{"title":"A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the representation of Syrian refugees in Canadian newspapers","authors":"Nasim Omidian Sijani","doi":"10.1177/17504813231156748","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the representation of Syrian refugees in the Canadian press, from December 2015 to December 2017, in four English-language major newspapers. Using methods of Corpus Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study found three prominent themes, namely intake, integration, and concern, through which Syrian refugees are depicted across the political spectrum. The results indicate that adopting a more inclusive immigration policy did not totally negate the biased and discriminatory representations entrenched in the media coverage of refugees, but it can set the stage for more empowering and sympathetic treatment of refugees in the media. This analysis speaks to the importance of media discourse in producing and maintaining particular depictions of refugees among the Canadian public, highlighting the role of ideological and political stances in the portrayals of refugees across news outlets.","PeriodicalId":46726,"journal":{"name":"Discourse & Communication","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Discourse & Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17504813231156748","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper examines the representation of Syrian refugees in the Canadian press, from December 2015 to December 2017, in four English-language major newspapers. Using methods of Corpus Linguistics (CL) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study found three prominent themes, namely intake, integration, and concern, through which Syrian refugees are depicted across the political spectrum. The results indicate that adopting a more inclusive immigration policy did not totally negate the biased and discriminatory representations entrenched in the media coverage of refugees, but it can set the stage for more empowering and sympathetic treatment of refugees in the media. This analysis speaks to the importance of media discourse in producing and maintaining particular depictions of refugees among the Canadian public, highlighting the role of ideological and political stances in the portrayals of refugees across news outlets.
期刊介绍:
Discourse & Communication is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles that pay specific attention to the qualitative, discourse analytical approach to issues in communication research. Besides the classical social scientific methods in communication research, such as content analysis and frame analysis, a more explicit study of the structures of discourse (text, talk, images or multimedia messages) allows unprecedented empirical insights into the many phenomena of communication. Since contemporary discourse study is not limited to the account of "texts" or "conversation" alone, but has extended its field to the study of the cognitive, interactional, social, cultural.