Verbal and Visual Representation of 'US' and 'THEM': British Front-Page News on the Iraq War

CHOVANEC, Jan. Verbal and Visual Representation of 'US' and 'THEM': British Front-Page News on the Iraq War. In 2nd International Conference on Political Linguistics (PL2009) (Lodz). 2009.

Basic information

• Original name: Verbal and Visual Representation of 'US' and 'THEM': British Front-Page News on the Iraq War
• Name in Czech: Verbální a vizuální reprezentace "My" a "Oni": Válečný konflikt na titulních stranách britského tisku
• Authors: CHOVANEC, Jan (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: 2nd International Conference on Political Linguistics (PL2009) (Lodz), 2009.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 60200 6.2 Languages and Literature
• Country of publisher: Poland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/09:00056348
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• Keywords (in Czech): kritická analýza diskurzu; multimodalita; bulvární tisk; titulní strana; metafora; inkompatibilita; diskurzní strategie
• Keywords in English: critical analysis of discourse; multimodality; tabloid press; front page; metaphor; incompatibility; discourse strategy
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Using a set of front pages of British newspapers from the period of the current war in Iraq, the presentation offers a multi-modal analysis of the way visual images and verbal text are used in the media to categorize individuals. It is noted how the interplay between the images on the front pages and the verbalizations of the events in headlines explicitly and implicitly constructs two opposed groups, i.e., "us" and "them". The pictorial and verbal categorization of the two groups draws on a broad range of constrasts such as "human" vs "animal", "presence of civilization" vs "absence of civilization", "pleasure" vs "pain", etc. The mutual incompatibility of such categories underlies the perceived incompatibility of the two groups. It is also shown that, although such contrasts are typically subject to affective polarization, i.e., the depiction of the in-group and the out-group in terms of positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation, the contrasts can also be used subversively by the media, e.g., to question the positive values and the self-image that a group typically holds about itself.