31.159, Review: Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics: Viola, Musolff (2019)
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Subject: 31.159, Review: Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics: Viola, Musolff (2019)
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Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2020 20:47:03
From: Farah Ali [farah636 at gmail.com]
Subject: Migration and Media
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/30/30-2000.html
EDITOR: Lorella Viola
EDITOR: Andreas Musolff
TITLE: Migration and Media
SUBTITLE: Discourses about identities in crisis
SERIES TITLE: Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 81
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2019
REVIEWER: Farah Ali, Gettysburg College
SUMMARY
This edited volume examines public discourse on migrants, and how such
discourse not only positions migrants as the Other, but also constructs crises
of national identity for which migrants are held responsible. Drawing on
fourteen case studies that all employ methods of discourse analysis and focus
on a variety of migrant populations in different parts of the world, this
volume aims to provide a study of how public discourse upholds the reassertion
of “home identity” ideologies and shapes anti-immigration movements.
Additionally, the case studies in this book employ various methods of
discourse analysis, and as such are organized into four parts, each of which
focus on different aspects of discourse analysis, including representational
strategies, argumentation, pragmatic, and figurative strategies, multimodal
and multimedia analyses, and online debates among home community members.
Part I focuses on the representational strategies used to depict migration as
the cause of national identity crises. Chapter 1 (Melani Schröter, Marie
Veniard, Charlotte Taylor, and Andreas Blätte) offers a comparative analysis
of the cultural keywords multicultural and multiculturalism as they appear in
British, French, German, and Italian newspapers articles from 1998-2012. Here,
the authors conclude that these terms are used with distinct connotations,
where multiculturalism is linked to more negative discourse than
multicultural. Chapter 2 (Lorella Viola) similarly uses discourse-historical
methods to analyze the representation of Italian internal migration. Focusing
on the discriminatory keywords polentone (a term associated with those from
Northern Italy) and terrone (referring to those from the South), this chapter
argues a correlation between the greater degree of offensiveness in the term
terrone and the Italian government’s ideologies that have historically favored
the North to the detriment of the South. Chapter 3 (Purificación Sánchez,
Pilar Aguado, and Pascual Pérez-Paredes) examines how the concepts of
immigrants and citizens are operationalized in administrative texts in the UK
and Spain. Employing a collocation analysis of these terms in English and
Spanish, respectively, the authors indicate that while British texts associate
the terms immigrant with control procedures and citizen with entry regulations
and naturalization, Spanish texts associate inmigrante with integration
advocacy and ciudadano with the EU, residence, and access to public services.
Part II continues to look at how discourse relates migration to national
identity crises, but shifts its focus to argumentation, pragmatic, and
figurative strategies. Chapter 4 (Zeynep Cihan Koca-Helvacı) looks at media
attitudes towards immigrants by focusing on two pivotal and distinctive cases
- the death of the three-year-old Syrian refugee, Aylan Kurdi, who drowned in
2015 while his family attempted to reach the Greek island of Kos; and the
Cologne Sexual Assaults, where mass sexual assaults and robberies were
reportedly committed by North African and Arab males on New Year’s Eve in the
same year. Findings from this study suggest that - despite the indication of
media sympathy towards migrants in the first case - in both instances,
isolated events and experiences are used to portray migrants as a homogenous
group; needy and defenseless in the wake of Aylan Kurdi’s death, uncivilized
Muslim males in light of the Cologne Sexual Assaults. Chapter 5 (Piotr Cap)
applies Proximization Theory to examine how anti-immigration political
discourse in Poland discursively construct migrants as an “out-group” that is
conceptually distant from Poland, and Polish citizens as the “in-group” that
forms Polish identity and is contrastive to the “out-group.” This contrast
thus perpetuates “US vs. THEM” ideologies. Chapter 6 (Liudmila Arcimaviciene)
similarly examines the construction of migrants as the Other, and focuses on
the gendered use of metaphors in U.S. and UK online media sources from
2015-2017. Findings from this study illustrate that first, female produced
texts employ metaphorical expressions to describe migration with higher
frequency; second, that there are few differences in the quality of these
metaphors, and that both male and female produced texts rely on metaphors that
negatively evaluate migration and migrants, such as conveying a sense of
immediate crisis and dehumanizing migrants.
Part III focuses on multimodal discourse analyses. Chapter 7 (Eleni Butulussi)
looks at metaphor use in the context of Greek TV discussions from 1996-2016,
and uses a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis, Practical Reasoning
Theory, and Metaphor Analysis to reveal how these metaphors construct migrants
as the Other, which threatens the host community. Chapter 8 (Nadežda Silaški
and Tatjana Đurović) continues the focus on metaphor analysis in the context
of Serbian media texts published in 2015, and looks at the use of the “WALL”
metaphor. Specifically, discourses in this metaphorical category frequently
communicate migrants’ marginalization and a lack of belonging in the EU. Also
focusing on migration in the Balkans, Chapter 9 (Ljiljana Šarić and Tatjana R.
Felberg) investigates representations of migrants in both Croatian and Serbian
public broadcasters’ online portals. Contrary to the findings from the
previous chapter, this study indicates generally positive representations of
migrants, though often these representations involve over-aggregation and
over-spatialization, where discourse focuses heavily on the large numbers of
migrants being hosted in Croatia and Serbia, as well as the physical movements
of migrants. Chapter 10 (Theresa Catalano and Jessica Mitchell-McCollough)
focuses on the representation of a specific group of migrants; namely,
unaccompanied minors from Central America. This study looks at U.S. online
news sources over the course of a year, analyzing media discourse as well as
narratives from migrants themselves. While the authors indicate that the media
produces largely dehumanizing discourse about migrants, discourse from migrant
children focus on stories of survival and being preyed upon.
Finally, Part IV of this volume consists of cases that analyze online debates
and popular opinions about migration. Chapter 11 (Ludmilla A’Beckett) looks at
the representation of Ukranian migrants displaced from the conflict zone in
Eastern Ukraine, drawing on data from Ukranian and Russian media articles,
blogs, and discussion forums. Findings in this study suggest that while
mainstream media in Russia and Ukraine depict migrants sympathetically -
possibly with the purpose of evoking sympathy and/or approval from those from
the disputed conflict zone and/or the global community - participants in
online debates are evidently more negative towards migrants, relying on
abusive and disparaging language that upholds cultural prejudices. Chapter 12
(Michael S. Boyd) looks at the European migrant crisis in the context of an
editorial published by The New York Times, as well as the online responses
posted by its readers. While the editorial argues that immigration in Europe
should be viewed positively rather than as a burden, an analysis of the
comments indicates a clear divergence from this perspective, where readers
indicate varying degrees of disagreement with the views expressed in the
editorial, often doing so through first- and second-person pronominal use in
order to align themselves with other readers and/or to construct a we-group
that separates themselves from migrants. Chapter 13 (Janet M. Fuller) examines
discourses about migrant populations in Germany. Focusing on online responses
to newspaper articles, the prevailing discourse positions Muslim migrants -
specifically, Turks - as the unintegrated Other whose practices are
incompatible with German values. Competing discourses, however, are also
present in these comments, which primarily point out discrimination and
advocate for integration as a two-way process. Finally, Chapter 14 (Andreas
Musolff) draws on data from online discussion forums maintained by the BBC and
assesses popular attitudes towards mass migration in the UK. Using
argumentation theory, pragmatics, and discourse-historical triangulation, this
chapter highlights the pervasive negative attitudes among commentators, which
support monolingualism and monoculturalism, as evidenced by critiques against
migrants for using languages other than English and not adapting to British
culture.
EVALUATION
This book tackles an important topic that merits global attention within and
outside the academic community. Around the world, migration has had a
tremendous impact on public political discourse, often in ways that position
migrants as a national threat to host societies. The case studies presented
here collectively serve as a useful resource for scholars interested in
examining migrant discourse, as well as gaining a better understanding of
discourse analytical methods in a media context.
As an edited volume, each chapter contributes to the discussion on the
representational strategies used in migrant discourse in the media, employing
various analytical methods and focusing on different host societies and
migrant populations, illustrating that attempts to construct a migrant-induced
national identity crisis are a global phenomenon rather than isolated
situations. Moreover, the authors maintain a consistent approach to their
studies by being corpus-based and generally taking a discourse-historical
approach (Wodak 2001) - focusing on the intersection of linguistic, social,
and historical data, and as such, the case studies together read as a very
cohesive volume.
While the central objective of this volume is exploring how media discourse
constructs the migrant Other as a threat to national identity, the editors
also indicate in the introduction that “present-day mass migration patterns
challenge the identity-construction and performance for all communities. The
present volume aims to contribute to overcoming such challenges for self- and
other-understanding.” (p. 8). The authors of this volume achieve these goals,
providing ample qualitative evidence of how public discourse can distance -
and often dehumanize - migrants in a way that positions them as outsiders who
are irreconcilably different from members of the host society. Furthermore,
these case studies show that these imposed identities discursively construct a
threat to home identity. This is especially evident in the metaphor analyses
employed in various chapters, where metaphorical expressions in the media
liken the host society to a “container” with distinct, finite boundaries and
limited capacity, and migrants as “dehumanized” and “natural disasters” that
threaten this container. Still, as demonstrated through the wide range of
studies included in this volume, key concepts in this discussion (such as
migration, multiculturalism, migrants, citizens) are operationalized
differently across sociocultural contexts, which is particularly salient in
the chapters focusing on comparative and/or keyword analyses. This, in turn,
drives home an important takeaway: despite the widespread problematization of
migrant populations in host societies, discourse on this topic is far from
homogenous.
While this volume generally presents a thorough examination of the topic at
hand, one critique that needs to be made is the editorial and stylistic errors
that can be found throughout the text. These issues are minor and limited to
typos and choice of wording, but do, however, occasionally distract from the
reading. Additionally, while the case studies presented in this volume are
thematically cohesive, they do not conform to a uniform structure of
presentation. For example, while all chapters delineate the socio-cultural
context of migration in the relevant host society to some extent, the
thoroughness of this treatment varies across chapters, and occasionally does
not provide sufficient context to a reader who might not already be familiar
with the host society or migrant population in question. As such, having a
section dedicated to providing socio-historical context (present in several
but not all chapters) would better situate readers for understanding the
implications of the studies presented. In the same vein, a more systematic
method for organizing each chapter would also allow for easier comparison
between cases.
Additionally, while each chapter demonstrably offers an important contribution
to current literature relating to migrant discourse, one consistent weakness
in several of the case studies is a lack of attention to justifying
methodological decisions, such as the selection of media sources, specific
host societies, or the use of comparative analyses. Addressing these
methodological choices in greater detail would offer further clarity of the
rationale of each study, and would strengthen the overall quality of this
volume.
Ultimately, this book achieves its goals of examining discourse on the
migration debate and illustrating how this discourse constructs identities -
both of migrant populations as well as national identities in crisis. Drawing
on a diverse range of methods and data sets, the contributors to this
collection provide an in-depth investigation of migrant discourse that
highlights the crucial role of language in constructing a causal relationship
between migration and national identities in crisis. In short, this collection
sheds new light on a timely topic that will likely remain significant for
years to come.
REFERENCES
Wodak, Ruth. 2001. “The Discourse-Historical Approach.’ In Methods of Critical
Discourse Analysis, edited by Ruth Wodak, Michael Meyer, 63-94. London: Sage.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Farah Ali, Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics, is a visiting assistant professor in
the Spanish Department at Gettysburg College. Her research interests include
sociolinguistics, language attitudes, multilingualism, language and gender,
language ideology and policy, and identity and second/heritage language
learning.
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