Introduction

Critical Discourse Analysis “analyses the way social-power abuse and inequality are enacted, legitimated, and resisted by texts in the social and political context” (van Dijk 2015: 466). This portfolio will investigate how relations of social power and inequality are expressed in different discourses.

 

Task 1

This exercise will focus on an article from the Daily Mail, which details the events of a racist hate crime that occurred at a Wetherspoons pub in the UK. Transitivity analysis, which identifies who performs actions in clauses and who these actions are performed on, will be employed to explore the power relations between participants and the ideas expressed concerning race (Ong’onda 2016: 79).

 

Material processes describe concrete or metaphorical actions (Simpson et al. 2018: 75). In the extract, Mr D’arcy Smith (MDS) produces only four material processes, which have no ‘goal’ (11, 12b, 21c) (Halliday 2014). This sharply contrasts the concrete material processes produced by Louie Kincella (LK) and the Police, indicating that MDS’ actions are constrained: as a black man in British society, MDS is denied the freedom to act uninhibitedly in the same way that his white counterparts are able to. Though this does somewhat render MDS to the sympathetic role of the victim, this unequal distribution of material processes primarily serves to reinforce the powerlessness of black people in white society (Teo 2000: 13). Moreover, contrary to Teo’s initial (2000: 13) claims, the writer’s use of the agentless passive construction fails to completely diminish the agentive role of LK or the Police in clauses where their roles as actors are inferred (16a, 16b, 18b, 18c). This agentless passive construction instead serves to reinforce the omnipotent power of white society, because it demonstrates society’s refusal to hold white offenders and historically white institutions accountable for their actions. Whereas, MDS is consistently named in clauses in which he produces material processes. Thus, the writer reinforces the narrative that, unlike white people, black people should always be held accountable for their actions— regardless of whether they are threatening or not.

 

Nonetheless, the distribution of verbal processes, which “show activities related to information”, challenges this imbalance in power (Ong’onda 2016: 83 cites Saragih 2010). For instance, LK produces five verbal processes and MDS respectively produces four. Teo (2000: 23) claims that “[verbal processes] are a gate-keeping device to admit those in positions of power… and silence minorities who are quoted with suspicion in newspaper reporting”. Hence, this equal distribution of verbal processes indicates that the writer is attempting to remain neutral and balanced— which is unexpected when encountering racial discourse in right-wing media. Furthermore, it is LK’s verbal processes that are plagued with “suspicion and distance” (24a, 25e) instead of MDS’ (Teo 2000: 23). This suggests that the writer, in fact, supports MDS and perceives him to be more rational than LK.

 

This idea is further supported by the fact that MDS produces four mental processes (which denote perception, cognition, affection, and desire) in comparison to LK who only produces one (5b, 14a, 15a, 15b, 26a) (Ong’onda 2016: 82). While this dismantles the archetypical roles ascribed to black and white participants, the writer’s casting of LK in the ‘negative agentive role’ (Lams 2019: 90) serves to ‘other’ LK and suggest that this incident is merely an anomaly because ordinary white people would never act in such a way (Simpson et al 2018: 26). Additionally, it is important to note that while other black participants do appear in the article, they are given no agency and are merely the ‘goal’ of racists’ actions (7a, 7b). Therefore, the writer’s decision to give verbal agency to MDS is, in fact, not unexpected for a right-wing article, because by making MDS the primary ‘sayer’ (and ‘goal’) in relation to other participants, the writer “turns [this incident] into a personal tragedy… preventing political considerations of widespread racial inequality and its broader implications” (Simpson et al. 2018: 26).

 

In conclusion, this analysis has revealed that right-wing media outlets strategically lessen the agency of white offenders and increase the agency of black victims to minimise the impacts of racism and therefore prevent broader changes to social and political systems in the UK.

 

Task 2

Social Actor Analysis “explores the ideological effects that language has on the way different social actors (i.e. participants in a text that are doing things or those that are having something done to them) are perceived (Darics and Koller 2019: 220; Koller 2010 cites Van Leeuwen 1996). This framework will be used to investigate how the writer of a Breitbart

article conveys ideologies about migrants in the UK.

 

Throughout the article, the writer attempts to dehumanize the ‘migrants’ through strategic impersonalisation choices. Most notably, ‘migrants’ are collectivised through the use of politically loaded plural nouns (‘economic migrants’ ‘illegal aliens’ and ‘illegal entrants’) which serve to distance them from the reader and enforce a narrative of ‘us vs them’ (van Leeuwen 1996: 50). Moreover, the writer’s decision to categorize them as ‘migrants’ rather than ‘asylum seekers’ or ‘refugees’ is typical of right-wing media— “delegitimizing the dire political and personal circumstances” that forced them to migrate in the first place— casting them as a homogenous, deviant group (Eberl et al. 2018: 210). Additionally, the migrants are further dehumanised by the writer’s relentless use of aggregation, i.e. referring to participants as statistics (van Leeuwen 1996: 50): “nearly 7,000 third world migrants”. Aggregation is employed to further justify the concerns of anti-migrant participants by making the migrants “the object of ‘rational’ economic calculation” (van Leeuwen 1996: 50). This idea is further supported by the fact that the migrants are undeniably represented as active and dynamic forces (i.e. activation) throughout the article (van Leeuwen 1996: 43). For instance, the migrants are said to have “illegally crossed” and “[broken] into Britain”. As Darics and Koller (2019: 218) claim, “active participants play a key role in creating our social world because, although agents can be influenced or restricted by rules, they have the possibility to dissent— changing the very structures of society and consequently social reality”. Therefore, the writer purposefully casts the migrants in the dominant active role to portray them as a threatening force and to legitimise the concerns of critics who believe that they are ‘protecting’ British society from a dangerous threat.

 

Though the writer also uses impersonalisation strategies to represent certain British social actors, the ideological effect for these participants is much more positive compared to the migrants. For instance, ‘experts’ are collectivised (“reports”, “his sources”) to signal their agreement, indicating that their claims are valid— giving them an indisputable sense of authority over the public’s powers of discernment (van Leeuwen 1996: 50). Furthermore, they are later formally nominated (i.e. represented through proper nouns) and functionalised (i.e. represented by their occupation or social activity): ”Mr Farage”, “the Conservative MP” (Simpson et al 2018: 81). While this humanises these figures, these strategies are primarily utilised to reinforce the authority of the government. This is further supported by the fact that they are the only ones to be afforded verbal agency, highlighting that their political stance is the only one that matters (Simpson et al. 2018: 82).

 

The overwhelming power of the Conservative government is further amplified by the opposition created between itself and the Home Office and the French. Although these social actors are often represented in the active role, they are consistently represented as incompetent and are objects of frustration for the British government: “criticised the French for failing to do more”. Thus, the writer justifies the concern of the Conservatives, because other seemingly powerful institutions are unable to effectively handle the migrant crisis.

 

In conclusion, through personalisation and impersonalisation strategies, the writer suggests that the Conservatives are the only justified and competent social actors by distancing the reader from not only the migrants, but also those who appear to be coordinating with the migrants and acting against the interests of both the government and British public.

 

 

 

Task 3

Multimodal analysis aims to investigate how different semiotic resources work together to convey particular ideologies. This framework will be used to discuss the gender-based ideologies expressed in a Brawny advertising campaign, Strength Has No Gender (Jones 2012).

 

The ideational metafunction refers to the way in which language and other communicative resources express ideas about the world (Jewitt and Oyama 2001: 141 cites Halliday 2014). In Figure 1, there are three female participants of different ages and ethnicities: a young white woman, an ethnically ambiguous middle-aged woman, and an elderly black woman. These women signify the ‘tomboy’ because, on the basis of certain visual semantic features (assertive poses, plaid-shirts and leather belts), the viewer assigns them to the category of ‘tomboy’. This idea is further supported by the fact that the participants are placed in an outdoor landscape, unsettling the patriarchal system that designates women to indoor spaces. Moreover, it is important to note that the women dominate this physical space: the women tower over trees and mountains, which are used as symbolic structures to demonstrate their astounding physical strength and virality— traits traditionally associated with men (Jewitt and Oyama 2001: 144). While this representation appears to be positive, the image suggests that women must adopt traditionally male hobbies and behaviours in order to be deemed strong.

 

The interpersonal metafunction refers to the patterns of interactions between participants (Stoian 2015: 140 cites Kress & van Leeuwen 2006). Figure 1 can be categorised as on ‘offer’ image, given that the participants faces are mostly out of frame and there is no ‘gaze’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006: 116-120). Though this somewhat detaches them from the viewer, the women’s defiant postures (i.e. hands on hips and arms crossed) challenges the viewer to dismantle their preconceptions about the relationship between strength and gender (Jewitt and Oyama 2001: 141). With this in mind, one may suggest that Brawny attempts to present the participants as almost divine symbols of strength through their powerful and somewhat anonymous portrayal. Nonetheless, this idea is somewhat discredited by the warm smile of the young white woman because it sharply contrasts the hyper-masculine image initially perceived. In addition to this, when re-examining the ideational metafunction, it is clear that there are some visual semantic features that denote femininity (lipstick and hairstyle) (Jewitt and Oyama 2001: 141). Therefore, the version of strength presented is, perhaps, less rigid than initially thought and, perhaps, showcases that to be deemed strong, women can simultaneously exhibit masculine and feminine qualities.

 

However, when examining the textual metafiction (which brings together the individual bits of representation and interaction into the kind of wholes we recognize as specific kinds of communicative events), it is clear that one version of femininity is deemed more appropriate than others (Jewitt and Oyama 2001: 141). For instance, the young pale female is at the centre of the image, while the darker-skinned older women are in the margins, suggesting that their position in society is less important and does not matter. This is important because it highlights how mainstream campaigns for gender equality often overlook and marginalise the struggles of women of colour— a clear example of white feminism (Christian et al. 2007). This is further evidenced by the fact that the white woman overlaps her counterparts in the image and takes up space— highlighting the limited opportunities for women of colour in comparison to their white counterparts. Thus, while the campaign attempts to be diverse in its representation of female strength, it reinforces the traditional power imbalance between white women and those of other ethnic backgrounds. Furthermore, the fact that the women backgrounded also appear to be older, demonstrates the campaigns overall advocation for the strength and empowerment of younger women over older women.

 

In conclusion, while this image presents a somewhat progressive view about the relationship between strength and gender, the same is not necessarily true for the ideologies expressed regarding race and age.

 

 

References

Christian, B., Bowels, G., Fabi, M. G., and Keizar, A. R. (2007) New Black Feminist Criticism, 1985-2000. Urbana: University Of Illinois Press

Darics, E., and Koller, V. (2019) Social Actors “to Go”: An Analytical Toolkit to Explore Agency in Business Discourse and Communication. [online] available from <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2329490619828367#articleCitationDownloadContainer> [24 October 2020]

Eberl, J. M., Meltzer, C. E., Heidenreich, T., Herrero, B., Theorin, N., Lind, F., Berganza, R., Boomgaarden, H. G., Schemer, C. and Strömbäck, J. (2018) The European Media discourse on immigration and its Effects: A Literature Review. [online] available from <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23808985.2018.1497452?scroll=top&needAccess=true> [24 October 2020]

Halliday, M. A. K. (2014) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. New York: Routledge

Jewitt, C., and Oyama, R. (2001). ‘Visual Meaning: A Social Semiotic Approach’. in Handbook of Visual Analysis. ed. by van Leeuwen, T. and Jewitt, C. New York: Sage Publications, 134-156

Jones, R. (2012) Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge

Koller, V. (2010) Analysing collective identity in discourse: social actors and contexts. [online] available from <https://journals.openedition.org/semen/8877> [24 October 2020]

Kress, G., and Van Leeuwen, T. (2006) Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge

Lams, L. (2019) Agency and Power in the Dutch-Language News Coverage of the Summer 2015 Refugee Situation in Europe: A Transitivity Analysis of Semantic Roles. [online] available from < https://www.jstor.org/ > [24 October 2020]

Ong’onda, N. (2016) Transitivity Analysis of Newspaper Headlines on Terrorism Attack in Kenya: A Case Study of Westgate Mall, Nairobi. [online] available from < http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_6_No_9_September_2016/10.pdf > [24 October 2020]

Simpson, P., Mayr, A., and Statham, S. (2018). Language and power. Oxford: Taylor and Francis

Teo, P. (2000) Racism in the News: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reporting in Two Australian Newspapers. [online] available from <https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0957926500011001002> [24 October 2020]

Van Dijk, T. A. (2015) ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’. in The Handbook of Discourse Analysis. ed.

by Hamilton, H. E., Schiffrin, D. and Tannen, D. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell

Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). ‘The representation of social actors’. in Texts and Practices:

Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. ed. by Caldas-Coulthard, R. and Coulthard, M. London: Routledge, 33-69

 

 

Appendix 1

 

A Transitivity Analysis of A Daily Mail Article

 

Line No.	Participant	Participant role	Process	Process type	Participant	Circumstance
1a.	A Whetherspoons punter	Actor	Ordered	Material	A black customer	a banana
1b.	A Whetherspoons punter	Actor	Using	Material	The pub’s mobile app
2a.		Actor	Convicted	Material	A Wetherspoons punter	of a racist hate crime
2b.		Actor	Made to pay	Material	A Wetherspoons punter	£1,200
3a.	Louie Kincella	Sayer	Said	Verbal
3b.	Louie Kincella	Actor	Sent	Material	25-year-old Mark D’arcy-Smith	The fruit
5a.	Mr D’arcy-Smith	Existent	Who was	Existential		At the pub with a friend
5b.	Mr D’arcy-Smith	Sensor	Did not know	Mental	Kincella
6a	Mr D’arcy-Smith	Carrier	Was	Relational	left humiliated
6b.	Waiter	Actor	Carried	Material	Him	The single 30p banana to him on a plate
7a.	Racists	Actor	Weaponised	Material	Bananas
7b.	Racists	Actor	Lobbed them	Material	At black footballers	At
8.	Racists	Sayer	Chanting	Verbal	At black footballers
9.	A ‘painstaking’ investigation	Actor	Identify and track down	Material	The culprit
10a.		Actor	Arrested	Material	Kincella	At his home
10b.		Actor	Convicted	Material	Kincella	Of a racially motivated attack
11.	Mr D’arcy-Smith	Actor	Has been	Material	left shaken
12a.	Mr D’arcy-Smith	Sayer	Said	Verbal
12b.	he	Actor	Passed	Material	The pub
13.	he	Behaver	Started trembling	Behavioural		Spontaneously
14a.	[Mr D’arcy Smith]	Sensor	Recalling	Mental	The moment the banana was delivered	To him and his friend’s table
14b.		Actor	Delivered	Material	Him and friend’s table
14c.	he	Sayer	Said	Verbal
15a.	We both	Sensor	Looked	Mental	Each other
15b.	[we]	Sensor	Then looked	Mental	The banana
15c.	It	Actor	Clicked	Material
15d.	It	Possessor	Wasn’t	Relational	Ours
16a.	Someone	Actor	Sent	Material
16b.	Someone	Actor	Trying to be racist	Material
17a.	Mr D’arcy Smith	Sayer	Told	Verbal	Staff
17b.	Neither he nor his friend	Actor	Ordered	Material	The food
18a.	[staff]	Sayer	Told	Verbal	They
18b.		Actor	Made	Material	An order	Via the pub’s app
18c.	One banana	Actor	Go to	Material	Their table number 102
19a.	Mr D’arcy Smith	Carrier	Was	Relational	left disappointed
19b.	The staff	Actor	Taken	Material	His complaint	At Wetherspoons/Seriously
20.	Wetherspoons	Sayer	Apologised	Verbal	Him
21a.	The banana order	Carrier	Was	Relational	Racially motivated
21b.	He	Sayer	Contacted	Verbal	The police
21c.	[he]	Actor	Leaving	Material		The pub
22.	Detectives	Actor	Set about tracing	Material	The sender
23.		Actor	Arrested	Material	Kincella	On January 17 at his home in Mottingham, south east London
24a.	He	Sayer	Claimed	Verbal
24b.	It	Actor	Done	Material
24c.	Scotland Yard	Sayer	Said	Verbal
25a.	He	Sayer	Did not deny	Verbal
25b.	[he]	Existent	Being	Existential	In the pub
25c.	[he]	Sayer	Admitted	Verbal
25d.	[he]	Actor	Ordering	Material	The banana
25e.	he	Sayer	Insisted	Verbal
26a.	He	Sensor	Intend	Mental	It
26b.	It	Actor	Go	Material	His own table	Anywhere other than
26c.	Scotland Yard	Sayer	Said	Verbal
27.		Actor	Charged	Material	He	with a racially aggravated offence under the Public Order Act
28.	Magistrates	Actor	Found	Material	[he]	the day of his 20th birthday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appendix 2

 

A Social Actor Analysis of How Migrants are Represented in the Article

Line NO.	Aggregation	Collectivisation	Activation	Abstraction	Nomination	Backgrounding	Functionalisation	Passivation
Title	“more… than whole of 2019”	“illegals”	“landed”
1.	“More migrants have arrived… than the whole of 2019”	“migrants”	“have arrived”
3.	“landings of 393” “hit a milestone”	“illegal aliens”	“made”
4.	“that exceeded the whole of last year” “nearly 7,000”	“third world migrants”		“migrant arrivals”
5.			“have illegally crossed”
6.	“the highest daily arrivals, with 416 illegals”	“illegals”	“landing”
7.	“1,800 or 1,823”	“people”	“arrive”
8.	“at least 1,880”
10.	“a combined 297 interceptions… and landings”			“landings”
12.		“the economic migrants”	“leaving”					“to stop [them] leaving”
15.	“the number of”	“illegal entrants”	“breaking into Britain”
16.						“leaving”		‘to stop [them] leaving”
17.						“leaving”		“stopping [them] leaving”
18.						“launch”		“they must be turned around”
19.				“small boat crossings”		“crossing”
Tweet 1.		“Illegal migrants”						“ground[ed]”
27.	“16”	“Afghans”
31.	“so great are the numbers”		“landing”
32.	“up to 431”	“the illegals”	“arriving in”					“[housed]”
33.	“some 250”
41.	“the numbers of landings are likely much higher than reports”
42.	“the numbers of”	“alleged child migrants”	“landing”
43.	“an untold number of”	“migrants”	“Arrive and disappear without coming into contact with… authorities”
44.			“having no intention of claiming asylum”
Tweet 2.		“illegals”

 

 

A Social Actor Analysis of How British Participants Are Represented in the Article

Line NO.	Aggregation	Collectivisation	Activation	Abstraction	Nomination	Backgrounding	Functionalisation	Passivation
2.		“reports”
7.		“reports”	“vary” “reported”	“The Telegraph reported”
9.		“government figures”
10.	“a combined 297 interceptions… and landings”			“interceptions”
11..			“claimed that it is working with”	“The Conservative party Government of”	“Boris Johnson”		“government”
12.			“to stop”
13.			“criticised”		“Natalie Elphicke”		“MP for dover”
19.		“we”	“see an end of” “said”				“the Conservative MP”
20						“[reported]”
21.		“the British”	“having paid”
23.	“the first”		“report”		“Mr Farage”
25.			“coordinating with”	“British authorities”
Tweet 1.		Judges	ground
26.			“watched”	“a new phenomenon”	“Mr Farage”
28.				“British authorities”				“[not in] sight”
29.			“maintained contact with it” “arrived”	“a UK Border Force”	“Mr Farage”
30.						“allocated”
31.						“housing”
32.						“set”
33.			“said”	“The Home Office”	“Mr Farage”
34.		“his sources”	“saying” “said” “told” “suspicious”	“The Telegraph”	“Mr Farage”
36.			“continued” “have been out” “seen boats” “asked”	“the Home Office”				“asked the Home Office”
37.			“saw”					“I was told”
39.			“rejected” “was lying”	“The Home Office” “it”	“Mr Farage”
40.			“reports”	“the government”
41.			“refuse to include”	“The Home Office”
43.				“British authorities”				“without coming into contact with
44.		“locals”	“reported”		“Mr Farage”			“of locals”
45.		“the Home Office’s official immigration books”	“initially denied” “finally reported”	“The Home Office” “the mainstream media”
46.			“caught”	“it”
46.				“authorities”				“avoid being registered with”
Tweet 2.		“leftists”	“protest”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Social Actor Analysis of How French Participants are Represented in the Article

 

Line NO.	Aggregation	Collectivisation	Activation	Abstraction	Nomination	Backgrounding	Functionalisation	Passivation
12.			“to stop”	“the “French government”
14.		“the French”	“failing to do more”
16.						“stop” “turn them back”
17.						“stopping”
18.						“turned around”
20.			“blocking only 20 percent”	“French authorities”
21.			“stop the flow”	“France”				“paid”
22.			“rather than intercepting and turning boats back”
23.			“were escorting… and coordinating with”	“French authorities”
25.			“shadow… but abandonned it”	“the French navy”