Using humor to disguise racism in television news: the case of the Roma

Author(s):  
Petre Breazu ◽  
David Machin

Abstract It has been argued that more research is needed on the role of humor in the expression of racism. One reason is that, in the ‘post racial’ society, overt racism has become publicly unacceptable and, therefore, tends to appear in more concealed forms. In this paper, as part of a larger project on media representations of the Roma, we look at the role of humor in a Romanian television news clip reporting on the financial rewards of begging. We draw on the critical scholarship in humor research and carry out a multimodal critical discourse analysis of a news report selected from a larger corpus. We argue that through humor a recontextualisation of the Roma’s situation takes place, transforming their actual situation of poverty and social marginalisation into a humorous account of cultural failure, incompetence, stupidity and calculated money grabbing. We show that humor is one way by which culture becomes represented as embodied by ethnic minorities.

Author(s):  
Julio Renato SÁEZ GALLARDO

El objetivo de este trabajo es proponer un Modelo holístico multimodal para una lectura crítica del racismo en la prensa escrita. Para ello, desde el Análisis Crítico del Discurso Multimodal (ACDM), usaremos como estrategia teórico-metodológica integradora las aportaciones de Teresa Velázquez (2011) y su modelo semiótico-discursivo; el modelo sociocognitivo de van Dijk (1990, 1997, 2003a, 2003b); el modelo de la semiótica visual de Kress y van Leeuwen (1996) y el modelo intersemiótico de Nikolajeva y Scott (2001). Se validarán las matrices de análisis aplicándolas al llamado conflicto mapuche en Chile para extraer resultados y conclusiones valederas en torno a la representación periodística de las minorías étnicas. Abstract: This work aims to propose a holistic multimodal approach for making critical reading about racism in the written press. In order to achieve this, and taking account the Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, we use as theoretical and methodological integrative strategies the contributions of Teresa Velázquez and her discursive-semiotic approach (2011), van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach (1990, 1997a, 2003a, 2003b), Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual semiotics approach (1996), and Nikolakeva and Scott’s intersemiotic approach (2001). The analysis matrices are validated using the so-called mapuche conflict in Chile in order to be able to draw conclusive results and conclusions about media representations of ethnic minorities.


Sexualities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 13-28
Author(s):  
Aminata Cécile Mbaye

This article examines media representations of same-sex sexuality in Senegal, and analyses how same-sex sexuality has been covered in a selection of Senegalese newspapers since the early 2000s. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s perspective on the role of mass media and ideology and the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis, this article describes how discourses produced by selected Senegalese newspapers generate and circulate ideological meanings. This article intends to underline the ways in which Senegalese media have come to fabricate a certain image of gay and lesbian people, often portrayed as deviant, mad or abnormal.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 10-38
Author(s):  
Phillip Joy ◽  
Matthew Numer ◽  
Sara F. L. Kirk ◽  
Megan Aston

The construction of masculinities is an important component of the bodies and lives of gay men. The role of gay culture on body standards, body dissatisfaction, and the health of gay men was explored using poststructuralism and queer theory within an arts-based framework. Nine gay men were recruited within the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Participants were asked to photograph their beliefs, values, and practices relating to their bodies and food. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, using the photographs as guides. Data were analyzed by critical discourse analysis and resulted in three overarching threads of discourse including: (1) Muscles: The Bigger the Better, (2) The Silence of Hegemonic Masculinity, and (3) Embracing a New Day. Participants believed that challenging hegemonic masculinity was a way to work through body image tension.


2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 392-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Donoghue

The work of Antonio Gramsci is important for the theoretical underpinnings of critical discourse analysis. However, many scholars’ engagement with Gramsci’s work within critical discourse analysis remains surprisingly thin. This article seeks to highlight the detriment to critical discourse analysis of having only a surface engagement with Gramsci. It critically assesses how Gramscian concepts such as hegemony and ‘common sense’ are currently employed within critical discourse analysis and provides more detailed discussion on the import of these concepts for critical discourse analysis. The article also argues that introducing the Gramscian concepts of the war of position and spontaneous and normative grammars enables the further realisation of critical discourse analysis’ ambition to be an emancipatory tool in political and social science. In so doing, the article contributes to work on critical discourse analysis as a method in political studies, particularly concerning the role of discourse in reproducing and maintaining asymmetrical power relations between classes and social groups, and potential challenges to this.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veera Kangaspunta

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.


JALABAHASA ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Herlianto A.

Penelitian ini menginvestigasi representasi feminisme pada lagu dangdut koplo Jawa. Tidak banyak yang mengkaji lagu dangdut koplo Jawa dari perspektif feminisme. Padahal, secara historis, Jawa memiliki agen-agen pergerakan untuk feminisme yang secara faktual seharusnya mempengaruhi kesusastraan dan kesenian Jawa. Ada lima lagu dalam bentuk transkrip sebagai data yang diperoleh dengan mentranskripsi lagu dangdut koplo Jawa dari YouTube. Data lalu dianalisis dengan menggunakan analisis wacana kritis van Dijk. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa lagu-lagu dangdut koplo Jawa merepresentasikan kesetaraan perempuan terhadap laki-laki. Peran perempuan diungkapkan tidak lagi sebagai second sex, yang sepenuhnya sebagai ibu rumah tangga, tetapi mereka memiliki kesempatan untuk memilih masa depan secara independen. Sementara itu, feminisme dinyatakan secara langsung dan tidak langsung di dalam lagu dengan menggunakan bahasa kiasan dalam bentuk metafora.This research investigated the representation of feminism in Javanese koplo dangdut song. These songs have got little attention in terms of feminism representation. Meanwhile, historically, Javanese society has factual agents of movement for feminism who should be influencing to the Javanese arts and literature.There arefive transcriptions of the songs as the data which collected by transcripting the songs from YouTube. The collected data were then analysed by applying van Dijk frame work of critical discourse analysis. The results show that most of the songs present gender equality between men and women. The role of women is not only presented as the second sex or as mainly a house wife, but they have opportunities to choose their own future life independently. This condition is suggested by using indirect language or using metaphoric expressions.


2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gisela Ruiseco ◽  
Thomas Slunecko

Following the discourse-historical approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (Wodak, de Cilia, Reisigl and Liebhart 1999; Wodak 2001), we analyze the inaugural speech of the actual president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, which he delivered on August 7th, 2002 in Bogotá. We take this speech as an illustration for the construction of national identity by the Colombian elites. In our analysis, we are particularly interested in Uribe’s strategy of referring to the European heritage and in his ways of appeasing the cultural and ethnic differences of the population.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hayes

The ‘academic orthodoxy’ (Brookfield 1986) of student engagement is questioned by Zepke, who suggests that it supports ‘a neoliberal ideology’ (2014: 698). In reply, Trowler argues that Zepke fails to explain the mechanisms linking neoliberalism to the concepts and practices of student engagement (2015: 336). In this article, I respond to the Zepke-Trowler debate with an analysis of student engagement policies that illuminates the role of discourse as one mechanism linking neoliberal values with practices of student engagement. Through a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis, I demonstrate a persistent and alarming omission of human labour from university policy texts. Instead, the engagements of students and staff are attributed to technology, documents and frameworks. Student engagement is discussed as a commodity to be embedded and marketed back to students in a way that yields an ‘exchange value’ (Marx 1867) for universities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Ying Tan

This study made explicit the discourses of 10 teachers working as university-based teacher educators in Singapore to understand their enacted identities. It framed identity as discursive, constructed through language and talk. Interview data were analyzed using descriptive discourse analysis tools, with critical discourse analysis influencing the process. The discourses are as follows: (a) The value of seconded teachers is located firmly within schools, with practice and practitioner elevated above theory and academics; (b) teaching is the core role of seconded teachers, and discourses about learning, development, and research are weak; and (c) an individualistic framing situates the locus of change on teacher-practitioners. Hybrid spaces that bring theory and practice together are discursive spaces. Both the strengths and limitations of existing discursive identities need to be acknowledged, and multifaceted and complex practitioner identities explored. This article contributes to the integration of practitioners into the wider community of teacher educators in the university.


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