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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Rapid growing and great enhancement of media in our world today as a results of
modernization have vastly benefited the human race in a way that access to information
become effortless. The great exposure towards media at our disposal combined with the
media’s enormous power and liberty in determining what information they want the
media consumers to be fed off their media texts ( Amir, azem, ! "ossein, #$%&' could
lead us to unconsciously bestow the authority to the media to shape our perspectives
on certain events ( Amir et al., #$%&'. n parallel, )aya, "afriza, and Ain *adzimah
(#$$+' highlighted that society is influenced by the media as people who depend on
media as a source of information often find themselves affected by their images.
*evertheless, despite the media’s selfproclaimed ob-ectivity and biasfree principle in
reporting life events and happenings all over the world, they actually presuppose their
preferred/ version of reality hence ma0ing their targeted readers to view this reality
from their point of view ( Alireza ! Rahman, #$%#'. 1oesmans (#$%&' is in agreement
with this view focusing on news as a particular example. "e depicted -ournalism as an
ideological choicema0ing practice in today’s informationdriven world. "e elaborated
that -ournalists as the news producers often based their reporting styles on how they
want their readers to decode the reported events and what effects do they want the
news to have on the targeted readers. Thus, this governs which issues are highlighted
and which ones are concealed in the news reports (1oesmans, #$%&'. 1oncisely, it is
often far from the truth that news reports are ob-ective and biasfree ( Alireza ! Rahman,
#$%#'. The notion how news reports could be deviated from the real facts due to news
producer’s hidden value had been illustrated brilliantly by 1aldas1oulthard (#$$&' as
well in such following2
*ews is socially and culturally determined which resulted in it being deviated
from the real facts of the events. )eanwhile, news producers play a role as
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social agents whose point of view is conveyed through how they constructed the
news.
Thus, news is hardly the event itself, but -ust an ideologically constructed report
of the event./ (p. #34'.
The explanation above highlighted such alleged claim that media or particularly news
create their own version of reality/ is often motivated by the media’s ideology which is
evident in the description of the news itself as it has been described as ideological
choicema0ing practice/ and ideologically constructed report/ (1aldas1oulthard, #$$&,
p. #34'. 1onse5uently, this leads to the next logical 5uestion that needs to be as0ed by
every media consumers2 how does media controllers or news producers carefully
weave their ideology in their discourses6 The answer to this 5uestion could lie in
Richardson (#$$+'’s hypothesis in which he proposes that language serves as the tool
to endow meaning to our action. 7ltimately, it is the language as well that can be ideally
used as the tool to derive meaning from our action. Thus, this answers the
aforementioned 5uestion in which language is deemed as the medium to convey
ideology. n a study analyzing the language use of newspapers, Richardson (#$$+'
identifies language as a nonneutral element/ which -ustifies his hypothesis that it isthrough language that media construct their own version of reality thus it is through
language as well that this presupposition of reality by media can be detected.
Richardson’s hypothesis found its affinity in 8a0off (#$$$'’s notes on language in which
she highlighted that words are rarely purely neutral as the way we use the language is
often motivated by the meaning that we want to achieve.
1.2 Statement of problem
The media’s enormous capacity in influencing the ideology of the public and their nature
as public discourse which denotes their wide, if not unlimited, access to the public
results in the media discourse being one of the popular social practices of what has
been termed as the contemporary form of racism (T. A 9an :i-0, #$$$'. The
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contemporary form of racism is differentiated from the old racism in a way that it does
not appear as ;transparent’ as the old racism which is often signified by the li0es of
physical and verbal violence and forceful segregation. nstead, contemporary form of
racism is characterized as ;discursive’ which is expressed and conveyed through text
and tal0 of various popular massmediated formats< news reports being one of them, in
as subtle and as ;natural’ it could possibly be (T. A 9an :i-0, #$$$'. *evertheless, the
power of contemporary racism should not be underestimated. t might not be as radical
as the old racism but it wor0s -ust as effective in marginalizing and demonizing
particular social groups. n light of this, T. A 9an :i-0 (%==3' inferred biased, pre-udiced,
and xenophobic ideology, hegemony practices and demonization of particular social
groups in media discourse as the contemporary form of racism.
>ignificantly, ?airclough (%==@' accentuates that the encryption of the ideology in media
discourse and the mind control by the media would be accomplished effectively under
the condition that the media consumers are not aware of the persuasive and
manipulative functions of the news texts which lead them to believe that the news
reports are true or the -ournalist’s point of view is legitimate and ma0ing sense. As a
conse5uence, identifying ideology in media discourse specifically those that could be
regarded as contemporary form of racism such as biased and pre-udiced ideology couldbe 5uite tric0y and often goes unnoticed by readers especially those who are less
privileged in education (*asser ! Alireza, #$%#'. "ence, the -uxtaposition of the fact that
news media play a huge role as the social practices of ideological construction
particularly those that are pre-udiced and biased and the fact that they have almost
unlimited access to the public discourse, places the media as the main source of
people’s pre-udiced and biased ideology especially if they are lac0 of other alternative
sources of information (1oesmans, #$%&'. Thus, being in the ris0 of becoming the
victim of the media abusing their power to impose a particular pre-udiced ideology on
our beliefs and understanding, this called for the urgency to e5uip ourselves with s0ills
and tool to identify the underlying ideology in media (*asser ! Alireza, #$%#'.
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Therefore, in order to explore the construction of ideology in media satisfactorily,
language use in the media should be addressed as a form of a social practice in which it
has a dialogical relationship with social facets< it is not only shaped by the social but
shaping the social as well. ?airclough (%==@' asserts that analysis of language has
certain advantages over other forms of analysis in media studies. This is -ustified as it
can give detailed account of the mechanisms through which media mediate
sociocultural changes discreetly< the imposition of certain ideology on their consumers
being one of the changes (?airclough, %==@'. "owever, as we treat the language use
as a social practice, language analysis alone would not ma0e the cut. 8anguage
analysis of media should be carried out as discourse analysis, specifically critical
discourse analysis. This is due to the fact that critical discourse analysis has the
capacity to simultaneously address both facets of the language use< the socially shaped
and socially constitutive (?airclough, %==@'. As a results, by analyzing mass media
linguistically in a critical discourse analysis manner, the 5uestions of representation,
identities and relations hence the ideological wor0 in the media could be explored
satisfactorily (?airclough, %==@'.
n the same light, oung and ?itzgerald (#$$+' proposes that the s0ills we need to e5uip
ourselves in the era of ideologicalsaturated news media is the ability to utilize our 0nowledge, experiences and perspectives to perform a critical Bitalics in originalC
examination on every discourse we encounter. The expression critical is used to
illustrate the reflective and interpretative approach of loo0ing at language. The reflective
approach comprises of finding out the spea0er’s or writer’s motivation in choosing
particular words and structures instead of others while interpretative approach could be
related to examining the relationship between language use in a society and societal
structures. 7ltimately, by ac5uiring this s0ills, we could approach discourses as a more
effective reader that goes beyond brea0ing the code and ma0ing meaning instead of
-ust acting as a passive reader and listener absorbing every piece of information li0e a
sponge (oung ! ?itzgerald, #$$+'.
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ndeed, the discussion above advocates the functional relationship between language
use and the power of media in influencing the minds of people. Thus, in general, this
study hopes to manifest as another prove that the language analysis of the mass media
can ma0e a meaningful contribution to research on sociocultural change ( ?airclough,
%==@', such as the constitution of social identities of particular social groups hence the
production and reproduction of biased and pre-udiced ideology in media discourse.
>pecifically, this study hopes to enrich the current literatures on media and its role in the
construction of ideology by demonstrating how language analysis, particularly critical
discourse analysis could unfold the underlying biased and pre-udice ideology using the
5uestions of representation. >ubse5uently, it is also hoped that this study could serve
as another prove to the readers with the bac0ground of language studies and the
readers with the bac0ground of media studies that media and language empower each
other and there should be a close amalgamation between these two fields as )aya et
al. (#$$+' insinuated that language and media share a symbiotic relationship that not
only does language analysis enrich media studies, but media analysis also enriches our
understanding of language/ (p. vii'. 8astly, as the findings of this study could turn out as
another prove that media consumers are unconsciously exposed to media’s biased and
pre-udiced ideology towards particular social groups, it might serve as a -ustification to
consider the teaching ofcritical
literacy in our current national curriculum.
1.3 Research purpose and questions
This study aims to linguistically investigate the underlying ideology conveyed by
different Destern media namely 7.> online newspapers towards )uslims and slam by
investigating the representation of this social group during the coverage of 1harlie
"ebdo attac0. n doing so, 1ritical :iscourse Analysis, specifically Doda0’s :iscourse
"istorical Approach would be performed. The research 5uestions pertinent to this study
are as followed2
%. "ow do the media construct polarized representation of )uslims and slam
through the selection of topics in their news reports6
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#. "ow are these topics thus the polarized representation of )uslims and slam
constructed through the representation of social actors6 Dhat representational
strategies are used by the media to name and refer to the social actors6
&. Dhat are the social actions attributed to the social actors6 Dhat 5ualities,
features and characteristics are ascribed to the social actors and social actions inorder to create the polarized representation6
4. "ow do the media legitimate and -ustify the construction of the positive self
presentation and negative otherpresentation of )uslims and slam through the
use of different types of argumentation strategies6
@. ?rom which ideological positioning do the media construct the representation of
)uslims and slam6 "ow do the media’s representation of )uslims and slam
compare to the public attitudes towards slam6
n essence, the analysis in this study mainly involves topic analysis and textual analysis
and a small part of intertextual analysis. The intertextual analysis is carried out as part
of the investigation of argumentation strategies.
The first research 5uestion involves the investigation of the discourse topics of different
news media when reporting the 1harlie "ebdo attac0 in representing the )uslims and
slam.
The second research 5uestion addresses how the media name and refer to the socialactors of )uslims and slam to create the representation of )uslims and slam as in
group or outgroup (hence >elf/ and Ether/'. n order to answer this research 5uestion,
textual analysis would be carried out to investigate the representation strategies at
wor0 by referring to 9an 8eeuwen’s sociosemantic inventory such as
inclusionFexclusion activationFpassivation, individualizationFassimilation,
associationFdissociation, personalizationFimpersonalisation to examine how media use
representational strategies to represent )uslims and slam as ingroup or outgroup.
>ubse5uently, in the third research 5uestion, the media’s polarization strategies of
positive selfpresentation and negative otherpresentation are investigated by loo0ing at
what 5ualities, characteristics and features are attributed towards the social actors and
social actions of )uslims and slam. n order to do this, textual analysis is carried out
focusing on the lexical choices, particularly the media’s use of ad-ectives and ad-ectival
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phrases in describing the social actors and social actions of )uslims and slam. After
the ad-ectives and ad-ectival phrases used by the media in describing the social actors
and social actions of )uslims and slam have been identified, how the use of these
ad-ectives and ad-ectival phrases contribute to the construction of positive self
presentation or negativeother presentation of )uslims and slam is explored.
n order to answer the fourth research 5uestion, argumentation strategies namely the
incorporation of external voices in the news text and use of topoi are focused on. Thus,
this -ustifies the use of both textual and intertextual analysis. :uring the intertextual
analysis, the ordering of the authorial voices and external voices in relation to each
other to legitimate the positive or negative construal of social images of )uslims and
slam is examined. n the meantime, textual analysis is carried out to examine what
types of topoi are used by the media to -ustify the construction of social images of
)uslims and slam in their news reports. n identifying the types of topoi, the list of topoi
from the Argumentation Theory as suggested by Doda0 in :iscourse "istorical
Approach is referred to.
8astly, the fifth research 5uestion is attempted by using the findings of research
5uestion %, #, and & and 4 to deduce the ideological position of the media. Then, in
order to demonstrate how the media position themselves visGvis with particular
ideology, attention is being paid to two perspectivation strategies which are the reporting
style and how the media frame the incorporation of the external voices by carrying out
intertextual analysis. )eanwhile, in analyzing the reporting style of the media, the type
of reporting employed by the media and whose voices are included and excluded in the
news reports are examined.
The manner in which the analysis in this study is conducted is summarized below2
%. A framewor0 is outlined in 1hapter %, #, and & of this study. 1hapter %
established an introduction and bac0ground to the study which central
upon the relationship between language and the media as well as the
contexts of the study which are sraelHalestine conflict. Everview of the
three events as the context of the study is also provided in 1hapter %.
)eanwhile, 1hapter # provides the detailed review of theoretical
framewor0s that governed this study and 1hapter & illustrated the corpus
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of the study as well as the methods involved in the data collection and
data analysis.
#. The findings and the analysis of findings which are governed by research
5uestions %, #, &, and 4 as presented above, are presented in 1hapter 4.
&. 1hapter @ highlights the fifth research 5uestion in which the ideologicalposition of the media is discussed in relation with the findings of research
5uestion %, #, & and 4.
1.4 Charlie Hebdo attack
The incident of 1harlie "ebdo attac0 happened on %%th Ianuary #$%@ when two
)uslims gunmen, stormed into the office of the 1harlie "ebdo magazine in Haris.
1harlie "ebdo is a wee0ly ?rench magazine 0nown for its publication of provocative
cartoons, particularly those related to religion. ?or examples, there have been several
publication in which the magazine illustrated the image of Hrophet of )uhammad in
their editorials which are prohibited in slam. Therefore, this has caused rage among the
)uslim community (Hhilip ! Ehlheiser, #$%@'. >everal people who were in the office
during the attac0 were shot dead including the magazine’s editor and a few of its
cartoonists. Everall, the attac0 caused the lives of %# people including one police officer
and four hostages when the gunmen too0 a hostage at a local supermar0et. The
gunmen selfproclaimed that they have a lin0 with the AlJaeda group ("arding, #$%@'.
The next 1hapter discusses the theoretical preliminaries relevant to this study.
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Chapter 2
Literature reie!
2.1 Introduction
The purpose of this chapter is to provide the theoretical bac0ground for this study as
well as to develop understanding of the ideas with regards to the research aim and
5uestions outlined in >ection %.&. Therefore, this chapter discusses five main 0ey
framewor0s that govern this study2
• Theoretical framewor0 of ideology (>ection #.#'
• Holarized representation as ideology in media discourse (>ection #.&'
• 1ritical :iscourse Analysis (1:A' (>ection #.4'
• :iscourse"istorical Approach (:"A'2 Threedimensional approach to polarized
representation (>ection #.@'
• 7.> media coverage of 1harlie "ebdo attac0 (>ection #.+'
2.2 "heoretical #rame!ork of Ideolo$%
T. A. 9an :i-0 (%==@' posits that the concept of ideology is situated within a triangulated
framewor0s of cognitive dimension, society dimension, and discourse dimension.
Therefore, in order to explore the concept of ideology satisfactorily, the theoretical
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framewor0 of ideology is discussed from the point of view of the three dimensions
namely2
• deologies as social cognition (>ection #.#.%'
• deologies as social practices (>ection #.#.#'
• deologies in discourse (>ection #.#.&'
2.2.1 Ideolo$ies as Social Co$nition
The understanding towards the cognitive dimension of ideology is crucial as it sets the
foundation for further discussion on the lin0 between ideology and two other dimensionswhich are social practices and discourse. T.A 9an :i-0 (#$$+' defines ideology as a set
of beliefs that determine the shared social representations of particular social groups/
(p. %#$'. n details, the beliefs shared by members of a group are often manifest in a
form of social representations with regards to different areas of society such as
immigration or crime. Therefore, if ideology is defined as a set of beliefs, it is plausible
to deduce that it is the ideology that forms these social representations. T. A. 9an :i-0
(%==@' emphasizes that not only ideology forms the social representations of the beliefs
but organizes their overall coherence as well. The capacity of ideology as social beliefs
that are shared among members of a particular group also conveniently permits new
social representations or social opinions to be formed and distributed within the group
whenever its members stumble upon new social events or situations (T. A. 9an :i-0,
#$$$'. n essence, the basic 0ey point to describe the cognitive definition of ideology is
that it is not individualistic in nature. Rather, it consists of socially shared beliefs that are
fundamental to the existence of a particular group and the construction of their
characteristics. ?or example, beliefs about how their identity should be portrayed, their
position within the society and how they are represented in comparison with other
groups (T. A. 9an :i-0, %==@'.
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1oherently, in order to understand the root of the ideological beliefs, it is worth to delve
into the notion of relationships between different types of beliefs and different types of
memory. Everall, beliefs that stem from experiences can be categorized as personal
and general (which is shared with others'. Hersonal beliefs which are also 0nown as
episodic beliefs are stored in the episodic memory. This type of beliefs is what T. A. 9an
:i-0 (#$$$' characterized as personal, autobiographic, and sub-ective which registers
our personal experiences/ (p. %#'. "owever, as this study is focusing on ideology as
shared social beliefs, episodic memory might not play a significant role in the
construction of this ideology. nstead, the notion of episodic memory is going to be
explored with regards to the issue of the influence of ideology on society. En the other
hand, the construction of ideological beliefs can be largely rooted in the notion of
general beliefs (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. Heople share general beliefs about an event or
experience with other members of their group or even with members from different
groups. The most prominent example of this general beliefs is what termed as our
sociocultural 0nowledge which is located in our social memory (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. T.
A. 9an :i-0 (#$$$' further highlights that the sociocultural 0nowledge shared by the
members of Kroup L is the 0nowledge that they believe is true and in which they have
-ustification on why they believe it is true. "owever, for the people from the other
groups, this is what they perceive as merely opinions, beliefs, pre-udice and indeed theideologies/ (p. %&' of Kroup L. >ubse5uently, as the origin of shared ideological beliefs
is prominently rooted in our sociocultural 0nowledge, it can be assumed that this
sociocultural 0nowledge serves as the framewor0 for the construction of social
representations as well (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'.
The framewor0 of ideologies as social cognition not only sets the ground for the next
discussion on ideologies as social practices and in discourse, it also sheds light on two
important issues with regards to ideologies which are2 how do ideologies determine or
control what type of interpretation of the world we build and how do ideologies dictate
how we construct certain representations in order to manipulate the readers’
interpretation of the world. The first 5uestion is explored through the notion of mental
models while the latter is discussed using the notion of context models. 1onclusively,
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these two types of models serve as an evident that ideologies not only may control
what we spea0 or write about, but also how we spea0 or write/ (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p.
#M'.
T. A 9an :i-0 (%==@' describes a mental model as a mental representation or
perspective or understanding of an event. This mental representation is actually the
representations stored in our episodic memory as highlighted in the aforementioned
discussion. As noted before, the notion of episodic memory might not be relevant in
discussing the origin of ideological beliefs. "owever, the construction and reconstruction
(through modification and updating' of episodic representations or better 0nown as
mental models are pivotal in discussing what dictate our interpretation and perception of
events (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. As our interpretation and perception of the world stem
from the mental models, it is essential to note that it is 0nowledge, attitudes and
ultimately ideology that play a role in influencing the contents and structures of the
mental models of particular events. Kiven the fact that ideology is shared and general,
the role played by ideology in influencing the mental models implies that we are able to
;translate’ general ideologies to personal opinions or experiences embedded in mental
models/ (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p. ##'. ?or example, if our attitudes towards the
immigrants are controlled by racist ideology, our mental models might comprise of personal perception that immigrants prone to commit crimes and are thus dangerous.
Thus, this is one way of how the ideology forms or modifies our mental models.
Another way of how ideology influences our mental models is by forcing/ us to alter our
mental models so they would align with the mental models of the other members of our
group. :espite the fact the mental models are personal and sub-ective in nature, T. A.
9an :i-0 (#$$$' also rises an important point that there is still a trace of socially shared
ideology during the construction of mental models at the same time. This is -ustified
using two arguments. ?irst, in order to be able to communicate and comprehend each
other in a group, we need to have at least some shared social 0nowledge despite our
personal individual mental models. >econd, members of a particular group might have
different mental models of an event, but we 0now that in order to function effectively as
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the member of a particular group, we have to share other’s mental representations
which leads to a situation where we often say or do different things than what we would
li0e to say or do, in order to accommodate the mental models of others. "ence, the
presence of the fragment of socially shared ideological beliefs explains why, despite the
socalled personal and sub-ective mental models, we are still able to categorize social
actors or spea0ers using ideological labels such as racist, feminist, or conservative ( T.
A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. T. A. 9an :i-0 (#$$$' also emphasizes that if mental models are
influenced by ideologicalbased opinions, then such mental models are deemed biased
as ideologicalbased opinions imply that the event is perceived from the ideological
perspective of a group.
Thus, the discussion above highlights how ideology dictate or modify our mental models
hence determine how we interpret or derive a meaning from a discourse. T. A. 9an :i-0
(#$$$' asserts that mental models are the most important interface between ideology
and discourse. This argument is further strengthened by the fact that not only mental
models mediate how ideology influence our understanding of the discourse but they
also serve as the basis for the production of the discourse itself. ?or example, this can
be illustrated through the production of media discourse. Nach media controller,
producer or -ournalist has a mental model of each reported news event which stemsfrom their ideological belief (T. A 9an :i-0, %==@'. Therefore, in order to reproduce these
ideological beliefs through the media texts, it is the pivotal aim of the media controllers
or the -ournalists to manipulate the news texts in such a way that would facilitate the
media consumers to form a mental model of a particular event that is at least almost
similar to that mental model of theirs (T. A 9an :i-0, %==@'. 1onclusively, manipulating
the mental model of the media consumers is the 0ey to the production and reproduction
of biased ideology in media. Thus, the relationship between ideology, mental models
and discourse is dynamic as illustrated in the ?igure % below2
Discourse
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?igure %2 Relationships between ideology, mental models and discourse
(T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p. #@'
Another significant interface between ideology and discourse apart from mental models
are the context models. As mentioned earlier, the notion of context models provides a
framewor0 to explain how ideology being conveyed in text and tal0. ?or example, how
do spea0ers or writers 0now what information to ma0e explicit in discourse and what
information need to be concealed. 1ontext models can be described as a
representation of what is relevantfordiscourse in the current communicative situation/
(T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p. #+'. n more details, in order to construct a discourse that is
socially appropriate, we need to adapt the style of our discourse to the currentcommunicative context. n order to understand the current communicative context, it is
vital to gather information about the social beliefs of the target recipients as well as
0now who these recipients are. Thus, the model that we build to govern the production
of discourse as well as determine the language use based on the information we gather
is what described context models. ?or example, the context models help to determine
whether we should use more formal or casual tone or which deictic expression is
suitable to be used. )eanwhile, the information about what the recipients already 0now
helps to determine what information should be provided in the discourse and what is
presupposed (T.A. 9an :i-0, %==M'. n essence, context models serve as some 0ind of a
control mechanism in discourse processing. This is due to the fact that context models
provide us with the information of what we believe our recipients 0now already, what
0ind of social situation we are in, what time is it, what is our relationship with the
EpisodicMemory
SocialMemory
Mental
KnowledgeAttitudesIdeology
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recipients and so on. n the discussion pertaining to mental models before, it has been
mentioned that mental models can be biased in nature in a case where it is influenced
by ideological beliefs. >imilarly, context models may share the same ideologically
biased nature (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. This is illustrated as my ideological beliefs will not
only influence what interpretation have (my mental models' towards a particular event
or people, but they also affect my style of spea0ing about that event or people. ?or
example, if build pre-udiced mental models towards the members of Kroup A, not only
might say bad things about them but my tone and my choice of words when spea0ing
to them might be rude too. "ence, now that we 0now that context models also serve as
an essential interface between ideology and discourse, the notion of ideology as social
cognition is summarized in ?igure # below2
?igure #2 deology as social cognition
(T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p. #='
2.2.2 Ideolo$ies as Social &ractices
Although the earlier discussion explores the concept of ideology from the cognitive
dimension, there is a presence of the emphasis that ideology is social as terms such as
Discourse
EpisodicMemory
Socialmemory
Context models
Mental models
KnowledgeAttitudesIdeology
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social cognition, social memory and social representations are used to characterize the
ideology. Thus, T. A. 9an :i-0 (#$$$' proposes that in order to understand the concept of
ideology in greater depth, it is reasonable to discuss ideology not only from cognitive
aspect< that is, studying the representations of its structures in the mind of people when
they act as members of a particular social group, but also from social perspective. n
general, the social perspective of ideology accounts for its social functions such as the
role of ideology as the foundation for the social practices of members of a particular
social groups (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'.
n order to discuss the social dimension of ideology systematically, the notion of
ideologies as social practices is often organized in terms of how ideologies manifest
themselves at microlevel and macrolevel of the society. Dhen studying ideologies at
the microlevel of the society, it is common to observe ideologies manifest themselves
when social actors participate in the social practices of everyday life. These social
practices can be reflected in different forms of interaction, be it monological such as
through media texts or dialogical such as during facetoface interaction (T. A. 9an :i-0,
#$$$'. These different forms of interaction are what constitute discourse. ?or examples,
gender ideologies such as feminism might be evident during the interaction between
women and men while the interaction between members of different ethnic groupsmight exhibit racist or pre-udice ideology. Another example can be observed as
politicians and nature activists might have different ideologies when it comes to the
issues of urbanization and development. ?rom these examples, it is evident that
ideologies manifest in the social practices as soon as people associate themselves with
a particular social group such as men, women, politicians, activists, and so on.
n the meantime, the discussion of ideology at the macrolevel of society often involves
the notion of power and dominance. The notion of power is described in terms of social
power in which it highlights the power one group has over another group. >pecifically,
the notion of social power is often translated into how a group, for example, Kroup A
controls the actions of the members of different group, which is Kroup O. As discourse
is a form of social practices which has been mentioned earlier, discourse and its
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properties such as its topic, its style, and its context serve as one of the most prominent
medium for the exercise of this control (T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$'. Kiven the capability of a
discourse in influencing the minds of its consumers, it is plausible to deduce that the
group in powerful position who uses discourse as the vehicle to exercise control over
another group, will indirectly possess the power to influence the minds of the discourse
consumers as well. This can be illustrated by ta0ing the power of the -ournalists as
members of a particular group as an example. n the construction of media discourse,
the -ournalists present the information or manipulate the media texts by ta0ing a role as
a member or a particular social group. As such, the -ournalists might exercise their
power through the construction of media discourse to delegitimize other social group
and legitimize their own group. The exercise of power is executed by using the
structures and the contents of the news texts as the vehicle to manipulate the structures
and contents of the mental models of the media consumers as to ensure the
synchronization between the consumers’ mental model upon reading the news and the
ideological beliefs of the -ournalists. >ubse5uently, repeated exposure to biased mental
models could lead to e5ually biased attitudes such as ethnic pre-udices and over
generalization towards particular social groups. Ence these ethnic pre-udices are firmly
established, they will in turn control the future formation of mental models of the media
consumers upon reading any news related to the same particular social groups (T. A9an :i-0, %==&a'. Accordingly, the media’s ability to shape the mental models of a
particular event of the media consumers bestows them the power to control, to some
extent, the minds of the public and indirectly their attitudes.
2.2.3 Ideolo$ies in 'iscourse
The above discussion which explores the concept of ideology from both cognitive and
social perspective exhibit the manifestation of another important notion in studying
ideology, namely discourse. n fact, the goal of understanding the cognitive and social
theoretical framewor0 of ideology is to eventually understand the role of ideology in the
construction and interpretation of discourse. T. A. 9an :i-0 (#$$$' purports that the
reason why the notion of discourse seems to be very crucial when discussing the theory
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of ideology is because discourse serves as among the most significant and common
social practice influenced by ideology.
"owever, identifying ideology in text and tal0 is not a clearcut tas0. This is due to the
fact that, given the complex structures of discourse, ideology can be embedded in
various ways at different levels of discourse structures. Therefore, in order to adopt a
practical method to investigate ideology in discourse, T. A. 9an :i-0 (#$$$' suggests that
we shall refer bac0 to the basic characteristic of ideology< it commonly organizes people
and society in polarized terms such as 7> vs. Them and ingroup vs. outgroup. As
such, the typical strategy of most ideological discourse is2
• >ay positive things about 7s• >ay negative things about Them
• :o not say negative things about 7s
• :o not say positive things about Them
(T. A. 9an :i-0, #$$$, p. 44'
This typical strategy is also termed as positive selfpresentation and negative other
presentation. As this strategy is deemed as too general, E0tar (#$$%' mentioned that a
more solid framewor0 for positive selfpresentation and negative otherpresentation
which is called ;ideological s5uare’ has been formulated, also by 9an :i-0 and his
associates. The principles of ;ideological s5uare’ are as follow2
• Nmphasize positive things about 7s
• Nmphasize negative things about Them
• :eemphasize negative things about 7s
• :eemphasize positive things about Them
(E0tar, #$$%, p. &%='
The next section discusses the manifestation of ideology as positive selfpresentation
and negative otherpresentation specifically in media discourse.
2.3 &olari(ed Representation as Ideolo$% in )edia 'iscourse
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?airclough (%==@' hypothesizes that the investigation of ideological wor0 in the media
could be as0ed through series of 5uestions involving representation, identities or
relations such as why one representation is selected over the other available one or
why a particular identity is constructed in one way rather than the other, where does this
representation come from and why is it represented in such as way. >imilarly, 1roteau
(#$%4' proposes that the construction of these social images or representations can be
explored through 5uestions such as what standards or guidelines used by media to
determine what is acceptable/ and what is unacceptable/6 Dhat ma0es certain
representations appropriate/ and inappropriate/ in the media6 Dhat are -ustice/ and
in-ustice/6 Dhat are the underlying messages in media content and which parties do
this messages favor6 ?airclough (%==@' further elaborates that in the process of
producing the texts, text producers choose a number of representational strategies from
the whole array of strategies available to them and thus, these choices become
ideologically motivated as they construct the versions of reality desired by the text
producer. E0tar (#$$%' supports this view as he highlights that media controllers convey
their versions of reality through their selections of representational strategies during the
construction of the discourses which is governed by their social positions, ob-ectives
and intention Therefore, a representation analysis in a discourse centers on this choice
of representational strategies that text producers ma0e. 1orrespondingly, Adampa
(%===' highlights representation of social actors as one of the manners in which specific
attitudes, ideologies and standpoint are encoded through language in discourses.
Thus, this -ustifies why studies of ideology particularly in media discourses are
commonly drawn on social actor analysis. ?or example, *asser and Alireza (#$%#'
study the representation of social actors involved in ran’s nuclear activities to identify
conflicting ideology in four western newspapers with regards to the issue of sanctions
on ran. Oy examining how social actors are represented in the four different
newspapers using 9an 8eeuwen’s representational strategies, the study finds out the
reporting of ran’s nuclear activities in the four newspapers had covertly imposed
ideological bias in representing the ranian side on their readers (*asser ! Alireza,
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#$%#'. )eanwhile, Puraidah and Alan (#$%&' analyze how ran’s top leader, Ali
hamenei, is represented in pro government news media. The finding shows that the
way Ali hamenei is represented has ideological motives in which to elevate his
authority by manipulating the religious belief of ranian people. This was done
discursively for example, by positioning him as Kod’s representative on earth, the
discourse producers subtly imply to people, who by any chance, believe this, should
have undivided faith towards him as they would have towards Kod.
n the meantime, T.A 9an :i-0 (#$$+' studies the ideology in discourse not -ust from the
aspect of representation, but he specifically emphasized that ideology in discourse can
be traced when actions or actors are illustrated as extra or less positively or negatively,
governed by the mental models possessed by the discourse producers. ?ollowing this
idea, T.A 9an :i-0 (#$$+' further ma0es one important note pertinent to this study, in
which he mentioned that the construction of ideology in terms of positive and negative
construal of social actors and action is a common phenomenon for all discourses that
illustrate particular happenings and actions including news articles, opinion editorials
and narratives about personal experiences/ (p. %#%'. Therefore, it is reasonable to
deduce that an ideology is usually engrained in the relationship between the group and
Ethers in terms of us/ versus them/ in which us/ are lin0ed with positive values andthem/ are subtly presented in negative light (T.A. 9an :i-0, %==M'.
1orrespondingly, analysis of representation of ingroup and outgroup has been one of
the popular method of analysis for many studies focusing on biased, pre-udiced, and
xenophobic ideologies as well as hegemonic relations. ?or example, hosravi*i0 (#$%$'
in his study of a representation of social groups in discourse, explores the construction
of the representation of immigrants as outgroups. )eanwhile, in order to investigate
biased reporting of Iran Nuclear Program, Iran Sanctions, and Syria Crisis in Destern
printed media, Amir et al. (#$%&' explore how these three events were represented in
the headlines and lead paragraphs of various 7 and 7> newspapers such as
Independent , the Daily Mirror , The Guardian,the :aily Telegraph, the New York Times,
the os !ngeles Times, and the "S! Today . The investigation of the biased reporting by
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Destern media towards the three events was generally governed by the polarization of
Desterners and ranians as De/ and Ethers/. ?or example, the analysis of the lead
paragraphs of the newspapers with regards to ran sanctions demonstrate that ran or
ranian nuclear programs was depicted as the Ethers/ through negative lexical choices
such as in#erior$ trou%le&maker$ irrational$ stu%%orn$ and potentially dangerous ( Amir et
al., #$%&'.>imilarly, Puraidah and 8ee (#$%4' study the ideological standpoint of political
elites in )alaysia towards immigrants by investigating how immigrants were
represented as ;Ethers’, specifically as illegals, threats and victims through the
incorporation of the voices of these political elites in )alaysia newspapers.
The positive and negative representation to investigate the production and reproduction
of ideology in media (T.A 9an :i-0, #$$+' can be theorized using >ocial dentity Theory.
Therefore, the following section explicitly explains the role of >ocial dentity Theory as a
framewor0 for examining the polarized representation as ideological construction in
media which is applied in this study.
2.3.1 Social Identit% "heor%
>ocial identity theory is one of the theoretical framewor0s that has greatly benefited thestudy of ideology in media ()atu ! 8ubbe, #$$3'. ?or example, )atu and 8ubbe (#$$3'
use >ocial dentity Theory to investigate how enyan political groups in the run are
portrayed in three different newspapers which ultimately demonstrate how newspapers
construct conflicting ideological positions in election reporting. )eanwhile, >ocial
dentity Theory is also used as a framewor0 in a study carried out by E0tar (#$$%' to
examine how two Tur0ish newspapers of different ideological orientations construct the
representation of social groups in ;secular’ and ;antisecular’ discourse. n his study,
E0tar (#$$%' explains that >ocial dentity Theory was developed by Ta-fel and Turner
and their associates during mid to late %=3$s. >ocial dentity Theory is grounded in a
premise that the structure of hierarchy of social groups in society is organized with
regards to the notion of power and status. Nach level of the hierarchy provides the
members of its respective social group with a social identity. Thus, this social identity
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strategies of positive selfpresentation and negative otherpresentation outlined by the
;ideological s5uare’ as highlighted before in this study.
The next section discusses the general framewor0 for the investigation of ideology in
discourse which is 1ritical :iscourse Analysis (1:A'.
2.4 Critical 'iscourse *nal%sis +C'*,
As this study aims to disclose media ideology by loo0ing from the angle of
representation as explained earlier, the notion of polarized presentation of own group
and Ethers can be rooted from the idea of power and dominance as well. Thus, by
ta0ing into account the idea of power and dominance, this could -ustify clearer why 1:A
is chosen as the medium/ to understand the ideology at wor0 of different media.
:ominance is referred to as the execution of social power by elites, organizations or
groups. (T. A 9an :i-0, %==&b'. ?or example, in the context of this study, dominance is
referred as the enactment of social power by the media controllers or producers. As this
social power comprises control, it is not merely confined to action but cognition as well.
n fact, the most effective power is mostly in a cognitive form which is oftenoperationalized through persuasion, disguise or manipulation in order to influence the
mind of others to conform to one’s own interest or ideology. Thus, a powerful group may
not only regulate the freedom of action of other groups but affect their thoughts as well
(T. A 9an :i-0, %==&b'.
The conse5uence of this dominance or the exercise of power is in turn evident in social
ine5uality such as political, cultural, class, racial and gender ine5uality (T. A 9an :i-0,
%==&b'. T. A 9an :i-0 (%==&b' highlights that ine5uality in a discourse can be -ustified
and understood using two discursive strategies which are positive presentation of own
group and negative presentation of the Ethers which could subtly be implemented
through arguments, narratives, semantic manipulation and other structures of
discourses such as daily conversations, political speeches, academic boo0s and news
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articles. Thus, this is where the notion of representation as ideology intersects with the
notion of power and dominance. The action of influencing the minds of others through
the use of dominance and power to construct social ine5uality is indeed a function of
text and tal0. Doda0 and )eyer (#$$=' are in agreement with this as they emphasized
that texts are often serve as the medium for competing for dominance which manifest
through opposing discourses and ideologies.
Therefore, it is at this critical point, where the notion of text and tal0 is brought in,
particularly, that language is identified as the ideal vehicle to articulate power or to
challenge power, that -ustify the pivotal role of 1ritical :iscourse Analysis in examining
the ideology, power and dominance. n particular, 1ritical :iscourse Analysis enable
explicit investigation on how discourse structures are constructed in order to portray
social representations in such a way that sustain dominance. )ore specifically, the role
of 1ritical :iscourse Analysis is to find out what discursive structures are
operationalized, in a case where powerful spea0ers or groups manage to persuade or
influence their audiences. Thus, according to T. A 9an :i-0 (%==&b' the discursive
reproduction of dominance involves two point of views which are production and
reception. These point of view can be summarized in a way that the discursive
reproduction of dominance is rooted from the social cognitions of the people in power, inthe context of this study, the ideology of the media controllers and subse5uently, the
discourse structures affect the thoughts of the consumers of the discourse i.e. how the
readers or consumers construct their understanding of the discourse.
7ltimately, T. A 9an :i-0 (%==&b' summarizes that the focus of 1:A is the (re'production
and challenge of dominance in a discourse as what has been elaborated in the above
explanation. )eanwhile, although still in parallel, oung and ?itzgerald (#$$+' describe
1ritical :iscourse Analysis in a more simpler term2 1:A approach discourses through
language analysis in order to disclose any misconception, ine5uality or power
imbalance. n the same light, >ahragad and :avatgarzadeh (#$%$' highlight that 1:A
focuses on internalizing the ideological mechanisms at wor0 in discourse and aims to
provide a criti5ue on how discourses function as a platform to convey certain agendas.
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7ltimately, Doda0 and )eyer (#$$=' simply concluded that it is the revelation of
structures of power and disclosure of ideologies that lie at the heart of 1ritical :iscourse
Analysis.
Ene important note made by T. A. 9an :i-0 (#$$%' is that 1:A itself is not an
approach/. Hreferably, it attempts to provide an alternative manner/ or point of view/
of theorizing, analysis, and application of what it aims to discover in a discourse/ ( p.
&@#'. As such, 1ritical :iscourse analysts often differ in terms of their methods and
theoretical framewor0s as 1:A constitutes various approaches. Thus, in order to
investigate the ideological positioning of Destern media towards )uslims and slam
hence to attempt the research 5uestions satisfactorily, this study borrows the discursive
strategies of Doda0’s :iscourse"istorical Approach to explore the representation of
this social group in their news reports.
The next section discusses three approaches of studying polarized representation
proposed by :iscourse"istorical Approach (:"A'.
2.- 'iscourseHistorical *pproach +'H*,/ "hree'imensional *pproach of
&olari(ed Representation
The :"A analysis of representation in discourse is interdisciplinary in which :"A
suggests threedimensional approach2
%. dentification of the discourse topics
#. nvestigation of discursive strategies
&. 8inguistic means and linguistic realization of the discursive strategies
The following subsection explicitly elaborates the threedimensional approach of :"A.
The second and third approach, which are the investigation of discursive strategies and
linguistic means and linguistic realization, are elaborated handinhand as to clearly
illustrate how the discursive strategies are realized through particular linguistic means.
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2.-.1 Identification of the 'iscourse "opics
T. A. Van Dij !"###$ points out that the meaning of discourse is not solely ingrained in
its sentences or lexical choices. n fact, the glo%al meaning of the discourse also plays
an important role in shaping the interpretation of the discourse. This global meaning is
often supplied by topics or themes of the discourse. Topics of discourse often indicates
what information is deemed as valuable or important by the discourse producers in their
discourse. 1onse5uently, topicalization may also be an indicator of ideological
positioning of a discourse (T.A 9an :i-0, #$$+'. ?or example, it is not surprising for in
group discourse producers to detopicalize information that opposes their interests or
might -eopardize their positive selfrepresentation. 7nderstandably, they might
foreground the information that will pro-ects or exposes the negative construal of the
outgroup as the topics of their discourse. 1oncisely, ingroup discourse will not
topicalize topics that could lead to the construction of undesirable interpretations or
mental model detrimental to their positive image. ?or example, an analysis of topics of
discourse during a study of a written interview of Hresident 9aclav laus on climate
change, a 1zech politician, yielded a finding that topics of neoliberal and policyrelated
dominated the discourse while scientific topics were detopicalized. This is expected asthe selection of topics were aligned with laus’s political stance and perspectives which
are said to be neoliberal, anticommunist and antienvironmentalist (Reisigl ! Doda0,
#$$%'.
2.-.2 Inesti$ation of 'iscursie Strate$ies and the Lin$uistic Reali(ation
:"A determines the investigation of discursive strategies as the next step in studying
the positive selfpresentation and negative otherpresentation after the identification of
the discourse topics. Reisigl and Doda0 (#$$%' interpret discursive strategies as
systematic ways in using language which are located at different level of organization
and complexity/ (p. 44'. Accordingly, the :"A underlined five types of discursive
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strategies involved in the analysis of positive selfpresentation and negative other
presentation as follow2
%. Referential strategies
#. Hredicational strategies
&. Argumentation strategies
4. Herspectivation strategies
@. ntensification and mitigation strategies
1. Referential strategies and Predicational strategies
(e#erential strategies refers to the ways in which a person or a group of people is
named and referred to linguistically. The use of referential strategies imparts insights on
the construction of representation of social actors as ingroups and outgroups.
>ubse5uently, after the ingroups and outgroups have been constructed or identified,
the predications given to the social actors, either as individual, member of a group of as
group itself are identified. >pecifically, predications comprise of the attributions, traits,
5ualities and characteristics. Thus, these are what termed as Predicational strategies.
Reisigl and Doda0 (#$$%' assert that the role ofPredicational strategies
are to construethe representation of social actors as more or less positive or negative.
Although the investigation of (e#erential strategies and Predicational strategies often
seems li0e they are supposed to be carried out independently as they serve different
purpose and fulfill different needs of the analysis, Reisigl and Doda0 (#$$%' affirm that it
is difficult to completely separate the (e#erential strategies and the Predicational
strategies from each other. n fact, they might be overlapping with each other. ?or
example, some of the (e#erential strategies also play a role as specific forms of
Predicational strategies due to the fact that the identification of (e#erential strategies
very often simultaneously comprise of the examination of the positive or negative
labelling of the social actors. 1oherently, in order to carry out the analysis of (e#erential
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strategies and Predication strategies satisfactorily, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+'’s >ocio
semantic nventory of Representation of >ocial Actors is borrowed.
The following discussion clearly illustrates the categories of representation of social
actors as proposed by 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' and the linguistic realization for each
category.
0an Leeu!ans sociosemantic inentor% of representation of social actors
9an 8eeuwen (%==+'’s model of representation of social actors offers systematic
theoretical bases for studying representation in discourses as described by ?airclough
(%==@'. n approaching the 5uestion of how social actors are represented in discourses,
9an 8eeuwen (%==+' in his framewor0, attempted to begin his analysis of representation
of social actors in unconventional way as linguists would commonly do where they tend
to launch linguistic operations in performing the analysis. "aving said so, instead of
starting off from linguistic point of view, he began approaching the representation of
social actors in discourses from sociological point of view in which he described as to
demonstrate the sociological and critical significance of the classifications/ (p. '.
"ence, the categories/ here refer to his systematic sets of representational strategiesin his framewor0 that he termed as sociosemantic inventory. n light of this, 9an
8eeuwen (%==+'’s framewor0 would exhibit the manifestation of sociological categories
such as nomination/ and agency/ instead of linguistic classifications such as
nominalization/ and the omission of passive agent.
*evertheless, despite his unconventional approach, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' states that his
framewor0 of representation of social actors still have a trace of variety linguistic
elements. Thus, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+'’s model of representation of social actors is
actually twotiered with the first level draws upon the sociosemantic inventory available
in the system networ0 as what have been described above. "ence, it is the second level
of his framewor0 that provides an evident of linguistic operations in which he see0s to
find out how a particular representation is realized linguistically soon after he performs
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the sociosemantic inventory (9an 8eeuwen, %==+'. 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' 5uoted, each
of the representational choices shall propose will be tied to specific linguistic or
rhetorical realisations/ (p. &4'. This is evident as 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' explains the
operation of the sociological categories in the system networ0 using variety of linguistic
and rhetorical phenomena such as nominalization, ad-ectivalisation and transitivity, -ust
to name a few.
?or the purpose of this study, five sets of sociological categories from 9an 8eeuwen
(%==+'’s sociosemantic inventory are used to analyze the representation of social actors
in the reporting of sraelHalestine conflict by two 7.> news media in order to
deconstruct their underlying ideology respectively. Those five sets of categories are
inclusionFexclusion, activationFpassivation, individualizationFassimilation,
functionalizationFidentification and personalizationFimpersonalisation.
9an 8eeuwen (%==+' highlights that discourse producers include or exclude the
representation of social actors in their discourse to achieve the desired effect that they
want their choice to have on their targeted readers. En one hand, the e)clusion of social
actors could be biasfree as when the text producers presupposed that the text
consumers are already wellinformed about the particular details or the details arebelieved to be irrelevant to the readers. 1onversely, e)clusion could also be
ideologically motivated as the text producers used it to achieve a particular agenda ( 9an
8eeuwen, %==+'. 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' further categorized e)clusion into suppression
and %ackgrounding in which he described suppression as radical/ and bac0grounding
as less radical' . Dhen social actors are suppressed, there would be no trace of the
social actors anywhere in the text while when social actors are bac0grounding in
describing particular activities, readers might still be able to identify who they are by
ma0ing inferences based on their inclusion in elsewhere in the text although they are
not mentioned during the illustration of the given activities related to them. Thus, in light
of this, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' highlights that the social actors are not blatantly being
excluded, but it is more accurate to say that they are being deemphasized and
positioned in the bac0ground/ (p. &='. 8inguistically, suppression could be realized
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through passive agent deletion, nonfinite clauses and nominalization. )eanwhile,
ellipses in nonfinite clauses can be used to bac0ground the social actors.
)oving onto activation and passivation, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' asserts that social actors
can play either active roles or passive roles in representation. !ctivation is described as
when the social actors are portrayed as the operating forces of the activity while
passivation is when the social actors are represented as being affected by the activity.
"alliday’s systematic functional grammar particularly transitivity ("alliday, %=M@' is the
linguistic device that could realize this particular set of representation categories.
Orowsing further 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' sociosemantic inventory, individuali*ation and
assimilation is another set of categories that is used to represent the social actors. n
light of this, social actors thus can be denoted as either individuals which indicates
individualization or as groups which indicates assimilation. Thus, singularity signifies
individuali*ation while plurality signifies assimilation. Assimilation can be achieved using
a noun symbolizing a group of people. ?or example, this nation/ in s he entitled to
believe that this nation, which only recently shed Dhite Australia Holicy, is somehow
impervious to racist sentiment6/ (p. 4=' might refers to the citizens of Australia or the
policy ma0ers. 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' further brea0s down the notion ofassimilation
intoaggregation and collectivi*ation. !ggregation 5uantifies groups of participants while
collectivization does not. According to 9an 8eeuwen (%==+', as it is socially sanctioned
in our society that the ma-ority rules, aggregation is often utilized to ideologically signify
unanimous opinion. as !ggregation is described as 5uantifies groups of participants/, it
is often realized through definite and indefinite 5uantifiers.
Dith regards to the next set of representation categories, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+'
distinguishes #unctionali*ation and identi#ication in such a way that #unctionalisation
happened when social actors are referred to their action, occupation or role. There are
three ways of how #unctionalisation is realized linguistically. ?irstly, by a noun formed
from a verb with the addition of suffixes such as +er$ &ant$ &ent$ &ian$ or +ee. ?or
examples, ;speaker ’, ,employee- , ;driver ’. >econdly, by a noun formed from another
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noun with the addition of suffixes such as +ist and +eer . ?or example, motorcyclist .
8astly, by the compounding of nouns denoting places or tools closely associated with an
activity and highly generalized categorization such as ;man’, ;woman’, ;person’, ;people’.
?or example, ;cameraman’ and ;chairperson’ (9an 8eeuwen, %==+, p. @4'. En the other
hand, identi#ication happens when social actors are represented by who they are,
instead of what they do. Identi#ication can be bro0e down into classi#ication, relational
identi#ication and physical identi#ication. 1oncisely, classi#ication refers to when social
actors are represented by ma-or categories which are used by a particular society to
distinguish between classes of people. This includes age, gender, economic status,
race, beliefs and others. )eanwhile, relational identi#ication occurs when social actors
are represented by their relationship with each other which is realized by set of nouns
denoting the relationship. ?or example, ;friend’, ;aunt’, and ;mother’. 8astly, physical
identi#ication happens when social actors are described in terms of physical
appearances which gives uni5ue identity to them in a particular context. 8inguistically $
physical identi#ication is signified through nouns indicating physical features such as
;blonde’ and ;redhead’ or through ad-ectives such as ;disabled’ and ;thin’ ( 9an 8eeuwen,
%==+, p. @3'.
All those categories above which represent social actors as human beings are actuallyindicate personalisation of social actors. Thus, 9an 8eeuwen (%==+' emphasizes that
social actors could also be ;impersonalised’ in which impersonalisation occurs when
representation of social actors are realized by nonhuman element. 9an 8eeuwen
(%==+' introduced two categories of impersonalisation which are a%straction and
o%.ectivation/ !%straction of social actors can be seen in the sentence of Australia is in
danger of saddling itself up with lot of unwanted problem/ ( 9an 8eeuwen, %==+, p. @='
where the phrase unwanted problem/ is actually impersonalized the migrants. As 9an
8eeuwen (%==+' highlighted that a%straction occurs when 5uality is used to illustrate a
social actor in a discourse, thus, in the example above, the 5uality of being problematic
is used to represent the migrants. )eanwhile, o%.ectivation happens when social actors
are represented by a place or ob-ect they are related with or in terms of the activity that
they are currently associated with (9an 8eeuwen, %==+'. ?or example, when
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;Australians’ are substituted by ;Australia’, this indicates o%.ectivation in the form of
spatialisation. Another example of o%.ectivation in the form of instrumentalisation is
showed in this sentence A %#$ mm mortar shell slammed into >ara-evo’s mar0etplace/
(9an 8eeuwen, %==+, p. +$'. n this example, the attac0er is represented in terms of an
ob-ect which is the instrument used to accomplish the activity, a %#$ mm mortar shell/
(9an 8eeuwen, %==+'. n addition, somatisation is another type of o%.ectivation in which
body part is used to represent the social actors such as >he put her hand on )ary
ate’s shoulder/ (9an 8eeuwen, %==+, p. +$'. n this sentence, )ary ate/ is
represented in the phrase )ary ate’s shoulder/ instead of -ust directly )ary ate/.
The last common form of o%.ectivation is utterance autonomisation/ "tterance
autonomisation is signified when utterances are used to represent the social actors.
Thus, the report/ and surveys/ in This concern, the report noted, was reflected in
surveys which showed that the level of support for stopping immigration altogether was
a postwar high/ (9an 8eeuwen, %==+, p. +$' are actually impersonalised the social
actors who actually carried out the report/ and surveys/. Thus, it can be deduced that
the claim that immigration is in urgent need to be stopped can be rooted to these social
actors instead of the report/ and survey/. "ence, as explained above, o%.ectivation
can manifest in five different forms namely spatialisation$ instrumentalisation$
somatisation, and
utterance autonomisation.
The following part contains the explanation of another two more significant linguistic
means pertinent to the analysis of (e#erential strategies and Predication strategies.
Metonymies and Metaphor
Apart from the linguistic realization of 9an 8eeuwen (%==+'’s sociosemantic inventory of
representation of social actors as discussed above, metonymies and metaphor are also
another two linguistic means through which (e#erential strategies and Predicational
strategies manifest.
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)etonymies are described as substitution involving two semantically ad-acent fields of
reference/ (Reisigl ! Doda0, #$$%, p. @3' in which instead of depicting the name of the
real referent, another referent is used to replace the real referent which embed a
particular ideological implication. ?or example, by substituting the people by the place
they are living in as in America condemns the act of terror/. n this sentence, the real
referent which is the citizens of America are replaced by their country. This might be
used to indicate collectiveness/ in the condemnation.
Dhile metonymies are substitution between two semantically similar fields of referent,
metaphors are connecting two different semantic fields namely the semantic feature B
humanC and the one that embodies the semantic feature BQhumanC (Reisigl ! Doda0,
#$$%'. This can be observed in various study of discourses on immigrants in which the
metaphors are often used as the referential and predication strategies. ?or examples, in
a study of a representation of refugees, asylum see0ers and immigrants in Oritish
newspapers, the word flooding/ was used to described the immigration in which flood
has negative connotation as it is regarded as a natural disaster. "ence, this contributed
to the negative presentation of the immigrant (hosravi*i0, #$%$'.
The next part discusses the second discursive strategies which are the argumentationstrategies and the linguistic means to realize these strategies.
2. *r$umentation strate$ies
!rgumentation strategies play a role in -ustifying the construal of positive self
presentation or negativeother presentation of the social actors (Reisigl ! Doda0,
#$$%'. n other words$ !rgumentation strategies are used in a discourse to legitimate
the (e#erential strategies and Predicational strategies.
Olac0ledge (#$$@' highlights that the 0ey feature of argumentation strategies lies in
Doda0’s notion of topoi/ Among the category of topoi highlighted by Doda0 are topoi of
advantage0use#ulness$ danger0threat$ de#inition0name&interpretation$
%urdening0weighting down$ law0right$ culture$ a%use$ authority$ #inance$ e1uality$ human
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rights and responsi%ility/ Thus$ topoi provide a tool to identify discriminatory arguments
that serve to construe own self positively while emphasize the negative 5uality of Ethers
which are traceable in the discourse (Olac0ledge, #$$@'.
The upcoming discussion explains the third discursive strategies which is
Perspectivation strategies along with the linguistic means to accomplish these
strategies.
3. &erspectiation Strate$ies
The ob-ective of Perspectivation strategies is to position the media producer or the
-ournalist’s point of view with the ideological stance conveyed through the discourse. n
essence, it is to find out from which perspective is the (e#erential strategies,
Predication strategies, and !rgumentation strategies expressed. n addition,
Perspectivation strategies also provide information on the media producer or -ournalists’
involvement or detachment from the ideological positioning (Reisigl ! Doda0, #$$%'.
Thus, the information below highlights two strategies of involvement and detachment
that are used to investigate thePerspectivation strategies
used in a discourse.
Strategies of involvement and detachment
?raming and discourse representation are among two strategies used by discourse
producers to indicate their distance with the ideological positioning conveyed in the
discourse.
?raming can be illustrated as how the content of the text is presented as well as the sort
of angle or perspective the discourse producer is ta0ing when producing the discourse.
The investigation of framing is closely related with the notion of foregrounding and
bac0grounding. Therefore, in identifying the framing of an event, it is worth to consider
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what concepts and issues are pro-ected or emphasized and what are concealed or
made implicit (Haltridge, #$%#'.
Dith regards to discourse representation, the incorporation of different types of
5uotation can signify the degree of involvement of the discourse producers with the
ideological stance of the discourse. The use of 5uotation can be classified into three
types which are direct 5uotation, indirect 5uotation, and free indirect speech. n brief,
indirect speech is an indication of detachment while direct speech and free indirect
speech often express the involvement of the discourse producers which invites the
involvement of the discourse consumers as well upon reading or hearing the discourse
(Reisigl ! Doda0, #$$%'.
*ext, the last discursive strategies which are Intensi#ication and Mitigation strategies are
depicted.
4. Intensification and )iti$ation Strate$ies
8astly, intensi#ication and mitigation strategies can be defined as the strategies used to
strengthen or alleviate the illocutionary force of utterance (Doda0 ! )eyer, #$$='. nother words, the analysis of intensi#ication or mitigation strategies loo0 into how the
intention or ideology of the spea0ers or writers is articulated in the discourse, whether
implicitly or explicitly. Olac0ledge (#$$@' highlighted that intensification or mitigation
strategies can be used to express involvement in, or detachment from the sense of the
text/ (p. #@'. ?or example, it is the mitigation strategies that are often used by spea0ers
or writers to find their way to the mainstream discourse to convey what is typically
regarded as unacceptable idea (Olac0ledge, #$$@'. Mitigation strategies can be realized
through lexicalization such as the use of phrase such as thin0/, assume/, it seems/
as well as the use of mitigating verbs such as probably/, fairly/ 5uietly/ and others,
-ust to list a few (Olac0ledge, #$$@'.
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The next section reviews the coverage of 1harlie "ebdo attac0 by several 7.> media
outlets.
2. .S )edia coera$e of Charlie Hebdo *ttack
)anohar (#$$M' describes media coverage in terms of how they present a particular
part of information either as news, entertainment or as infotainment. )anohar (#$$M'
further elaborates that media coverage can be distinguished based on two crucial
aspects namely type of mass media used and the style of coverage. Type of mass
media can be divided into four main categories which are newspaper coverage,
television coverage, radio coverage, and internet coverage. )eanwhile, the style of
coverage of media is generally categorized as biased coverage, unbiased coverage
and interactive coverage. Oasically, biased coverage refers to the biased manner in
presenting information in which the coverage is in favour of a particular idea or against a
particular idea. En the other hand, unbiased coverage refers to a manner in which the
media do not ta0e any particular stance with regards to a particular idea. nteractive
coverage is the type of coverage that present an information and ta0ing audience views
at the same time in the presentation of the information hence ma0ing the coverage
interactive ()anohar, #$$M'.
1oherently, in the event of 1harlie "ebdo attac0, a few 7.> media were criticized for
their bias and pre-udiced reporting generally by positioning the act of the perpetrators as
slamic terrorist attac0, lin0ing terrorism and violence to )uslims and the faith of slam
rather than depicted the perpetrators as crazed, misguided bigots who acted alone/
()ohamad, #$%@, p. #'. ?or example, 1** has come under fire when one of its
reporters, during an interview with a )uslim human rights lawyer, as0ed if he is a
supporter of >> even after the lawyer has publicly condemned the 1harlie "ebdo
attac0 ()intz, #$%@'. Thus, this incident demonstrated how terrorism has become a
stereotype and pre-udice towards all the practitioners and believers of the slamic faith.
As a repercussion, )uslims are not only being bombarded with this stereotype and
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pre-udice but are made obliged to answer for those socalled slamic terrorist attac0s
()intz, #$%@'.
1orrespondingly, Hodugu (#$%@' accentuates that the representation of )uslim
perpetrators in Destern media, including during the 1harlie "ebdo attac0, is rarely
constructed independent of their religious belief which resulted in the strengthening of
the association between the act of terror and the faith of slam and its believers, the
)uslims and this is the representation of )uslims and slam that has been fed to
Americans predominantly since the =F%% attac0, almost to the extent that slamic
terrorism/ is the only 0ind of terrorism that Americans are being exposed to through their
media (Hodugu, #$%@'. As a conse5uence, the word terrorists/ and terrorism/ are
started to become synonymous with the faith of slam and its practitioners due to the
fre5uent association between the acts of terror with the religious belief of the suspects
during the media coverage of events involving )uslim suspects.
Chapter 3
Research )ethods
3. Research methods
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1orrespondingly, the selected news reports are accumulated from three 7.> news
websites Koogle *ews, "uffington Host, and ?ox *ews. The chosen of these three
news websites are driven by two factors< their high estimated uni5ue monthly visitors
and their political ideology spectrum.
Koogle *ews, "uffington Host and ?ox *ews are selected as the news sources for this
study due to the fact that they are listed as among the ten most popular and most
visited 7.> news websites as of April #$%@ (Top %@ most popular news websites,
#$%@'. The number of uni5ue monthly visitors of each news websites and their ran0ing
trac0ed by Alexa Klobal Traffic Ran0 and 7.> Traffic Ran0 is outlined in Table % below2
*ews website Nstimated uni5ue visitors Ran0ing
Koogle *ews %@$ $$$ $$$ #
"uffington Host %%$ $$$ $$$ &
?ox *ews +@ $$$ $$$ +
Table %2 Nstimated uni5ue visitors and ran0ing of three chosen news sources
The high number of uni5ue monthly visitors indicates that these media and their
contents have the capacity to reach more people. T. A 9an :i-0 (%==@' highlights that
the more people affected, the larger the scope of the enactment of discursive power/
(p. %&'. 8arger scope of the enactment of discursive power entails that the news
producers would have wider access to the public thus might be able to influence more
media consumers with their ideology. Thus, as these media sources have more power
in influencing the media consumers compared to the other media sources due to their
high number of readership, it is even more crucial to investigate how these media
outlets influence the consumers’ interpretation of their media texts ( Ang, #$%$' which
could simultaneously shed lights on how these powerful news outlets produce and
reproduce ideology through their news texts.
Another factor that governs the selection of these three news sources is their political
polarization. According to Nngel (#$%4', "uffington Host is deemed as a leftleaning
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media (:emocratic' while ?ox *ews is s0ewing towards the right (Republican'.
)eanwhile, Koogle *ews is placed in the almost neutral spot along the political
ideology continuum. The political polarization of these news sources is ta0en into
consideration during the selection process due to the fact that the view and attitude
towards slam and )uslims can be characterized by the political ideology of an
individual. A poll investigating American views on Arab and )uslim Americans finds out
that Americans’ views towards Arab and )uslims can be grouped according to the
respondents’ political ideology. ?or example, Republicans have more unfavourable
attitudes towards ArabAmericans and )uslim Americans compared to the :emocrats
(>iddi5ui, #$%4' as shown in the Table # below2
Republicans (S' :emocrats (S' ArabAmericans @4 &$
)uslimAmericans +& &&
Table #2 7nfavourable ratings towards ArabAmericans and )uslimAmericans
1orrespondingly, Republicans are more li0ely to hold a view that ArabAmericans and
)uslimAmericans are unable to hold a position in the government without being
influenced by their ethnicity or religion. En the other hand, :emocrats believe that Arab
Americans and )uslimAmericans would be able to do their -ob without beinginfluenced. >imilarly, a poll conducted by Arab American nstitute finds out that
generally, the :emocrats are more li0ely to have a positive attitude towards slam and
)uslims compared to the Republicans. This is reflected in the responses of the
respondents leaning towards either one of both parties on a few 5uestionnaire items as
listed in the Table & below2
Juestionnaire item
Agree responses (S'
Republican
s
:emocrats
slam teaches people to lead good and decent lives && 3%
slam is a religion of peace %+ +#
slam teaches hate 34 ##
)uslims tend to be religious fanatics +$ #%
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Table &2 Holitical divide of American views towards slam and Arab and )uslim
Americans
(Pogby, #$%$'
Dith the political ideology as one of the variables that differentiate the Americans’ view
towards slam and )uslims, believe that it is interesting to investigate whether the
analysis of the news reports from three political ideologically different news sources will
reflect the findings of the aforementioned polls.
3.2 )ethods of 'ata Collection
The newspapers reports are collected from the archives of chosen news websites
respectively. The time frame of the collected newspapers reports starts from 3 Ianuary
#$%@ which mar0s the day of the attac0 until two wee0s after the 0illing of the suspects.
Then, the newspapers
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