Constructing and Contesting the Echo Chamber: a Study of Print Media Discourse on the Final Year of the 1976-1983 Dictatorship in Argentina
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Constructing and contesting the echo chamber: A study of print media discourse on the final year of the 1976-1983 dictatorship in Argentina Muireann Prendergast This thesis is submitted in part fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professor Helen Kelly-Holmes Dr. David Atkinson Submitted to the University of Limerick, September 2018 i External Examiner: Prof. Michał Krzyżanowski, University of Liverpool and University of Örebro Internal Examiner: Dr. Cinta Ramblado, University of Limerick ii ABSTRACT For post-dictatorship countries attempting to come to terms with and understand their past, historical media studies have a particularly important role to play. In identifying discursive strategies, objective and subjective versions of events, and key social actors, they not only contribute to the linguistic debate on how "meaning" is produced in media but can have wider implications at the societal level in the construction of "collective memory" and identity (Achugar, 2007). The 1982-1983 period marked the end of a brutal dictatorship, Argentina’s Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (National Reorganization Process) and a difficult period of transition to democracy for the country following defeat in the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War. Using a Critical Discourse Analysis framework, this research project analyses the role of the print media in both sustaining and challenging the dictatorship in Argentina during its period of crisis. The methodological approach of this study is mixed, combining the qualitative principles of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) (Reisigl and Wodak, 2009) with a quantitative corpus-assisted discourse analysis of newspapers that supported the regime. Furthermore, a Synchronic-Diachronic method developed by Argentinean linguist Pardo (2008, 2010) for specific application to her country’s media is employed for qualitative study of newspaper discourse opposing the dictatorship, while a multimodal analytical framework is applied to the political cartoons of the period. Findings suggest that representations of social actors and events that supported the dictatorship are closely linked to discourses on nationalism and, as a result, are unstable and shifting, reflecting the country’s period of socio-political crisis. Conversely, discourses that challenged the regime are shown to maintain their oppositional stance throughout the year, incorporating complex strategies of counter-journalism and a combination of communicative elements such as text, images and colour. In analysing the form and function of these different discourses while acknowledging the ideological role of media and its influence on dictatorship and post-dictatorship social, legal and political processes, this study reinforces the work of Zelizer (2014) to propose, in the Argentine context, a tangible if difficult relationship between the fields of journalism and memory. iii DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is entirely my own work, and has not been submitted for any other award at this or any other academic institution. Where use has been made of the work of others, it has been fully acknowledged and referenced. The findings of this study have been published or are currently in press as follows: Prendergast, M. (2017) Hero, Leader, Traitor: The print media deconstruction of Argentina’s last dictator, 1982-1983, Discourse and Communication, 11(6): 610-629, doi: 10.1177/1750481317726929 Prendergast, M. (2018) Witnessing in the echo chamber: From counter-discourses in print media to counter-memories of Argentina’s state terrorism, Memory Studies, (in press) Prendergast, M. (2017) Political cartoons as carnivalesque: A multimodal discourse analysis of Argentina’s Humor Registrado magazine, Social Semiotics, (in press), doi: 10.1080/10350330.2017.1406587 _________________________________________ Muireann Prendergast iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The process of completing a doctoral research project requires many different forms of support. With this in mind, I wish to acknowledge and thank the following people who have helped me see this study through to completion: To my supervisors, Professor Helen Kelly-Holmes and Dr David Atkinson, for their expert guidance, incisive feedback, and support. As one would say in Argentina - Trabajar con ustedes fue un lujo. The Irish Research Council, for generous financial assistance over the course of three years which enabled me to focus full-time on my research and share findings with international audiences. In this respect, I am also grateful for the conference funding allocated to me by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences from 2015 to 2018. Colleagues in my School, Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, and Faculty, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, particularly Dr. Mariano Paz and Dr. Fergal Quinn, for kindness, advice, moral support, and insightful conversations around my two great interests: Latin America and Journalism. My PhD friends in MLAL and CALS, whom I have been honoured to represent in various capacities, particularly “Monsignor” Séan O’Connell, Úna Clancy and Steven Byrne for ongoing assistance, solace and stationary. The PhD students I met in Jyväskylä, Finland, Minna and Sini, and in Lancaster, Anna and Emma. Thank you for your company and friendship. The people who helped me during the period of my data collection, including the staff of Argentina’s Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno in Buenos Aires and The National Library of Ireland in Dublin, Julio Menajovsky for his collection of articles from La Nación and Nora Bonis-Cascioli from the Estate of Andrés Cascioli for granting me permission to publish his wonderful cartoons. Spending almost a decade in Argentina has not only informed this research but changed me as a person. I am grateful to the journalists I met and worked with during my time there and the human rights activists I saw who continue to campaign tirelessly, not only to redress past injustices, but to create a more inclusive society. This has inspired and motivated me throughout the course of the project and will continue to do so beyond it. Sergio, who reminds me daily of the importance of doing work I believe in. My children, Elian and India, for whom doing the work I believe in feels most resonant. v For Elian and India vi “The Argentine press is used to being used” Bob Cox vii LIST OF ARTICLES Article One: Prendergast, M. (2017) Hero, Leader, Traitor: The print media deconstruction of Argentina’s last dictator, 1982-1983, Discourse and Communication, 11(6): 610-629, doi: 10.1177/1750481317726929 Article Two: Prendergast, M. (2018) Witnessing in the echo chamber: From counter-discourses in print media to counter-memories of Argentina’s state terrorism, Memory Studies, (in press) Article Three: Prendergast, M. (2017) Political cartoons as carnivalesque: A multimodal discourse analysis of Argentina’s Humor Registrado magazine, Social Semiotics, (in press), doi: 10.1080/10350330.2017.1406587 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ iii Declaration ....................................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................... v List of Articles ................................................................................................................................. viii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. ix Appendices...................................................................................................................................... xii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. xiii Key to Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 General Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Problem ................................................................................................................ 5 1.3 Outline of Articles ................................................................................................................ 7 1.3.1 Article One ....................................................................................................................... 7 1.3.2 Article Two ...................................................................................................................... 7 1.3.3 Article Three .................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Evolution of the Project .............................................................................................................. 8 1.5 Outline of Thesis ........................................................................................................................ 8 Chapter 2: Context ...........................................................................................................................10