representation of islam and muslims in us news media

8/19/2019 REPRESENTATION OF ISLAM AND MUSLIMS IN US NEWS MEDIA

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Representation of Islam andMuslims in U.S Media Coverage

of Charlie Hebdo attack:A Critical iscourse Anal!sis

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Problem statement

Research purposes

Research questions

I%/RA%UR/ R/0I/1

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Fairclough’s method of CDA

Van eeu!en ("##$)’s sociosemantic in%entory

R/S/ARCH M/%H, S A$ M/%H, , ,

&e!s sources

'ethods of data analysis

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ntroduction


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Statement of problem

ome *+ ne!s co%erage of the Charlie ,ebdo attac- co%erage has been critici.ed/stereotyping by lin-ing the act of the perpetrators as slamic terrorist attac- andlin-ing terrorism and %iolence to 'uslims and the faith of slam+

0he representation of slam and 'uslims after the #1"" incidents in the media mightnot be 2ust an action of reporting facts but the manipulation of the language tocon%ey particular ideologies+

anguage functions as a %ehicle for the media to construct their preferredrepresentation of slam and 'uslims3 it is through language that this presuppositionof reality by media can be detected (Richardson4 566$)+

An analysis of language can gi%e detailed account of the mechanisms through !hichthe media mediate sociocultural changes (imposition of certain ideology) discreetly+


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Research purpose

0o e7amine ho! slam and 'uslims arerepresented by t!o *+ 'edia (,u8ngton Postand Fo7 &e!s) through the use of languageduring the reporting of Charlie ,ebdo attac-+


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Research questionsResearch 4uestion 5usti6cation Method

"+ 9hat are the mainthemes pro2ected by,u8ngton Post and Fo7&e!s to represent slamand 'uslims follo!ing theCharlie ,ebdo attac-:

0o e7amine if slam and 'uslims are representednegati%ely through the construction of dominant

themes in the ne!s articles inguisticanaeon5+ 9hat are the linguisticstructures and discursi%e

strategies used to createand promote thisrepresentation:

0o in%estigate !hether the di;erent media usedi;erent or similar linguistic tools and discursi%estrategies to construct the representation of

slam and 'uslims in their ne!s reports+


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Research 4uestion 5usti6cation Method=+ Does the representationof slam and 'uslimsconstructed in both ne!s

media re%eal a polari.eddiscourse: 9hat does theconstruction of !e/theydichotomy re%eal about themedia’s attitude to!ards

slam and 'uslims:

• 0o discuss if the construction ofthe representation of slam and'uslims in the ne!s reports

meant to simultaneouslyattach positi%e %ie! to!ardsother social actors and if bothmedia in%ol%e similar othersocial actors in constructingthe polari.ed discourse+

• 0o discuss !hether theconstruction of the polari.ed

discourse re>ect a blame onthe entire religion !hich leadsto negati%e stereotypes about

slam and 'uslims+

'a-ing social sethe ?ndings indata analysis c

by connectinge7isting theoredisco%eries+


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iterature re%ie!


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Critical iscourse Anal!sis 7C A8

Discourse is socially constituti%e as !ell as socially constituted+

Discursi%e practices can help produce and reproduce unequal po!er relations bet!een social classes4gender4 and ethnics through the !ays in !hich they represent things and position people (Fairclough @9oda-4 "## )+

describe the reality (production of reality)

construe it to be a certain !ay (reproduction of social reality)

de%eloping understanding of ho! language !or-s in constituting and con%eying -no!ledge during theorgani.ation of social institutions or e7ercise of po!er

re%eal the structures of po!er and un%eil ideologies

Discourse as social practice

constitutes situations, objects of knowledge,and the social identities of and relationships

between people and groups of people.

i) helps to reproduce the social status quoii) contributes to transforming it

'eta/functions of language use

Aim of CDA


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9airclough s method of C A• Po!er can manifest in terms of the control of actionB po!er can be e7ercised

by controlling the discourse and its properties• deology in discourse can be traced !hen actions or actors are illustrated as

e7tra or less positi%ely or negati%ely

ocialpractic

e• production4 dissemination and consumption of te7ts3 ho! te7ts are

created4 recei%ed and interpreted (Fairclough4 566")+• the !ay discourse producers dra! on e7isting discourses and genres to

produce a te7t and ho! consumers of te7ts also dra! on a%ailablediscourses and genres in the consumption and interpretation of the te7tE( ogensen4 5665 as cited in Richardson4 566$4 p+ G)+

• 0e7ts must be understood in relation to other te7t3 2usti?ed the concept ofinterte7tuality+

Discourse

practice

• 0e7ts are representations or reconte7tualisations of socialpractices !hich could be ideological (Ang4 56"6)+

• 0he e7amination of te7t in%ol%es linguistic analysis+ 0e7t


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0an eeu-en 7';;


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Categor! /=planationFunctionali.ation1 denti?cation

• Functionali.ationB ocial actors are referred to their action4occupation or role

• denti?cationB ocial actors are represented by !ho theyare4 instead of !hat they do+

inguistic de%iceB• Functionali.ationB A noun formed from a %erb !ith the

addition of su87es4 a noun formed from another noun !iththe addition of su87es4 compounding of nouns denotingplaces or tools closely associated !ith an acti%ity

• denti?cationB &ouns

Personali.ation1 mpersonali.ation

• Personali.ationB ocial actors are represented as humanbeings

• mpersonali.ationB ocial actors are reali.ed by non/humanelement


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Research methods and methodology


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&e!s sources

Jnline ne!s reports

,u8ngton Post and Fo7 &e!s

,u8ngton Post and Fo7 &e!s are listed as among the ten most popular and ha%e mostnumber of unique monthly %isitors as of April 56"G (K0op "G most popular ne!s!ebsites4K 56"G)+

From th anuary 56"G !hich mar-s the day of the attac- until t!o !ee-s after the -illingof the suspects+

Lenre ofne!sB

&e!ssourcesB

0ime/frame for the collection of thene!s reports B

usti?cation for thechoiceB


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Methods of data anal!sis

Focuses on the use of discursi%e strategies and linguistic toolsIorro!ing Van eeu!en ("##$)’s ocio/semantic n%entory of Representation ofocial Actors+

H7amines ho! the reported speech and reported %oices are incorporated intothe te7t to ser%e di;erent purposes

inguisticanalysis

nterte7tualanalysis


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Research e=pectations


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imitations

Cannot be generali.ed to all *+ ne!s media or all e%ents in%ol%ing 'uslimssocial actors as the ?ndings are con?ned to t!o *+ ne!s media pertinent tothe Charlie ,ebdo attac- only+

Any suspicion of ideologically biased representation presented in this study!ould only ser%e as a caution to!ards potential manipulations or harmfule;ects during te7t interpretation and consumption+


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References

Ang. (2010). Media representation of the disabled: A critical discourse approach. ( egree of !aster of "inguistics), #!ala%a, &uala "umpur.

'airclough. (1 2). Discourse and social change . ambridge* +olit% +ress.'airclough. (1 a). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language . -ngland* +earson -ducation "imited.'airclough. (1 b). Media discourse . ew /ork* -dward Arnold.'airclough, odak. (1 ). ritical iscourse Anal%sis. 3n 4. A. 5an ijk (-d.), Discourse studies: A multidiscip

"ondon* 6A7-.'owler. (1 1). Language in the news: Discourse and ideology in the press . "ondon* 8outledge.!ohamad. (201 , 11 'ebruar% 201 ). hapel 9ill shooting and western media bigotr%, Al Jazeera .8ichardson. (200:). Analysing newspapers: An approach from Critical Discourse Analysis . "ondon* +algra$e !ac!i4op 1 most popular news websites. (201 ). The e usiness !uide . 8etrie$ed from http*;;www.ebi

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