scholarly journals ‘Bisexual oysters’: A diachronic corpus-based critical discourse analysis of bisexual representation in The Times between 1957 and 2017

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Mark Wilkinson

Recent decades have witnessed an increase in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) visibility in the British media. Increased representation has not been equally distributed, however, as bisexuality remains an obscured sexual identity in discourses of sexuality. Through the use of diachronic corpus-based critical discourse analysis, this study seeks to uncover how bisexual people have been represented in the British press between 1957 and 2017. By specifically focusing on the discursive construction of bisexuality in The Times, the results reveal how bisexual people are represented as existing primarily in discourses of the past or in fiction. The Times corpus also reveals significant variation in the lexical meaning of bisexual throughout the 60 years in question. These findings contribute to contemporary theories of bisexual erasure which posit that bisexual people are denied the same ontological status as monosexual identities, that is, homosexuality and heterosexuality.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 630-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Liu ◽  
Cong Jiang

This study conducts a corpus-assisted discourse study of the representations of post-colonial Hong Kong in The Times over the past 20 years. The primary purpose is to reveal its preferential ways of representing Hong Kong and explicate the intricate relations between language use and the historical and socio-political contexts. Through an integration of the methods and theories associated with critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, this study conducts both synchronic and diachronic analyses of the representations of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2017. The findings suggest that The Times’ representations of Hong Kong tend to be crisis- and conflict-oriented. While evoking constant fear about the future of Hong Kong, it still suggests that it is Britain’s duty and moral obligation to protect the former British colony. The same trend can also be identified in The Times’ representations of the mass protests against the proposed extradition bill in 2019.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Ping

Abstract This study investigates how the image of Hong Kong is presented in translated news in the case of the 2014 protests, adopting an imagological approach. The corpus consists of translated news articles on the BBC Chinese website and their English-language source texts from a variety of British press articles published between 28 September and 15 December 2014. The study is a corpus-based critical discourse analysis focusing on aspects of the labelling and semantic prosodies in relation to Hong Kong. It also assesses aspects of image-building, including the selective appropriation of texts for translation, the institutional procedures, and target readership reception, that together contribute to the discursive construction of socio-political images of Hong Kong.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-275
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy

Abstract In this article, I examine a corpus of texts that address the 1973 war; these texts cover the period from 1981 to 2011, marking the beginning and end of Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I explore how Mubarak’s regime employed the war to legitimize its power and defend its policies by deploying longstanding culturally-embedded ‘macro themes’. These macro themes refer to the war as an overwhelming and undisputed ‘Egyptian victory’ and, more significantly, they portray Mubarak himself as ‘war personified/war personalized’. The analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic features in al-Ahram newspaper (the mouthpiece of the state), among other media texts on the war, show how the discursive construction was made consistent, coherent and resonant in a managed context that characterized the political and media landscapes. Depending on unique access to those who produced, edited and even censored the texts under analysis, this method unravels a complex set of cultural messages and conventions about the war, and fills a lacuna in the literature by offering insight into the deliberate and well-coordinated process of shaping and reshaping a specific discourse for a specific purpose.


Author(s):  
Kamil Fleissner

ABSTRACTThis study aims to analyze the discoursive representation of andalusian collective identity and memory in the television series “La respuesta está en la historia”. I will reflect the theoretical approach of the social construction of identities and I will use the methodology of the critical discourse analysis to identify, classify and explore the basic discoursive strategies that are reproduced by the television series.RESUMENEl propósito general de este estudio es analizar la construcción discursiva de las representaciones de la identidad social y de la memoria colectiva de los andaluces en la serie “La respuesta está en la Historia”. Reflejando las explicaciones teóricas de la construcción de la identidad y los conceptos de la memoria colectiva, y usando la perspectiva teórico-metodológica del análisis crítico del discurso identifico, clasifico y exploro las principales estrategias discursivas usadas en el programa.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Sadok Abcha

The present paper critically analyses the ideological uses of the adjectives used to describe multiculturalism in opinion articles published by two British quality newspapers, The Telegraph and The Times, which politically lean to The Right. Methodologically, the sample on which this study is based has been retrieved from the websites of the two dailies by means of the Key Word In Context (KWIC) technique, which has been used to look for comment articles published between July 2005 and December 2015, and in which the search word, multiculturalism used with an adjective featured. Using Fairclough’s theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study pinpoints the ideological underpinnings of the adjectives used with the word multiculturalism in the editorials. The study found out that all the adjectives are used in a derogative way to describe multiculturalism as being unreasonable, harmful and unsuccessful. Significantly, this paper provides critical insight into the peculiar uses of derogative adjectives in comment articles dealing with multiculturalism and avers that negative adjectives are not simply linguistic elements, but most importantly, ideological tools.


Organization ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 802-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Budd ◽  
Darren Kelsey ◽  
Frank Mueller ◽  
Andrea Whittle

This study examines the metaphors used in the British press to characterize the payday loan industry in order to develop our understanding of organizational delegitimation. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and theories of moral panic, we show how the metaphors used in the press framed the industry as a ‘moral problem’. The study identified four root metaphors that were used to undertake moral problematization: predators and parasites, orientation, warfare and pathology. We show how these metaphors played a key role in the construction of a moral panic through two framing functions: first by constructing images of the damage and danger caused by the firms and second by attributing agency in such a way that moral responsibility was assigned to the organizations. We also extend the discussion of our findings to explore the ideological dimensions of the moral panic. We develop a critical analysis that points to the potential scapegoating role of the discourse, which served as a convenient moral crusade for the government and other neo-liberal supporters to pursue, while detracting attention away from the underlying socio-economic context, including austerity policies, the decline in real wages and the deregulation of the finance sector. From this critical perspective, payday loan companies can be seen as a ‘folk devil’ through which society’s fears about finance capitalism are articulated, creating disproportionate exaggeration and alarm, while the system as a whole can remain intact.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
M. S. Matytsina ◽  
O. N. Prokhorova ◽  
I. V. Chekulai

The paper based on the content of the Facebook group Immigrants in EU and The Daily Mail publications discusses the issue of discursive construction of an immigrant image in media discourse. Using the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the authors claim that the image of an immigrant can be viewed as a discursive construct, and the main discursive strategies involved in its construction include the reference strategy and the prediction strategy. As a result of the analysis, the so called CDA-categories (topic blocks) underlying the formation of the immigrant figure, are identified and illustrated by the relevant examples, the need for further study of the social media discourse as part of critical discourse analysis is justified. The relevance of such study is due to the growing research interest in discursive construction of the immigrant figure in the media discourse, since it underpins the definition of discourse as a form of social practice, not only reflecting processes in the society, but also exerting a reciprocal effect on them. The use of both verbal and non-verbal means in the media texts under study reflects the intention of the authors of the messages to use all possible communication channels when constructing an immigrant’s image. The results show that the dichotomy of “friends and foes” is being formed and maintained by the British newspaper The Daily Mail, while the members of the Immigrants in EU group try to mitigate the conflict between immigrants and indigenous people.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Shifaa Hadi Hussein

Identity is the idiosyncratic features that characterize an individual as being unique. It is the dynamic per formativeness of self through behaviors, acts, clothes and etc.. When such self is shared (by sharing memories, desires, and emotions) with others, it becomes social identity. Such an identity is, thus, changed, transformed, spoke out, acknowledged and never be fixed at any moment of life. The current study aims at studying the discursive construction of social identity in Arabic written discourse. It seeks to ponder the question of what linguistic devices do the Arab writers utilize to identify themselves in discourse and to show sameness and differences between in – and out- groups. To attain the above aim, we hypothesize that Arab writers use scanted discursive and linguistic devices to identify gender in their writing. Accordingly, seven linguistic and discursive components have been chosen to analyze the discourse to unveil the identity of its writer: processes, mood, modality, vocabulary and collocation, pronouns, figurative uses of language, and interdiscursivity. The study comes with some conclusions, the most important of which are: social identity can be traced in Arabic discourse through the construction of in _ and out_ groups with the in- group being victimized by the out-group who is the dominant, a conclusion which clashes with studies of critical discourse analysis, and changes and transformation of identity occur through stages including: attention, interest, solutions and urging by giving commands.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-31
Author(s):  
Ameer Ali ◽  
Mohammad Ibrahim Mohammad Ibrahim

The current research work is a critical discourse analysis of Donald Trump's Inaugural Address (2017). The researcher has made use of Ruth Wodak’s Discourse Historical Model (2004) to study the inaugural address. Moreover, the current research work is qualitative in its approach and analysis, as it answers the research questions in accordance with Ruth Wodak’s Discourse Historical Model (2004). Furthermore, research design used in this research is both descriptive and explanatory; and, it also contains purposive sampling as a data collection method. Although much CDA research has been already carried out on Trump’s speeches, the current research studies Trump’s speech in the context of history and power using Ruth Wodak’s Discourse Historical Model (2004). The researcher has focused lexical and syntactic items in Trump’s speech. Besides, the researcher has found out that power relations, historical norms, ideological constraints, and American values have played a significant role in the discursive construction of Trump’s Inaugural address (2017). Finally, the current research convincingly achieves its objectives and answers its questions.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Emery

Abstract This article investigates the affective politics of heritage, memory, place and regeneration in Mansfield, UK. Ravaged by workplace closures from the 1980s, Mansfield's local government and cultural partners have supposedly put heritage at the centre of urban regeneration policies. Principal are ambiguous, and forestalled, ambitions to mobilize the industrial past to build urban futures. Yet these heritages, and their attendant memories and histories, are emotionally evocative and highly contested. The affective politics are played out in the material, embodied and atmospheric remains of the industrial past as Mansfield struggles to make sense of its industrial legacies. Drawing on Critical Discourse Analysis, archival research, observant participation and interview data, this article critiques heritage-based regeneration; examines interrelations between local memory, class, place and history; and interprets tensions between competing imaginaries of what Mansfield is, was and should be. Contributing to work on memory and class in post-industrial towns, the article demonstrates that affect and place should be central to our considerations of heritage-based urban regeneration. In the case of Mansfield, an 'emotional regeneration' will be denied until a shared practice of remembering the affective ruptures of the past is enabled.


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