The discursive construction of accountability for communicative action to citizens: A contrastive analysis across Israeli and British media discourse

This paper sets up to show how accountability for communicative action is constructed in online journalism as an object of talk, comparing British English and Israeli Hebrew discourse communities. The analysis utilizes a discourse-pragmatic frame of reference supplemented by cognitive semantics and corpus-assisted tools. The discussion draws on data collected from the websites of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph, Ha’aretz and Ynet. Focusing on self- and other-positioning of commenters and columnists as citizens, we explore how the accountability of the elite for communicative action and the accountability of their actions to citizens are discursively constructed by ordinary persons (in their role as commenters) and by non-ordinary persons (in their role as columnists, including journalists, experts and authors). The analysis indicates conceptual similarities coupled with discursive differences between the discourse communities under study.

THE IMAGE OF THE COLONIAL "OTHER": EAST TURKESTAN IN THE VIEWS OF THE BRITISH IN THE 1870s.

The article reveals the mechanisms of the East Turkestan’s image representation which represented in British press during Kashgaria’s expedition of sir D. Forsythe - an official of the Anglo-Indian administration and the political Adviser on Central Asian Affairs. The theme fits into the problems of the image of the colonial "Other". The process of its formation is shown through the investigation of the textual and visual components of the East Turkestan’s image which represented in British press during the period. It is the analysis of the novation and continuity of metropolitan citizens’ perception of their colonies that is in the focus of our attention in the first mass illustrated magazine “The Illustrated London News” and such conservative press as “The Daily Telegraph”, “The Morning Post”, “The Standard”, “The Manchester Courier”, “The Leeds Intelligencer”. It is the analysis of specific stylistic means that helps to construct the image of the colonial "Other" on the pages of the British press. The author analyzes the peculiarities of the Victorians ' perception of the political titulature of East Turkestan, local residents, their appearance and personal qualities, natural conditions, cities, settlements, and features of everyday life.

Use of science in British newspapers’ narratives of climate change

This paper investigates the use of science in British newspapers’ narratives of climate change between 1988 and 2016. It is based on the analysis of eight newspapers and their Sunday and online versions (Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Sun, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent). We used the keywords “climate / climatic change”, “warm / warming” and “greenhouse / greenhouse effect” to retrieve the articles from the Nexis / Lexis database. To identify the articles with a specific focus on climate change, we included only those containing the keywords in the headline (9789 items). Framing theory helps interpret the process of construction of the “threat” through science by showing a tendency towards scientific consensus for the centre / left-leaning newspapers, and an instrumental use of consensus for the centre-right. These findings are useful for both scientists and policymakers interested in understanding how climate narratives can promote delay in action on climate change.

RELIGIOUS METAPHORS IN NEWSPAPER SPORTS DISCOURSE: FUNCTIONAL ASPECT (ON THE MATERIAL OF BRITISH NEWSPAPERS)

The article is devoted to the functional aspect of religious metaphors in newspaper sports discourse. The material under analysis is English religious metaphors which are studied in quality and popular British newspapers (The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror). According to the traditional point of view, modern research of sports discourse is inseparable from the analysis of media texts, as media do not only cover sports events most effectively but also determine their assessment. Metaphors are considered to provide informative accuracy necessary for effective communication, they create images that affect the attitude of the reader to events covered by the media.

Parque interactivo de la cultura nariñense “La Mestiza”

El turismo en el Departamento de Nariño, ha mostrado durante los últimos años un significativo dinamismo en el incremento del número de visitantes y de las pequeñas empresas dedicadas a la promoción turística del Departamento. Favorecido por una serie de circunstancias de índole topográfica, climatológica, ancestral cultural y lugares Religiosos de Arquitectura variada y Fervor de Feligreses. El Santuario de las lajas es un templo y basílica católico, ubicado al sur de Colombia a 7 kms de la ciudad de Ipiales y 11 kms de la frontera con Ecuador, es denominado como el santuario más bello del mundo (Diario Británico The Daily Telegraph, 2015). recibe cada año alrededor de 750.000 peregrinos de la nación como de otros países del mundo, según cifras del Santuario. La presente investigación tiene como objetivo realizar un estudio que determine la factibilidad para la creación de un parque temático interactivo de la cultura nariñense en el corregimiento de las Lajas en el municipio de Ipiales, con el fin de incentivar el turismo de la región con un rescate cultural de la herencia que dejaron nuestros ancestros, permitiendo al turista tener una interacción con aspectos relevantes de la cultura a través de la danza, el teatro, la gastronomía, la riqueza paisajística, la religión, entre otros. Todas estas representaciones están desarrolladas en un sendero conformado por estaciones en las cuales el turista a través de simulaciones y de un recorrido vivencial tiene una experiencia de conocimiento y diversión alrededor de la cultura nariñense. Se resalta que es una investigación con paradigma cuantitativo, enfoque empírico analítico y de tipo descriptivo.

Adapting to the postmodern medical paradigm: how The Daily Telegraph used emotion and anecdote to legitimise vaccination

The postmodern medical paradigm is becoming increasingly relevant to vaccine communication. Government and health authorities pushing a pro-vaccine position often fall short in this climate due to a reliance unemotional and fact-based communication. The news media, however, often deviate from this norm by incorporating emotionality to legitimise vaccination. This article analyses how such emotionality manifests in pro-vaccination communication. Van Leeuwen’s typology of discursive legitimation strategies and Van Dijk’s ideological square were used to analyse The Daily Telegraph’ s No Jab No Pay(Play) campaign. The findings demonstrate a primary intention to polarise, as this may justify financial sanctions against vaccine-hesitant parents. However, several identified strategies could be effective at reducing hesitancy in a postmodern medical discourse if adapted under such an intention. Notably, in generating concern through parental and motherhood figures rather than expert authorities, naturalising safety through evaluations rather than counter-rationalisations, and communicating risk through stories that provoke immediate visceral reactions.

THE INTERPRETIVE POTENTIAL OF RELIGIOUS METAPHOR IN BREXIT REPRESENTATION

Введение. Исследуется метафорическая концептуализация Брексита в новостном дискурсе. Материал и методы. Материалом послужили новостные тексты британских интернет-изданий (The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph и британского интернет-портала BBC News), освещающих тему Брексита; методами исследования – дефиниционный анализ, компонентный анализ, метод сплошной выборки, метод интерпретационного и концептуального анализа, метод метафорической концептуализации. Результаты и обсуждение. Проведен анализ и осуществлена интерпретация метафорической репрезентации социально-политического явления Брексита через религиозные концепты. Религия пронизывала историю всех народов, все сферы человеческого бытия, проникая в сознание и подсознание людей. Значимость религии в современном обществе обусловливает интенцию авторов новостей задать необходимые ценностные ориентации для реципиента в имплицитной форме. Выявлена метафорическая субмодель BREXIT – RELIGIOUS BELIEF (БРЕКСИТ – РЕЛИГИОЗНОЕ УБЕЖДЕНИЕ), в терминах которой Брексит интерпретируется как религиозное убеждение, что значительно увеличивает его воздействующий потенциал. Один из результатов исследования – выявление в рамках религиозной модели субмодели BREXIT – CULT (БРЕКСИТ – КУЛЬТ), которая имеет негативную коннотацию, обозначая псевдорелигиозную организацию. Анализируется когнитивная метафорическая модель Брексита, в которой идеология Брексита как священной войны за возвращение национального суверенитета трансформируется в идеологию «зомбированного» тоталитарного культа как стремления к псевдоценностям. Выявлена метафорическая субмодель BREXIT – SECT (БРЕКСИТ – СЕКТА), посредством которой устанавливаются концептуальные связи между политикой Б. Джонсона в отношении Брексита и террористической организацией Аль-Каида, чьи приверженцы готовы умирать сами и убивать других за свою идеологию. Аргументируется реализация интерпретирующего потенциала религиозной концептуальной метафоры в формировании отрицательного образа Брексита в новостном дискурсе. Заключение. В рамках религиозной метафорической модели БРЕКСИТ – РЕЛИГИЯ выявлены субмодели БРЕКСИТ – РЕЛИГИОЗНОЕ УБЕЖДЕНИЕ, БРЕКСИТ – КУЛЬТ, БРЕКСИТ – СЕКТА. Интерпретирующий потенциал религиозной метафоры реализован. Introduction. The socio-political event of the UK’s exit from the European Union has attracted widespread attention in the mass media since 2016. The article focuses on the metaphorical conceptualization of Brexit in news discourse. Material and methods. The research is based on the news texts on Brexit from the British internet-editions such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and BBC News. The research methods used in the paper are the definitional analysis, componential analysis, complete enumeration method, interpretation analysis, content analysis, metaphorical conceptualization method. Results and discussion. The paper gives a detailed analysis and interpretation of Brexit metaphorical representation from a religious perspective. The religion has always played an essential role in the history of human society. It is considered not only to permeate all the spheres of human activity but also consciousness and subconsciousness. Therefore, journalists implicitly try to influence the values of recipients. The metaphorical submodel BREXIT – RELIGIOUS BELIEF revealed in the paper describes Brexit primarily as a religious belief to add more value for the British society. The metaphorical submodel BREXIT – RELIGIOUS BELIEF is transformed into the submodel BREXIT – CULT with a negative connotation as a pseudo-religious organization. The metaphorical submodel BREXIT – SECT considered in the paper has a destructive nature and it compares B. Johnson and his supporters with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda that is ready to murder and die for its ideology. Conclusion. Productive religious metaphorical submodels interpret Brexit as a negative process. The interpretive potential of conceptual religious metaphor is realized.

Representations of climate in the English-speaking press: building a metaphorical interdiscourse

La presse représente, par essence, un discours intertextuel composé de citations explicites, mais également de références plus implicites qui la placent dans un interdiscours complexe. En particulier, il est admis que les médias s’inspirent largement les uns des autres, créant entre différents articles, genres et publications des liens intertextuels et interdiscursifs qui sont susceptibles d’évoluer dans le temps. La présente étude se propose d’analyser ces liens et, plus particulièrement, ceux constitués par les métaphores appliquées au domaine du climat telles qu’elles sont employées dans la presse généraliste anglophone. La métaphore, qu’elle soit pédagogique ou constitutive d’une théorie, est ici définie comme une projection d’un domaine vers un autre créant une analogie qui permet de mieux comprendre le domaine spécialisé concerné. Le phénomène qui nous intéresse ici est celui de la circulation des métaphores entre presse et discours spécialisé et, au sein du discours de presse, entre journaux, aires géographiques et périodes de temps. Afin de comprendre ce phénomène, un corpus d’articles de presse portant sur le changement climatique publiés dans le Daily Telegraph, le Guardian, le New York Times et USA Today entre 2014 et 2017 a été constitué. Celui-ci est comparé à un corpus de Earth Negotiation Bulletins, rapports issus de la COP21 en 2015. Les métaphores liées au domaine du climat ont été identifiées et analysées notamment à l’aide du logiciel WMatrix et de son outil d’identification des domaines sémantiques. Il apparaît ainsi que les journaux s’inspirent des textes spécialisés, mais n’abordent pas nécessairement les métaphores de la même manière. La période, l’aire géographique et la ligne éditoriale des journaux influencent également l’usage des métaphores.

The ‘bad’ and exceptionally ‘good’: constructing the African refugee

An increase in refugees entering Australia from Africa, particularly Sudan, in recent times has inspired debate about the implications associated with immigration. Combining insights from the fields of discourse theory and metaphor analysis, this work explores the construction of the African refugee as presented in the Australian tabloid news media newspapers the Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph. Special attention is dedicated to how the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ African refugees have been constructed. While the constitution of the ‘good’ refugee appears to be a positive development, it is argued that the way in which this has been done does more harm than good as it reinforces the idea that it is unusual for African refugees to be non-violent and successful.

‘Queen of Scots’: The monarch’s body and national identities in the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum

On 20 September 2014, in the wake of the Scottish Independence Referendum, the pro-union, right-wing British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph’ s front page was dominated by a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II in the grounds of her Balmoral Estate in the Scottish Highlands, under the headline ‘Queen’s pledge to help reunite the Kingdom’. This article takes the headline as a departure point through which to explore competing discourses of national identity during the Independence Referendum. Understanding the Queen’s body as a site of symbolic struggle over these discourses, this article undertakes visual analysis to unpack the composition of the photograph, in order to understand its social, historical, political and cultural meanings. In so doing, it argues that the use of ‘Queen of Scots’ in The Daily Telegraph at the specific conjunctural moment of the Scottish Independence Referendum reveals the complex intersections between monarchy, power, (geo)politics, symbolism, sovereignty, national identity/identities and landscape in the United Kingdom.