The Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in Western Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Cultura ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Saman REZAEI ◽  
Kamyar KOBARI ◽  
Ali SALAMI
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Global Village ◽  
Online Newspapers ◽  
Terrorist Groups ◽  
Western Media

With the realization of the promised global village, media, particularly online newspapers, play a significant role in delivering news to the world. However, such means of news circulation can propagate different ideologies in line with the dominant power. This, coupled with the emergence of so-called Islamic terrorist groups, has turned the focus largely on Islam and Muslims. This study attempts to shed light on the image of Islam being portrayed in Western societies through a Critical Discourse Analysis approach. To this end, a number of headlines about Islam or Muslims have been randomly culled from three leading newspapers in Western print media namely The Guardian, The Independent and The New York Times (2015). This study utilizes “ideological square” notion of Van Dijk characterized by “positive presentation” of selves and “negative presentation” of others alongside his socio-cognitive approach. Moreover, this study will take the linguistic discourses introduced by Van Leeuwen regarding “representing social actors and social practices” into consideration. The findings can be employed to unravel the mystery behind the concept of “Islamophobia” in Western societies. Besides, it can reveal how specific lexical items, as well as grammatical structures are being employed by Western media to distort the notion of impartiality.

A corpus-based study of representation of Islam and Muslims in American media: Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852098744
Author(s):  
Ke Li ◽  
Qiang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
Strong Conclusion ◽  
American Media

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.

scholarly journals Ideological and Lexical Deviance of Western Media in Reflecting Socio-political Events of Pakistan

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Saadia Fatima ◽  
Muhammad Uzair
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
War On Terrorism ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Discourse Practices ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Global Issue ◽  
Discourse Practice ◽  
Western Media

The research in hand has the objectives to analyse how ideologies are expressed through discourse practices in Western media; how a discourse practice and a linguistic strategy in terms of lexical choices are employed in portraying ideologies in media about Pakistan. Grounded on the theoretical framework of Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach of critical discourse analysis and model of Ideology which is the most appropriate to study media discourse, the data will be analysed qualitatively. The method of the current research is critical discourse analysis. The research revolves around the Pakistani socio-political events in Western media from the perspective of a global issue that is a war on terrorism. The research has objectives to investigate what and how Western media has used lexical choices to depict a certain ideology about Pakistan to the world. 

scholarly journals Neo-Orientalist Framing of the 2011 and 2013 Egyptian Uprisings: A Case Study of The New York Times and The Washington Post

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamta Gelashvili
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Media Framing ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Washington Post ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
The Us

This thesis critically examines the US media framing of the Egyptian Uprisings in 2011 and 2013 to examine whether the coverage was relatively value-neutral or had a value-laden (Neo-Orientalist) perspective. The thesis aims to examine whether the Neo-Orientalist tendency among the Western societies to view religion as the key driving force behind political processesis manifest in the US media as well, or whether the two newspapers try to represent the abovementioned political and economic processes and grievances. To this end, the thesis looks at the articles published in The New York Times and The Washington Post during and after two major events: Mubarak‟s resignation in 2011 and Morsi‟s removal in 2013. A combination of quantitative (content analysis) and qualitative (critical discourse analysis) research demonstrates that news articles and editorials about the 2011 and 2013 uprisings include Neo-Orientalist frames. These articles consider liberal democracy as a universal normative model and contrast it with Islam, portrayed as a fundamentally different, homogeneous and antidemocratic phenomenon linked with instability and violence and singlehandedly influencing democratization process. Compared to 2011, Neo-Orientalist frames become more frequent in 2013; if in 2011, most units adhere to Fukuyama‟s view that Egypt would join the teleological march to liberal democracy, in 2013, the trend reverses and most units, like Huntington, exclude any possibility of democratization. The textual practices of naming, sourcing, presupposition, fore- and backgrounding, used to construct Neo-Orientalist frames, can be related to discursive practices, or the production of text, and larger social practices. As critical discourse analysis shows, the units show pro-Israeli bias and align with the US foreign policy priorities: both the general policy of liberal democracy promotion and the specific strategic interests in Egypt.

scholarly journals Representation(s) of Developed and Developing Countries in Newspapers’ Coverage of Climate Conferences: A Critical Discourse Analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Luu Thi Kim Nhung
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New York ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
The Developed Countries

This study critically analysed how developed and developing countries were represented in The Independent and The New York Times’ coverage of the Conferences of the Parties to the UNFCCC between 2004 and 2013. The method of analysis was a qualitative critical discourse analysis in accordance with Fairclough’s (1989) framework with the support of corpus techniques.The research findings showed that there were distinct responsibilities for climate change ascribed to the developed and the developing countries. While the developed countries were represented as being reluctant and indifferent towards their responsibility, the developing countries tended to depend on the developed countries’ support in solving their climate-related problems. During the study period, therefore, no consensus could be reached on a common framework for climate change. The linguistic features of lexical choice, passivisation, nominalisation, modality and metaphor were found ideologically employed in the newspapers’ representations of the countries. Additionally, the ideologies and their linguistic manifestations were influenced by the media’s discursive practices and the wider social context.

scholarly journals A Critical Discourse Analysis of Covid-19 in Iranian and American Newspapers

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-244
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
High Frequencies ◽  
News Agencies ◽  
One Year ◽  
Number Game ◽  
Do So

The policies and ideologies of countries are reflected in the propagated media of that country, and newspapers are no exception. Covid-19 has affected the lives of people all around the world. The present study investigated the ideological differences in reporting the news related to Covid-19 in light of Van Dijk’s ideological square framework. To do so, a representative sample of 56 news articles was chosen over a period of one year (from January 2020 to the end of January 2021) from one Iranian and one American newspaper, the Tehran Times and The New York Times. Overall, 2,977 clauses were analysed both qualitatively, to find out the reason of occurrence, and quantitatively, to determine the frequency of occurrence for each micro-strategy. Evidentiality, Hyperbole, Metaphor, National Self-Glorification, Negative Lexicalisation, and Number Game were the most frequent micro-strategies. Such high frequencies of the strategies can make for effective discursive apparatus to make readers believe what news articles claim is true. The most salient implication of this study would be raising readers’ and academics’ awareness of the need to view news articles critically to avoid negative ramifications of ideological propagandas. In the same vein, newspapers need to be cognizant of the micro-strategies they consciously or sub-consciously employ since certain micro-strategies can be used to manipulate readers’ minds and help news agencies to feed their readers certain ideological and political agendas. Keywords Covid-19; Critical Discourse Analysis; Ideological Micro-strategies; Newspapers; Van Dijk

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