Linguistics and Language Practice

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Browsing Linguistics and Language Practice by Author "Els, Christina Aletta"

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    In the aftermath of xenophobia: a critical discourse analysis
    (University of the Free State, 2014-07) Els, Christina Aletta; Kriel, M.; Weideman, A. J.
    English: While evidence confirms that print media in South Africa has contributed to the development of a xenophobic environment (McDonald and Jacobs, 2005:306; Danso and McDonald, 2001:124), particularly in the manner in which the media has stigmatised non-nationals, this does not necessarily imply that the print media was complicit in the xenophobic outbreaks of April/May 2008 (Smith, 2011:111). However, an investigation into the representation of non-nationals in the print media is nevertheless a lacuna that needs to be addressed (Smith, 2010:188). The focus of this study is on the discursive representations of non-nationals in the tabloid, the Daily Sun, during April to May 2008 –it focuses not only on the way in which the Daily Sun represented the ‘Other’, but also identifies some of the underlying ideologies that underpin these representations. The tabloid phenomenon, which presented itself in post-1994, has created a new trend of inclusivity in South African society in that previously marginalised groups have now, for the first time, been targeted as a viable market. The Daily Sun has been instrumental in providing people, who have been voiceless under apartheid, with a sense of identity by providing access to affordable newspapers. By the same token the Daily Sun has been accused of stoking the fires of xenophobia by means of uncritical and biased reporting. This led to a formal complaint against the newspaper in 2008, spearheaded by the Media Monitoring Project (nowadays MMA). These contradictions, as Wasserman (2007:791) points out, are characteristic of a society “in rapid and unequal transition and the tabloid media as commercial entities reliant on a public caught between history and progress…”. The researcher, working within the frame of Critical Discourse Analysis, draws a parallel, although not necessarily a causal link, between the xenophobic pogroms of May 2008 and the discursive representations of the tabloid, the Daily Sun, during April to May 2008