Language in the news: investigating representations of ‘Englishness’ using WordSmith Tools

Corpora ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Ensslin ◽  
Sally Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Approach ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Linguistic Anthropology ◽  
The Media ◽  
Systematic Understanding ◽  
The Times ◽  
The One ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
And Linguistics

It is not uncommon to hear linguists lamenting the misrepresentation of language whenever linguistic subjects are taken up by the media. Ironically, though, we have relatively little systematic understanding of the ways in which language is actually dealt with in, and by, those media. This paper describes a project that aimed to explore the ways in which themes relating to language and linguistics are represented in a corpus of articles gathered from two British newspapers, The Times and The Guardian. The software programme WordSmith Tools (Scott, 2004) was used to identify those ‘key’ keywords that were most likely to occur in conjunction with the node terms language, languages, linguistic and linguistics. The applied methodology, which combines a quantitative analysis of keyword lists, concordances and collocations with a qualitative, discourse-analytical approach, reveals a number of ways in which issues related to the English language are debated in this particular sector of the print media. As could be expected, statistically-derived linguistic data suggest that English is predominantly represented in terms of a monolithic standard. Deeper insight was given by a close collocational analysis, which demonstrated that representations of the English language further subdivide into six partially conflicting categories relating to abuse and victimisation (inferiority presupposition), and, to a considerably larger extent, to commodification, empowerment and fetishisation (superiority presupposition). The findings are explored in the context of recent debates within sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology on the representation of language, on the one hand, and the construction of language ideologies, on the other.

scholarly journals Embedding Anglocentric Perceptions of the World: The Falklands-Malvinas Binomial in the News

2011 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto A. Valdeón
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Spanish Version ◽  
English Edition ◽  
Internet News ◽  
News Service ◽  
News Events ◽  
Global Language ◽  
The Times ◽  
The One ◽  
The Guardian

This paper aims to examine the clash between languages and cultures as identified in the treatment of news events, with particular reference to the Falklands, or Malvinas in their Spanish denomination, in British and Spanish Internet news portals. English, as a global language, and Spanish, as its main European rival, exemplify a conflict between two languages and cultures that attempt to achieve or maintain world dominance, a battle that has been taken to the Internet arena in recent years. Thus,El Paísnewspaper launched an English version for their Internet readers whereas the BBC produced a Spanish version of its English news service.The conflict between the two languages is decisive when reporting on highly sensitive areas in each culture, such as the issue of Gibraltar’s sovereignty or the news events originating in or around the Falkland Islands. The paper pays particular attention to the latter and the way in which translation is embedded within or is part of the conflict itself. For that purpose, the paper surveys the reports posted in the Spanish news web sitesAbc,El País,andEl Mundo, on the one hand, and the English portals ofThe Guardian,The Times,Daily Telegraph,The Independentand the BBC on the other. The results will be compared with the translated news in the English edition ofEl Paísand in the Spanish version of the BBC (BBCMundo) respectively to determine the position of the two media with regards to this issue.

scholarly journals Trying and Failing and Trying again: Work in the Media

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-70
Author(s):  
Rosamma Thomas
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Personal Account ◽  
Career Trajectory ◽  
Growth Prospects ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Times

This paper is an historical auto-ethnographic account by a middle aged journalist who has worked in the English language media in India for about 20 years. English language media staff is among the best paid in the country. Even so, work conditions are far from ideal, and the pandemic this year has rendered several journalists jobless. This is a personal account of one career trajectory that spans book publishing, work on national radio, newspapers and a news agency. Growth prospects are curtailed for women in the news media; one boss at the Times of India¸ India’s largest English daily, told the author that her “body language” betrayed a lack of interest in work.  

scholarly journals Mediatization of Georgian-Indian relations at the current stage

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-311
Author(s):  
Valentin V. Matvienko ◽  
Danara B. Kurmanova
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
News Agency ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
The Media ◽  
Indian Relations ◽  
The Times ◽  
Cultural Reality

The article analyzes a particular case of the mediatization of modern socio-cultural reality through the informational and communication technologies, using the example of modern Georgian-Indian relations. The authors conducted a content analysis of two leading publications in India and Georgia: the English-language newspaper “The Times of India” and the Russian-language news agency “Sputnik Georgia”, during which had studied 30 materials from the Indian media and 43 articles from the Georgian news agency published over the period January, 2013 - February, 2019. The authors concluded that the mediatization of political and economic processes in bilateral relations had required close interaction between government and the media, since a lack of information led to a distorted perception of media communications.

scholarly journals View of Polish and Russian Media on Euro 2012: Comparing and Contrasting

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 169-182
Author(s):  
L. A. Tsyganova ◽  
L. Bieszke
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Young Generation ◽  
Football Fans ◽  
Youth Subcultures ◽  
The Media ◽  
Run Up ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The One ◽  
The Guardian

Considering the role of the media in modern society, we need to understand that public opinion about football fans in general is formed out of the information transmitted by the media. The objective of the study is to analyze the different views and aspects of the Euro 2012: its influence on countries development; its profitability but also the behavior of fans – their cooperation and rivalry. However, contemporary scholarship on sports sociology and football fandom subcultures does not recognize class impact on the near-football movement. European Football Championship 2012 showed problems of development and regulation of football fanaticism. It is essential to see how events on Euro 2012 in Poland, collision and confrontation Polish and Russian fans were reflected in Russian, Polish and UK press “Sport-Express”, “Soviet Sport”, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Gazeta Polska”, “The Independent” and “The Guardian”. Football fans’, organization, and culture require precise studies, not only for understanding of current situation, but, perhaps, also for the development of an adequate strategy of interaction with them in the run-up to the World Cup in 2018. It is also necessary to identify not only the relationship of this movement to the different sectors of society, but also a subculture itself and its image in public opinion shaped by the media. In the era of globalization, understanding of youth subcultures is complicated and leads to a paradox. At the moment, there is a modification of the fan movement. On the one hand, we see the transition from bullying to the cultural «fanatism»; on the other hand, the question arises, if the bullies were an integral part of this culture, do we talk about the death or rebirth of culture? Youth subcultures in the era of postmodernism and globalization are transformed, into the phenomenon of «postsubculture», and may enhance the destructive tendencies in the spiritual life of the young generation, increasing the level of nihilistic attitudes. It should also be noted that the movement of football fans is becoming mainstream. There has been an increase in the popularity of fandom in society. This is due to the attention to this phenomenon in the media, in the cinema and fiction. 

scholarly journals Ketika Demokrasi Menjadi Ancaman?: Kasus Jerinx dan Refleksi Kritis Bagi Pelaksanaan Demokrasi di Indonesia

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-107
Author(s):  
Fatih Abdulbari
Keyword(s):  
Hate Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Electronic Transactions ◽  
The Media ◽  
Fundamental Value ◽  
The Times ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right

The most important and fundamental value in democracy is freedom of expression. This freedom is considered a part of human rights and is the most important feature of democracy. In the times, on the one hand, the media to speak out is increasingly numerous and varied, but on the other hand there is a dilemma where this freedom is actually used to sow and spread false information or conspiracy theories without evidence. In addition, the concept of freedom of opinion has not developed much following the latest developments, so this concept is increasingly abstract because there are no clear boundaries for freedom of expression. In Indonesia, the emergence of the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE) is actually used as a threat to criminalize individuals whose opinions are considered to be disturbing and attack others.  The Jerinx case is a very interesting case study of how freedom of opinion has actually created a counterfactual narrative. He was convicted in 2020 for making hate speech on his social media accounts. The ITE Law which allows arrests for expressing opinions is problematic because it clearly contradicts the main principle of democracy, namely freedom of expression. This research will critically examine the Jerinx case from the perspective of democratic values to see and analyze how the right to speak and have an opinion in Indonesia. The extent to which freedom of opinion is actually facilitated is considered not to violate the rights of others, and the extent to which the democratic climate has a place in Indonesia.

‘Double deficit’ and exclusion: Mediated language ideologies and international students’ multilingualism

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnes Bodis
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
International Students ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Media Representation ◽  
Current Affairs ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Double Deficit

AbstractInternational students studying at Australian universities are largely represented in the media as problematic speakers of English, in part due to the dominance of the monolingual mindset as an approach to language. This paper focuses instead on international students’ multilingualism and examines the multimodal media representation of them as multilingual speakers. This study presents a thematic language ideological analysis of an episode of an Australian current affairs television program, Four Corners, and social media discussion of the episode and explores the way language ideologies work in the context. It shows that multilingual practices and speakers are stigmatized through the textual and multimodal representation of languages other than English (LOTE). Findings show that the multilingualism of international students and competencies available through LOTE are largely rendered invisible and students are constructed through a ‘double deficit’ view. They are thus not seen as multilingual speakers but deficient English speakers and this deficiency indexes other deficits. Where LOTE becomes visible, it is represented as a problem. The results also show that the social media discussions further amplify the language ideologies of the episode. The implications are considered for media representation and for universities to shift the focus to English language as a medium of instruction only and end ‘language blindness’ for improved social inclusion.

scholarly journals THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE TRANSLATION OF THE ENGLISH PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN BRITISH MASS-MEDIA'S RESOURCES

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ілля Voitsikhovskyi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
English Translation ◽  
English Language ◽  
Daily Mail ◽  
Full Disclosure ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Times ◽  
The Guardian

The subject of study is the analysis of English translation, that are used in mass media, into Ukrainian language. It is found that the phraseology is a specific polyhedral science that requires different and multilateral approaches in order to full disclosure of the considered topic. An attempt is made to investigate the peculiarities of the translation of phraseological compounds in the English-language press, based on the well-known British media sources: "The Guardian", "The Times", "Daily Mail", "Daily Express". In the master's study, the role of phraseological units, used in English-language newspapers, is analyzed, and their meanings are clarified, the functions, performed by them, are revealed. The investigation upon the problem of the analysis all the difficulties with the translation idioms from English to Ukrainian reveals that this problem does not lose its actuality nowadays. The purpose of the study is to diagnose and characterize the peculiarities of the translation into Ukrainian of phraseological units that are inherited to the modern English language and are used in British media resources.

scholarly journals Image Actualization of the First Lady Within the Framework of Image Stereotyping of the President in the Media (Exemplified by the 43rd and 45th US Presidents and Their Wives)

2021 ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Bogdan Gasanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Personal Lives ◽  
The Media ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Guardian

This article aims to reveal the specifics of the actualization of the family image within the framework of image stereotyping of a politician in mass media. For several decades, mass media discourse has been paying special attention to the personal lives of political leaders and opinion leaders, satisfying the needs of readers eager to learn what they are like in everyday life and personal relationships. This study provides a definition of the concept of a politician’s communicative behaviour, shaping his speech portrait, which is to a large extent formed through the media. The speech portrait is made up of the politician’s rhetoric (either conservative or liberal) implemented in public speeches. At the same time, a politician’s image often depends on mass media, more precisely, on their attitude towards him/her, the narration about the politician’s family playing an important role in this. The empirical material of this study includes newspaper articles of the English-language periodicals The Guardian and Politico from 2009–2020, writing about the presidents Donald Trump and George W. Bush and their family members. These periodicals are of interest due to their political orientation, within the framework of which the images of these politicians and their family members are shaped. Turning to comparative analysis, the author identified the relationship between a politician’s image and the representation of his family members in the press. In addition, discourse analysis was used, logically supplemented with linguoculturological and sociopragmalinguistic modelling of communicative interaction. The research found that mass media discourse presents the politicians’ family life through the representation of their wives, often with gender stereotyping. Moreover, there is a clear process of delimiting the spouses in newspaper discourse, i.e. the image of a politician does not always affect the image of his wife, which means that they are viewed independently from each other.

scholarly journals KING'S ENGLISH AND THE ARISTOCRATIC CODE OF COMMUNICATION IN MODERN BRITAIN

2014 ◽  
pp. 246-251
Author(s):  
T. A. Ivushkina
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
English Language ◽  
Demarcation Line ◽  
Classical Education ◽  
Modern Britain ◽  
The Press ◽  
Abstract Nouns ◽  
The Media ◽  
The One ◽  
Professional Writers

All inaccuracies and distortions of the language use in modern British media, revealed by Simon Heffer in his book «Strictly English», enable the author of the article to draw a distinct demarcation line between King's English, the English of the press, on the one hand, and the English of the upper classes of Great Britain, on the other. The errors in the press, such as confusion of words similar in a sound form or spelling, the use of foreign words in the wrong meanings, distortions of names, etc. testify to the deterioration of education at some universities of Great Britain. They also point to the lack of a classical education based on the study of foreign languages, Greek and Latin, in the first place, which facilitates learning foreign words and mastering complicated grammar structures and subtleties of modality in the English language. The language of the press is clearly opposed to the language of the upper classes by methods of communication. If the former is characterized by direct and straightforward ways of communication, the latter manifests indirect and hidden ways of interaction. Cultivated by the upper classes and the aristocracy, this code is based on the categories of words which originate ambiguity in speech or texts and raise the eternal question «What is meant by this or that? ». In journalism these categories of words are labeled as «killers» of meaning. They include foreign words which considerably obscure understanding, abstract nouns that serve to create distance and insincerity in communication, adjectives which very often veil the real state of things, serve as a means of linguistic manipulation, especially when used to describe emotions, opinions and feelings. Here, also, belong euphemism and metaphorical meanings of nouns and verbs. The author concludes that, despite stringent prohibition for journalists to use these categories of words in the media, journalists and professional writers would only benefit if they were aware of them as well as of social connotations of words marked as U - non-U words in the book «Noblesse Oblige» by Alan Ross, Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford. Heffer's book allows to clearly see the demarcation line between the English of the media and the English of the upper classes of Great Britain based on play upon words and various implications to express individuality and sense of humour, intellect and social exclusiveness.

From Burhan Wani to Abhi Nandan: A Comparative Analysis of India and Pakistan’s Newspaper coverage of Kashmir Conflict

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajmal Khan ◽  
Azmat Khan
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Conflict Model ◽  
The Media ◽  
Capture And Release ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Peace Journalism ◽  
The Times

This paper compares the coverage of Kashmir Conflict in four English language dailies: two from Pakistan; DAWN and The Nation, and two from India; ‘The HINDU’ and ‘Times of India’ by employing Galtung’s Model of Peace Journalism (Galtung, 1986; 1998) and Lynch & McGoldrick’s (2005) Two-Sided Conflict Model. The study pursues two research questions; is the coverage of these newspaper war or peace- oriented, and do they report Kashmir Conflict through Two-Party (Pak-India) or Multi- Party lenses. For data sources, seven major recent events; Burhan Wani’s killing (2016), Uri Attack, Indian Surgical Strikes, Pulwama Attack, Balakot Airstrike, and Abhi Nandan’s Capture and Release (2019) were chosen. A total of 56 stories, one lead story and one editorial from each newspaper about every event, were collected. Each story was evaluated according to Galtung’s 19 indicators; nine War, nine Peace and one Neutral, and accordingly categorized. The analysis revealed that DAWN had the highest (46.15%) peace-oriented coverage while The HINDU was second with only 23% peace content. In the war category, The Nation scored the highest (100%) while the Times of India was found second (92.85%). No story could qualify for the neutral category. Overall, the coverage of these newspapers was found grossly (81.13%) war- oriented. Moreover, in the coverage of the Kashmir Conflict, the media succumb to the Two-Sided Model, projecting Pakistani and Indian states as the only legitimate parties while Kashmiris are portrayed as mere passive victims. These newspapers also focus only on visible effects and heavily rely on elite positions. The purpose of this study was to examine how much Peace Journalism–being reasonably advocated throughout the last decade in the Subcontinent–has changed the attitude of our media towards peace reporting.

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