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

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910807811903321
• Autore: Macgilchrist Felicitas
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Amsterdam ; ; Philadelphia, : John Benjamins Co., 2011
• ISBN: 1-283-00659-6; 9786613006592; 90-272-8730-9
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (264 p.)
• Collana: Discourse approaches to politics, society and culture, , 1569-9463 ; ; 40
• Disciplina: 070.4/49947086
• Soggetti: Discourse analysis - Political aspects - Europe; Discourse analysis - Political aspects - United States; Foreign news - Political aspects - Europe; Foreign news - Political aspects - United States; Mass media and language - Europe; Mass media and language - United States; Russia (Federation) Press coverage Europe; Russia (Federation) Press coverage United States
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: 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.
• Sommario/riassunto: 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.