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Al-Gamde Phd 2019 Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Media Bias: a corpus-based contrastive study of the online news coverage on the Syrian revolution - a cxritical discourse analysis perspective Algamde, Amaal Award date: 2019 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 MEDIA BIAS: A CORPUS-BASED CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE ONLINE NEWS COVERAGE ON THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION- A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT BANGOR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES SCHOOL OF LINGUISTICS AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE By AMAAL ALI AL-GAMDE, BA, MA BANGOR, JUNE 2019 Abstract The Syrian revolution is one of a series of revolutions that erupted in the Middle East in late 2010 under the name of Arab Spring. This incident became a major issue, which attracted the attention of international mass media and led to the involvement of global super powers. This research is premised on the assumption that media discourse is biased and influenced by political, economic and social contexts (Fowler, 1991). Based on this assumption, the study opts to use news agencies as data sources because they are impartial news suppliers that are assumed to hold a non-ideological perspective. The research compares the online media representation of the Syrian revolution in the Iranian Fars news agency to that in UK Reuters news agency. It explores the discursive constructions of anti- and pro-government powers in the Syrian revolution in a 1,000,000-word corpus of online reports released between 2013 and 2015. Despite the body of research on the Arab revolutions, very few linguistic studies have tackled the Syrian revolution. In addition, none of them have considered the array of the fighting armed groups involved in this conflict and their ideological background. The study adopts a corpus-based critical discourse analysis to investigate the discursive constructions of anti- and pro-government powers across the micro (i.e., lexical choices) and macro linguistic levels (i.e., the broader sense of the linguistic features in relation to their contexts). The analysis, at the micro level, examines three types of lexicosemantic relations: the semantic macrostructures within which the two conflicting sides are framed, the lexical collocations characterising the news discourse and the discourse prosodies they convey about the two sides of the conflict. The study utilises two computer-based approaches, the Sketch engine (Kilgarriff et al, 2004) and Antony’s (2014) AntConc software, to minimize the subjectivity of analysis. At the macro level, the study draws upon an eclectic framework from critical discourse analysis. It incorporates van Leeuwen (2008) socio-semantic model, Transitivity model (1994) and Ideological Square (van Dijk, 1998) to investigate the possible bias in the coverage of the chemical attacks. The selection of this incident was guided by the findings of the corpus analysis. The findings indicate that Fars representation of the Syrian Revolution was biased. Fars excluded the Sunni social actors, suppressed the Islamic faction identity of the rebels and depicted the uprising as a real war against foreign-backed militants. The i rebels are stereotyped as non-Syrians, terrorists, ISIL and Takfiri. In contrast, Reuters provides a more balanced representation of the two warring sides. The identification of the anti-government social actors is more critical and less stereotyped as they are categorized into moderate and radical. In addition, the identification of the government SAs were neutral and formal. Their negative racist representation is indexed by their actions at the political and military level not by the reporters’ evaluative attributes. The study concluded that Fars news agency is highly influenced by the political stance of the Iranian government, its pan-Islamist ideology, and the shared Islamic orientation with the Syrian government. On the contrary, Reuters’ coverage showed no dichotomous ideological representation, reflecting, to some extent, its independence from the effect of the political stance of the UK. ii Acknowledgements To Allah Almighty, I offer my praise and utmost thanks for giving me the patience and strength to accomplish this research. No words would suffice to express my gratitude to Him. In addition, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr Thora Tenbrink for her encouragement and continuous support during my ups and downs on this journey. I also extend my gratitude to the co- supervisor, Prof. Vian Bakir, for her support and help. Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge Dr Costas Gabrielatos of Edge Hill University, for his insightful discussion and guidance during the early stage of this research and for introducing me to Sketch Engine. My great appreciation is also extended to the Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau and Al- Baha University for their financial support. I also owe special thanks to my beloved colleagues Wesam, Maram, Amira and Abigail, who made me feel at home. Further, I feel immense gratitude for my dearest friends, Fatima, Fayza, Iman and Manal who provided loving support from afar. I must also express my profound appreciation for my colleagues at Al-Baha University, Munira, Wadhaha and Hanan, for their continuous encouragement. Finally, no words can ever encapsulate my profound gratitude for my parents, for their sincere love, prayers and care. I am also indebted to my sister-in-law Mona, my husband and my brothers for their spiritual support. Last but not least, I offer special thanks, apology and steadfast love to my beloved daughter Sulaf and my kind-hearted sons for their love, prayers and patience. Amaal Algamde Bangor University iii Yr wyf drwy hyn yn datgan mai canlyniad fy ymchwil fy hun yw’r thesis hwn, ac eithrio lle nodir yn wahanol. Caiff ffynonellau eraill eu cydnabod gan droednodiadau yn rhoi cyfeiriadau eglur. Nid yw sylwedd y gwaith hwn wedi cael ei dderbyn o’r blaen ar gyfer unrhyw radd, ac nid yw’n cael ei gyflwyno ar yr un pryd mewn ymgeisiaeth am unrhyw radd oni bai ei fod, fel y cytunwyd gan y Brifysgol, am gymwysterau deuol cymeradwy. I hereby declare that this thesis is the results of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. All other sources are acknowledged by bibliographic references. This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree unless, as agreed by the University, for approved dual awards. iv Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………. i Acknowledgement………….………………………………………………………. iii Declaration………...………………………………………………………...……… iv List of Tables……………………………………………………………………… xiii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………….... 1 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….. 1 1.1 Background of the Event…………………………………………………….. 1 1.1.1 Complexities of Syrian Community…………………………………………. 2 1.1.2 From Demonstration to Civil War…………………………………………....3 1.1.3 Syria-Iran Alliance……………………………………………………………7 1.1.3.1 Key Nation Players in the Middle East……………………………..………. 8 1.1.4 UK Political Stance……………………………………………..…………….. 9 1.2 Research Questions…………………………………………………………..9 1.3 Study Rationale ………………………………………………………..…… 10 1.4 Dissertation Layout…………………………………………………………. 11 Chapter 2 Part I: Theoretical Background………………………………………. 13 2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….. 14 2.1.1 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)…………………………………………… 14 2.1.2 News Values and Bias …………………..……………………………………. 16 2.1.3 Media and Ideology………………….………………………………………... 17 2.1.4 Power and Manipulation……………………………………………………… 18 2.1.5 Corpus Linguistics (CL)………………………………………………………. 20 2.1.6 Synergy of CDA and CL…………………………………………………….... 22 2.1.7 Review of Literature……..……………………………………………………. 24 2.1.7.1 Literature of Conflict………………………………………………….. 24 2.1.7.2 Linguistic Studies on Arab Spring …..……………………………….. 27 2.1.8 Summary…………………………………….………………………………... 33 v Chapter 2 Part II: Analytical Framework……………………………………..… 35 2.2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………….. 36 2.2.1 Socio-Semantic Inventory Model……………………………………………... 36 2.2.1.1 Social Actor Coding……………………………………………...…………. 39 2.2.2 Transitivity Model…………………………………………………………….. 45 2.2.3 Ideological Square……………………………………………………..……… 47 2.2.4 Summary …….……………………………………………….………………. 50 Chapter Three: Data and Methodology ………………………………………..…51 3. Introduction…………..…………………………………………………………...52 3.1 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………..52 3.2 Rationale of the Data………………………………………………………….… 54 3.2.1 Reuters Online News Agency……………………………………………….... 56 3.2.2 Fars
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