The Discursive Identities of Hamas and Israel in British Newspapers: A Socio-cognitive Analysis

Raed Al-Ramahi, Radzuwan Ab. Rashid

Abstract


This article investigates the discursive construction of identities in media discourse, focusing on how British newspapers portrayed Israel and Hamas following October 7th. This study, grounded in van Dijk's socio-cognitive frameworks, used a thematic approach to analyse a dataset of 150 news story headlines from 11 British newspapers. The data collection period extended from October 7th to October 15th, 2023. Data analysis reveals that headlines frequently employ specific discursive strategies to depict Israel as a victim and Hamas as a terrorist organisation. The strategies include polarisation, concretisation, compassion move, negative comparison, norm and value violations, self-identity descriptions, negative lexicalisation, victimisation, hyperbole, and warning. The findings show that the discursive strategies deeply related to mental models were used to generate power by polarising Israel as a victim, which can influence the thoughts of news receivers globally. Portraying Israel as a victim bolsters Israel’s positive self-image while simultaneously creating a negative picture of the Hamas organisation. The media’s incessant depiction of Israel as a victim, with a particular emphasis on the psychological conditions of Israelis, could potentially shape a widespread perception and collective understanding of the country as being victimised. By providing insights into the discursive construction of terrorists and victims, this study is hoped to contribute to a greater understanding of how media discourse constructs identities.

 

Keywords: terrorism; qualitative; discourse analysis; agenda setting; conflict


Full Text:

PDF

References


Alexander, Y. (1976). International terrorism: National, regional, and global perspectives Praeger Publisher.

Alfano, M., & Görlach, J. S. (2023). Terrorism, media coverage, and education: Evidence from al-Shabaab attacks in Kenya. Journal of the European Economic Association, 21(2), 727-763. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvac054

Alluhaidah, M. (2023). A critical discourse analysis of Al Jazeera’s online coverage of the war in Yemen before and after the June 5th 2017 Gulf crisis. Discourse & Communication, 17(5), 553-589. https://doi.org/10.1177/17504813231163769

Alo, M., & Orimogunje, A. (2013). Discourse strategies and ideology in selected radio lead news Of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature, The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 19(2), 111-123.

Altheide, D. L. (2007). The mass media and terrorism. Discourse & Communication, 1(3), 287-308. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307079207

Amir, R. (2012). Who is afraid of historical redress? The Israeli victim-perpetrator dichotomy. Academic Studies Press.

Aquino, K., & Byron, K. (2002). Dominating interpersonal behaviour and perceived victimization In groups: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship. Journal of Management, 28(1), 69–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920630202800105

Bar-Tal, D., Chernyak-Hai, L., Schori, N., & Gundar, A. (2009). A sense of self-perceived Collective victimhood in intractable conflicts. International Review of the Red Cross, 91(874), 229–258. https://doi:10.1017/S1816383109990221

Berbrier, M. (2000). The victim ideology of white supremacists and white separatists in the United States. Sociological Focus, 33(2), 175–191. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20832074

Chiluwa, I., & Chiluwa, I. M. (2022). ‘Deadlier than Boko Haram’: Representations of the Nigerian herder–farmer conflict in the local and foreign press. Media, War & Conflict, 15(1), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635220902490

Dashorst, P., Mooren, T. M., Kleber, R. J., de Jong, P. J., & Huntjens, R. J. C. (2019). Intergenerational consequences of the Holocaust on offspring mental health: A systematic review of associated factors and mechanisms. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10(1), 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2019.1654065

Fohring, S. (2018). Introduction to the special issue: Victim identities and hierarchies. International Review of Victimology, 24(2), 147-149. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269758018755152

Gentry, J. A. (2018). The instrumental use of norms in war: Impact on strategies and strategic outcomes. Comparative Strategy, 37(1), 35–48

Gonen, Y., Tenenboim-Weinblatt, K., & Kampf, Z. (2022). Mediating the opponent’s news: A Study of inter-media citations in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Media, War & Conflict, 15(3), 334-352. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750635220953656

Gyollai, D. (2022). The sociocognitive approach in critical discourse studies and the phenomenological sociology of knowledge: Intersections. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 21(3), 539–558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-020-09704-z

Håkansson, J. (2012). The use of personal pronouns in political speeches: A comparative study of the pronominal choices of two American presidents [Unpublished B.A. dissertation]. Linnaeus University.

Hall, S. (1982). The rediscovery of ideology: Return of the repressed in media studies. In, T. Bennett, J. Curran, et al. (Eds.), Culture, media and society (pp 59-90). Routledge.

Hase, V. (2023). What is terrorism (according to the news)? How the German press selectively labels political violence as “terrorism”. Journalism, 24(2), 398-417. https://doi.org/10.1177/14648849211017003

Idsoe, T., Vaillancourt, T., Dyregrov, A., Hagen, K., Ogden, T., & Nærde, A. (2021). Bullying victimization and trauma. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11(480353): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.480353

Juan, L. (2009). Intertextuality and national identity: Discourse of national conflicts in daily newspapers in the United States and China. Discourse & Society, 20(1), 85-121. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508097096

Kuperman, A., & Crawford, T. (2006). Gambling on humanitarian intervention. Routledge.

McCarty, N. (2019). Polarization: What everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press.

Nigatu, B. A. (2023). War on paper: A critical discourse analysis of war reporting in Ethiopia. Heliyon, 9(7), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17857

Noor, M., Vollhardt, J. R., Mari, S., & Nadler, A. (2017). The social psychology of collective Victimhood. European Journal of Social Psychology, 47(2), 121–134. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2300

Ononiwu, C. (2024). Ideology and cognitive stereotypes in media representation of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Media, War & Conflict, 17(2), 231-247. https://doi.org/10.1177/17506352231201743

Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Sage.

Rapoport, D. C. (1977). The government is up in the air over combating terrorism. National Journal, 9, 1853–1856.

Rosidi, N. S., & Jamil, S. N. M. (2024). “Greetings from hell (neraka kirim salam)”: A discourse analysis of religious-based cyberbullying of dehijabis. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 9(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol9iss1pp1-24

Saul, B. (2006). Defining terrorism in international law. Oxford University Press.

Simon, J. D. (1994). The terrorist trap: America’s experience with terrorism. Indiana University Press.

Stamkou, E., van Kleef, G. A., Homan, A. C., Gelfand, M. J., van de Vijver, F. J. R., van Egmond,

M. C., Boer, D., Phiri, N., Ayub, N., Kinias, Z., Cantarero, K., Efrat Treister, D., Figueiredo, A., Hashimoto, H., Hofmann, E. B., Lima, R. P., & Lee, I.-C. (2019). Cultural collectivism and tightness moderate responses to norm violators: Effects on power perception, moral emotions, and leader support. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,

(6), 947-964. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218802832

Tasseron, M. (2023). Reporting under the microscope in Israel-Palestine and South Africa. Journalism Practice, 17(5): 970-990. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2021.1966643

Udenze, S. (2022). Constructing identity and communality on a social media platform: an exploration of #igbotwitter tweets. Journal Communication Spectrum: Capturing New Perspectives in Communication, 12(1), 11-28. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36782/jcs.v11i2.2120

van Dijk, T. A. (1988). News as discourse. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

van Dijk, T. A. (1995). Ideological discourse analysis. In E. Ventola, & A. Solin (Eds.), Interdisciplinary approaches to discourse analysis (pp. 57-154). University of Helsinki.

van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Opinions and ideologies in the press. In A. Bell, & P. Garrett (Eds.), Approaches to media discourse (pp. 21–63). Blackwell Publishers.

van Dijk, T. A. (2000). Ideology and discourse: A multidisciplinary introduction. Pompeu Fabra University

van Dijk, T. A. (2001). Multidisciplinary CDA: A plea for diversity. In R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 95-120). Sage.

van Dijk, T. A. (2006b). Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society, 17(3), 359-383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506060250

van Dijk, T. A. (2006a). Ideology and discourse analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(2), 115–140.

van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Critical discourse studies: A socio-cognitive approach. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, 2(1), 62-86.

van Dijk, T. A. (2011). Discourse, knowledge, power and politics: Towards a critical epistemic discourse analysis. In C. Hart (Ed.), Critical discourse studies in context and cognition (pp. 27-63). Benjamins Publishing Company.

van Dijk, T. A. (2014). Discourse and knowledge: A socio-cognitive approach. Cambridge University Press.

van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse studies: A socio-cognitive approach. In R. Wodak, & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse studies (pp.62–85). Sage.

van Dijk, T. A. (2018). Socio-cognitive discourse studies. In J. Flowerdew, & J. E. Richardson (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of critical discourse studies (pp. 26-43). Routledge.

Vollhardt, J. R. (2015). Inclusive victim consciousness in advocacy, social movements, and intergroup relations: Promises and pitfalls. Social Issues and Policy Review, 9(1), 89–120. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12011

Wahl-Jorgensen, K., Berry, M., Garcia-Blanco, I., Bennett, L., & Cable, J. (2017). Rethinking Balance and impartiality in journalism? How the BBC attempted and failed to change the paradigm. Journalism, 18(7), 781-800. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916648094

Wenden, A. (2005). The politics of representation: A critical discourse analysis of an Al Jazeera Special Report. International Journal of Peace Studies, 10(2), 89–112.Zheltukhina, M. R., Kislitsyna, N. N., Tameryan, T. Y., Baranova, K. M., Chupryna, O. G.,

Sergeeva, O. V. (2023). Identity construction and self-identification of the protagonist in the film media discourse: Multi-modal linguo-semiotic approach. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 13(3), 1-18.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/3L-2024-3003-01

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


 

 

 

eISSN : 2550-2247

ISSN : 0128-5157