Chapter 1: Introduction
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A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reports on the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict in Selected Arab and Western Newspapers Aziza Zaher A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2009 This work is the intellectual property of Aziza Zaher. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. Table of Contents 1 Introduction and Historical Background ............................................. 3 1.1 Introduction to Research ........................................................................... 3 1.1.1 Aims of research ................................................................................... 4 1.1.2 Research questions ............................................................................... 4 1.1.3 Research Hypotheses ............................................................................ 4 1.2 History of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict ..................................................... 5 1.3 Perceptions of Israel and the Palestinians in the West ............................... 28 2 Theoretical Background ....................................................................... 37 2.1 Introduction to CDA, its Methods and Objectives ....................................... 37 2.1.1 Theoretical Origins of CDA ................................................................... 40 2.1.2 Critical Linguistics ............................................................................... 42 2.1.3 Fairclough’s CDA ................................................................................. 43 2.1.4 Wodak’s CDA ...................................................................................... 48 2.1.5 Van Dijk’s CDA .................................................................................... 51 2.1.6 Research Trends in CDA ...................................................................... 54 2.1.7 A Modified Version of CDA ................................................................... 55 2.2 Review of Related Literature .................................................................... 58 2.3 Critiques of CDA ..................................................................................... 63 3 Methodology .......................................................................................... 66 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................... 66 3.2 Narrative ............................................................................................... 67 3.3 Transitivity ............................................................................................. 74 3.4 Lexicalisation ......................................................................................... 79 3.5 The Method of CDA in the Current Study .................................................. 83 4 Corpus Sources and Method of Selection ........................................... 86 4.1 Description of Corpus and Method of Data Selection .................................. 86 4.2 Background to the selected newspapers ................................................... 88 4.2.1 The Guardian ..................................................................................... 88 4.2.2 The Times .......................................................................................... 89 4.2.3 The New York Times ........................................................................... 90 4.2.4 The Arab News ................................................................................... 92 4.3 An Overview of News Stories ................................................................... 93 5 Narrative Analysis .............................................................................. 102 5.1 Narrative Analysis of the New York Times Reports ................................... 104 5.1.1 Narrative and the representation of Israeli violence ............................. 104 5.1.2 Narrative and the representation of Palestinian violence ....................... 112 5.2 Narrative Analysis of the Arab News Reports ........................................... 121 5.2.1 Narrative and the representation of Israeli violence ............................. 121 5.2.2 Narrative and the representation of Palestinian violence ....................... 126 5.3 Narrative Analysis of the Guardian’s Reports ........................................... 131 5.3.1 Narrative and the representation of Israeli violence ............................. 131 5.3.2 Narrative and the representation of Palestinian violence ....................... 137 5.4 Narrative Analysis of the Times Reports.................................................. 143 5.4.1 Narrative and the representation of Israeli violence ............................. 143 5.4.2 Narrative and the representation of Palestinian violence ....................... 147 1 5.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 151 6 Transitivity Analysis ........................................................................... 158 6.1 Transitivity Analysis of the New York Times Reports ................................ 158 6.1.1 Transitivity and the representation of Israeli violence ........................... 158 6.1.2 Transitivity and the representation of Palestinian violence .................... 161 6.2 Transitivity Analysis of the Arab News Reports ........................................ 164 6.2.1 Transitivity and the representation of Israeli violence ........................... 164 6.2.2 Transitivity and the representation of Palestinian violence .................... 166 6.3 Transitivity Analysis of the Guardian’s Reports ........................................ 168 6.3.1 Transitivity and the representation of Israeli violence ........................... 168 6.3.2 Transitivity and the representation of Palestinian violence .................... 170 6.4 Transitivity Analysis of the Times’ Reports .............................................. 172 6.4.1 Transitivity and the representation of Israeli violence ........................... 172 6.4.2 Transitivity and the representation of Palestinian violence .................... 174 6.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 175 7 Lexical Analysis ................................................................................... 178 7.1 Lexical Analysis of the New York Times Reports ...................................... 178 7.1.1 Lexis and the representation of Israeli violence ................................... 178 7.1.2 Lexis and the representation of Palestinian violence ............................. 182 7.2 Lexical Analysis of the Arab News Reports .............................................. 186 7.2.1 Lexis and the representation of Israeli violence ................................... 186 7.2.2 Lexis and the representation of Palestinian violence ............................. 188 7.3 Lexical Analysis of the Guardian Reports ................................................. 191 7.3.1 Lexis and the representation of Israeli violence ................................... 191 7.3.2 Lexis and the representation of Palestinian violence ............................. 194 7.4 Lexical Analysis of the Times Reports ..................................................... 196 7.4.1 Lexis and the representation of Israeli violence ................................... 196 7.4.2 Lexis and the representation of Palestinian violence ............................. 198 7.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 200 8 Conclusion ........................................................................................... 206 Bibliography .............................................................................................. 215 Appendices: Articles used for analysis .................................................... 223 2 1 Introduction and Historical Background 1.1 Introduction to Research As one of the most violent, ideological and intractable conflicts in modern history, sited in a very sensitive and strategic region, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has always been under the spotlight of media and politicians. The conflict is almost a constant item in the coverage of news outlets, especially since the outbreak of the spiraling violence that marked the end of the peace process and the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising in the fall of 2000. The discourse of the conflict is as ideological and controversial as the conflict itself. Even news reporting, which is governed by values of truthfulness, accuracy, balance, impartiality and integrity, has always been the object of scrutiny and criticism by members of both sides who often accuse newspapers of bias against them. The discourse of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been the object of a number of academic studies. This thesis aims to contribute to this body of knowledge about the discourse of the conflict by critically analysing the discourse of news reports on selected events of the second