The representation of sex work in the Greek Press
A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis
The representation of sex work in the media has received little to no attention in the field of linguistics and
discourse analysis. Given that news discourse can have a huge impact on public opinions, ideologies and norms, and the setting of
political agendas and policies (van Dijk 1989), the study adopts a Corpus-Assisted
Critical Discourse Analysis (CACDA) approach (Baker, Gabrielatos, KhosraviNik, Krzyżanowski,
McEnery & Wodak 2008), seeking to explore whether journalists reproduce or challenge negative stereotypes vis-à-vis
sex work. Examining 82 articles published in three Greek newspapers (Kathimerini, TA NEA, Efimerida ton
Syntakton) in 2017, this paper considers the lexico-grammatical choices that are typically involved in the representation
of sex work and sex workers in the Press. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics, the Discourse Historical Approach and corpus
linguistics, the analysis links the textual findings (micro-level context) with the discourse practice context (meso-context) as
well as the social context in which sex work occurs (macro-context). Findings illustrate that although sex work in Greece has been
legalised for about two decades, traces of abolitionist discourses can be found in the Press, building barriers in the
emancipatory efforts of sex workers who stand up for having equal civil and labour rights as their fellow citizens.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Representations of sex work in print media
- 2.2Feminism, legal frameworks and sex work in Greece
- 3.The corpus
- 3.1The newspapers
- 3.2The query terms
- 4.Terms related to sex work
- 5.Representations of sex work and sex workers
- 5.1Collocations of the lemma πορνεία “prostitution”
- 5.2Representations of sex work(ers) in Kathimerini and Ta Nea
- 5.3Representations of sex work(ers) in Efimerida ton Syntakton (EFSYN)
- 6.Conclusions
- Notes
-
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