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This is a research paper consisting of a complete corpus analyzed in terms of discourse use.
Citation preview
8.8-MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE IN CHILE AND ITS REPERCUSSIONS IN BACHELET’S ADMINISTRATION
By
Constanza López & Constanza Reyes
June 24th, 2014
ABSTRACT
This paper analysis the way British and American broadsheets newspapers portrayed
Bachelet’s administration after the consequences of the 2010 earthquake in central
Chile. The main objective of the study is to determine how the main entities in
Bachelet’s administration were evaluated according to goodness and certainty
parameters, considering the influence of editorial bias in both in quotes as in the text in
general. For this purpose, six online newspaper articles were studied: three British and
three American. The study pays attention to 2 different aspects; first, the entities
involved and their evaluation and second, the influence of the editorial stances in
quotations and the articles in general. The findings of this paper were categorized in
four aspects; first, all articles used plenty of evaluative language in terms of the
goodness and certainty parameter. Second, the editorial and journalistic bias had great
influence in the way the events and entities were portrayed. Third, journalists used
quotations to indirectly express their own opinion on the issues, and finally the use of
opinions under the name of facts.
Keywords: newspapers, article, Discourse Analysis, Evaluation Theory,
evaluation, quotation, editorial bias, earthquake, Chile.
2
1. INTRODUCTION
Chile is located at a destructive convergent plate boundary where all the
right conditions converge to generate megathrust earthquakes, the planet’s most
powerful type of earthquake. On Saturday, 27 February 2010, at 03:34:17 local time an
8.8-magnitude earthquake occurred off the coast of central Chile. Due to its intensity
and duration the 2010 Chile earthquake ranks as the sixth largest earthquake ever to be
recorded by a seismograph, and is also the strongest earthquake affecting Chile since
the 9.5-magnitude 1960 Valdivia earthquake –the most energetic earthquake ever
measured in the world.
National and international opinion regarded former president of Chile
Michelle Bachelet as not being able to appropriately manage the imminent
consequences of the destructive earthquake and tsunami.
In the first place, she was strongly criticized by public opinion for
spreading erroneous information given by the Chilean Navy. Shortly after the initial
quake a strong tsunami struck the Chilean coast destroying several coastal towns in
central-south Chile already devastated by the impact of the earthquake. No sooner had
the quake end than a tsunami warning was issued for 53 countries across the Pacific
Rim by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center; however, the tsunami warning for
coastal zones in Chile was not issued on time due to a mistake from the Chilean Navy
which informed Chile’s oceanographic service SHOA that no tsunami was expected
for national coasts. Such information was spread at 05:40 local time by Carmen
Fernandez, former director of the national emergency office ONEMI, and former
3
president Michelle Bachelet, preventing some coastal villagers flee to higher ground.
As a consequence, dozens of human lives were lost in the tsunami.
In the second place, she also received massive disapproving for not
immediately send military forces to restore order in looting cities. A day after the
earthquake, nearly half the places affected were declared catastrophe zones and
extensive looting of supermarkets and gas stations occurred after the widespread
rumors of food and gas shortage. At first, she didn’t want to remind people of the
Dictatorship years by sending military forces to the streets. Nonetheless, vandalism
and rioting became unsustainable and Bachelet’s government sent the military to
control disorders in those cities.
In the third place, Bachelet was reproached for not accepting international
humanitarian help. Despite the fact that about two million people were affected by the
quake and more than 500,000 houses were uninhabitable for structural damage, four
hours after the sinister president Michelle Bachelet informed the population of the
situation and stated that Chile did not yet need international aid.
In this regard, we would like to offer an insight into former president
Michelle Bachelet’s administration portrayal after the earthquake and tsunami in
central Chile in 2010 in a series of news reports about this topic in British and
American broadsheet newspapers. We will realize that writers’ opinions are
camouflaged behind professedly neutral and impartial tone. We will also see that
journalists’ opinions are conveyed through the use of evaluative language and the
conscious choice of quotations that help support their own stance, as well as the
4
political bias of the institution they work to, and persuade –at the same time that they
inform –readers to share their particular viewpoint.
Drawing on Hunston and Thompson’s Evaluation Theory (2000) we will
analyze the discursive construction of the consequences of the central Chile earthquake
in relation with the evaluation of Michelle Bachelet’s administration from the different
points of view presented by newspapers in America and Britain.
The research question to which we are seeking to provide answers is as
follows: How was Bachelet’s administration portrayed in American and British
broadsheets covering the consequences of the 2010 earthquake in central Chile
according to their underlying ideologies?
In order to provide an answer to this question, we will analyze and
compare six different news articles published in six broadsheet newspapers from the
United Kingdom (The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian) and the United
States (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Denver Post). While doing so,
we will focus on terms used by journalists to evaluate Michelle Bachelet’s
government.
The structure of this article consists of 5 sections. In section 2, a literature
review will be presented, setting the paper’s theoretical framework through definitions
of journalistic and linguistic terminology, and through the connections made among
them for a better understanding of the study. In section 3 we will provide a brief
analysis of the corpus we chose. In section 4 we will carry out a data analysis of every
one of the texts that make up our corpus, showing the evaluations made by the
newspapers writers. Finally, in section 5 we will draw conclusions of our findings.
5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
This section provides an overview of the dominant concepts and themes
covered in this paper. We will introduce the theoretical framework for the description
and explanation of the corpus analysis in section 4.
2.1. Discourse
According to Chimombo & Roseberry (1998) discourse is “a process
resulting in a communicative act. The communicative act itself takes the form of a
text.” (9). The term discourse may be defined in different ways and its meanings will
vary according to the context where it is used. Van Dijk (1997a) mentions that
discourse is usually identified as a form of spoken language, what is said in public
speeches for example, or it could also refer to the ideas of certain schools of thoughts,
for instance the discourse of contemporary philosophies. However, Van Dijk (1989)
comments that on discourse studies, the term discourse is understood as a particular
form of language use, as well as form of social interaction that can be defined as a
communicative event in a social situation.
2.2. Discourse Analysis
According to Taylor (2013) Discourse Analysis may be understood as the
close study of language and language use as evidence of aspects of society and social
life, this mean the study of a system of formation of meanings and the connections of
those meanings to society, including the power relations within society.
2.3. Journalistic Discourse
6
Journalistic discourse has earned substantial attention from the part of
linguists. Bell (1995) provides four reasons for the attention paid to journalistic
discourse, “First, the media provide an easily accessible source of language data for
research and teaching purposes. Second, the media are important linguistic institutions.
Their output makes up a large proportion of the language that people hear and read
every day. Media usage reflects and shapes both language use and attitudes in a speech
community. For second language learners, the media may function as the primary – or
even the sole – source of native-speaker models. Third, the ways in which the media
use language are interesting linguistically in their own right; these include how
different dialects and languages are used” by different segments of media “to construct
their own images and their relationships to an unseen, unknown audience. Fourth, the
media are important social institutions. They are crucial presenters of culture, politics,
and social life, shaping as well as reflecting how these are formed and expressed”
2.4. Evaluation
According to Hunston & Thompson (1999) evaluation is “the broad cover
term for the expression of the speaker or writer’s attitude or stance towards, viewpoint
on, or feelings about the entities or propositions that he or she is talking about.” In
other words, “it is the speaker or writer’s view of something as desirable or
undesirable.”
With this in mind, it is valid to say that evaluation theory is used to
thoroughly examine oral and written discourse, and as an interpretative tool in every
day evaluative language used by people.
7
In this regard, evaluation’s importance lies in 3 different functions. First,
evaluation is used to express opinions. This is the most obvious function of evaluation
and consists in “telling the reader what the writer thinks or feels about something.” It is
acknowledged that an act of evaluation goes beyond a single person’s ideas; indeed,
evaluation involves the expression and building up of communal value-systems
showing a “component of ideology of the society that has produced the text.”
(Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. 1999). Second, evaluation is used to maintain relations
–as well as for constructing them. It comprises three main areas: manipulation,
hedging, and politeness; all of them are resources the writer uses in order to build a
particular kind of relationship with the reader. Specifically, manipulation is used in
evaluation “to persuade the reader to see things in a particular way” (Hunston, S., &
Thompson, G. 1999); hedging is not only used to “adjust the truth-value or certainty
attached to a statement” (Hunston, S., & Thompson, G. 1999), but also “to mark a
knowledge claim as unacknowledged by the discourse community, not as uncertain”
(Myers, 1989: 12)
2.5. Evaluation Theory
According to Hunston & Thompson (2001) approach, evaluation
corresponds to the way by which the speaker or writer refers to certain entities and
propositions, therefore, revealing his or her personal and biased point of view.
Evaluation Theory distinguishes between evaluative meaning and
connotative meaning in discourse. Through the use of particular words to convey a
viewpoint, evaluation may bring confusions and misunderstandings. Accordingly,
connotation is an inherent characteristic to lexical items. That is to say, it is the
8
meaning associated to certain words. On the contrary, evaluation is a user-dependent
and context-dependent characteristic. In other words, a word may be merely
descriptive in a context and evaluative in another (Hunston, S. & Thompson, G. 2001)
The linguistic identification of evaluation is found at different levels: the
lexical level (adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs), grammatical level (involving co-
dependent sentence structures), and the text level (considering the whole of the text)
(Hunston, S. & Thompson, G. 2001)
In addition, evaluation is comprised of four parameters: goodness,
certainty, expectedness, and importance. On the one side, goodness and certainty are
real world oriented. This means that these markers express the producer’s view of a
proposition or an entity present in the real world. On the other side, expectedness and
importance parameters are text oriented. In other words, these evaluation markers are
used by the writer to signal surprise and importance. In this paper, the goodness and
certainty parameters will be used to describe whether the entities are positively or
negatively described, and whether the actions and descriptions are presented with low
or high levels of certainty, respectively (Hunston, S. & Thompson, G. 2001)
2.6. Broadsheet
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, broadsheet refers to a newspaper
that is printed on large sheets of paper. In some countries, especially Australia,
Canada, the UK, and the US, broadsheet newspapers are commonly perceived to be
more intellectual in content than their tabloid counterparts, using their greater size to
examine stories in more depth, while carrying less sensationalist and celebrity
material. This distinction is most obvious on the front page: whereas tabloids tend to
9
have a single story dominated by a headline, broadsheets allow two or more stories to
be displayed, the most important at the top of the page—"above the fold". In other
countries, such as Spain, a small format is the universal for newspapers—a popular,
sensational press has had difficulty taking root—and the tabloid size has no such
connotations. (Wikipedia, 2014)
2.7. Newspaper Article
Although news genre has not been thoroughly defined by experts yet
(Bonini, 2009: 198-9), Lage (1979: 54) provides a more complete notion of the
concept, describing it as “something which consists of two basic components: (a) a
relatively stable organization –or the logical component; and (b) elements which are
organized in the news, chosen according to essentially variable value criteria—the
ideological component.”
Based on this definition one can conclude that the ideological component
is an influential characteristic in the way events are organized and presented in news
reports.
2.8. Editorial Bias
In his research paper No. 1845 Persistent Media Bias, David Baron (2004)
acknowledges that news media is very important for society. However, he says that
news media is highly regarded as biased. Moreover, he adds: “Bias could reflect the
preferences or world view of the owner of the news organization.” (2004:1)
Accordingly, a survey carried out by the American Society of Newspapers
Editors (ASNE, 1999) concluded that “The public appears to diagnose the root causes
of media bias in two forms. First, (and at best), bias is a lack of dispassion and
10
impartiality that colors the decision of whether or not to publish a story, or the
particular facts that are included in a news report and the tone of how those facts are
expressed. Second (and at worst), they see bias as an intent to persuade.” (Baron, 2004:
4)
2.9. Influence of Quotations
Quotations are a linguistic resource massively used in news articles.
Indeed, quotations are frequently found in almost all news reports referring to entities,
events, and speeches, among others. With this in mind, the regular or repeated use of
quotations should be carefully examined.
Editorial bias has a great influence in the use of quotations because all
newspapers tend to sympathize with a particular political viewpoint and stance.
Therefore, journalists tend to write accordingly to that particular ideology. In this
regard, it is said that “language reproduces ideology and therefore … no text is free
from ideology” (Jullian, 2011:767). Additionally, he mentions that quotation is neither
chosen randomly nor useless. Using the words of the referent permits journalists to
express their opinion implicitly, tinting the information given to the audience.
11
3. CORPUS DESCRIPTION
This research is constituted by six online news articles taken from three
American and three British broadsheets newspapers.
a) American broadsheets newspapers: The New York Times, The Washington
Post, and the Denver Post.
b) British broadsheets newspapers: The Financial Times, The Telegraph, and the
Guardian.
We have decided to use news articles taken from broadsheet newspapers
because this type of newspapers is known for dealing in a serious tone with relevant
news.
In this paper, we focus on the evaluative language used in newspapers
because they enable to explore, describe and explain “the way language is used to
evaluate, to adopt stances, to construct textual personas and to manage interpersonal
positioning and relationships.” (White 2005)
The selected articles were published between March the 1st and March the
10th and their focus is not on how the events, but rather in how Michelle Bachelet’s
administration is portrayed after the 2010 earthquake in central Chile.
Newspaper and Date Bias
The New York Times: March 6, 2010 Liberal Center Left
The Washington Post: March 1, 2010 Liberal Center Left
The Denver Post: March 1, 2010 Liberal Center Left
The Financial Times: March 10, 2010 Conservative Right
12
The Telegraph: March 4, 2010 Conservative Right
The Guardian: March 1, 2010 Center Left
4. CORPUS ANALYSIS
13
In this paper, American and British newspapers articles will be analyzed
based on the parameters of goodness and certainty proposed by Hunston and
Thompson (2001). Similarly, quotation will also be considered under the same
framework to draw conclusion on the influence of editorial biases on news article.
4.1. British Newspapers
4.1.1. The Financial Times
In this article, the entities evaluated are under the name of Michelle
Bachelet, Ms. Bachelet, her government, Ms. Bachelet’s personal style, her popularity,
and her achievements. They are all evaluated in the light of the earthquake which
happened on February 27, 2010 in central Chile.
In the article, Ms. Bachelet is said to have “exuded the empathy that is one
of her best-loved traits as she toured wrecked towns, hugged victims and choked
back tears on television.” The language used appears to have an ironical connotation
since the journalist boasts her touching attitude despite she had “looked slow to deliver
aid.” In this sense, looked slow is loaded with negative meaning in terms of the
goodness parameter due to Ms. Bachelet slow acting facing the earthquake and its
consequences.
With regard to her background as a president, her popularity is evaluated
negatively given that her government had “hurried the introduction of an integrated
metro and bus system for the capital, Santiago, leaving thousands of residents facing
epic journeys to work.” The word “hurried” and the expression “epic journeys” are
14
loaded with negative meaning in terms of the goodness parameter because both point
out to an uncomfortable situation people from Santiago still have to live daily.
Ms. Bachelet’s personal style is also subject of evaluation referring to a
naïve and dithered personality. Both words in bold are full of negativity according to
the goodness parameter because they make reference to first, in the case of naïve to a
lack of experience and second, in the case of dithered to not being able to decide what
to do about a particular issue. Moreover, in the news article it is said that she had even
“set up councils to examine key issues” which is also loaded with a negative meaning
given that it is a proof of Ms. Bachelet’s naivety.
In the article, the author expresses certainty about some issues using
boosters to give emphasis to her opinions. For instance, the author expresses that
“though the mammoth reconstruction effort will spur recovery and jobs later in 2010”
using the word in bold as a booster of certainty. Similarly, the author expresses that
“The handover will end two decades of rule by a leftwing coalition (…)”
Finally, it is worth mentioning that the article highlights by the use of
quotations the fact that Ms Bachelet’s slow acting during the aftermath of the
earthquake is not representative of her role as President. Rodrigo Alvarez, of the Latin
American School of Social Sciences, expressed “It's very sad (…) She didn't deserve
to go out like this.”
4.1.2. The Telegraph
In this article, the entities evaluated appear under the name of Chile’s
outgoing president Michelle Bachelet, Chilean President, her government, and Mrs.
15
Bachelet’s government. They are all evaluated a week later of the earthquake happened
in central Chile.
Throughout the text, the author seems concerned to compromise himself
into the accusations Ms. Bachelet has to face. Consequently, the article is full of
quotations from Chilean newspapers that refer to an incompetent labor by the
President. A clear example of this is portrayed in the first paragraphs when it says
“Critics said her government had failed to grasp the scale of the tragedy, had poorly
managed law and order and rescue efforts and had initially refused offers of
international aid.” By the use of the word said, the author is detaching himself of
making such negative comments about what had happened and puts the responsibility
on the critics.
In another example we see that Mrs. Bachelet’s government had shown
“incomprehensible weakness and slowness” as La Tercera, an influential Chilean
daily had portrayed in its pages about the issue of maintaining law and order and
coordinating relief operations for thousands of homeless and hungry. The words in
bold are full of negative connotation and act as a criticism to Bachelet’s performance
as a President, but again here it is not the journalist who claims these words but put the
responsibility on the daily.
The article also contains negative evaluation according to the goodness
parameter. When referring to Ms. Bachelet’s background, it is mentioned that her
father was “sympathetic to the government of Salvador Allende.” In this last extract
from the article, we can appreciate that the word sympathetic is used to add a negative
16
connotation given that it suggests that Ms Bachelet’s father was a supporter of the left
parties while the editorial stance of this newspapers is more conservative right.
By the same token, the article also states that Michelle Bachelet had been
“reportedly jailed and tortured by the military dictatorship of General Augusto
Pinochet.” The use of reportedly before words with such strong connotations like
jailed and tortured refers to the use of a hedge as a mitigator of the journalist assertion.
This also points out to the strong editorial stance the newspaper has by toning down
the terrible episodes lived during the military dictatorship in Chile.
Finally, as the article makes extensive use of quotations we can appreciate
the employment of boosters according to the certainty parameter. A clear example of
this is portrayed in the next quotation by Ms. Bachelet when admitting rescue efforts
were slow “People probably are always going to feel that we could have done things
better. You can always feel that things could have been done better but the truth is it
will always be insufficient.” The words in bold are used as boosters because they are
signaling that the author is expressing an epistemic opinion about certain propositions.
(Hunston and Thompson, 2001)
4.1.3. The Guardian
In this newspaper article the entities appear under the following names:
President Michelle Bachelet, Bachelet, the Chilean defense minister, and building
codes. They are evaluated in terms of the contributions made after the February 27
earthquake that hit central Chile in 2010.
17
In this news article, former president Michelle Bachelet is evaluated in a
positive way according to the goodness parameter after stating that she had “directed
rescue operations and toured heavily hit areas.” Both terms in bold are loaded with a
positive connotation given that they imply an intention to do something, specifically in
areas of Chile where actions were more needed.
Similarly, Francisco Vidal, the Chilean defense minister during Bachelet’s
government, is portrayed in a favorable way as he “announced a curfew and said
10,000 troops would be sent in an attempt to stop the looting” as “hundreds of
residents continued to loot supermarkets in Santiago and southern regions.” It is
known that both curfew and troop carry a military connotation, so in that sense the
words may carry a negative meaning. However, in this specific extract of the article
the words are loaded with a positive evaluation in terms of the goodness parameter,
because they represent an action against the lootings that were affecting many people
and companies in the country.
The article also makes reference to the Chilean’s building codes by quoting
an expert who said that “Chile's long history of major earthquakes and solid
construction were instrumental in preventing far more deaths.” In this context, the
word instrumental is full of a beneficial evaluation because it refers to an important
influence in causing something to happen. For this purpose, the building codes were
essential in preventing more deaths.
Finally, the author of the article expresses certainty through the use of
quotations that contained booster elements acting in the certainty parameter. For
18
instance, the president stated that “We face a catastrophe of such unthinkable
magnitude that it will require a giant effort [for Chile to recover].”
4.2. American Broadsheet Newspapers
4.2.1. The New York Times
In this news article, the entities being evaluated by the journalist are named
as Departing Chilean President, Government’s Actions, President Michelle Bachelet
of Chile, President Michelle Bachelet, her government, and Ms. Bachelet. Basically,
the entities refer to former president Michelle Bachelet and her administration and they
were all evaluated a week after the earthquake happened.
Throughout the news article, the journalist seems to be making a positive
evaluation of Ms. Bachelet. First, the journalist depicts former president of Chile as a
defender of her government and administration itself as receiving attacks after the
earthquake and tsunami hit. The writer uses the word “defended” to make a positive
remark on the person of Michelle Bachelet. Second, the writer highlights Ms.
Bachelet’s attitude towards areas and people affected by the earthquake and tsunami
by using expressions such as “daylong tour,” which corresponds to positive evaluative
language to express that she cared of affected people. Similarly, she is evaluated
positively as “she trudged through mud and debris and consoled weeping
constituents who had lost almost everything […].” Here, “trudged” and “consoled”
mean that Ms. Bachelet walked wearily among crying people and damaged buildings
to offer comfort and hope to thos who lose almost everything.
19
Aditionally, we find that the journalist paraphrases Bachelet’s words in an
interview, signaling that “Ms. Bachelet dismissed accusations —including some
coming from ministers in her own government —that her past experience as a political
prisoner during the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet made her
reluctant to deploy troops as vandals descended on the disaster zone, looting homes
and businesses.” According to the goodness parameter in Evaluation Theory (Hunston
& Thompson, 2001), the use of “dismissed” is trying to point out that Ms. Bachelet
didn’t take too seriously the assertions made by other people about her. She is also
evaluated as a former “political prisoner,” which makes a negative evaluation of Ms.
Bachelet, assuming that that condition made her “reluctant” to “deploy” military forces
to help devastated areas. These two last words are loaded of negative connotation too,
for they apply to the unwillingness of former president to use resources to help people
get on their feet.
However, the journalist tries to prove the contrary throughout the news
article through the use of different quotations that evaluate Ms. Bachelet and her
government positively and make use of the certainty parameter (Hunston and
Thompson, 2001) to clarify any doubts. For example, the president said “Here was no
delay. I don’t have any problems, particularly ideological problems, making
decisions that warrant the armed forces to take control of certain functions, while
civilian authorities take control of others.” Here, the journalist presents Ms. Bachelet’s
words as true facts and assumes her posture towards the situation, too.
Finally, Michelle Bachelet is depicted as a having a very sympathetic
sentiment towards all Chileans suffering the consequences of the earthquake and
20
subsequent tsunami. Moreover, the journalist quotes the following words of hers:
“What has happened to all of us is tremendous,” Ms. Bachelet told Mr. Rivera. “But
at least we are alive. And as long as we are alive we are going to get on our feet
and move forward.” In this example, the journalist chooses a quotation that combines
the parameters of goodness and certainty (Hunston and Thompson, 2001) to reinforce
her point.
4.2.2. The Washington Post
In this article, the entities being evaluated are named as the Chilean
government, President Michelle Bachelet, Bachelet, and building codes. They are all
evaluated under the light of the earthquake that happened on February 27, 2010, in
central Chile.
The first place, the journalist depicts the Chilean government as having
“dispatched troops,” giving the entity a positive evaluation, in this context and
purpose, as “dispatched” means that Chilean authorities have a sense of responsibility
over citizens security.
Second, and similarly, when the journalist points that “President Michelle
Bachelet opened the door to international aid,” the word “opened” is loaded with
positive evaluation for Ms. Bachelet was able to leave her proud and self-sufficiency
aside to think first of the safety of the citizens affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
Third, the country’s building codes are being positively evaluated
recognizing that “the fact that so many Chileans survived was a testament to the
nation's enactment and enforcement of stringent building codes.” To this regard, the
21
journalist uses the parameter of certainty to state that the building codes of the country
helped save lives, and the goodness parameter –by occupying the word “testament” –to
highlight that these are evidence of how well they work. Additionally, the writer
quotes an expert who says that "We would have expected that an 8.8 earthquake
would have done a lot more damage," to reinforce and give substance to the former
point.
4.2.3. The Denver Post
In this article, the entities evaluated appear under the name of President
Michelle Bachelet, Bachelet, and the nation's enactment and enforcement of stringent
building codes. They are all evaluated in the light of the earthquake happened on
February 27, in central Chile.
In the article, the author expresses certainty about some issues using
boosters to give emphasis to his opinions. For instance, he expresses that “Experts said
earthquake repairs will take years and will probably cost tens of billions of dollars.”
The use of will gives more emphasis to the sentence intensifying the consequences of
the earthquake that will probably take years and cost a lot of money.
Another example is given when the author states that “the deaths there
were mostly because of widespread building collapses.” In this case, the use of mostly
is also acting as an intensifier pointing out that one the most important reasons for the
death of a lot of people was the building collapses.
In the article, the nation's enactment and enforcement of stringent building
codes under Bachelet’s administration is evaluated positively. For instance, it is stated
22
that “the fact that so many Chileans survived was a testament to the nation's
enactment and enforcement of stringent building codes.” In this particular case, the
fact that so is acting as a booster in terms of the goodness parameter of evaluation
attributing these codes a vital importance and loading it with a positive connotation.
Finally, the Chilean President is portrayed in a positive way arguing that
she “opened the door to international aid” after stating that “we generally do not ask
for help.” In this particular case, the expression open the door is loaded with a positive
evaluation in terms of the goodness parameter given that one of the consequences of
doing this action allowed the country to be helped by international aids. In the case of
the quote by Ms. Bachelet, we can see the use of the hedger generally to express
uncertainty which finally makes a lot of sense due to the fact that they ended up asking
for help.
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CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper was to determine how the main entities in Bachelet’s
administration were evaluated according to goodness and certainty parameters,
considering the influence of editorial bias in both, quotes and the text in general in
American and British broadsheets newspapers, based on the following research
question: How was Bachelet’s administration portrayed in American and British
broadsheets covering the consequences of the 2010 earthquake in central Chile
according to their underlying ideologies? This objective was achieved through the
analysis of the tone and the quotes used by journalists in a corpus composed by six
online news articles, three of them American and three British, and the following
conclusions were drawn:
First, regarding the first issue on our research question, it is concluded that
the main entities in Bachelet’s administration were evaluated negatively by some of
the news articles through the use of negative evaluative language that pretended to
devalue the performances of entities during the 2010 earthquake. However, there were
certain newspapers articles, mainly American newspapers, which made efforts to
provide positive evaluation to them through the use of the goodness parameter and of
specific quotations that helped those entities to appear as being right. Accordingly, in
relation to the influence of the editorial bias it is possible to assert that all articles
remained faithful to their political stances which also interfered in the way the events
and the entities were portrayed by the use of quotations and in the text in general.
Second, regarding the use of evaluative language in terms of the goodness
and certainty parameters on the entities, it is possible to state that all the analyzed
24
articles worked under the influence of such parameters to evaluate the performance of
Michelle Bachelet’s administration. In terms of the goodness parameter, the news
article that used negative connotations in its choice of words to assess entities was The
Financial Times and the news article that stood out for making positive evaluation of
entities were The Guardian and The Washington Post. In terms of the certainty
parameter, all articles made use of boosters and hedges in order to express epistemic
opinions about certain and uncertain propositions; the article that stood out in this
criterion was The Telegraph.
Third, regarding the influence of the editorial and journalistic bias in the
analysis and development of the news articles, it is possible to assert that all the
articles were consistent with their editorial bias. The article that loomed the most in
this point was The Telegraph by showing a clear political stance regarding Ms.
Bachelet’s past.
Fourth, regarding the use of quotations to indirectly express the journalist’s
opinion on the issue, it is possible to state that most of the writers made use of
quotations from Chilean newspapers and interviews to experts to report and express
their own point of view on the concern using other people’s words. Accordingly, this
characteristic makes evident the editorial bias of each newspaper, and therefore the
political stance of journalists and newspapers agencies. The news article that stood out
in this regard was The Telegraph’s, where the author seemed concerned to
compromise himself into the accusations Ms. Bachelet has to face.
Fifth, most of the articles made use of an interesting technique; journalists
were prone to express an opinion on the issue making it appear as a fact, through the
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careful choice of certain quotations and use of paraphrasing of entities’ words to
present them as real facts, which after thorough analysis demonstrate the specific
political stand a journalist has, therefore the newspaper agency has, and the biased
opinion they present the readers with, aiming to persuade them to adopt it as their own.
As a final conclusion, we consider important to go back to our initial
research question: How was Bachelet’s administration portrayed in American and
British broadsheets covering the consequences of the 2010 earthquake in central
Chile according to their underlying ideologies? In this regard, it is possible to
conclude that Bachelet’s administration was portrayed negatively by two out of the six
newspaper articles analyzed and positively by 4 out of the six news articles. That is to
say, right-leaning newspapers articles demonstrated a marked political stance,
criticizing Bachelet’ administration and political skills, and left-leaning news articles
were prone to defend her and her administration.
All of this seems to suggest that there are ideologies that underlie the
representation of news about Michelle Bachelet’s administration and we were able to
attest that the broadsheet newspaper articles we compiled were indeed influenced by
editorial bias.
We think there are two main questions that arise from this study and which are
important for they are subject of public and pedagogical interest. First, is the general
reading audience aware of the underlying ideologies of newspapers? And second,
should we teach our students how to differentiate from the objective account of a fact
from an opinion while reading a news article? Perhaps this last question has deep
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implications for pedagogical matters, as an answer to this question would enable all of
us gain understanding of the resources used by media to transmit hidden affairs.
“Analysis of professional discourse can reveal... power relationships and the goals
that may be hidden in them. Different types of discourse are intended to exploit
consumers, voters, employees, children, women, minorities, and many other
groups within society. An ability to analyse discourse offers such groups a means
of protection.” (Chimombo & Roseberry, 1998, p. x)
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