Journalism and the political : discursive tensions in news coverage of Russia / Felicitas Macgilchrist.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Macgilchrist, Felicitas.

Series:

Discourse approaches to politics, society, and culture ; 40.

Discourse approaches to politics, society and culture, 1569-9463 ; 40

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discourse analysis--Political aspects--Europe.

Discourse analysis.

Discourse analysis--Political aspects--United States.

Foreign news--Political aspects--Europe.

Foreign news.

Foreign news--Political aspects--United States.

Mass media and language--Europe.

Mass media and language.

Mass media and language--United States.

Russia (Federation)--Press coverage--Europe.

Russia (Federation).

Russia (Federation)--Press coverage--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (264 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Co., 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Journalism is often thought of as the 'fourth estate' of democracy. This book suggests that journalism plays a more radical role in politics, and explores new ways of thinking about news media discourse. It develops an approach to investigating both hegemonic discourse and discursive fissures, inconsistencies and tensions. By analysing international news coverage of post-Soviet Russia, including the Beslan hostage-taking, Gazprom, Litvinenko and human rights issues, it demonstrates the (re)production of the 'common-sense' social order in which one particular area of the world is more developed, civilized and democratic than other areas. However, drawing on Laclau, Mouffe and other post-foundational thinkers, it also suggests that journalism is precisely the site where the instability of this global social order becomes visible. The book should be of interest to scholars of discourse analysis, journalism and communication studies, cultural studies and political science, and to anyone interested in 'positive' discourse analysis and practical counter-discursive strategies.

Contents:

Journalism and the Political

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

1.1. Theoretical orientation

1.2. Research strategy

1.3. Russia

1.4. Foreign news

part I

Developing a story

2.1. Corpus: NGO legislation

2.2. Chains of equivalence

2.3. Lexical variability

2.4. Nodal points

2.5. Summary

Pragmatic deconstruction

3.1. Corpus: Gazprom-Ukraine

3.2. Regularities and fissures

3.2.1 A threat

3.2.2 The (new) Cold War

3.2.3 Putin's war

3.3. Alternative accounts

3.4. Threat discourse and economic discourse

3.5. Summary

The circulation of discourse

4.1. Corpus: Litvinenko

4.2. Linguistic/semiotic mechanisms

4.2.1 Preformulation

4.2.2 Category Entitlement

4.2.3 Iconic images and the mind of a photo editor

4.2.4 Tensions: Family, friends and PR

4.2.5 Nodal points

4.2.6 News practices

4.3. Alternatives

4.4. Summary

Metaphorical politics

5.1. Corpus and stake inoculation

5.2. Nation-as-family

5.2.1 Strict father

5.2.2 Nurturant parent

5.2.3 Our family home' or the West and the rest

5.2.4 Press coverage 1995-2004

5.3. Budennovsk, southern Russia, 14 June 1995

5.3.1 Contextualisation

5.3.2 The coverage

5.4. Dagestan, 2 August 1999

5.4.1 The coverage

5.5. Dubrovka theatre, Moscow, 23 October 2002

5.5.1 The coverage

5.6. Beslan, 1 September 2004

5.6.1 The coverage

5.7. Social imaginary

5.8. Summary

Part II

Responsibility management

6.1. Allocating responsibility for news stories on Russo-Chechen crises

6.1.1 Establishing authority

6.1.2 Category entitlement

6.1.3 Eyewitness authority

6.1.4 Active voicing

6.2. Allocating responsibility within news stories on Russo-Chechen crises

6.2.1 Distributing agency.

6.2.2 Managing responsibility

6.2.2.1 Amplifying

6.2.2.2 Assigning

6.2.2.3 Mitigating

6.2.2.4 Backgrounding

6.2.2.5 Omitting

6.3 Combining responsibility within and for news stories

6.3.1 Agency sources

6.3.2 First person stories

6.4. Summary

Balance and binaries

7.1. Balance, fairness and conflict

7.2. Entextualizing balance

7.2.1 Versions of events

7.2.2 Discursive work

7.2.3 An opening for further causal factors

7.3. Three threats: Terrorism, militancy and savagery

7.3.1 International terrorism

7.3.2 Islamic militancy

7.3.3 Islamic savagery and a dysfunction in the soul of Islam

7.3.3.1 Dysfunction in the soul of Islam

7.3.3.2 Ultimately, the threat derives from Russia

7.3.3.3 Islamic savagery

7.4. Summary

Complexity reduction

8.1. History, ethnicity and 'entrepreneurs of violence'

8.2. Historical dis/embedding

8.2.1 An old conflict

8.2.2 Alternative starting points

8.3. Highlanderisation and familiarisation

8.3.1 Budennovsk: Ideological square

8.3.2 Dagestan: Sourcing

8.3.2 Dubrovka: Circular causality

8.3.4 Beslan: Sequentiality

8.4. Alternatives

8.5. Summary

Part III

Positive' discourse analysis

9.1. Counter-discourse

9.2. Counter-discursive strategies

9.2.1 Negation

9.2.2 Parody

9.2.3 Complexification

9.2.3.1 Balancing two sets of facts

9.2.3.2 Inclusion of the excluded

9.2.3.3 Challenges of complexification

9.2.4 Partial reframing

9.2.5 Radical reframing

9.3. Visualising technologies

9.3.1 Linguistics: Conceptual blending

9.3.2 Psychology: The curiosity gap

9.3.3 Media practices

9.3.4 Discourse theory

9.4. Summary

Concluding thoughts

10.1 Events

10.2. Journalists

10.3. Society and the political

10.4. Research process

10.4.1 Passions

10.4.2 Processes

References.

Index

The series Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613006592

9781283006590

1283006596

9789027287304

9027287309

OCLC:

710043978