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University of Huddersfield Repository Abeed, Manal News Representation in Times of Conflict: A Corpus-Based Critical Stylistic Analysis of the Libyan Revolution Original Citation Abeed, Manal (2017) News Representation in Times of Conflict: A Corpus-Based Critical Stylistic Analysis of the Libyan Revolution. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34536/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ NEWS REPRESENTATION IN TIMES OF CONFLICT: A CORPUS- BASED CRITICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE LIBYAN REVOLUTION MANAL ABEED A thesis submitted to the Department of English In conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Huddersfield Huddersfield, UK (November, 2017) Abstract Despite the diversity of research on the Libyan Revolution across a spectrum of academic fields, very little work has focused on the representation of this event in media discourse. More specifically, no studies have approached this topic from a critical linguistic perspective using a large corpus, focusing on the qualitative analysis of the corpus findings. The overall aim of this thesis is therefore to investigate linguistically how the Libyan Revolution of 2011 is constructed within a corpus of British broadsheet newspapers. The focus of this study was to explore linguistic evidence to substantiate the claim that British newspapers are biased in their coverage in favour of anti-Gaddafi forces. The investigation of textual bias was guided and assisted by tools and methods from corpus linguistics. In particular, the keyword linguistic tool in WordSmith (Scott, 2004) was utilised as an entry point to the data to provide potential foci for further analysis. The findings of the corpus analysis revealed that keywords referring to the participants involved in the conflict during the Libyan Revolution and action-related words are the dominant lexical items in the coverage of this event in British newspapers. These corpus findings are further studied in context using the concord function in WordSmith, and then interpreted using the tools offered by Critical Stylistics (Jeffries, 2010). The occurrence of different nominal choices referring to the key participants in the Libyan conflict in the keyword list also led me to focus on investigating how those participants have been named and referred to linguistically. The analysis reveals linguistic evidence and discursive strategies showing a biased representation of the Libyan Revolution in the British newspapers in favour of anti- Gaddafi forces. This study has shown that the UK broadsheet newspapers represented a negative stereotypical image of Gaddafi’s side, while simultaneously presenting a neutral and at times even a positive portrayal of the opposition side. Specifically, the choices of linguistic structures result in the legitimation of Gaddafi’s opponents and, conversely, the delegitimisation and suppression of Gaddafi and his government. Finally, it was also observed that the language of British newspapers was highly ideological in representing this event despite British news outlets endorsing the values of democracy, freedom and universal rights. ii It is important to also recognize that the wider social context influences the processes of production and interpretation of news discourse and helps to explain the reasons behind giving Gaddafi and his government the worst negative image. Considering the socio- political contexts and the close examination of the relation between Libya and Britain reveals that Gaddafi’s negative representation could be seen as a reflection of the excesses of his dictatorship over his own people during his years in power as well as a reflection of his accumulated stock of past wrongdoings and tense relations between him and Britain. Therefore, this representation could be taken as a fact, given Gaddafi’s historical background. However, the analysis reveals that there was unequal treatment of the two sides in the conflict. There was a complete lack of any mitigation on the description of Gaddafi’s side, whereas the rebel side are treated in an apologetic manner. The British newspapers are biased in covering up the violent actions that were committed by the opposition and their violation of human rights. It was obvious that British newspapers act as a dominant source of hegemony by deciding what and how to report. The analysis reveals that the British newspapers tried to support their government in their leading role in the military intervention in Libya. This confirms that news reporting is not free from the subjective interpretation of events, rather it constructs them in a way that reflects their ideological and political viewpoints. Overall, the positive representation of the opposition could be seen as a problematic, as the political consequence of overthrowing Gaddafi results in plaguing Libya in chaos and violence with internal wars run by rebels who were described as good during the revolution. iii Acknowledgements Completing this research would not have been possible without the support of numerous people. I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank all those who have supported and helped me throughout my doctoral studies. First, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor Professor Lesley Jeffries for her support and constructive feedback throughout every stage of my thesis. Her insightful advice and invaluable comments were vital in shaping this thesis into its final form. I am also indebted to my co-supervisor Professor Dan McIntyre for his useful insights, guidance and suggestions that benefited me much in the completion of this study, especially in Corpus Linguistics. Words are not enough to describe my indebtedness to you both for your assistance and support during the difficult times I faced. A special thank you must also go to the staff of the English department at University of Huddersfield, with particular mention to Dr Brian Walker and Dr Jane Demmen for their invaluable advice in Corpus Linguistics. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mike Scott for his aid and immediate responses to my calls for help in using his computer software WordSmith. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all those scholars I met at conferences, workshops and seminars for their inspiration and the extremely helpful discussions we had, especially to Professor Tony McEnery, Dr Costas Gabrielatos and Professor Gerlinde Mautner. My greatest debt is to my friends and colleagues who made me feel at home in Huddersfield. I would especially like to thank my friends Salma and Ishtar and their families, who showed me such great hospitality and who have helped me cope with the stress and the problems I faced along my PhD journey. No words of gratitude are quite sufficient in thanking my parents, who have always encouraged me to pursue my postgraduate studies. My warmest thanks should also go to my husband, my kids and to my brothers and sister for supporting me spiritually throughout my study, and my life in general. I give my thanks also to other members of my family for their appreciated support, which I will not forget. I also wish to thank the Libyan Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research for granting me a scholarship, which enabled me to pursue both a master’s degree and a PhD. Finally, thanks to all those others not mentioned here but who supported and encouraged me. iv News Representation in Times of Conflict: A Corpus-Based Critical Stylistic Analysis of the Libyan Revolution Manal Abeed Copyright statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Huddersfield the right to use such copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the University Library. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of any patents, designs, trademarks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions
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