Constructing undesirables: A critical discourse analysis of othering of Fulani nomads in the Ghanaian news media

2021 ◽  
pp. 175048132098209
Author(s):  
Mark Nartey ◽  
Hans J Ladegaard
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Content Organization

The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/Fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security.

Marginality and otherness: the discursive construction of LGBT issues/people in the Ghanaian news media

2021 ◽  
pp. 016344372110455
Author(s):  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Reports ◽  
Lgbt Issues ◽  
Lgbt People

In recent years, LGBT issues have received substantial media attention and engendered heated public debate in Ghana. This paper analyzes the prejudiced construction of LGBT issues in the Ghanaian news media and how this contributes to a discriminatory discourse that demeans LGBT people and puts them at the periphery of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and a dataset of 385 articles, comprising news reports, op-ed pieces, and editorials. The analysis reveals that news content on LGBT issues is biased and inflammatory, and it frames LGBT people as expendables and undesirables. This is realized by exploiting three discourses, or forms of othering, that culminate into the (re)production and naturalization of moral panic: a discourse of amorality/immorality and societal destruction, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of medicalization or pathologization. The paper concludes with a call for a more balanced and ethically/socially responsible news reporting, especially since LGBT issues in Ghana hold implications for national cohesion and security.

scholarly journals Julkinen kaivoskeskustelu diskursiivisena välienselvittelynä

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veera Kangaspunta
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Online News ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Unique Part

The aim of this article is to approach one specific environmental topic and the public debate around this topic from a user-oriented perspective – through online news comments. The article analyses online news and comments sections from three Finnish online newspapers concerning the mining accident of Talvivaara company in November 2012. Discourse and discursive legitimation strategies are used as analytical tools with the focus of critical discourse analysis. The study aims to solve what kind of discourses the public debate contains and how these discourses are connected to certain legitimation strategies. In addition, the article also continues the conceptual deliberation about the concept of the public as a group of people participating in public discussion. The study shows that Talvivaara news and news comments consist four main strategies, authorization, rationalization, moral evaluations and mythopoiesis, used for legitimation, relegitimation and delegitimation. However, the parties differ in the way they utilize these strategies and different discourses. Consequently, online news commenting appears as a unique part of the public debate about the topic, rather than remaining marginal flaming. The users tend to absorb the role of the public as a part of the public showdown about the shared issue.

Fighting the virus, “hunting the witches” – moralizing in public discourses during the coronavirus pandemic in Croatia

Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Krešimir Žažar
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moral Communication ◽  
Moral Discourses

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to discuss particular features of the public debate around the COVID-19 pandemic and its mitigation strategies in Croatian media from the beginning of 2020 to mid-September of the same year. Design/methodology/approach The discussion is theoretically grounded on Luhmann’s concept of moral communication combined with the key assumption of critical discourse analysis that language reflects a position of power of social actors. Based on these premises, the analysis of a sample of articles in a chosen online media was conducted to uncover the moral codes in the public debate concerning the corona outbreak and connect them with specific moral discourses of particular social actors. Findings The findings clearly indicate that the communication about the pandemic is considerably imbued with moralization and that moral coding is profoundly used to generate preferred types of behaviour of citizens and their compliance with the imposed epidemiologic measures. In conclusion, Luhmann’s claim of moralization as a contentious form of communication is confirmed as the examined public discussion fosters confrontations and generates disruptions rather than contributing to a productive dialogue among diverse social actors. Originality/value The novelty of the approach lies in the combination of Luhman’s conceiving of moral communication with critical discourse analysis that, taken together, entails a pertinent research tool for analysing relevant attributes of the ongoing vibrant debate on the coronavirus outbreak.

The People or the Police: Who to Blame? A Study Investigating Linguistic and Textual Devices Journalists Use in Framing News Stories

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (12) ◽  
pp. 2245
Author(s):  
Hamza Ethelb
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The People ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Al Arabiya ◽  
News Event

One news event may be represented differently by different news organizations. Research in news representation remains sparse in Arabic. This article investigates some of the linguistic and textual devices used in journalistic texts. It looks at the way these devices are used to influence public opinion. This gives rise to significance of conducting this research. This study uses these devices within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). For the purpose of this study, four news articles produced by Aljazeera and Al-Arabiya were examined under CDA in order to show how journalists structure their news stories to imply an ideological stance. The analysis showed that Aljazeera and Al-Arabiya represented the people and the police differently, each according to their ideological and political leanings. This resulted in the public having different opinions of the event.

Australian Media Messages: Critical Discourse Analysis of Two Intimate Homicides Involving Domestic Violence

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Easteal ◽  
Kate Holland ◽  
Michelle Dunne Breen ◽  
Cathy Vaughan ◽  
Georgina Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Media Messages

This study uses critical discourse analysis to examine news reporting of two cases of intimate partner violence in Australia. The fine-grained analysis of newswriting and news-editing practices focuses particularly on the lexical features and referential strategies used to represent the perpetrator and the victim, the crime, and the location of the crime. Findings show that reporting often omits social context, sensationalizes, and acts to shift blame in ways that do not increase public understanding of the nature of domestic violence. These results build on international findings and add to the evidence base about media reporting of violence against women.

scholarly journals Exploring interpersonal meanings on the discourse of the Indonesian national anthem from the CDA perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 360-380
Author(s):  
Ribut Surjowati
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
Emotional Intimacy ◽  
National Anthem ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Micro Analysis

This research is aimed at describing how the composer of Indonesia Raya (IR) construed and negotiated interpersonal meanings which represent his ideology to the Indonesians. The data in this qualitative study was the text of IR which is ideologically contested. The study analyzed the lexicogrammar properties dealing with words and structures and production processes. The data were collected by the researcher as the research instrument by using a documentation technique. The procedures of data analysis were conducted following the stages of Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis framework (1989), including micro analysis concerning lexical features in the text, meso analysis concerning the process production and interpretation of the text, and macro analysis concerning ideological effects and hegemonic processes in which discourse participates. The attitude system of appraisal was analyzed based on that proposed by Martin and White (2005), and Martin and Rose (2003). The results showed that from the affect viewpoint, the IR composer is seen as an educated young man who witnessed people suffer and did not only express his feeling of joy with the coming independence of Indonesia and the gratefulness, but also the insecurity and anxiety with the possibility of other forms of colonialism. Meanwhile, from the appreciation viewpoint, Indonesia is described as a noble, heredity, sacred, and magical land. Not only is it an expression of his admiration and love, but also it is a warning to maintain his emotional intimacy with the nation. The judgment subcategory illustrated that the Indonesians were mostly emotionally weak. The composer encouraged the Indonesian people to unite for a greater Indonesia.   

scholarly journals The problematization of asylum seekers a critical discourse analysis of Canadian national news media coverage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Yu Vanti
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The U.S

Using the methodology of critical discourse analysis, this research project analysed 70 news media articles from the Globe and Mail and the National Post on the topic of asylum seekers who crossed into Canada from the U.S. between ports of entry in 2017 and 2018. Analysis revealed that asylum seekers were largely depicted, portrayed, and framed in problematizing ways, leading to their dehumanization and a decontextualization of the larger issues. Keywords: Asylum seekers; refugees; news media coverage; critical discourse analysis

scholarly journals The problematization of asylum seekers a critical discourse analysis of Canadian national news media coverage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Yu Vanti
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The U.S

Using the methodology of critical discourse analysis, this research project analysed 70 news media articles from the Globe and Mail and the National Post on the topic of asylum seekers who crossed into Canada from the U.S. between ports of entry in 2017 and 2018. Analysis revealed that asylum seekers were largely depicted, portrayed, and framed in problematizing ways, leading to their dehumanization and a decontextualization of the larger issues. Keywords: Asylum seekers; refugees; news media coverage; critical discourse analysis

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