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Representing the Other in European Media Discourses
Edited by Jan Chovanec and Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 74] 2017
► pp. 157–182

Chapter 7
Negotiating an identity

The mediated discursive self-representation of the Polish immigrant community in the UK

The chapter investigates the mediated entextualizations of the identities of Polish immigrants to the UK in the period of post-crisis politics and economic reforms. The media discourse studied is collected from MojaWyspa.co.uk (MyIsland), one of the largest Polish-language online hubs designed for the substantial Polish community living on the British Isles. The study shows which discursive strategies of othering are employed to delimit the Polish immigrants’ collective identity, which self/other-presentation techniques are used, and how this group identity is legitimized argumentatively. It examines the linguistic realizations of self/other reference, active/passive and positive/negative predication strategies, topoi and argumentative schema for self-legitimization and various framing devices, as well as the mitigation of the sense of identity crisis through temporality. It reveals the diversity of Polish immigrants’ self-presentation techniques and proves the Polish migrant identity to be in the process of renegotiation.
Keywords: collective identity, self/other representation, othering, discursive construction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.National identity and negotiation – a review of theoretical perspectives
  • 3.Othering as a technique of self-presentation – methodological approaches
  • 4.Analysis of self/other-presentation techniques on MojaWyspa’s Pole on the Isle
    • 4.1Post-2004 Polish migration to the UK and scope of the Polish-language media
    • 4.2Description of MojaWyspa and the thematic scope of the sample
    • 4.3Results of quantitative and qualitative analysis
      • 4.3.1Reference
      • 4.3.2Predication and argumentation
      • 4.3.3Perspectivization and framing
      • 4.3.4Mitigation and intensification
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 23 November 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.74.08mol
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