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

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Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60200 6.2 Languages and Literature

Country of publisher

Poland

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

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

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Abstract

V originále

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.