Media representation of the Greek debt crisis: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the "Guardian" online news

• Thesis title in Czech: Mediální zobrazení řecké dluhové krize: korpusová analýza diskurzu v online zpravodajství deníku "the Guardian"
• Thesis title in English: Media representation of the Greek debt crisis: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the "Guardian" online news
• Key words: korpusová lingvistika, CADS, mediální diskurz, the Guardian, řecká dluhová krize, diskurzní rámec evropské ekonomické krize, stereotypní zobrazování Řeků
• English key words: corpus linguistics, corpus-assisted discourse analysis, media discourse, the Guardian, Greek debt crisis, European economic crisis discourse framework, anti-Greek bias
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2014/2015
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of the English Language and ELT Methodology (21-UAJD)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Anna Čermáková, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 07.01.2015
• Date of assignment: 07.01.2015
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 16.01.2015
• Date and time of defence: 07.09.2016 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 16.08.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 07.09.2016
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: doc. PhDr. Markéta Malá, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The complex term ‘discourse’ covers a range of linguistic phenomena used in creation of various meaning systems. Discourse is a multilayered concept with a number of interrelated yet different forms of interpretation depending on an academic discipline (see Baker 2006:3-5). Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) then represents one of the most prominent and influential approaches in this field. The founder of the theory, Norman Fairclough, defines discourse as “practices which systematically form the objects of which they speak” (Foucault 1972: 49). In CDA, language is understood as a form of social practice that has the power to construct reality. In the modern world, one of the strongest capacities for discourse construction and dissemination dwells in the mass media. It is mainly so because of its extensive means of repetition, as well as of the wide scope of its impact (cf. Fairclough 1989).
The present thesis will deal with discourse surrounding the topic of the Greek debt crisis (further as GDC, 2009-2014) in the British daily newspaper the Guardian. The study will share the general definition of discourse with CDA approach. However, its methodology will differ from that of CDA, the thesis will employ language corpora in its approach to the discourse. The thesis is thus situated in the Corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) approach. A specialiazed corpus will be collected from the Guardian online archives that have free access. The corpus will consist of all articles from October 2009, the announcement of Greek budget deficit, to August 2014, when first signals of the economic improvement appeared. The analysis will be conducted in the WordSmith Tools (Scott 2012) with the BNC as the reference corpus.
The analysis of the Guardian GDC discourse builds on an existing bilateral delineation of the EU public discourse on the economic crisis (Eurozone crisis), distinguishing between two perspectives and two opposing “narratives of the crisis” (Pavlakis 2013: 9): “the Northern diagnosis” (DeGrauwe 2011: 5) of the problem (prevailing in Germany and other creditor states) and “the Southern opinion” on the situation (held mainly by the debtor countries). The aim of the thesis analysis is to examine the Guardian’s position on the GDC in relation to this bilateral discourse framework.

References

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