READING THE RIOTS: INVESTIGATING NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE ON FRENCH URBAN VIOLENCE IN 2005 Laura Costelloe, LLB, M.St. (Oxon) This thesis is submitted in part fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Prof. Angela Chambers Dr. Helen Kelly-Holmes Submitted to the University of Limerick, November 2013 i ii External Examiner: Prof. Michał Krzyżanowski Örebro University, Sweden Internal Examiner: Dr. David Atkinson, University of Limerick iii iv READING THE RIOTS: INVESTIGATING NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE ON FRENCH URBAN VIOLENCE IN 2005 Author: Laura Costelloe November 2005 saw a significant flashpoint in the long-running history of tensions between minority groups and those in power in France. Two teenagers, allegedly while hiding from the police, were accidently electrocuted in a Parisian sub-station. This incident was the catalyst for the spread of violent riots in communities across banlieues or urban French districts lasting for a number of weeks. Mindful of the printed news media as important sites of ideology production, this study contributes to a growing body of work on newspaper representations of the banlieues, with focus on the particularly traumatic events of November 2005. Recognising the active role of the media in constituting and shaping reality, my interest lies not merely in identifying instances of prejudicial discourse in French newspaper texts, but also in highlighting how largely covert ideological structures of power and dominance can be disguised in ostensibly neutral discourse. This study examines French newspaper representations of urban violence in 2005, combining a qualitative Critical Discourse Analytical methodology with a quantitative Corpus- Assisted Discourse Studies examination of a corpus of texts specifically created for the study. The project questions the discursive construction of the events of November 2005 and the associated individuals and groups. It shows how the scenes of violent rioting prompted media discussions pertaining to French national identity, and thus examines interpretations of French national identity that are implicit in news reporting on the riots. This research suggests that in its reaction to the challenging events of November 2005, the printed news media adopt strategies which ‘other’ immigrant minorities and those living in the banlieues. Residents of the banlieues are depicted as being outside the borders of the homogenously constructed French society. It is thus argued that newspaper discourse on incidents of urban violence in France in 2005 provides further evidence of how language can be used as a means of enacting and upholding social relations of dominance and discrimination. v vi 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. ________________________________ Laura Costelloe November 2013 vii viii Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful for the help and support provided to me in the preparation of this thesis and I would like to acknowledge and thank the following people: Firstly, sincere and heartfelt thanks to my supervisors Prof. Angela Chambers and Dr. Helen Kelly-Holmes for their invaluable support, guidance and advice throughout this project. I truly appreciate the time you have taken and the interest you have shown in this study in the last four years. I would like to acknowledge the bodies that have provided generous financial support for this project, including the Irish Research Council, Department of Education and Skills (Easter Week Commemoration Scholarship Scheme) and Plassey Campus Centre Ltd. Additionally, the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Languages, Literature, Culture and Communication, University of Limerick offered financial assistance so that aspects of this work could be presented at a variety of international conferences. Thank you to friends and colleagues in the School of LLCC and CALS who have provided advice and feedback at various stages of this research. I am also grateful for the friendship and support of fellow postgraduate students with whom I have shared this journey – in particular, thank you to Aisling O’Connor for her continuous encouragement and peer-reviewing skills. A very special thank you to my friends and especially my family: my parents Pius and Judy who instilled both a love of learning and an appreciation for la belle France from an early age. Thanks for your unwavering support. Thank you also to my brother Robbie and sister Jen, I really appreciate you putting up with me especially during the stresses of the last few months! Particular mention must go to my Dad, who embarked on his own challenging journey at approximately the same time that I began this project. Dad, your hard work, motivation and positive attitude are a daily source of inspiration for me, thank you. Finally – but by no means least – thank you Ronan for your proof-reading skills, patience, love and so much more...you have been there every step of the way and I truly appreciate it. ix x To Ronan, And to my parents – with love and gratitude xi Table of Contents Appendices: Texts in Mini-RiCo xviii List of Figures xix Key to Abbreviations xx 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 1 1.2 OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5 1.3 OUTLINE OF THESIS 7 2 THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIA DISCOURSE: ORIGINS, APPROACHES AND CRITICISMS OF CDA, AND THE IDEOLOGICAL NATURE OF MEDIA DISCOURSE 11 2.1 INTRODUCTION 11 2.2 ORIGINS OF CDA AND THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS 12 2.2.1 INTRODUCTION 12 2.2.2 ORIGINS OF CDA 12 2.2.2.1 The ‘Linguistic Turn’ 12 2.2.2.2 The Contribution of Critical Linguistics 14 2.2.2.3 Foucault’s Influence on Critical Discourse Analysis 16 2.2.2.4 From Discourse Analysis to Critical Discourse Analysis 18 2.2.3 PRINCIPLES OF CDA 19 2.2.3.1 Introduction to CDA 19 2.2.3.2 The Eight Principles of CDA 22 2.2.3.3 Discourse and Power 24 2.2.3.4 Discourse and Ideology 25 2.2.3.5 Discourse is Historical 27 2.2.3.6 A ‘Critical’ Approach to Discourse Analysis 27 2.2.3.7 Definition of Discourse 28 2.3 PRINCIPAL FRAMEWORKS 30 2.3.1 INTRODUCTION 30 xii 2.3.2 FAIRCLOUGH’S SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH 31 2.3.3 VAN DIJK’S SOCIOCOGNITIVE APPROACH 34 2.3.4 THE DISCOURSE HISTORICAL APPROACH 37 2.4 CRITICISMS OF CDA 39 2.4.1 INTRODUCTION 39 2.4.2 CDA AND CONTEXT 40 2.4.3 CDA AND CRITICISMS OF METHOD: THE SELECTION OF TEXTS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 43 2.4.4 CDA AND THE READER 47 2.4.5 CDA AND RESEARCHER SUBJECTIVITY 48 2.5 THE CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDIA DISCOURSE: IDEOLOGIES IN NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE 51 2.5.1 INTRODUCTION 51 2.5.2 MEDIA AS A SITE OF DISCOURSE 52 2.5.3 THE IDEOLOGICAL NATURE OF MEDIA DISCOURSE 53 2.5.4 A GENERAL CHARACTERISATION OF NEWS DISCOURSE 57 2.5.4.1 Newspapers as ‘Ideological Brokers’ 57 2.5.4.2 Specificity of Newspaper Discourse: Layout, Quotation Patterns, Access and Editorials59 2.6 CONCLUSION 63 3 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH 66 3.1 INTRODUCTION 66 3.2 DATA: RICO AND MINI-RICO 67 3.2.1 SOURCES OF RICO AND MINI-RICO 67 3.2.2 RICO 71 3.2.3 MINI-RICO 75 3.3 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH (1): FAIRCLOUGH’S SOCIOCULTURAL APPROACH TO CDA 77 3.3.1 INTRODUCTION 77 3.3.2 DESCRIPTION OF FAIRCLOUGH’S ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 78 3.3.3 ORDERS OF DISCOURSE AND INTERTEXTUALITY 81 3.3.4 LINGUISTIC CATEGORIES 83 3.3.4.1 Lexis: Lexical Choice, Collocates, Metaphors and Pronouns 84 3.3.4.2 Sentence Construction: Transitivity, Nominalisation and Active/Passive Sentences 86 3.3.4.3 Modality 89 xiii 3.3.4.4 Analysing Representations of Social Actors 90 3.3.4.5 Analysing Strategies in Discourse 93 3.4 METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH (2): CORPUS-ASSISTED DISCOURSE STUDIES (CADS) 95 3.4.1 INTRODUCTION 95 3.4.2 DESCRIPTION OF CADS ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 95 3.4.3 METHODOLOGICAL SYNERGY OF (CRITICAL) DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND CORPUS LINGUISTICS: CADS 97 3.4.4 LIMITATIONS 101 3.4.5 PRACTICAL APPLICATION 103 3.4.5.1 Flexibility of CADS 103 3.4.5.2 Frequency and Clusters 105 3.4.5.3 Collocation 106 3.4.5.4 Concordancing 107 3.5 CONCLUSION 109 4 CONTEXTUALISING THE STUDY: FRENCH MEDIA AND SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXTS 111 4.1 INTRODUCTION 111 4.2 DISCOURSE PRACTICES OF PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 113 4.2.1 INTRODUCTION 113 4.2.2 THE FRENCH MEDIA CONTEXT 113 4.2.3 STATE SUPPORT, OWNERSHIP AND INFLUENCE 116 4.2.4 NEWS REPORTING ON THE BANLIEUES 118 4.3 SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT 121 4.3.1 INTRODUCTION 121 4.3.2 FRENCH IMMIGRATION HISTORY AND THE REPUBLICAN TRADITION 121 4.3.2.1 Post-War Immigration 122 4.3.2.2 The French Republican Tradition 124 4.3.2.3 Policy Approaches to Immigration: Assimilation and Integration 125 4.3.3 CHANGING PERSPECTIVES ON IMMIGRATION: THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT IN FRENCH POLITICS AND THE ‘THREAT’ OF IMMIGRATION 129 4.3.4 LES BANLIEUES: THE PROBLEM OF THE SUBURBS AND LA VIOLENCE DES BANLIEUES 133 4.3.4.1 The Emergence of the Banlieues 133 4.3.4.2 Urban Violence and the ‘Problem’ of the Suburbs 138 4.4 FRENCH URBAN VIOLENCE IN 2005 141 xiv 4.4.1 INTRODUCTION 141 4.4.2 OVERVIEW OF EVENTS IN 2005 142 4.4.3 PROFILE OF THE RIOTERS 144 4.4.4 AGGRAVATING TENSIONS: NICOLAS SARKOZY AND RELATIONS BETWEEN THE POLICE AND LES BANLIEUES 146 4.4.4.1 Nicolas Sarkozy 146 4.4.4.2 Police Interactions with Les Banlieues 147 4.4.5 THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN THE 2005 RIOTS 149 4.4.6 POLITICAL RESPONSES TO THE RIOTS 152 4.4.7 INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CRISIS: SOCIAL CAUSES, DELINQUENCY AND ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATIONS 154 4.4.7.1 Social Causes Explanation