METAPHOR AND IDEOLOGY IN MEDIA DISCOURSE
ON MIGRATION
Mariana Neagu
University of Galaţi
The XIII th International Conference
Cognitive Modeling in Linguistics,
Corfu, Greece, September 22-29, 2010
OUTLINE

1.
Introduction
Some preliminary considerations: CMT and
CDA
2. Data and method
3. Findings

Closing remarks
Introduction II
Motivation
- The choice of one metaphor rather
than another is a sympton of
ideology (Stockwell, 2000)
- Although the importance of culture to
metaphoric patterns has been
underlined, the centrality of ideology
to culture has not been enough
discussed.
1. Some preliminary considerations: CMT and
CDA



Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT): Lakoff, 1991;
Steen, 1999.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
“Language is not powerful on its own – it gains
power by the use people make of it and by the people
who have access to language means and public fora”.
Van Dijk (1995):
The aim of CDA is “to investigate critically social
inequality, as it is expressed, signalled, constituted,
legitimized and so on by language use.” (Wodak and
Meyer, 2001)
2. Data and method
- articles related to immigration in UK, published
2006-2011:
The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian, The
Daily Mail
 Romanian quality papers (Adevărul and
Cotidianul)
 Searched key words: migration, (im)migrant,
Romanian, Britain.
3. Findings
The British corpus:
- 5 source domains matching the target
domain of migration:
 flood
 container
 threat
 invasion
 exploitation

Interim conclusions: The British Corpus
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Total
-
9
4
3
4
6
26
6
2
1
1
5
-
Metaphoric Patterns
1. MIGRATION AS FLOOD
2.1. UK AS CONTAINER
1
5
19
2.2. EU AS CONTAINER
-
1
-
-
2
1
3. MIGRATION AS THREAT
1
6
-
1
1
1
10
4. MIGRATION AS
EXPLOITATION
-
-
1
1
-
3
5
5. MIGRATION AS WAR
-
2
-
-
-
-
2
6. MIGRATION AS INVASION
-
1
-
-
-
-
1
7. MIGRATION AS FIRE
-
1
-
-
-
-
1
4
The Romanian Corpus
Articles on Romanian emigration to the UK
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
MH
NMH
MH
NMH
MH
NMH
MH
MH
MH
NMH
MH
NMH
Adevărul
1
30
4
24
2
7
2
22
4
50
2
23
Cotidianul
3
13
5
11
-
1
2
10
5
43
1
27
Total no.
of articles
4
43
9
35
2
8
4
32
9
93
3
50
47
44
10
Metaphoric Headline = MH
Non-metaphoric Headline = NMH
36
102
53
Summing up: British and Romanian Press
2006
Year
Metaphoric Patterns
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Total
BP
RP
BP
RP
BP
RP
BP
RP
BP
RP
BP
RP
1. MIGRATION AS FLOOD
-
-
9
2
4
-
3
1
4
3
6
-
2.1. UK/LONDON AS CONTAINER
6
-
2
-
1
-
1
-
5
1
-
-
16
2.2. EU AS CONTAINER
-
-
1
-
-
-
-
1
2
-
1
-
5
3. MIGRATION AS THREAT
1
-
6
2
-
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
4.1. MIGRATION AS EXPLOITATION
-
1
-
1
1
-
1
1
-
-
3
-
8
4.2. CHILDREN AS GOODS
-
-
-
-
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
2
3
5. MIGRATION AS WAR
-
-
2
1
-
-
-
1
-
1
-
-
5
6. MIGRATION AS INVASION
-
-
1
2
-
1
-
-
-
1
-
-
5
7.1. MIGRANTS AS HUNTERS
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2
-
-
2
7.2. MIGRANTS AS HUNTED ANIMALS
-
1
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
2
8. MIGRATION AS FORCE
-
1
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
1
-
-
3
9. MIGRATION AS FIRE
-
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1
10. ECONOMY AS LIVING ORGANISM
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1
11. EU INTEGRATION AS AN UNREALISTIC
ISSUE
-
-
-
1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
1
32
31
18
11
4
Conclusions (I)



the FLOOD metaphor
has the highest frequency ->the imminence and
force of migration; migrants viewed as an
undifferentiated mass.
the CONTAINER metaphor
implies an INSIDE and an OUTSIDE,
representing the US and THEM.
can be looked at as a rhetorical legitimization
strategy of the right
Conclusions (II)
-
topics discussed in relation to migration: negative
socio-economic consequences (unemployment,
reduction of social benefits and wages, raise of
taxes, human trafficking)
- the attitudes that emerge from the body of
English newspapers are mainly negative esp. n
conservative tabloids (e.g. Daily Mail)
Conclusions(III)
-
Romanian tabloids do not approach the topic of
migration
-
Romanian headlines are by far less metaphorical
than British headlines. However, some metaphors
migrate from British newspapers to Romanian
newspapers (e.g. MIGRATION AS FLOOD, MIGRATION AS
THREAT)
-
the only new metaphor in Romanian newspapers:
MIGRATION AS HUNT (MIGRANTS ARE HUNTERS and
MIGRANTS ARE HUNTED ANIMALS)
Conclusions (IV)
-
ideological orientation goes hand in hand with the
presence of metaphor
-
combined metaphors (e.g.FLOOD + THREAT,
FLOOD + THREAT + CONTAINER) reinforce
ideological positions
-
conventional metaphor in the jounalistic
discourse may determine our way of thinking
(and acting) in the social sphere
Selected References (I)




Charteris-Black, J. 2006. Britain as a container: immigration
metaphors in the 2005 election campaign. Discourse and
Society, vo. 17, no.5, pp. 563-581.
Colipcă, G. I., I. Ivan-Mohor, M. Praisler, G. Dima, A. M.
Dumitrascu, M. Neagu. 2010. National Case Study –
National Identity and the Media (WP4): Romania, available
online at http://www.gemic.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/ WP4-Report-Romania-final.pdf.
Fairclough, N. 2003. Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis
for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge.
Lakoff, G. 1991. Metaphor in politics. Available at
http://www.uoregon.edu/~uophil/metaphor/lakoff-l.htm
Selected References (II)

Neagu, M. 2009. “The difference is that Romanians are now Europeans
like us”. Functions of intertextuality in hard news reports. In Melanges
francophnes. Actes de la conference annuelle “Formes textuelles de la
communication. De la production a la reception”. Galati: Galati



University Press, pp. 65-73
Steen, G. 1999. From linguistic to conceptual metaphor in five steps. In
Gibbs R.W. and G. J. Steen. eds. Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 57-77.
Van Dijk. T. 1995. The Mass Media Today. Discourses of domination
or diversity? Javnost/The Public (Ljubljana), 2(2), pp. 27-45.
Wodak, R.2006. [2001] What CDA is about – a summary of its history,
important concepts and its developments. In Wodak, R. and M.Meyer.
eds. Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Thousand Oaks,
New Delhi: SAGE Publications, pp. 1-13.
THANK YOU!