Cover not available
Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 123/124 (1999) ► pp.1–35

Strategies of constructing meaning

A critical discourse analysis of news on the North Korean nuclear threat

| Department of Linguistics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.)

This study examines the linguistic structures and processes through which news reports about a political issue in South Korea serve to propagate specific ideologies. Critical linguistic analysis is used as the theoretical and analytical framework to examine news reports about the North Korean nuclear threat to South Korea in the New York Times and the Korea Herald. Through a comparative analysis of two newspapers, it illustrates how the linguistic structures and processes in news discourse combine to produce particular meanings which construct ideological representations of social reality by establishing an 'us vs. them' dichotomy from their own particular ideological position. This study makes two contributions. First, it contributes to the development of a theoretical and methodological framework which is capable of revealing the ideological underpinning of news texts. Second, this study demonstrates the ideological role of language within news discourse as an apparatus for molding attitudes and value-systems in readers. This study has an implication for teaching language awareness of the constructive and functional nature of language in general and news discourse in particular in and out of a school setting, (key words : critical linguistic analysis, language awareness, language and ideology, naturalization, propagation)

Published online: 1 January 1999
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.123-124.01jun
References
BROOKES, H.J.
(1995) : Suit, tie and a tough of juju-the ideological construction of Africa : a critical discourse analysis of news on Africa in the British press. Discourse &. Society. 6(4), 461-494. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
CALDAS-COULTHAR, CR. and COULTHARD, M.
(1996) : Texts and Practices : Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. London : Routledge.Google Scholar
CHILTON, P.
(ed. (1985) : Language and the Nuclear Arms Debate : Nukespeak Today. London : Pinter.Google Scholar
CLAYMAN, S.E.
(1990) From text to talk : Newspaper accounts of reporter-source interactions. Media, Culture, and Society. 121, 79-103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
VAN DIJK, T.A.
(ed. (1985) : Handbook of Discourse Analysis. Orlando : Academic Press.Google Scholar
(1988a) : News Analysis : Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
(1988b) : News as Discourse. Hillsdale, NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
(1993) : Elite Discourse and Racism. Newbury Park, CA : Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1994) : Discourse structrues and ideological structures. Papers presented at the international AILA Congress. Amsterdam. August 1993.
VAN DIJK, T.A. and KINTSCH, W.
(1983) : Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. San Diego : Academic Press.Google Scholar
DUNMIRE, P.L.
(1997) : Naturalizing the future in factual discourse. Written Communication. 14(2):221-264. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
FAIRCLOUGH, N.
(1989) : Language and Power. London and New York : LongmanGoogle Scholar
(1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge : Polity Press.Google Scholar
FOWLER, R.
(1991) : Language in the News : Discourse and Ideology in the Press. London and New York.Google Scholar
HACKETT, R.A.
(1984) : Decline of a Paradigm? Bias and Objectivity in News Media Studies. Critical Studies of Mass Communication. 1(3):229-59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
HALL, S.
(1982) : The Rediscovery of Ideology : Return of the Repressed in Media Studies. In J. Curran et al. (eds.), Culture, Society, and the Media. 56-90. London : Methuen.Google Scholar
HALLIDAY, M.A.K.
(1985) : An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London : Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
HALLIDAY, M.A.K. and HASAN, R.
(1989) : Language, Context, and Text : Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Geelong : Deakin University Press; New York : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
HARTLEY, J.
(1982) : Understanding News. New York : Methuen.Google Scholar
HARTMANN, P., HUSBAND, C. and CLARK, J.
(1974) Race as news : A study in the handling of race in the British National Press form 1963-1970. In UNESCO, Race as News, 91-173. Paris : UNESCO.Google Scholar
HERMAN, E.
(1985) : Discovery of News : Marginalizing the Opposition. Journal of Communication. 35 (3) : 135-46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
HERMAN, E. and CHOMSKY, N.
(1988) : Manufacturing Consent. New York : Pantheon.Google Scholar
HODGE, R. and KRESS, G.
(1988) : Social Semiotics. Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
KRESS, G.
(1989) : Linguistic Processes I Sociocultural Practice. Oxford : Oxford Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
VAN LEEUWEN, T.
(1995) : Representing social actions. Discourse and Society. 61:81-106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
THOMPSON, J.B.
(1984) : Studies in the Theory of Ideology. Cambridge : Polity Press.Google Scholar
WODAK, R.
(1991) : Turning the Tables : Antisemitic Discourse Analysis : A Synopsis. Discourse and Society. 4 (2) : 193-223.Google Scholar
WODAK, R. and MATOUSCHEK, B.
(1993) : “We are dealing with people whose origins one can tell just by looking” : Critical discourse and the study of neo-racism in contemporary Austria. Discourse and Society. 4 (2) : 225-48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar