Terrorist Discourse: A Semiotic and Critical Discourse Analysis of ISIS Jihadi Videos

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Grasiella K. Harb* ◽  
Nadim Khoury
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
The Public ◽  
Communication Modes

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) videos have shown unprecedented professionalism in communicating fear and enlisting members to the organization. Unfortunately, counter-media campaigns failed to have a lasting defeat for the organization’s social and cognitive impact on the public. Accordingly, the present qualitative study aims to explore how the use of the multiple communication modes in ISIS videos makes the organization’s ideology appealing and intimidating. The study employs Kress and van Leeuwen’s social semiotic framework as well as Fairclough’s and van Dijk’s model of critical discourse analysis for analyzing one of ISIS videos that resulted in a global outrage. The findings are significant for understanding how the terrorists’ communication strategies are embedded in their professional media techniques. A deep understanding of the ISIS technique has an impact on creating successful counter-media campaigns that persuade the public to resist any new wave of terrorism.

scholarly journals Re-defining gender as a heinous crime: A case study from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

2020 ◽  
pp. 095792652097721
Author(s):  
Janaina Negreiros Persson
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Gender Ideology ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Public Hearing ◽  
Rhetorical Invention ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core

In this article, we explore how the discourses around gender are evolving at the core of Brazilian politics. Our focus lies on the discourses at the public hearing on the bill 3.492/19, which aimed at including “gender ideology” on the list of heinous crimes. We aim to identify the deputies’ linguistic representation of social actors as pertaining to in- and outgroups. In addition, the article analyzes through Critical Discourse Analysis how the terminology gender is represented in this particular hearing. The analysis shows how some of the conservative parliamentarians give a clearly negative meaning to the term gender, by labeling it “gender ideology” and additionally connecting it with heinous crimes. We propose that the re-signification of “gender ideology,” from rhetorical invention to heinous crime, is not only an attempt to undermine scientific gender studies but also a way for conservative deputies to gain more political power.

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.

scholarly journals How Public is Public Art? A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Racial Subtext of Public Monuments at Canada’s Pier 21

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136
Author(s):  
Patience Adamu ◽  
Deon Castello ◽  
Wendy Cukier
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Canadian Multiculturalism

AbstractMuch of the literature on public space focuses on physical inclusion and exclusion rather than social inclusion or exclusion. In this paper, the implications of this are considered in the context of two monuments, The Volunteers/Les Bénévoles, and The Emigrant, located outside the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These monuments, while perhaps designed to celebrate Canadian multiculturalism, can be read instead as signaling Canada’s enduring commitment to white supremacy, Eurocentricity and colonization, when viewed through the eyes of racialized immigrants. Thus the “public space” becomes exclusionary. In the context in which the monuments are situated, the racial subtext cannot be ignored. This article purports that images, text and placement, regardless of intention, have significant implications on public space and public demeanor.

“Producing Human Capital”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaran Shin ◽  
Liz Ging
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Adult Education ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Federally Funded ◽  
The Public ◽  
Workforce Innovation

Historical and legislative evolutions of education policy have repurposed federally funded adult education programs in the United States. The 2014 passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) has considerable repercussions for everyone involved in the field because it controls the funding, assessment, and structure of these programs. Using critical discourse analysis, this study examines the public law and a Program Memorandum from the federal government. It demonstrates how the language used in the documents characterizes Title II of WIOA (the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act), the goals of adult education, eligible adult learners, and the process by which programs are held accountable for federal funding. The findings show the ways in which Title II tactically legitimizes the U.S. government’s neoliberal capitalist desire within a democratic society: The idealistic language of opportunity acts as a camouflage for the further infiltration of market-oriented practices into the public sector.

“They cowardly attack US, so we nobly eliminate them…”

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-315
Author(s):  
Cristina Mayor-Goicoechea ◽  
Jesús Romero-Trillo
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Special Reference ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The People ◽  
Linguistic Strategies

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.

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.

The discursive representation of Islam and Muslims in the British tabloid press

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noureddine Miladi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The One ◽  
Tabloid Press ◽  
And Diffusion

This article employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a sample from British tabloid newspapers to unearth the representation of Islam and Muslims. It attempts to unpack the evolving discursive language and its impact on the reinvention and diffusion of negative stereotypes such as the ‘terrorism’ frame. With a specific focus the study considers the media’s systematic distortion of Islamic conceptions/religious terminologies such as ‘Islamist’, ‘Fatwa’, ‘Sharia’, ‘Jihad’, ‘Hijab’ and ‘Islamic State’, which are founded on what Edward Said calls the ‘ideology of difference’. Findings from this study show that such conceptions have not only lost their original significance as established in the mainstream Islamic literature, but have become on the one hand associated with the War on Terror and its ramifications and on the other have become exclusively signifying specific pejorative connotations. Fear and threat have become the meanings and frames firmly embedded in these Islamic terminologies. In the minds of the public this association is now taken for granted due to the prevailing values being recurrently circulated through the media, political speeches, ‘thinktanks’ literature and policy-making documents.

scholarly journals A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Ontario Government's Dissemination Of The FDK Program

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Willetts
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Citizenship ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Full Day Kindergarten ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Government ◽  
Full Day

This major research paper applies a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the Ontario government’s rationalization of full day kindergarten to the public and the underlying discursive representation of social citizenship that the government sets forth. A content analysis of nineteen textual documents identified twelve rationales for FDK. A social investment discourse was identified as the dominant discourse underlying these rationales, while a social justice discourse and a combination of both discourses was also present. A CDA of three textual documents indicated that the Ontario government employed nominalization, modality and interdiscursivity to perpetuate the social investment discursive representation of FDK. The prevalence of social investment discourse in the Ontario government’s rationalization of FDK holds important implications for advancing just and caring early childhood policy for all children and families.

scholarly journals APPROACHING TWITTER SOCIOLOGICALLY: A CASE STUDY OF THE PUBLIC HUMILIATION OF HIV-POSITIVE WOMEN

2015 ◽  
Vol 144 (144) ◽  
Author(s):  
ISMINI SIOULA-GEORGOULEA
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Online Discussion ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
The Public ◽  
Hiv Positive Women ◽  
Political Implications

<p><em>The present study examines the online discussion on Twitter regarding the stigmatization of HIV-positive women in Athens in May 2012. The method of critical discourse analysis is applied on the anti-sovereign discourses that were articulated on Twitter, while the incident was taking place. The virtual countersphere is analyzed with regards to its political implications, such as the reproduction of the unfree sovereign discourse and the mobilization towards political action.</em></p>

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