Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
A considerable flow of information and news stories are being exchanged on social media in several parts of the world. A significant number of news stories are fake and are published to serve certain purposes and ideologies. The present study examines how Arab social media users respond to fake news in Arabic in reference to van Dijk’s concept of the ideological square. A dataset of fake news was collected from Twitter, now X platform, comprising tweets on various events. After preprocessing, a topic-modeling algorithm was applied to the dataset to reveal its latent aspects. Instances of the featured topics in the dataset were then analyzed in accordance with the sociocognitive approach to critical discourse analysis. The findings demonstrate that fake news was leveraged to promote ideological struggle between social groups. Some social media users may interact with misinformation without evaluating its credibility and, therefore, express ideologically loaded beliefs for or against the subject matter of the news story. Fake news stories were also exploited for business and marketing. Misinformation’s discourse structure involves ideological polarization, self-identification and goal-description, and violates norms and values. The discursive structure and strategies revolve around the ideological square.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications Ltd: Discourse & Society
Book review: Gwen Bouvier and Joel Rasmussen, Qualitative Research Using Social Media
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
A discursive study of parents’ identity construction in Chinese wedding ceremony
Discourse &Society, Volume 35, Issue 2, Page 264-279, March 2024.
This paper aims to investigate the categories, strategies, and cultural driving forces behind identity constructions of parents in Chinese weddings, by examining naturally occurring wedding speeches in popular short video and audio-visual platforms. The results reveal that, first, parents as the speechmaker mainly construct the emotion-oriented personal identity, connection-built relational identity, and sociality-driven interactional identity; second, these identities are primarily constructed through the usage of vocatives, personal indexicals, metaphors, and speech acts (e.g. expressives, declaratives, directives, and commisives). Additionally, the identity construction of parents is deeply motivated by ‘Li’ as a set of ethical norms in Chinese culture.
This paper aims to investigate the categories, strategies, and cultural driving forces behind identity constructions of parents in Chinese weddings, by examining naturally occurring wedding speeches in popular short video and audio-visual platforms. The results reveal that, first, parents as the speechmaker mainly construct the emotion-oriented personal identity, connection-built relational identity, and sociality-driven interactional identity; second, these identities are primarily constructed through the usage of vocatives, personal indexicals, metaphors, and speech acts (e.g. expressives, declaratives, directives, and commisives). Additionally, the identity construction of parents is deeply motivated by ‘Li’ as a set of ethical norms in Chinese culture.
The Islamic State’s use of the Qur’an in its Magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This paper looks at the verses of the Qur’an that are most heavily cited by the Islamic State across all 28 editions of its magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah. Published from July 2014 to September 2017, covering both the organisation’s rise to power and subsequent decline, these contain around 1500 references to the Qur’an. Here, the five verses that appear most often are considered. While all quotations are necessarily discerning (and it is no surprise to see that the Islamic State’s authors relay the scriptural extracts that best suit their purposes), it is, nonetheless, valuable to trace out the contours of, and reasons behind, such selectivity. To this end, it is argued that these five verses are firstly used to support notions of loyalty and disavowal, and, secondly, to justify its use of violence. Together, it is further concluded, they act in concert to serve the Islamic State’s primary imperatives of recruitment, power projection and mobilisation.
This paper looks at the verses of the Qur’an that are most heavily cited by the Islamic State across all 28 editions of its magazines, Dabiq and Rumiyah. Published from July 2014 to September 2017, covering both the organisation’s rise to power and subsequent decline, these contain around 1500 references to the Qur’an. Here, the five verses that appear most often are considered. While all quotations are necessarily discerning (and it is no surprise to see that the Islamic State’s authors relay the scriptural extracts that best suit their purposes), it is, nonetheless, valuable to trace out the contours of, and reasons behind, such selectivity. To this end, it is argued that these five verses are firstly used to support notions of loyalty and disavowal, and, secondly, to justify its use of violence. Together, it is further concluded, they act in concert to serve the Islamic State’s primary imperatives of recruitment, power projection and mobilisation.
Racist discourse in a German far-right blog: A corpus-driven approach using word embeddings
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Newer forms of racism in the context of right-wing extremism are characterised by an apparent distancing from overt racist devaluations. In addition or even beyond biological features, it is now cultural characteristics attributed to social groups which serve as grounds for practices of othering and social exclusion. This paper analyses racist discourse in the comment sections of the influential far-right blog pi-news.com where these practices can be observed in detail. With reference to discourse analytical approaches to racism and using corpus-linguistic, data-driven methods, especially word embeddings and collocations, it is shown how racism is linguistically and discursively expressed. Next to both overt and more implicit racist nominations and predications, the notion of Heimat (‘homeland’) is analysed; it is used to draw racist demarcations without relying on overtly racialising terms.
Newer forms of racism in the context of right-wing extremism are characterised by an apparent distancing from overt racist devaluations. In addition or even beyond biological features, it is now cultural characteristics attributed to social groups which serve as grounds for practices of othering and social exclusion. This paper analyses racist discourse in the comment sections of the influential far-right blog pi-news.com where these practices can be observed in detail. With reference to discourse analytical approaches to racism and using corpus-linguistic, data-driven methods, especially word embeddings and collocations, it is shown how racism is linguistically and discursively expressed. Next to both overt and more implicit racist nominations and predications, the notion of Heimat (‘homeland’) is analysed; it is used to draw racist demarcations without relying on overtly racialising terms.
You’re a murderer: Critical discourse analysis of conversations around abortions in the Russian talk show
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
Today in Russia, there is a growing number of anti-abortion policies even though the birth rate is not a key factor affecting the demographic situation in the country. In this article, I investigate how the anti-abortion discourse is constructed in the media. For this purpose, I analyse a dataset of 5 hour-long episodes of the tabloid talk show Pust’ Govoriat. More specifically, the aim of this article is twofold. I seek to demonstrate to what extent the discourse displayed in the show is shaped and shapes by the Russian government’s family policies and, consequently, public opinion. On the other side, I aim to understand how speakers verbally and non-verbally negotiate morality, norms, gender roles and identities to negotiate if abortion is acceptable or not. I advocate that the tabloid talk show, like many other state-funded media products in Russia, is utilised as a government’s tool for anti-abortion propaganda and depoliticisation of social problems.
Today in Russia, there is a growing number of anti-abortion policies even though the birth rate is not a key factor affecting the demographic situation in the country. In this article, I investigate how the anti-abortion discourse is constructed in the media. For this purpose, I analyse a dataset of 5 hour-long episodes of the tabloid talk show Pust’ Govoriat. More specifically, the aim of this article is twofold. I seek to demonstrate to what extent the discourse displayed in the show is shaped and shapes by the Russian government’s family policies and, consequently, public opinion. On the other side, I aim to understand how speakers verbally and non-verbally negotiate morality, norms, gender roles and identities to negotiate if abortion is acceptable or not. I advocate that the tabloid talk show, like many other state-funded media products in Russia, is utilised as a government’s tool for anti-abortion propaganda and depoliticisation of social problems.
Antisemitism in contemporary Türkiye: Discourses on Turkish Jews on Twitter
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This article examines antisemitism in Türkiye within the framework of the new media landscape. The objective of this study is twofold: firstly, to investigate antisemitic discourses on Twitter within the cultural and political context in contemporary Türkiye and, secondly, to scrutinize the role of Twitter in this context. The study centers on the tweets and replies of five Turkish-Jewish writers that were collected between 5 November 2021 and 30 January 2022, a period coinciding with the airing of the Netflix original series The Club, during which antisemitic discourses intensified. Finally, this study posits that despite a favorable portrayal of Jewish individuals in the series, the discourse surrounding the historical and political incidents targeting minorities, mainly Jews, that were depicted in the series gave rise to antisemitism. This was expressed on Twitter largely through rhetoric that reinforces the marginalization of the Jewish community in Türkiye.
This article examines antisemitism in Türkiye within the framework of the new media landscape. The objective of this study is twofold: firstly, to investigate antisemitic discourses on Twitter within the cultural and political context in contemporary Türkiye and, secondly, to scrutinize the role of Twitter in this context. The study centers on the tweets and replies of five Turkish-Jewish writers that were collected between 5 November 2021 and 30 January 2022, a period coinciding with the airing of the Netflix original series The Club, during which antisemitic discourses intensified. Finally, this study posits that despite a favorable portrayal of Jewish individuals in the series, the discourse surrounding the historical and political incidents targeting minorities, mainly Jews, that were depicted in the series gave rise to antisemitism. This was expressed on Twitter largely through rhetoric that reinforces the marginalization of the Jewish community in Türkiye.
‘Please don’t insult Dog. He is a loyal friend!’ The use of animal metaphors for evaluation and positioning on a Chinese Political Web Forum
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This study focuses on how animal metaphors are deployed by Chinese social media users to evaluate others and negotiate social positioning in online grassroots political discourse. Animal metaphors are important devices for expressing judgement of human behaviour. This is due, first, to perceived similarities and differences between humans and (other) animals and, second, due to the ‘Great Chain’ idea of human superiority and dominance over animals. Animal metaphors are commonly deployed in communication that is interpersonally volatile, such as on social media, regardless of what language this occurs in. Through an analysis of the interpersonal systems of appraisal and involvement, we found that contributors often adopt highly charged animal metaphors to negatively evaluate each other and to create and maintain a left-right political division.
This study focuses on how animal metaphors are deployed by Chinese social media users to evaluate others and negotiate social positioning in online grassroots political discourse. Animal metaphors are important devices for expressing judgement of human behaviour. This is due, first, to perceived similarities and differences between humans and (other) animals and, second, due to the ‘Great Chain’ idea of human superiority and dominance over animals. Animal metaphors are commonly deployed in communication that is interpersonally volatile, such as on social media, regardless of what language this occurs in. Through an analysis of the interpersonal systems of appraisal and involvement, we found that contributors often adopt highly charged animal metaphors to negatively evaluate each other and to create and maintain a left-right political division.
A discourse analysis of critical commenting online: A study of comments on a self-mockery event
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This paper examines critical comments hidden behind the humorous topic of self-mockery. Based on a discourse analysis of 51 critical comments identified by GooSeeker of a self-mockery event from Weibo, this paper aims to unpack how the commenters actively exploit the relevancy of a topic to fulfill socio-political functions. Three strategies are found to be key in enabling them to accomplish socio-political functions: immoralizing the peripheral party, deauthorizing privilege and irrationalizing competitiveness, the meanings of which are discursively constructed across the critical comments. In this process, the self-mockery event serves as a weapon of social power to formulate critique and articulate discontent without breaking a consistent performance. The creative (re)appropriation in use is believed to be triggered by the policy of the platform and user’s self-motivated interactional practice. These findings are expected to have implications for understanding comments as a social behavior at the nexus of language and social power.
This paper examines critical comments hidden behind the humorous topic of self-mockery. Based on a discourse analysis of 51 critical comments identified by GooSeeker of a self-mockery event from Weibo, this paper aims to unpack how the commenters actively exploit the relevancy of a topic to fulfill socio-political functions. Three strategies are found to be key in enabling them to accomplish socio-political functions: immoralizing the peripheral party, deauthorizing privilege and irrationalizing competitiveness, the meanings of which are discursively constructed across the critical comments. In this process, the self-mockery event serves as a weapon of social power to formulate critique and articulate discontent without breaking a consistent performance. The creative (re)appropriation in use is believed to be triggered by the policy of the platform and user’s self-motivated interactional practice. These findings are expected to have implications for understanding comments as a social behavior at the nexus of language and social power.
‘It will never be well with SARS’: A discourse analytic study of the #EndSARS protests on social media
Discourse &Society, Ahead of Print.
This paper analyses the discursive strategies used by #EndSARS protesters in their tweets and Facebook comments to construct SARS officers, hold the Nigerian government accountable and demand social change. Informed by social media critical discourse analysis (SMCDA) and social movement theory, the analysis revealed three strategies: constructing SARS as oppressors, representing the Nigerian government as insensitive and issuing a clarion call for action. The analysis shows that these strategies enabled the protesters to construct the victim-aggressor categorisation, thereby legitimising their resistance to police brutality and demand for change. The study also highlights how the protesters deployed local linguistic resources and ideologies to appeal to the emotions of other Nigerians to join the protest. The study demonstrates how digital political mobilisation can galvanise reform in Nigeria, where leaders and law enforcement agencies are held accountable for their (in)actions. This study contributes to the developing interdisciplinary studies on SMCDA and digital activism.
This paper analyses the discursive strategies used by #EndSARS protesters in their tweets and Facebook comments to construct SARS officers, hold the Nigerian government accountable and demand social change. Informed by social media critical discourse analysis (SMCDA) and social movement theory, the analysis revealed three strategies: constructing SARS as oppressors, representing the Nigerian government as insensitive and issuing a clarion call for action. The analysis shows that these strategies enabled the protesters to construct the victim-aggressor categorisation, thereby legitimising their resistance to police brutality and demand for change. The study also highlights how the protesters deployed local linguistic resources and ideologies to appeal to the emotions of other Nigerians to join the protest. The study demonstrates how digital political mobilisation can galvanise reform in Nigeria, where leaders and law enforcement agencies are held accountable for their (in)actions. This study contributes to the developing interdisciplinary studies on SMCDA and digital activism.