 8 editorials. The findings of the study revealed that more space was given to Israeli political and military actors over their Palestinian counterparts in the New York Times and Haaretz. The Guardian and the Jordan Times quotations of Palestinian civilian actors focused on human suffering and casualties themes while Haaretz and the NYT quoted them instigating deadly attacks among other themes. The use of negative themes along with negative speakers’ descriptions of Palestinian political actors revealed biased stances against Palestinian Civilian Actors. In addition, the used reporting verbs, unbalanced quotations distributions and word counts of social actors’ quotations pointed at biased practices and adoption of one party narrative in the case of the NYT, Haaretz and the Jordan Times. 


Author(s):  
Arlini binti Alias ◽  
Nora Mohd Nasir

The objective of this study is to examine the linguistic representation of social actors in the selected Malaysian and foreign news reports on the circulated event of the missing MAS flight MH370. Despite extensive studies of news discourse, less attention is paid on how news event are speculated and the extent the social actors are relegated. Hence, the study explores the role of newspaper editorials in promoting stereotypical depictions through the representation of self- and other- in their reporting of the MH370 tragedy. The study retrieved a total of fifty (50) news reports of the missing MAS flight MH370 incident from ten news press, twenty-five (25) published by five local (Malaysian) English newsagents: The Star, New Straits Times, Sun Daily, Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini, and twenty-five (25) others from five foreign newsagents: Daily Mail (UK), The Guardian (UK), Washington Post, New York Times and USA Today. The corpora were collected from March 8, 2014, to November 5, 2014, and analysed using Van Dijk’s (1998) Ideological Square framework, as well as Reisigl and Wodak (2000) Discursive Strategies. The analysis of this study discovers evidence of the “intergroup bias” made by the selected news press in representing the MH370 social actors. The selected news press displays an overt preference for own group and obvious demotion of the other group. The study also reveals the occurrence of lexicalization of the ‘other’ in the foreign news reports indicating positive representation of their in-group and exhibiting apparent disapproval of the actions by the out-group. On the other hand, the analysis also reveals an impartial representation of the MH370 social actor by the local news press both for in-group and out-group.


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