Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte
Ine Biebuyck
Crime News Reports in Belgian and
British Quality Newspapers:
a Critical Discourse Analysis
of racial bias
Masterproef voorgedragen tot het behalen van de graad van
Master in de Meertalige Communicatie
2014
Promotor Prof. Dr. Lieve Jooken
Vakgroep Vertalen Tolken Communicatie
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Lieve
Jooken for giving me the freedom to develop a study about a topic that I am particularly
interested in. Were it not for her guidance and insightful observations, and for her enthusiasm
and encouragement, the completion of this study would simply not have been possible.
Besides my supervisor, I would like to thank the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Ghent and
more specifically the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication for the
academic guidance I have received in the past two years which has helped me to successfully
complete this study.
I owe my sincere gratitude to my parents for giving me the opportunity to pursue my
ambition to get a Master’s degree after I obtained a degree in Office Management at
University College Ghent.
Finally, special thanks to my friends and fellow students for brightening up the long days at
the library with a lot of laughs and coffee.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
2
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 6
1.1
Media discourse: the powerful role of the mass media ............................................... 6
1.2
Research questions ...................................................................................................... 7
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................... 9
2.1
Critical Discourse Analysis ......................................................................................... 9
2.1.1 Definitions................................................................................................................. 9
2.1.2
Origin and influences ......................................................................................... 10
2.1.3
Tenets and aims of CDA .................................................................................... 11
2.1.5
Criticism of CDA ............................................................................................... 13
2.2
3
4
Critical Discourse Analysis and racism .................................................................... 14
METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................... 19
3.1
Fairclough’s CDA model .......................................................................................... 20
3.2
Additional observations in Van Dijk’s research ....................................................... 25
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF RACIAL BIAS IN THE CORPUS ............ 27
4.1
Belgian newspapers ................................................................................................... 28
4.1.1
De Standaard ..................................................................................................... 28
4.1.2
De Morgen ......................................................................................................... 32
4.1.3
Comparison ........................................................................................................ 36
4.2
British newspapers .................................................................................................... 38
4.2.1
The Telegraph .................................................................................................... 38
4.2.2
The Guardian ..................................................................................................... 42
4.2.3
Comparison ........................................................................................................ 47
4.3
Comparison between the British and Belgian press .................................................. 48
4.3.1
De Standaard and The Telegraph ...................................................................... 48
4.3.2
De Morgen and The Guardian ........................................................................... 49
5
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 52
6
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................ 54
7
APPENDICES ................................................................................................................. 56
7.1
Corpus: references ..................................................................................................... 56
7.2
Corpus ....................................................................................................................... 60
6
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Media discourse: the powerful role of the mass media
Over the past decades, research of, amongst others, Van Dijk (1983, 1989, 1993a, 1995),
Fowler (1991), Valdivia (2003), Downing (2004) and McCombs (2004) has uncovered that
the power of the mass media is undeniable. The mass media, as a part of the dominant groups
or elites (Van Dijk, 1993a, p.241), exerts social power over its recipients via text and talk and
therefore it is a powerful tool, for the elite group in particular, to affect and/or control not
only the communicative actions, but also the minds of their recipients (Van Dijk, 1995, p.21).
Van Dijk (1983, p.28) observes that “news is not simply an (incomplete) description of the
facts, but a specific kind of (re)construction of reality according to the norms and values of
some society.” Fowler (1991, cited in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.359) agrees
with this observation and defines news not necessarily as “a reflection of reality, but as a
product shaped by political, economic, and cultural forces”. Most “ordinary people”, as
opposed to “the elites”, have active control over their everyday conversations, but they are
restricted to passive control over their media usage, which makes them passive targets of
discourse (Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, pp.355-356).
The elites in a broad sense, as defined by Van Dijk (1995, p.20), have a powerful “social or
institutional position or function”. Thanks to their powerful role in society, they have “control
over or, more or less preferential access to the most influential and important genres of
discourse in society.” Consequently, this control strengthens their position in society, which,
as a result, gives them even more social power. In other words, the control over and access to
elite discourse is, as it were, a vicious circle. Members of elite groups are, for instance,
journalists, politicians, scholars, businessmen and judges, using news reports, political
propaganda or speeches, textbooks, boarding meetings and verdicts to convey knowledge,
change attitudes and influence opinions (Van Dijk, 1995, p.20 & p.22). This process usually
is a joint production of various elites, e.g. preferential access of certain politicians in media
discourse (Van Dijk, 2000, p.36), but note that the press is not “a passive mouthpiece of other
elites” (Van Dijk, 1993a, p.241).
Elite groups are able to exercise social power because they possess practical experiences to
feel “what kind of messages will have what kinds of effects” (Van Dijk, 1995, p.23). Once
they succeed in influencing the people’s way of thinking, they indirectly influence their
7
actions as well (Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.355). This study, however, narrows
down its focus and is limited to media discourse only. More specifically, the focus within this
chapter on mass media will primarily be on ethnic affairs in media discourse, since the
present study is interested in finding differences between newspapers in their reporting on
delinquency when ethnic minorities are involved.
Today, the mass media, whose power is discursive and symbolic, is the most prominent
source of (ethnic) knowledge, attitude and opinion in modern information societies. This does
not only apply for ordinary people, but for the elites themselves as well (Van Dijk, 2000, p.36
& 2002, p.152). One may argue that the readers have the freedom to interpret and, hence,
question, disbelieve or reject what is being said by the media. Van Dijk (1995, p.22),
however, notes that people often do not have the knowledge to uncover implicit strategies in
discourse or to detect lies that are being reported as the truth. Moreover, he brings forward
the lack of alternative sources in the media to verify the traditional sources, which are usually
white elite institutions (Van Dijk, 2002, p.154). Van Dijk (2006, p.4) emphasises the fact that
journalists generally are not critically educated themselves and that it is one of the only
professions that never receives criticism in the media.
According to Van Dijk (1993a, p.243, 2000, p.38 & 2002, pp.151-152) people tend to believe
everything the media says about ethnic events as they see the media as a credible and
trustworthy source, providing the first facts and definitions of a situation. Hence it is easy to
manipulate their way of thinking, especially in villages and cities with few ethnic minorities
where people often refer to the media when they express or defend their (negative) opinion
on ethnic minorities (Van Dijk, 1989, p.201 & 2006, p.11).
Even though the majority of all newspapers tends to take a stance in ethnic affairs, e.g. by
dramatizing and exaggerating an ethnic incident (Van Dijk, 2006, p. 15), and, hence, are part
of the racism problem, it is essential to be aware of the fact that there is, or should be, a rather
big difference between tabloids and broadsheets as the context varies, e.g. the setting, genre,
writers and the audience. As a result of these contextual differences, ethnic prejudices are
particularly developed in tabloids (Van Dijk, 2002, p.154). The current study, however, is
limited to investigating news reports in quality newspapers only.
1.2
Research questions
In order to analyse the degree of subjectivity in journalistic prose and how the writer’s
stances towards the material is expressed, a number of theories have been developed. The
8
present analysis of news reports on delinquency in London and Brussels will draw on Critical
Discourse Analysis. Before formulating the research questions, this section will provide a
brief overview of the newspapers that will be used for the analysis.
Reflecting the political-economic trends in today’s globalized world, modern quality
newspapers in the UK and in Belgium are less explicit than they were in the past in
expressing their political leaning or in being associated with a particular political party,
particularly in Belgium, since De Standaard and De Morgen have become more segregated
and commercial (Hauttekeete, 2005, p.55). People used to make a distinction between
conservative, that is, rather right-wing, and progressive, that is, rather left-wing newspapers.
Still, from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis, it is relevant to ask the question
whether an ideological distinction can still be traced, especially where high-profile topics are
concerned such as reporting on criminal activity, possibly involving multi-ethnic groups. For
the current study, both a traditionally characterized conservative and progressive newspaper
in both Britain and Belgium will be considered.
The British “conservative” and “progressive” newspapers (Patterson & Donsbach, 1996, p.
459 & Bednarek, 2006, cited in Hardman, 2008, pp.247-248) that will be analysed are The
Telegraph and The Guardian respectively. As for the Belgian quality newspapers, the
progressive De Morgen and the conservative De Standaard will be analysed (De Bens, 2007,
pp.288-293, pp.313-314, p.347, pp.363-372 & Cochez, 31.08.2011).
Hence, the research questions for the current study can be formulated as follows:
1. Do The Guardian and De Morgen, traditionally characterized as progressive quality
newspapers, and The Telegraph and De Standaard, traditionally defined as
conservative quality newspapers, reveal an ideological stance when reporting on
delinquency, in particular assault, robbery and murder, in London and Brussels?
2. Do the newspapers differ (progressive vs conservative) in the use of vocabulary,
grammar and textual structures, as defined in Critical Discourse Analysis, in reports
that involve groups of multi-ethnic origin?
3. Is there a difference in the use of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures between
De Standaard and De Morgen, and The Telegraph and The Guardian?
4. Is there a difference in the use of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures between
The Telegraph and De Standaard on the one hand, and between The Guardian and
De Morgen on the other hand?
9
2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1
Critical Discourse Analysis
2.1.1 Definitions
Over the past decades (cf. section 2.1.2), researchers have tried to define Critical Discourse
Analysis (henceforth CDA). This section discusses the most relevant definitions in order to
delimit the scope of research in a as detailed a way as possible. However, it is important to
bear in mind the difficulty to “precisely delimit the special principles, practices, aims,
theories or methods of CDA”, as it is for any other form of language and discourse studies
(Van Dijk, 1995, p.17).
CDA has become “the general label for a special approach to the study of text and talk” (Van
Dijk, 1995, p.17). According to Van Dijk (1993b, p.249), CDA studies how discourse relates
with power, dominance and social inequality on the one hand and how the discourse analyst
positions himself in such social relationships on the other hand. In other words, there is a
particular focus on the significance of discourse when dominance is produced or reproduced.
It is essential to keep in mind that in this context dominance is defined as “the exercise of
social power by elites, institutions or groups, that results in social inequality, including
political, cultural, class, ethnic, racial and gender inequality”. Many forms of dominance may
look natural until they are challenged by e.g. critical discourse analysts (Van Dijk, 1993b,
pp.249-250 & p.255).
As reported by Van Dijk (1993b, p.279), CDA needs to meet certain criteria in order to be
significant:
Critical discourse analysis can only make a significant and specific contribution to
critical social or political analyses if it is able to provide an account of the role of
language, language use, discourse or communicative events in the (re)production of
dominance and inequality.
Janks (1997, p.329) considers CDA to be a critical language theory that deals with the use of
language as a form of social practice. More importantly, through CDA the analyst attempts to
understand how discourse contains implicit relations of power.
In the Handbook of discourse analysis (2001, p.352) Van Dijk describes CDA “as a type of
discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance,
and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political
context.” Moreover, he explains that CDA is a theoretical framework that reveals the
10
relations between discourse, social cognition and society. Within these relations, he describes
social cognition of the “missing link” between discourse and dominance (Van Dijk, 1993b,
p.251).
Blommaert and Bulcaen (2000, p.448) consider discourse as an opaque power object in
modern society that CDA wants to make more visible and transparent. They cite Ruth Wodak
to define this view on CDA:
The purpose of CDA is to analyze “opaque as well as transparent structural
relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in
language” (Wodak 1995:204). More specifically, “[CDA] studies real, and often
extended, instances of social interaction which take (partially) linguistic form. The
critical approach is distinctive in its view of (a) the relationship between language and
society, and (b) the relationship between analysis and the practices analysed” (Wodak
1997:173).
In sum, CDA can be defined as the study that aims to uncover the relation between discourse
and power abuse that results into social inequality. In order to do so, this field of study
focusses on the implicit linguistic strategies used in discourse to influence its recipients.
Note that this overview of definitions is merely theoretical. The more practical tenets of CDA
will be further developed below in section 2.1.3.
2.1.2 Origin and influences
The origins of CDA can be traced back to the 1940s, when the Frankfurt School developed its
Critical Theory (Agger, 1992 & Rasmussen, 1996, cited in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton,
2001, p.352). It was only in the late 1970s that its current focus on language and discourse
was further developed, which led to the so-called “critical linguistics”, spearheaded by
Fowler et al., (1979) (cited in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.352). The actual
starting point of CDA, however, is considered to be Norman Fairclough’s book Language
and Power (1989), which sets out the basic principles of CDA (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000,
p.454) by focussing on the role of language in the production of power relations, which is
underestimated (Fairclough, 1989, p.1). Besides Fairclough, Teun A. Van Dijk and Ruth
Wodak played a crucial role in the development of CDA into the field of research that it is
today (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.447). Van Dijk states in Schiffrin, Tannen, &
Hamilton (2001, p.352) that CDA may be considered as a reaction against the asocial and
uncritical paradigms of the 1960s and the early 1970s.
11
Since CDA is a complex and multidisciplinary domain of study, it has been influenced by
several scientific branches, of which M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional and Social
Semiotic Linguistics is the most well-known (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.454). Other
influences can be found in (a) the social sciences and in studies in the humanities and culture,
e.g. in sociolinguistics, social and cognitive psychology, in (b) theories of ideologies and
power – researched by, amongst others, Gramsci (1971) and Foucault (1984) – and in (c)
Gidden’s theory of structuration (Van Dijk, 1995; Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.451-452;
Van Dijk, 1992; Van Dijk, 1993a). Within the network of influences a particular set of
methodological features and objectives has been established in order to distinguish CDA
from other approaches in language and discourse studies.
2.1.3 Tenets and aims of CDA
Critical discourse analysts do not take a neutral position while studying discourse. As their
purpose is to understand, uncover and resist social inequality, critical discourse analysts
should be aware of their role in society while taking an explicit socio-political position
towards social practices (Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.352 and Van Dijk, 1993b,
p.252). They take an oppositional and critical position against “the elites”, more specifically
when the elites abuse their social power, i.e. “privileged access to socially valued resources,
such as wealth, income, position, status, force, group membership, education or knowledge.”
(Van Dijk, 1995, p.18 & Van Dijk, 1993b, p.254).
In the literature, Van Dijk (cited in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, pp.352-353)
emphasises that CDA is not a school, field, direction, specialization or subdiscipline of
Discourse Analysis or any other form of discourse studies, such as conversation analysis,
narrative analysis or ethnography. Its aim is to take an explicitly critical stance in the process
of analysing text and talk and it offers a “different “mode” or “perspective” of theorizing,
analysis, and application throughout the whole field” (Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001,
p.352). As a result, CDA does not have a unitary theoretical framework. On the contrary,
there are several ways to conduct a critical discourse analysis, which can be theoretically and
analytically quite diverse. For instance, the methodology to critically analyse political
discourse or poetry will be different from a news reports analysis. This observation explains
why CDA is issue-oriented, that is, focusses on effectively analysing social and political
problems, such as racism or gender inequality, and not paradigm-oriented, meaning that CDA
works in a multidisciplinary way with regard to avoid paradigm controversies (Van Dijk,
1993b, p.279).
12
As mentioned above, CDA is concerned with the (re)production of or the resistance against
power, dominance and inequality through text and talk. It studies how these relations are
discursively (re)produced or resisted by social group members and how the underlying
ideologies are key to this (re)production or resistance. By trying to discover patterns of
manipulation or dominance in discourse, the analyst wants to expose what is hidden or not
immediately obvious (Van Dijk, 1995, pp.18-19).
CDA is not only limited to studying particular lexical choices in discourse, it also deals with
other aspects of discourse, such as style (e.g. modality, tenses and degree of formality),
schematic organization (e.g. textual structures), grammar (e.g. passive sentences) and rhetoric
(e.g. metaphors and euphemisms). Moreover, it is concerned with more than only verbal
aspects: CDA concentrates on other semiotic dimensions as well, e.g. background music
during or before a speech or photographs or drawings accompanying a news report (Van
Dijk, 1995, p.18 & Fairclough, 1995, p.452). Contrary to other discourse studies, CDA aims
to explain the discursive structures and patterns instead of only describing them. In addition
to the explanation of the social dimensions of language use, CDA should have a measurable
effect as well, meaning that it is important to perceive change in the social problems that have
been challenged, e.g. “empowering the powerless” (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.449).
Van Dijk (1995, p.20 & p.22) observes that social power is closely related to the control over
and the access to elite discourse. The elites abuse this social power (and not their personal
power – Van Dijk, 1993b, p.254) in order to influence the way of thinking of ‘ordinary’
people, i.e. non-elites, in an implicit way (see chapter 1) and it is the role of CDA to study
how language structures manipulate mental representations, leading to prejudices and
stereotypes (Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.358 & Van Dijk, 1993b, p.259). In other
words, CDA does research on “the ways in which such influence and control of the mind is
socially or morally illegitimate, e.g., when powerful speakers self-servingly control the minds
of others in a way that is in the interest of the powerful.”
A vital concept in CDA is hegemony, i.e. when the elites manipulate the minds of the
dominated in such a way that they do not question the dominance and voluntarily act in the
interest of the elites. Dominant discourse wishes to create such acceptance and consensus
using discursive strategies that enact power (Van Dijk, 1993b, p.255 & p.259).
In sum, the tenets of CDA may be summarized as follows (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997,
pp.271-80, cited in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.353):
13
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
CDA addresses social problems
Power relations are discursive
Discourse constitutes society and culture
Discourse does ideological work
Discourse is historical
The link between text and society is mediated
Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory
Discourse is a form of social action.
Note that it is not necessary to include all these characteristics in a critical discourse analysis.
However, this is the ideal perspective that the analyst should strive for (Van Dijk, 1995,
p.18).
2.1.4 Preferred topics for CDA
Certain kinds of discourse are studied more than others through CDA. Below, a list of
preferred topics is provided, based on Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton (2001, p.358-361) and
Blommaert & Bulcaen (2000, p.450-451):









Racism and ethnocentrism
Gender inequality
Media discourse
Institutional discourse (e.g. doctor-patient communication)
Economic discourse
Ideology
Advertisements and promotional discourse
Education
Political discourse
2.1.5 Criticism of CDA
Van Dijk (1995, p.19) observes that scholars often consider CDA as politically biased and
hence as an emotional and unscientific methodology. Blommaert & Bulcaen (2000, pp.454456 & p.460) confirm that critical discourse analysts usually belong to the political left wing.
Moreover, they specify Van Dijk’s observation by giving examples of scholars who have
criticised CDA. Most of the critical feedback concerns issues of interpretation and context.
The first critical position was expressed by Widdowson (1995, 1996 & 1998, cited in
Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.455), who stated that CDA does not make any clear
distinctions between concepts, disciplines and methodologies. He particularly focusses on the
vagueness of the terminology and models. For instance, he claims that no distinction has been
made between “signification” and “significance” or between “semantics” and “pragmatics”.
14
Schegloff (1997) believes that critical discourse analysts introduce their own political
prejudices and preferences in the analyses. Additionally, he considers the so-called power
relations of the elites inadequate and declares it to be “based on little more than social and
political common sense, and then projected onto (and into) discourse.” (pp.455-456).
Finally, Blommaert (1997, cited in Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p.456) acknowledges the
problems that CDA has in its interpretation of context. He labels the use of context in several
CDA studies “as narrative and backgrounding” and observes that, in these studies, history
and social reality are merely being represented as background information, without critically
considering its possible importance.
As this study is concerned with the presence of ethnic prejudice in news reports on
delinquency, the focus will solely be on mapping any expression of racism in discourse. No
further reference will be made to other preferred topics within CDA. In the following
paragraph, an extensive overview of the study of racism within CDA is provided.
2.2
Critical Discourse Analysis and racism
As mentioned above, CDA is often applied in the study of discourse to gain an understanding
of its role in the reproduction of racism. This particular field of study within CDA is
spearheaded by T. A. Van Dijk (amongst others 1989, 1991, 1993a, 2000, 2002 & 2006). He
observes in Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton (2001) that, even though it is not regularly related
to discourse, racism is “a complex system of social and political inequality that is also
reproduced by discourse” (p.362). Today, the role of text and talk in information societies is
of great importance in the enactment of racism as it is used as a type of verbal discrimination
(Van Dijk, 2002, p.145). Discourse can be very persuasive to marginalize minority groups
and it is particularly hurtful since it is considered natural and normal by “those who engage in
such discourse and interaction” (Van Dijk, 2000, p.34). In Discourse and racism (2002,
p.145), Van Dijk goes as far as claiming that “discourse lies at the heart of racism”.
Moreover, he states that the press, and, in a broad sense, the mass media does not suppress
the reproduction of racism. On the contrary, it is rather a part of the problem, as prejudice and
racism are not inborn but rather learned from elite discourse (Van Dijk, 2006, p.2 & p.15).
First of all, it is crucial to distinguish “new racism” from “real racism” or “old racism”. The
latter includes explicit forms of racism, such as extreme right parties, apartheid, systematic
discrimination, organizations like KKK, etc. Van Dijk (2000, p.34 and 1993a, p.23) observes
that “new racism” claims not to consider ethnic minority groups as inferior, but it does
15
believe that other cultures are “different” and that there are “deficiencies”. It wishes to make
a democratic and respectable impression and therefore new racism denies that it is racism.
Contrary to old racism, new racism is expressed in an implicit, discursive and subtle way in
which discourse plays an essential part.
CDA enables the researcher to detect and expose implicit forms of ethnic prejudice, defined
as “a predominantly negative social attitude about ethnic minority groups and their members”
(Van Dijk, 1985a, p.70), in the studied form of discourse, such as news reports or political
discourse. Consequently, emphasis is put on the underlying social representations of ethnic
minorities in discourse in general, but particularly in elite discourse (Schiffrin, Tannen, &
Hamilton, 2001, p.361) as elites express their opinion in order to influence and affect the
recipients’ beliefs about a matter, for instance, about immigrants and minorities (Van Dijk,
2002, p.148). Political, corporate, media and academic elites reproduce racism since they
have the “largest stake in maintaining white dominance” (Van Dijk, 1992, p.88). The
discursive structures that are employed to enact these representations include, for instance,
particular lexical description of the minority group, specific story structures or semantic
moves, all of which will be explained thoroughly in chapter three. These subtle strategies
emphasise our good qualities and actions and their bad qualities and actions, and vice versa
(Van Dijk, 2002, p.147). At the same time, cultural differences are being stressed, whereas
cultural correspondences are being ignored.
The ethnic prejudices and stereotypes, that lead to racism, are usually evoked by the elites
creating a structural dimension, namely the opposition of us against them or the Others (Van
Dijk, 1985a, p.74 & Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001, p.361), which is a polarized
model. As a result, this model produces a focus on the exotic differences that exist between
our and their societies (cf. our good things and their bad things) and simultaneously suggests
that the ethnic minority groups are both intellectually and biologically inferior. The behaviour
of out-group members is assessed according to the accepted norms and values of us, the ingroup, e.g. “We are not used to that kind of thing” or “we don’t do such things” (Van Dijk,
1985a, p.73). This group polarization provides a positive self-presentation, i.e. “in-group
favouritism” or “social face-keeping”, which emphasises our tolerance, and a negative otherpresentation, or “out-group derogation” (Van Dijk, 2002, p.147 & Van Dijk, 1992, p.89).
The elites have the kind of power to influence other people’s opinion on ethnic minorities
because they have access to and control over the most influential forms of public discourse.
16
Everyday popular racism is usually spread through everyday conversation. However, these
conversations are frequently triggered by the mass media (considered as a source of
knowledge about ethnic minorities) and, hence, the elites. In other words, the elites
“preformulate” the wide-spread stereotypical ethnic beliefs (Van Dijk, 1992, p.88). However,
this does not imply that elites are more racist than “ordinary” people (cf. chapter 1). Van Dijk
(2002, p.154) observes “that what people say and mean in discourse is not only a direct
function of their ethnic beliefs, but also a function of context, such as the setting, genre,
speakers/writers, the audience, and so on.” He also notes that there are small groups of elites
who convey anti-racist opinions. According to him, they play a vital role in society as he is
convinced that change in today’s racist mentality has to begin at the top, that is, a top-down
structure (Van Dijk, 2002, p.148-149), but it is important to be alert to the fact that anti-racist
stances are not being censored or ignored by other (racist) elites (Van Dijk, 1989, p.204).
Besides a top-down aspect, Van Dijk (1993a, p.26) perceives a bottom-up structure in the
reproduction of racism as well, which implies that the dominant public discourse is partly
influenced by the everyday conversations of the majority of the in-group. However, this
bottom-up dimension plays a less prominent role in the reproduction of racism and
discrimination (Van Dijk, 1993b, p.250).
Research of, amongst others, T. A. Van Dijk has revealed that stereotypical categories of
topics in news reports can be discovered when ethnic minorities are involved. These articles
generally report on, e.g. (Van Dijk, 2002, p.153):





Immigration and reception of newcomers;
Socioeconomic issues, (un)employment;
Cultural differences;
Crime, violence, drugs, and deviance;
Ethnic relations, discrimination.
When a news report reports on cases of racism, ethnic prejudice or discrimination, journalists
will rarely point fingers at the society as a whole. They will rather focus on individual cases
of racism, such as acts or discourse by extremist right-wing parties or organizations. As a
consequence, elite discourse creates the impression that instances of racism and
discrimination always occur elsewhere and not within the elite groups (Van Dijk, 2002,
p.153).
Besides having little access to elite discourse and more specifically to the mass media, ethnic
minorities are less often cited in news reports as well. In case journalists do cite minority
17
groups, their citations give the impression that they are “passive anonymous victims”, which
makes them less credible (Van Dijk, 2006, p.3) or the quotes are presumably followed by
declarations of (white) in-group members, which are considered as more trustworthy and
credible (Van Dijk, 2002, p.154) . This underprivileged access passes on to the newsroom:
even when a member of an ethnic minority group has become a journalist, which is not selfevident as research of Van Dijk has uncovered that the majority of the Western European
journalists are white Europeans, writing as white in-group members, it is most likely that he
or she will be asked to write reports on stereotypical topics involving ethnic minorities, a list
of which is provided above (Van Dijk, 2002, p.154). Moreover, it is difficult to prove such
discrimination, since newspapers are private companies and they do not have to justify who
they employ. As a result, newspapers will often refrain from employing minority groups (Van
Dijk, 2006, p.2).
Nevertheless, according to Van Dijk (2006, p.3), it would be a good idea to employ more
minority journalists, since they have more experience in approaching ethnic minority
organizations and spokespersons. Nowadays, white journalists use several possible
explanations to account for the scarcity of quotations from ethnic minorities. They claim, for
instance, that it is hard to communicate with minority organizations as they are less organized
or that they do not intentionally exclude ethnic minorities, but that it is a result of contextual
conditions, such as meeting deadlines and a lack of resources. Furthermore, Van Dijk
believes that discrimination in the press can be avoided if journalists were given a
multicultural professional education rather than a monocultural education, since most of the
Western European countries now live in a multicultural society.
Ethnic events in news reports are generally represented in a particular way. Van Dijk (1989,
p.206-218) lists four characteristics of news reports on ethnic events: (1) presentation, (2)
topics and thematic structure, (3) actor roles and local meaning, (4) style and perspective.
First of all, he notices that, in news reports, ethnic events are presented differently from ingroup events. This presentation includes differences in, e.g., frequency of news reports on
ethnic events, location in the newspaper, size, (size of) headlines, location on the page, the
use of photos or cartoons (Van Dijk, 1989, p.206). When ethnic minorities are involved,
topics and thematic structure show differences as well. Second, news reports generally treat
subjects such as immigration, crime, race relations, housing or education (Van Dijk, 1989,
p.210). Thirdly, Van Dijk (1989, p.213-214) observes that journalists tend to change actor
roles in news reports on ethnic events. When they write about a negative topic, minorities are
18
presented as active and responsible agents instead of victims, e.g. by using nominalizations or
passive sentences. Otherwise, they are often presented as passive members of society. In
contrast, in-group members and authorities are rarely portrayed as active agents when
something goes wrong. In-group members will usually be described in neutral or positive
terms, except when they explicitly take an anti-racist stance. The fourth characteristic is
concerned with local meaning (i.e. words and sentences, as opposed to global meaning,
which deals with topics and themes), style and perspective. Van Dijk (1989, p.216) notes that
news about minority groups is often written in a different register, e.g. more (in)formal, or
has a preference for particular grammatical and lexical patterns to describe events, e.g.
immigration as “an invasion of refugees” (Van Dijk, 1995, p.23).
As stated above, racism is implicitly expressed by denying racism. This signifies that the
more racist a type of discourse is, the more disclaimers, such as “I have nothing against
Blacks, but…” and other denials it will apply. With this observation, Van Dijk (1992, p.89)
concludes that this implies that speakers or writers who talk about out-group members in a
negative way are conscious of the fact that they may be considered as not being tolerant,
which is a social norm. The denial of racism works both in an individual and in a social way.
As for the individual denial, members of (white) majority groups usually do not want to be
regarded as racists. This dimension tends to be expressed through everyday conversations.
The social dimension, on the other hand, is concerned with majority group members being
defensive about their society, or in-group, as a whole when they are accused of being racist.
The latter is typically suggested in public discourse and, hence, is the most influential
dimension (Van Dijk, 1992, p.89).
19
3
METHODOLOGY
As the purpose of this study is to examine whether there are differences in reporting on
delinquency involving ethnic minorities between British and Belgian quality newspapers that
are traditionally characterized as either progressive or conservative, the focus of this analysis
is two-fold. On the one hand, an analysis will be provided of news reports on delinquency in
Brussels in the Belgian quality newspapers De Standaard and De Morgen, that are
traditionally defined as conservative and progressive respectively, and of news reports on
delinquency in London in the British quality newspapers The Telegraph and The Guardian,
traditionally characterized as conservative and progressive respectively. On the other hand,
both De Standaard and The Telegraph and De Morgen and The Guardian will be compared
in detail in order to uncover whether there are differences in reporting between the Belgian
and British newspapers.
The corpus analysed in this study consists of 48 news reports published between 1 December
2013 and 31 March 2014. All reports cover cases of delinquency, i.e. they either report on the
crime committed, the detention of the suspect(s) and/or the trial. The location is London in
the British sample of the corpus and Brussels in the Belgian newspapers. Twelve news
reports were retrieved from the archives of each newspaper. It is relevant to take into account
that the news reports selected from the British newspapers tend to be more extensive than the
articles selected from the Belgian newspapers. However, the main purpose of this study is to
interpret and compare the nature of the strategies used to express racism and not to present a
statistically motivated quantitative analysis. A list of all articles selected is provided in
appendix 1, each bearing a numbered code - [TGx] for The Guardian, [TTx] for The
Telegraph, [DMx] for De Morgen and [DSx] for De Standaard. This code has also been
added to every example in the analysis for easy cross-referencing. The full corpus can also be
consulted in appendix 2 (see enclosed cd-rom).
In order to ensure that the results are not in any way influenced by the way in which the
articles were selected, the news reports making up the corpus were retrieved in a random
sampling procedure. All articles were downloaded from the newspapers’ websites –
www.theguardian.com/uk, www.telegraph.co.uk/, www.standaard.be and www.demorgen.be.
The search keywords that were used to compile the corpus were ‘overval+Brussel’,
‘moord+Brussel’ and ‘diefstal+Brussel’ in the Belgian case and ‘assault+London’,
‘murder+London’ and ‘robbery+London’ in the British case. To guarantee a random
selection of the corpus per newspaper, i.e. without taking into account whether the crime was
20
committed by an in-group or an out-group member, the twelve news reports including those
keywords that appeared first in the list were selected. They were not read before they were
included in the corpus. During the period of time selected, however, the lawsuit concerning
the killing of Lee Rigby was taking place. In order not to bias the topic of the British sample
of the corpus, only two news reports on this case were selected per newspaper. One final
selection criterion was that only news reports were selected. This study does not consider
columns or editorials.
3.1
Fairclough’s CDA model
The current analysis drew its inspiration from Fairclough’s (1989) and Van Dijk’s (1989,
1992, 1993a, 1993b, 2000, 2002) research. In his book Language and power, Fairclough
provides a model for CDA which is still relevant today. This study will apply the
methodological tenets of his model to the corpus, relying on the ten questions that he
developed to critically analyse any type of discourse. This procedure will be completed with
observations that Van Dijk made during his research on the reproduction of racism in text and
talk.
Fairclough developed a CDA model of ten questions and sub-questions, divided into three
sub-groups: vocabulary, grammar and textual structures. The list of all questions and subquestions has been added below. In these questions, Fairclough distinguishes experiential,
relational and expressive values, i.e. “three types of value that formal features may have”
(1989, p.112). Experiential value is concerned with contents, knowledge and beliefs. It
uncovers how the writer or speaker experiences and sees, or, in other words, interprets
society and how differences in ideology when writing or talking about society are disguised
in their vocabulary. A formal feature that has relational value deals with relations and social
relationships, i.e. which social relationship is “enacted via the text in the discourse”. In this
context, for instance, a social relationship can be the relations between in-group and outgroup members. Lastly, expressive value deals with subjects and social identities, meaning
that it exposes how the writer or speaker evaluates these relations. The three types of value,
which Fairclough summarized in a table added below (1989, p.112), can easily coincide in
the same formal feature.
21
Table 1: formal features and its three types of value
The first four questions are related to the vocabulary use in discourse, the four following
questions are concerned with grammar use and finally, the last two questions deal with the
textual structures in discourse (p.110-111):
1. What experiential values do words have?
Are there words which are ideologically contested?
Is there rewording or overwording?
What ideologically significant meaning relations (synonymy, hyponymy, antonymy) are
there between words?
2. What relational values do words have?
Are there euphemistic expressions?
Are there markedly formal or informal words?
3. What expressive values do words have?
4. What metaphors are used?
5. What experiential values do grammatical features have?
What types of process and participant predominate?
Is agency unclear?
Are nominalizations used?
Are sentences active or passive?
Are sentences positive or negative?
6. What relational values do grammatical features have?
What modes (declarative, grammatical question, imperative) are used?
Are there important features of relational modality?
Are the pronouns we and you used, and if so, how?
7. What expressive values do grammatical features have?
Are there important features of expressive modality?
8. How are (simple) sentences linked together?
What logical connectors are used?
Are complex sentences characterized by coordination or/ subordination?
9. What interactional conventions are used?
Are there ways in which one participant controls the turns of others?
10. What larger-scale structures does the text have?
Note however that not all these questions are relevant for the current study. As question 9 is
only concerned with dialogue, no further reference will be made to this question. The final
part of this section will present and illustrate the relevant questions and sub-questions for this
study.
22
In question one, Fairclough explains that lexical choices can expose one’s ideology. For
instance, a writer who chooses words like “solidarity” or “unity” probably is rather left-wing
oriented. The same goes for using synonyms, antonyms or hyponyms for a word. He also
observes that overwording, i.e. “an unusually high degree of wording, often involving many
words which are near synonyms”, is often applied to show “preoccupation with some aspect
of reality, which may indicate that it is a focus of ideological struggle” (p.115).
Question two refers to the way in which lexical choices in a text rely on and stimulate the
enactment of social relationships between participants. A typical manner of expressing these
relations is the use of “strategies of avoidance” in order to reveal the expressive values, and,
hence, the social identities of a text (p.117). For instance, euphemisms are used in order to
make a text less negative, e.g. “succumb to depression” instead of “commit suicide”. A
distinctive way in which discourse can be influenced is through the strategy of formality. A
formal text or speech tends to be considered as polite, which consequently helps the
participants to feign their respect for each other's status or position. In other words, writing or
speaking in a formal way can conceal ideological stances, such as racist stances, since
recipients are not likely to question the message behind such “polite words”.
Question three (p.119) is concerned with the expressive values contained in a text, referring
to ideological stances in discourse, enacted by the speaker’s or writer’s evaluation of the
situation. As an example, Fairclough compares two psychiatric texts which both include an
implicit ideological stance on the psychiatric practices (p.113). In the first text, the writer sees
the isolation of a patient as “the availability of seclusion, restraints, and closed wards to grant
a patient a respite from interaction with others”, whereas the second text simply describes it
as “incarceration in locked wards”. The first description shows a positive evaluation of the
isolation, while the second one implies a negative evaluation of this practice.
In question four, Fairclough discusses the importance of metaphors, which may contain an
implicit reference to a certain ideology, and, as a result, may influence the recipients’
opinion. He observes that an utterance can be expressed in different kinds of metaphors, each
representing a different ideological position, e.g. representing a social problem as a disease
(p.119-120).
The second sub-group in Fairclough’s model deals with all strategies and structures using
grammar to manipulate one’s point of view. In question five, he investigates the experiential
values of grammatical features based on a number of sub-questions. These values deal with
23
the manner in which grammatical patterns are able to contain implicit references to the
writer’s or speaker’s interpretation of a particular situation, e.g. unemployment, or the
persons, e.g. out-group members, or things, e.g. discrimination, involved in those situations
(p.120). The most important sub-question involves the way a sentence is construed. Given
that a simple declarative sentence consists of a subject (S), followed by a verb (V) and
possibly followed by an object (0), a complement (C) and/or an adjunct (A), Fairclough
distinguishes three types of process in simple sentences, each with a different word order and
as a result with a different dominant participant. These types of process are (p.121-122):

actions
The word order for actions is generally S V O. Consequently, there are two
participants in such a sentence, viz. an agent and a patient.

events
Events tend to have a S V-word order, meaning that there is only one participant.

attributions
An attribution is characterized by S V C-word orders. As a result, these processes
have one participant followed by a possessive (in case the verb is ‘to have’) or nonpossessive attribute.
Depending on the word order and, hence, the process of a sentence, the participant can be
portrayed in a positive or negative way, e.g. by stressing or minimizing his agency, that is, his
responsibility in the process. This is closely related to the second sub-question, which is
concerned with the agency in a sentence. Fairclough observes that the choice to make an
agent inanimate is often ideologically motivated as it represents the agents in a less prominent
way (p.123). Nominalizations, that is, “a process converted into noun” (p.124), are used in
the same way as inanimate agency. By using a nominalization, a part of the meaning is
missing as there is no tense, modality, agent or patient. This results in an unclear causality
and responsibility. Finally, Fairclough concludes question five by investigating whether a
sentence is positive or negative since this, too, is a possible reference to ideology.
Question six of Fairclough’s CDA model is particularly concerned with the mode of a
sentence. He distinguishes declarative sentences, imperatives and grammatical questions.
Declarative sentences tend to have an S V-word order, whereas imperatives do not have a
subject, but immediately start with a verb. Questions are more complicated as there exist
different kinds of questions, e.g. the wh-questions (why, where, when, what, etc.) or yes/no
24
questions, beginning with a verb. These modes have an influence on the position of the writer
or speaker and on the manner in which he or she positions the addressee, i.e. implying less or
more power for the addressee to give information or to act (p.125-126). The same goes for
modality, expressed by auxiliary verbs, adverbs or tenses, as this is concerned with the
authority of the writer or speaker. Fairclough distinguishes relational modality from
expressive modality. The former is “a matter of the authority of one participant in relation to
others”, whereas the latter is “a matter of the speaker or writer's authority with respect to the
truth or probability of a representation of reality” (p.126). A final observation within the
investigation of relational value in grammatical features is the use of pronouns and more
specifically the use of ‘we’ and ‘you’. In case ‘we’ is used, one should note the difference
between the “inclusive we”, i.e. the writer and the reader, and the “exclusive we”, which is
the writer and other persons, but not the addressee. The pronoun ‘you’ tends to be employed
in advertisements to directly address persons. However, it can also be used as an indefinite
pronoun, expressing solidarity with the addressee. As an example, Fairclough quotes
Margaret Thatcher during one of her speeches in which she said: “you've got to be strong to
your own people and other countries have got to know that you stand by your word” (p.128).
The penultimate question within the second sub-group focuses on expressive values and more
specifically on expressive modality, which can be expressed by simple tenses as well. The
ideological interest of this type of modality lies in the “authenticity claims”, that is, “claims
to knowledge, which are evidenced by modality forms” (p.129). A good example of
institutions using these authenticity claims is the press, which is of particular interest for the
current study. As reported in chapter one, news reports are usually portrayed as categorical
truths or facts. To convince their readers that they are telling the truth, they tend to verbalize
expressive modality by employing simple tenses and, consequently, authenticity claims.
In question eight, Fairclough discusses the ideological relevance of connections in discourse.
Connections in a broad sense include cohesion, i.e. vocabulary links such as “repetition of
words, or use of related words” (p.130), connectors and references. The choice of a logical
connector can implicitly lead to the assumption of a “general truth”. Fairclough gives the
following example to clarify the relevance of connectors (p.131):
I've never been out with anyone even though Mum says I'm quite pretty. The
connector in this case is even though, but notice that the sentence can be paraphrased
with other connectors: Mum says I'm quite pretty, but I've never been out with anyone;
Although Mum says I'm quite pretty, I've never been out with anyone; Mum says I'm
25
quite pretty. Nevertheless, I've never been out with anyone. In each case, coherence
depends on the assumption that if a young woman (of 13, in this case) is 'quite pretty'
(not, notice, if her mum says she is quite pretty!), she can expect to have been out with
someone.
Another manner to uncover ideological assumptions is to investigate if complex sentences
use coordination, meaning that the sentences are equally important, or subordination,
containing a main clause with the most important information and a subordinate clause with
background information. Subordinate clauses tend to be considered as “presupposed”, as
something the recipient already knows or what the writer believes they already know, which
makes it possible to insert an ideological stance in this clause (p.132).
As mentioned above, question nine is not relevant in the current study and, hence, will not be
treated. Question ten deals with the textual structure of discourse and more specifically with
the larger-scale structures. Fairclough (p.137-138) observes that news reports on an incident
generally have the same structure, based on newsworthiness. The immediate effects and an
indication of what occurred and what caused it are mentioned in the first paragraph, followed
by what action was taken to deal with the incident and a specification of what happened. The
remaining paragraphs provide more details on the immediate effects and conclude with the
long-term consequences. However, the writer can deliberately change the order, and hence no
longer write top-down, to emphasise certain facts and de-emphasise other ones in order to let
the reader interpret the news report differently (cf. Van Dijk, 1989, p.209; 1993a, p.251 &
2002, p.147).
3.2
Additional observations in Van Dijk’s research
In his studies, Van Dijk refers to the same strategies that Fairclough discusses in his model.
However, he specifies some of these strategies in order to make them more relevant to his
research on the reproduction of racism, which is of particular interest for this study.
Alternatively, he slightly adjusts the strategies on the basis of new insights or relevance for
his research. The overview that follows lists his most important observations, which will be
considered in the analysis of the corpus. It is important to bear in mind that only his
observations that differ from Fairclough’s model will be discussed here. This does not imply
that Van Dijk does not agree with Fairclough’s observations.
Van Dijk particularly focusses on the use of face-saving disclaimers in the reproduction of
racism in discourse. Below, an enumeration of possible disclaimers is cited (2002, p.151):
26







Apparent Denial: We have nothing against blacks, but ...
Apparent Concession: Some of them are smart, but in general ...
Apparent Empathy: Of course refugees have had problems, but ...
Apparent Ignorance: I don't know, but ...
Apparent Excuses: Sorry, but ...
Reversal (blaming the victim): Not they, but we are the real victims ...
Transfer: I don't mind, but my clients ...
When presenting ethnic minorities, Van Dijk (1993b, p.263) observes that journalists often
generalize their descriptions. As a result, the readers are led to think of the topic in a
polarized way (us versus them, as stated above in section 2.2).
Other strategies that Van Dijk discusses and that are based on Fairclough’s model were
already treated in section 3.1, viz. word choice (e.g the use of synonyms or hyponyms),
euphemisms and metaphors, passive sentences, nominalization and news schemata (i.e.
textual structure of news reports).
In sum, the subsequent analysis of the corpus will discuss the following strategies, in this
given order:
1. lexical choice: descriptions, synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy
2. euphemisms, understatements and metaphors
3. nominalizations
4. syntax: agency (active and passive sentences)
5. modes, tenses (in particular the simple tenses) and modality
6. disclaimers
7. pronouns (especially ‘you’ and ‘we’) with polarization as a result
8. connectors
9. coordination and subordination
10. quotes
11. news schemata
12. photographs, drawings or cartoons
Their interpretation will be connected with experiential, relational and expressive values, as
defined in section 3.1.
27
4
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF RACIAL BIAS IN THE CORPUS
This chapter discusses the results of the critical discourse analysis applied to news reports on
crime in Brussels, retrieved from De Standaard and De Morgen, and in London, selected
from The Telegraph and The Guardian. Besides concentrating on the way these newspapers
report on cases of crime in a broad sense, that is, without focussing on the possible presence
of racial bias, the analysis intends to map the kinds of instances that may express an
ideological position. In other words, it is particularly concerned with linguistic strategies, e.g.
euphemisms or subordination, and non-linguistic strategies, e.g. photographs and quotes, (cf.
chapter 3) expressing a form of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. Not only will a
comparison be made between the British and Flemish quality press, the newspapers will be
extensively compared from a national perspective as well.
It is essential to bear in mind that the articles can be divided into three groups: the first group
are news reports in which the offender is not known, or his/her name or ethnic origin are not
mentioned, the second group includes news reports in which the offender is known and is part
of the in-group, i.e. white, and the third group contains news reports in which the offender is
identified and belongs to the out-group, that is, has a coloured skin or is originally from
another country. In the examples provided below, these three groups will be simultaneously
discussed.
The excerpts considered for the interpretation will be discussed for each newspaper
separately first. Secondly, they will be compared per country (sections 4.1.3 and 4.2.3) and,
finally, a comparison of The Telegraph and De Standaard, and of The Guardian and De
Morgen will be provided in section 4.3. As stated above, the interpretation of the corpus
relies on the strategies based on Fairclough’s and Van Dijk’s research, defined in sections 3.1
and 3.2. The strategies will be discussed in the fixed order that is determined in section 3.2. It
is of great importance to keep in mind that the quotes in the news reports will not be analysed
in terms of their linguistic strategies, e.g. the syntax, since the journalist does not decide how
the utterance is expressed and, as a result, quotes do not reflect the ideological stance of the
journalist himself. However, the quotes will be analysed by their content, since it is the
journalist’s choice whether or not to include a particular quote.
28
4.1
Belgian newspapers
4.1.1 De Standaard
First of all, it is remarkable that the news reports selected from De Standaard rarely insert a
photograph of the offender or name the offender or his/her origin. In only a few cases is the
offender explicitly mentioned and these particular news reports report on a crime committed
by someone who belongs to an ethnic minority.
The analysis demonstrates that news reports involving ethnic minorities reveal a slight
difference in word choice. While the news reports with an unknown offender use rather
neutral words and sentences (see excerpt 1), the reporting on crime committed by an
allochtonous offender tends to include an implicit form of condemnation, and, as a result,
contains experiential value, revealing how the journalist interprets the felony. The second
example provides a fragment that can be considered as sarcastic, since the journalist suggests
that the trial is something to be proud of. In example 3, the journalist opts for an explicit
description of the offenders as a gang of criminals rather than, more neutrally, describe them
as ‘(gang of) Romanians’.
1. De lokale politie van de zone Brussel Zuid heeft twee mannen opgepakt die
verantwoordelijk zouden zijn voor twee gewapende overvallen. Die vonden plaats op 7
september in Anderlecht en Watermaal-Bosvoorde. [DS04]
2. Het eerste proces in 1995 tegen de moordenaars van Kurti verdiende al een
ereplaats in de geschiedenisboeken van het Brusselse assisenhof. De
beklaagdenbank bleef het hele proces leeg. Geen enkele van de vijf beschuldigden
kwam opdagen. En slechts twee van hen waren op een rechtmatige manier door
advocaten vertegenwoordigd. [DS01]
3. In Brussel werd de horlogewinkel M. Lascar maandagavond overvallen door een
bende Roemeense criminelen. De politie hield de Roemenen echter al de hele dag
in de gaten en kon hen oppakken nog voor ze geld of horloges buit wisten te maken.
[DS06]
Euphemisms, understatements and metaphors are rarely used. Only two of the selected
news reports contain a euphemism (demonstrated in excerpts 4 and 5), whereas
understatements and metaphors are not present. This leads to a limited presence of relational
value in the use of vocabulary, since these linguistic strategies express relational value,
expressing the relation between in-group and out-group members. The euphemisms are
included in news reports reporting on multi-ethnic offenders. The first example is the word
‘souteneur’, whereas ‘pooier’ is used more commonly in Dutch. Secondly, a last Romanian
gang member that has to go to jail, is described as ‘zijn kompanen vervoegen’, which is
rather formal. The phrase implicitly suggests that they will be happy to see each other and
29
neglects the fact that they are imprisoned. Moreover, the word ‘kompanen’ has a negative
connotation in Dutch.
4. Kurti moest inzien dat hij een prostituee, van wie Nardi Frroku de souteneur was,
beter niet kon chanteren door te dreigen dat hij haar familie op de hoogte zou
brengen van haar activiteiten in Brussel. [DS01]
5. Na verhoor werd ook de achtste Roemeense verdachte van een mislukte overval op
een horlogewinkel in Brussel aangehouden. Daarmee vervoegt hij zijn zeven
kompanen in de cel. [DS07]
Nominalizations do not occur consistently. Two news reports include a nominalization, but
in the given context, neither case implies an ideological stance.
6. Volgens de berichtgeving in La Dernière Heure vond de overval plaats op de
krantenwinkel aan de Maartlaan in Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, na het vallen van de
duisternis. [DS08]
7. Vijf mannen die een rol zouden gespeeld hebben bij het verkopen van de buit,
werden na verloop van tijd onder voorwaarden vrijgelaten. [DS10]
Agency, expressed by passive and active sentences, is an essential grammatical feature to
analyse since it reveals the participants’ responsibility and the way in which the journalist
verbalizes this responsibility in order to emphasise or de-emphasise it. Agency is concerned
with relational value, revealing how the participants are connected with each other. In De
Standaard, the passive voice is frequently applied in all news reports. A first look at the
corpus does not reveal any consistent use of passive voice, but when analysing more
thoroughly, a few observations can be made.
In all cases but one (excerpt 10), the arrest of the offender(s) is reported in a passive
construction, that is, ‘the offender was arrested (by the police)’ (excerpts 8 and 9), rather
than, ‘the police have arrested the offender’ (example 10). If the victim is mentioned, he or
she is usually represented in a passive way (excerpt 11), except when the victim was able to
intervene in the felony in order to stop the offender (example 12). It is important to keep in
mind that these observations are detected in all news reports, i.e. news reports that involve
both multi-ethnic offenders and unidentified offenders. In a few news reports with a multiethnic offender, however, the passive voice is employed to de-emphasise the responsibility of
other people than the offender, e.g. of the Albanese population for electing the offender in a
parliamentary ballot (example 13) and of the police for releasing the offenders (excerpt 14).
8. In het onderzoek naar de spectaculaire diamantroof op de luchthaven Brussels
Airport is vrijdag een nieuwe verdachte opgepakt, in de Zaventemse deelgemeente
Sint-Stevens-Woluwe. [DS02]
30
9. De drie daders, 15 en 13 jaar oud, konden opgepakt worden door een politieman
in burger die in de boekhandel aanwezig was. [DS08]
10. Na een gewapende overval op een krantenwinkel dinsdag in Laken heeft de politie
vier verdachten opgepakt, zo heeft het Brusselse parket woensdag gemeld. [DS09]
11. Kurti werd in elkaar -geslagen, kreeg drie messteken in de borst en bezweek kort
daarna in het ziekenhuis aan zijn -verwondingen. [DS01]
12. Terwijl één van de twee de etalage bleef bekijken, stapte de tweede achter de
toonbank en bedreigde de uitbater met een vuurwapen. De uitbater sloeg het
wapen weg en ging de overvaller te lijf. Hij slaagde erin het wapen te bemachtigen
en diende de overvaller daarmee enkele slagen toe. [DS05]
13. Maar op 23 juni vorig jaar werd Frroku in Albanië verkozen tot
volksvertegenwoordiger. Hij geniet daardoor parlementaire onschendbaarheid.
[DS01]
14. Vijf mannen die een rol zouden gespeeld hebben bij het verkopen van de buit,
werden na verloop van tijd onder voorwaarden vrijgelaten. Begin december werd
één van de vermoedelijke overvallers, de Fransman Marc Bertoldi op borg
vrijgelaten, en zaten nog vier andere vermoedelijke betrokkenen bij de overval in
de cel. [DS10]
Generally speaking, the news reports selected from De Standaard use statements throughout,
put in simple tenses. None of the news reports introduce questions or exclamations.
Moreover, cases of modality are limited as well, except for the auxiliary ‘zouden’ (examples
15 and 16), which expresses the tentative nature of the reported accusations and, hence
underscores the neutral position adopted by the journalists.
15. Het zou gaan om een 43-jarige man die bekend is bij het gerecht voor overvallen en
drugszaken. [DS02]
16. De mannen, beiden 22 jaar oud, werden door de onderzoeksrechter aangehouden.
Dat meldde het Brusselse parket gisteren. Rond 17.30 uur zouden de twintigers
eerst een overval hebben gepleegd op een winkel in de Dokter Huetstraat in
Anderlecht. [DS04]
No disclaimers have been found in the corpus. As for the use of pronouns expressing a
relational value and an ideological position, i.e. creating a polarization, no more than two
cases were detected, but they are both included in quotes. As a result, they do not express the
ideological stance of the journalist, but of this particular speaker. However, a journalist does
have a choice whether or not to include a quote and in that sense quotes. Both quotes below
(17 and 18) are retrieved from news reports in which the offenders are of multi-ethnic origin.
In excerpt 17, ‘we’ can be interpreted as ‘the Belgian court of law’, as opposed to the
offender. Example 18 outlines the situation of the victims (ik en mijn collega) as “them”
versus “the Romanians”.
17. 'Als hij zich spontaan bij ons zou melden, zou er geen probleem zijn om zijn proces
te voeren', zegt Damien Vandermeersch, woordvoerder van Cassatie. 'Maar in het
31
andere geval moet Albanië eerst beslissen wat er met de parlementaire
onschendbaarheid van de betrokkene gebeurt. Blijft die overeind, dan moeten we
wachten tot er een einde komt aan zijn mandaat alvorens er van vervolging sprake
kan zijn.' [DS01]
18. Met een voorhamer beukte hij in op de deur van gewapend glas. Toen begonnen de
scharnieren het te begeven. Ik en mijn collega zagen op de camerabeelden hoe drie
anderen buiten klaarstonden met lege rugzakken om de buit in op te bergen.'
[DS06]
The connectors used in the news reports cannot be interpreted as implicit racism. They are
simply employed to mark a consequence or the succession of events, as demonstrated in the
following excerpts.
19. Rond 17.30 uur zouden de twintigers eerst een overval hebben gepleegd op een
winkel in de Dokter Huetstraat in Anderlecht. Vervolgens sloegen ze omstreeks
19.00 uur een tweede maal toe in Watermaal-Bosvoorde. [DS04]
20. Ze gaven de speurders eerst valse identiteiten en beweerden dat ze minderjarig
waren. Na contact met de Roemeense autoriteiten bleek echter dat ze allen
meerderjarig zijn en bovendien in eigen land bekendstaan voor gelijkaardige
feiten. [DS06]
It is obvious that complex sentences are very frequently applied. However, writers use
complex sentences as a strategy to provide an ideological idea in the ‘less important’ clause,
i.e. the subordinate clause, which usually contains background information. In the majority of
the news reports, this strategy is not applied in order to implicitly take a stance against the
(multi-ethnic) offender on the one hand. However, this strategy reveals what the journalist
believes is the most important focus in the story (excerpts 21 and 22). When using
coordinated sentences, it reveals that the journalists sees the facts as equally important
(example 23).
21. Terwijl ze hun slachtoffer in bedwang hielden, knipten ze het sieraad met een
kniptang los, waarna ze ervandoor gingen. [DS12]
22. Terwijl één van de twee de etalage bleef bekijken, stapte de tweede achter de
toonbank en bedreigde de uitbater met een vuurwapen. [DS05]
23. De man drong het café binnen rond 06.40 uur en bedreigde de dienster met een
vuurwapen. Hij graaide vervolgens de kassa leeg en ging er vandoor met ongeveer
1.500 euro. [DS03]
People are not frequently quoted in the news reports selected from De Standaard. In only
three news reports is a person cited, while in two out of these three news reports an ethnic
minority is involved. All citations are retrieved from the victim or from some kind of
authority, such as, a counsel, a spokesperson of court or the police. This observation confirms
Van Dijk’s findings that minority groups are rarely quoted, stated in section 2.2.
32
24. 'Als hij zich spontaan bij ons zou melden, zou er geen probleem zijn om zijn proces
te voeren', zegt Damien Vandermeersch, woordvoerder van Cassatie. 'Maar in het
andere geval moet Albanië eerst beslissen wat er met de parlementaire
onschendbaarheid van de betrokkene gebeurt. Blijft die overeind, dan moeten we
wachten tot er een einde komt aan zijn mandaat alvorens er van vervolging sprake
kan zijn.' [DS01]
25. 'Ik weet niet wat mijn cliënt van plan is', zegt advocate Carine Couquelet die Mark
Frroku op het eerste assisenproces verdedigde. 'Ik weet alleen dat hij de
aantijgingen altijd heeft ontkend. Die aantijgingen berustten ook grotendeels op de
verklaringen van twee anonieme getuigen. Dat zette de zaak op losse schroeven.'
[DS01]
26. Op dat moment waren er nog twee werknemers aanwezig. Een van hen vertelt
anoniem wat er gebeurde. 'Een jongeman bekeek even de etalage en belde toen
aan. Ik liet hem binnen in het sas, omdat ik dacht dat hij een klant was. Maar hij
hield de deur open zodat zijn kompaan het sas kon binnenstormen. Met een
voorhamer beukte hij in op de deur van gewapend glas. Toen begonnen de
scharnieren het te begeven. Ik en mijn collega zagen op de camerabeelden hoe drie
anderen buiten klaarstonden met lege rugzakken om de buit in op te bergen.'
[DS06]
27. Na een gewapende overval op een krantenwinkel dinsdag in Laken heeft de politie
vier verdachten opgepakt, zo heeft het Brusselse parket woensdag gemeld. Het gaat
om drie minderjarigen tussen de veertien en zeventien jaar oud en een
negentienjarige, aldus parketwoordvoerder Julien Moinil. [DS09]
The final strategies to be discussed are the news schemata and the photographs
accompanying the news reports. As for the larger-scale structures, the news reports generally
apply the traditional news schemata, stating the most newsworthy facts in the first paragraph,
as defined by Fairclough (cf. section 3.1). The use of photographs, on the other hand, may
represent a particular revelation. Four news reports in the corpus are accompanied by a
photograph, three of which report on a crime committed by an ethnic minority group
member. Moreover, the photographs are rather explicit, as they show the offender [DS01],
the crime scene [DS06] and [DS10] and a gun [DS08].
4.1.2 De Morgen
The news reports collected from De Morgen are equally divided between crime news reports
in which the offender is not named (six news reports) or known and crime news reports in
which the offender is a member of an ethnic minority group (six news reports). In this
section, the results of the strategies provided in section 3.2 and applied to the corpus retrieved
from De Morgen will be discussed.
When the journalists of De Morgen report on crime, some observations can be mentioned
about their word choice. Formal words tend to be used in news reports with a multi-ethnic
group member involved (in excerpt 1 ‘ontvreemden’ and in excerpt 2 ‘tot op heden in de
33
onmogelijkheid’), whereas news reports with an unidentified offender give preference to
using rather informal words (in excerpts 3 and 4, ‘klissen’ and ‘inbeuken’ respectively). As a
result, these excerpts have both experiential and relational value (cf. question one and two in
Fairclough’s model).
1. Smbatyan bekende dat hij op 7 februari 2012 in Elsene Ulrick P. doodstak, een
aantal spullen ontvreemdde en diens appartement in brand stak. [DM04]
2. De man werd op 23 december opnieuw opgepakt en op 24 december aangehouden
door onderzoeksrechter Anciaux maar het parket was tot op heden in de
onmogelijkheid over die aanhouding te communiceren. [DM12]
3. Politie Brussel Zuid klist daders van twee overvallen [DM09]
4. De twee probeerden met een voorhamer de deur van het kantoor langs de
Gentsesteenweg in te beuken maar toen dat niet lukte, gingen ze op de loop.
[DM10]
In the selected news reports, metaphors do not appear. Euphemisms and understatements,
on the other hand, are relatively speaking rather prominent in the corpus, particularly when
the crime is committed by a multi-ethnic offender. For instance, the offender has confessed
the felony, but the journalist keeps talking about ‘the suspect’ rather than ‘the offender’
(example 5). The same goes for example 6, in which the title says that the leader is arrested,
but the remaining of the news report simply describes the offender as a suspect. One
additional observation is the description of ‘dead’ as ‘lifeless’, used in [DM05] and [DM07],
in which the offender is unknown.
5. De beschuldigde had toegegeven dat hij zijn voormalige echtgenote met
voorbedachte rade om het leven bracht. […] Na het verlies van zijn werk was
beslag gelegd op zijn inkomen om alimentatie te betalen. Het geëiste huurgeld
sloeg volgens de verdachte op de periode dat hij een verdieping van het pand van
zijn ex-vrouw in Vorst betrok. [DM03]
6. Kopstuk diamantroof Zaventem opgepakt […] In het onderzoek naar de
spectaculaire diamantroof op de luchthaven Brussels Airport is vanmorgen een
nieuwe verdachte opgepakt, in de Zaventemse deelgemeente Sint-Stevens-Woluwe.
[DM11]
Three cases of nominalization have been detected in the corpus. Only one, however, can be
interpreted as the implicit expression of an ideological stance, as the responsibility of the loss
of the offender’s job, that is, the employer who dismissed him, is kept silent.
7. Na het verlies van zijn werk was beslag gelegd op zijn inkomen om alimentatie te
betalen. [DM03]
No distinction can be made between the news reports with an ethnic minority involved and
the ones with an unidentified offender with regard to the agency, and the relational value
34
resulting from it. Passive constructions are regularly applied in all news reports In De
Morgen. As no ideological stance can be detected through this strategy, only a few random
examples will be given in order to show how the responsibility can be emphasised or deemphasised. The arrest of the offender is both constructed with a passive and active voice
(examples 8 and 9), whereas the acts of the offender are usually portrayed with active
sentences (excerpts 8 and 10). Furthermore, if the police were able to detain the offender,
they tend to be described in positive sentences, in order to represent them as heroes (e.g. in
excerpt 11).
8. Twee mannen zijn opgepakt, nadat ze vanmorgen een overval hadden gepleegd op
een postkantoor in Schaarbeek. [DM01]
9. De Brusselse politie heeft acht Roemenen opgepakt die op het punt stonden een
overval te plegen op de exclusieve horlogewinkel M. Lascar aan de Waterloolaan,
vlakbij de Louizalaan. [DM08]
10. Al sinds begin december besteelt hij passagiers en dat zou hij volgens het parket
niet alleen doen. De buit werd telkens verkocht. [DM02]
11. In de woning van de dealer vond de politie bijna een kilo cocaïne en een kleinere
hoeveelheid marihuana. [DM06]
As for the modes used in the corpus, it has been found that each news report is written in
declarative sentences. Even though simple tenses are frequently used, the journalists make a
distinction between what is a fact (excerpt 12) and what is a presumption by using the verb
‘zouden’ (example 13). Auxiliary verbs to express modality are barely employed, but when
employed, it is generally in news reports with an offender of multi-ethnic origin involved
(excerpts 14 and 15).
12. Het meisje van 1,5 jaar oud vertoonde verscheidene steekwonden en was al
overleden, terwijl de moeder in een zeer verwarde toestand verkeerde. [DM05]
13. Volgens de eerder vernoemde vriendin zou de dader, een 34-jarige man, net zijn
partner verloren hebben. Hij zou zijn heil hebben gezocht in drank en drugs om
zijn verdriet te vergeten. [DM07]
14. Afgelopen maandag kon de tiende verdachte, de Fransman Marc Bertoldi, de cel
verlaten onder betaling van een borgsom van 20.000 euro. [DM11]
15. Die twee werden ondervraagd en vrijgelaten maar moesten wel DNA-materiaal
afstaan. [DM12]
As no more than one disclaimer has been found in the corpus sample retrieved from De
Morgen, it is impossible to conclude whether this strategy is used to conceal a form of
discrimination. The disclaimer is a combination of ‘apparent empathy’ and ‘apparent
excuses’ (cf. section 3.2), since the fact that the offender lost his partner and, as a result,
started drinking and consuming drugs creates empathy for the offender.
35
16. Volgens de eerder vernoemde vriendin zou de dader, een 34-jarige man, net zijn
partner verloren hebben. Hij zou zijn heil hebben gezocht in drank en drugs om
zijn verdriet te vergeten. [DM07]
No pronouns that lead to the creation of a polarized model have been detected. Connectors
implying an ideological stance have not been found either. Subordinate clauses, on the other
hand, are abundantly represented. As explained in section 4.1.1, these clauses can contain an
ideological stance, while being portrayed by the journalist as background information.
However, the journalists employ the majority of the subordinate clauses as a manner to
distinguish what they interpret as the main issue and the side issue (examples 17 and 18). In
one news report reporting on a crime committed by a man of multi-ethnic origin, an
ideological position might be detected through the use of subordination. Excerpts 19 reveals
an implicit emphasis on the fact that a bone scan proved that the offenders are liars.
Unfortunately, no further distinction can be made with regard to subordination in news
reports with an ethnic minority involved. Therefore it is difficult to conclude whether this
strategy is mainly used to imply ideologies concerning multi-ethnic groups.
17. Twee mannen zijn opgepakt, nadat ze vanmorgen een overval hadden gepleegd op
een postkantoor in Schaarbeek. [DM01]
18. Smbatyan, die omschreven wordt als een drugsverslaafde, werd in 2009 en 2012
door de correctionele rechtbank van Brussel al veroordeeld voor feiten van
diefstal. [DM04]
19. De acht beweerden dat ze minderjarig waren maar botscans wezen het tegendeel
uit, waarna ze allemaal werden aangehouden door de onderzoeksrechter. [DM08]
In no more than two news reports, a quote is included. One news report involves an
unidentified offender, in the other one, the offender is of multi-ethnic origin. In the news
report with the unknown offender, the prosecution is quoted (excerpt 20). In the second news
report, it is not an authority that is quoted, as would be expected, but the offender himself.
However, this quote does not create some kind of empathy. On the contrary, by introducing
the quote by ‘naar eigen zeggen’, the journalist makes the quote less credible. This
observation is a clear example of an ideological stance of the journalist.
20. Parket en onderzoeksrechter stapten donderdagavond nog af, samen met het
gerechtelijk laboratorium en een wetsdokter, maar op welke plaats(en) kon het
parket niet verduidelijken. "Het is nog niet duidelijk waar de feiten precies hebben
plaatsgevonden", aldus het parket. "De moeder had een officiële woonplaats, maar
mogelijk verbleef ze daar niet." [DM05]
21. Enkele dagen eerder had de beschuldigde een brief van zijn ex ontvangen, die van
hem 22.000 euro achterstallige huur eiste. Dat had hem naar eigen zeggen
"volledig gebroken". [DM04]
36
It is noteworthy that in several news reports, the felony is stated in the first paragraph and is
later repeated again. Four out of the twelve news reports apply this structure, two of which
involve a member of an ethnic minority group (example 22). The remaining two news reports
do not mention the name or origin of the offender (example 23). As a result, it is hard to
deduce a conclusion from this observation with regard to possible differences in crime news
reports when a person of multi-ethnic origin is involved or not.
22. Na controle van camerabeelden is gebleken dat hij sinds begin december al
veertien diefstallen heeft gepleegd. Hij opereert niet alleen, meldt het parket van
Brussel. […] Al sinds begin december besteelt hij passagiers en dat zou hij volgens
het parket niet alleen doen. De buit werd telkens verkocht. Over zijn kompanen is
nog niets bekend. [DM02]
23. In hun vlucht lieten ze de hamer achter, net als handschoenen en bivakmutsen.
Twee van de drie overvallers konden opgepakt worden, meldt het Brusselse parket.
[…] In de nabije omgeving trof de politie nog de voorhamer, een paar
handschoenen en een bivakmuts aan. Van de derde overvaller was evenwel geen
spoor meer. [DM10]
A photograph has been added to five of the twelve selected news reports from De Morgen.
Four of these photographs, two of which with an ethnic minority group member involved, can
be considered as neutral, since they show the logo of the police or the airport in [DM07],
[DM08], [DM09] and [DM02]. The fifth photograph shows the multi-ethnic offender himself.
His face, however, is censored. Furthermore, three news reports, two of which related with an
ethnic minority group, are accompanied by a video fragment reporting on the situation,
leading to a more sensational presentation of the crime ([DM05] [DM11] and [DM12]).
4.1.3 Comparison
After critically analysing the Belgian sample of the corpus, one can conclude that both De
Standaard and De Morgen report on crime in a rather neutral manner. In both newspapers,
not many examples of strategies have been found which implicitly express an ideological
stance when referring to multi-ethnic groups.
First, the similarities between the newspapers will be discussed. It appears that both
newspapers do not use metaphors as a strategy to conceal an ideological position. The same
goes for the use of connectors, tenses, modes, modality, subordination and disclaimers. The
description of the situations uncovers some similarities as well, since both newspapers
employ a different register or synonyms to distinguish crimes committed by a multi-ethnic
offender or an offender whose name or origin is not mentioned. While De Morgen seems to
prefer rather formal or informal words depending on the origin of the offender, De Standaard
37
in one example opts for sarcasm or explicit descriptions. Moreover, euphemisms and
understatements are used in both newspapers when reporting on a crime committed by a
multi-ethnic person.
Nevertheless, some observations reveal slight differences between the two newspapers. A
first difference can be observed in the use of nominalizations and passive and active voice.
On the one hand, De Morgen combines active and passive sentences rather randomly without
using it as a strategy to de-emphasise one’s responsibility. However, the newspaper does use
a nominalization to play down someone’s responsibility. De Standaard, on the other hand,
contains a small number of excerpts in which they de-emphasise someone’s responsibility by
using passive constructions. Unlike De Morgen, De Standaard does not use nominalizations
to implicitly express an ideological position.
De Standaard tends to employ pronouns as a strategy to create a polarized model. Through
citations, the journalists develops a contradiction between us and them. In De Morgen, no
trace can be detected of this strategy.
Van Dijk’s theory that minority groups are rarely quoted is confirmed in the corpus retrieved
from De Standaard. As a result, it is remarkable that a multi-ethnic offender is briefly quoted
in De Morgen. This citation, however, does not evoke empathy. On the contrary, it represents
the offender as a unreliable person. As for the news structures in the newspapers, no
ideological stances have been detected. Still, it is noteworthy that De Morgen emphasises the
most important fragments of the crime (whether or not committed by a multi-ethnic offender)
by repeating those acts.
Finally, an observation can be made with regard to the photographs accompanying the news
reports. While De Standaard tends to use slightly more explicit photos, e.g. of the offender or
the crime scene, De Morgen prefers using more neutral photographs. The latter inserts film
fragment on the crime as well, but that creates more sensation, rather than an ideological
position.
In sum, it can be concluded that both newspapers occasionally express an ideological stance
with regard to ethnic minority groups. Even though there are quite a few similarities, each
newspaper seems to have its own preferences in the use of particular strategies. As a result, it
is difficult to determine whether one newspaper implicitly tends towards racial bias more
clearly than the other does.
38
4.2
British newspapers
4.2.1 The Telegraph
Before discussing the results of the critical discourse analysis performed on the news reports
selected from The Telegraph, it is relevant to note that the corpus is more or less equally
divided between crime reports involving an unknown offender (seven news reports) and
crime reports in which the offender is known (five news reports). Four of the latter involve a
multi-ethnic offender, one news report involves a white (British) citizen. It is of great
importance to bear in mind that this distinction is based on the name and/or photograph
mentioned in The Telegraph, since the ethnic origin of the offender is rarely provided. Even
though the offender may be born in the UK, he or she is considered a member of an ethnic
minority group if he or she does not have a white skin or if his or her name sounds ‘exotic’,
which is the case in [TT01].
With regard to the description of the felony and of the offenders, it can be observed that news
reports that involve an identified offender prefer to use synonyms in order to exaggerate the
situation or to portray the offender in a negative manner, e.g. cannabis smoker (example 1),
to erupt into violence (excerpt 2), to hack (excerpt 3), to bungle (example 4), to terrorise
(excerpt 5) and to butcher (example 6). As a result, the news reports involving a multi-ethnic
offender tend to contain experiential value with regard to the lexical choices.
1. A cannabis smoker who was not being properly monitored by mental health
workers battered his girlfriend to death with a hockey stick after a row over a
Christmas present. [TT01]
2. The Islamist killers of Drummer Lee Rigby erupted into violence in an Old Bailey
courtroom as they were sentenced for murder. [TT03]
3. Eight dock officers wrestled with the killers, who hacked the 25-year-old soldier to
death in May last year after running him over near his barracks in Woolwich,
south-east London. [TT03]
4. Bungling 'umbrella robber' jailed for life [TT07]
5. Judge Peter Clark apologised to two of the staff who had been terrorised during
the robbery, and ordered Rossi to serve a minimum of 18-years. [TT07]
6. The family of Lee Rigby broke down today as two Islamist fanatics were found
guilty of butchering the soldier on a London street. [TT12]
Euphemism and understatements do not occur in the corpus sample retrieved from The
Telegraph. One metaphor, however, is detected in a news report that involves an in-group
offender. The judge calls the violent victim “no shrinking violet”, which may be interpreted
as a sign of sympathy for the white offender.
39
7. The judge described the shoplifter as “no shrinking violet”, who had used violence
“to avoid the consequences of her own actions and her dishonesty”. [TT02]
In the same news report a nominalization is detected. In the following example, the
journalist states that the offender could get dismissed, but by using a nominalization, he
conceals the responsible person, i.e. the employer that will dismiss the offender.
8. A policeman who punched a shoplifter on the head before pinning her to the
ground faces dismissal after being sentenced to a community order. [TT02]
With regard to the agency expressed in the news reports, it can be concluded that, whatever
ethnic group the offender belongs to, the offender is portrayed as fully responsible through
the use of active constructions, as demonstrated in examples 9 and 10. The arrest and/or
convictions (by the police or court), on the other hand, are usually written in the passive
voice, e.g. excerpts 11 and 12. The same goes for the sentences used to report on the
activities of the police, e.g. when they had to intervene, as demonstrated in excerpts 13 and
14. Furthermore, the victim tends to be described with passive constructions (example 15).
These observations, however, do not uncover the presence of an ideological stance. One
exception in the portrayal of the victim does reveal a difference between the reporting on ingroup and out-group offenders. In excerpt 16, it is clear that the victim is represented in an
active way. As a result, the acts of the white offender might be interpreted as less
aggravating. A second and last example in which an ideological stance may be concealed is
demonstrated in excerpt 17. This example shows that the journalist intends to conceal the
responsibility of the mental health workers by not using them as the subject of the sentence.
In the remaining of the news report, the offender receives an active role in which is stated that
he refused the help of his supervisors.
9. Before making his escape on a bicycle, he fired two shots in a bid to ward off any
pursuit. [TT07]
10. A jury found Michael Adebolajo, 29, and Michael Adebowale, 22, guilty of
murdering the 25-year-old after they ran him over and hacked him to death in
broad daylight. [TT12]
11. Three males - all aged under 18 - were arrested nearby and taken to an east
London police station, where they remained in police custody on Saturday night.
[TT05]
12. Michael Adebolajo has been sentenced to a "life means life" prison term for the
killing of Drummer Lee Rigby while Michael Adebowale was sentenced to life with
a minimum of 45 years [TT03]
40
13. The men had planned to be martyred by the police but the quick actions of the
armed officers who arrived meant they were shot and disarmed but not killed.
[TT12]
14. Armed police officers were called to the address in Selkirk Road, Tooting at
around 11.45am on Tuesday. [TT08]
15. Christopher Foster, 34, was attacked while having a cigarette with a male friend in
an alleyway in central London. [TT04]
16. Pc James Kiddie, 45, who had worked for the Metropolitan Police for 12 years,
said he hit out after the “snarling” woman bit him on the finger and claimed that
she had the Aids virus. [TT02]
17. Felipe Silva Lopes, 28, was meant to be seen by his mental health team every day
after being released from prison last December – but was not seen for a week
during the Christmas period. […] He was released on December 12 last year,
under a supervision order but stopped taking his medication and regularly smoked
cannabis. [TT01]
No particular observations can be made with regard to the use of the tenses, since the
majority of the news reports is written in simple or perfect tenses without implying an
ideological stance.
In the corpus sample of The Telegraph, one grammatical question has been found. It is
included in a quote of a news report that involves an unidentified offender. However, the
quote in this report suggests that the offender is of multi-ethnic origin since the speaker
creates a polarization (his city versus “thugs like this”). As a result, the choice to include this
quote and, more specifically, this question, uncovers a clear ideological stance towards ethnic
minorities and reveals the presence of relational value.
18. 'He swore at me and I managed to yank him off his machine. I thought ‘this is my
bloody city – why should thugs like this get away with it?’ [TT10]
Modality is used rather frequently in the news reports retrieved from The Telegraph. There
appears to be a slight difference in the use of modal auxiliary verbs between news reports that
involve an identified or unidentified offender, viz. news report with an identified offender
seem to employ more modal verbs, e.g. excerpt 19. However, no distinction can be made
between white or multi-ethnic offenders, and, hence, no difference can be observed in the
possible presence of an ideological stance.
19. Miss Johnson said it was also suggested Miss Voykina was killed because she was
“idealistic” and thought she could help Lopes. [TT01]
Disclaimers and connectors used to express an ideological position have not been found in
the corpus. With regard to the use of pronouns to develop a polarized model of in-group
members versus out-group members, some observations have been made. Through the use of
41
citations, the journalists intend to provide such a polarization. A first example was already
mentioned in excerpt 18 and, below, two more examples show this polarized model. In
excerpts 20 and 21, David Cameron and Theresa May respectively refer to ‘we’ as the British
nation and to ‘our society’ as opposed to the Muslim offenders.
20. "We have to redouble our efforts to confront the poisonous narrative of extremism
and violence and make sure we do everything to beat it." [TT12]
21. "Violence and extremism of any kind have absolutely no place in our society and
cannot be justified.” [TT12]
Pronouns such as ‘we’ and ‘you’ are not necessarily required to create a polarization. The
following example shows how the offender distinguishes Britain and Muslim people as two
separated societies.
22. Adebowale and Adebolajo, who both grew up in east London, claimed they were
“soldiers of Allah” and that the killing was a legitimate act because Britain was at
war with Muslim people. [TT03]
Subordination is primarily employed in The Telegraph to make a distinction between the
main issue and the side issue, that is, what the journalist considers to be the main issue. These
examples are abundantly represented in the news reports, but will not be discussed here, as
they do not reveal an implicit ideological opinion.
It appears that journalists of The Telegraph excessively insert quotes in their crime news
reports. The majority of people that are cited, are elites, such as a judge, a counsel and the
prime minister. Besides those authorities, it is important to note that witnesses or relatives of
the victim are quoted as well. Among these citations, one should receive specific attention,
since the choice of the journalist to include this quote is clearly ideologically motivated. The
journalist quotes an imam who describes the victim as a good Muslim, but this has nothing to
do with the robbery or the fact that the victim passed away. However, it is mentioned after
all.
23. The imam of the mosque, who did not want to be named, on nearby Gatton Road
said: "He was a very humble guy. He always had a smile on his face and was very
kind. "He came to the mosque regularly. It's a tragedy." [TT08]
Another example of an ideologically motivated choice whether to insert a quote is
demonstrated in excerpt 18. Furthermore, it is remarkable that in the two news reports on the
killing of Lee Rigby, the offender is regularly quoted as well. This strategy, however, is not
applied in order to create empathy for the offender. On the contrary, these citations worsen
the image of the offender, as he is portrayed as a cruel person without regret.
42
24. The struggle erupted as the murderer yelled: “I swear by Allah that America and
Britain will never have any safety. Allahu Akbar [God is Great].” [TT03]
25. Giving evidence he said Al Qaeda were his “brothers in Islam” and that the death
was a “military attack”. [TT12]
As for the structure of the news reports, nothing remarkable has been detected with regard to
the presence of an ideological stance. The news reports use classical news schemata based on
newsworthiness, as defined in section 3.1.
Photographs are abundantly used in the news reports selected from The Telegraph. In nine
news reports (uncensored) photographs of the offender(s), the victim, the victim’s relatives
and/or the crime scene are inserted. The choice of photographs might be ideologically
motivated, since the readers might pass judgement more rapidly when they see that an
offender of multi-ethnic origin is involved. The three remaining news reports, that involve an
unidentified offender, are accompanied by a rather neutral photograph of a police line
([TT05] [TT06] and [TT08]). Moreover, two news reports ([TT02] and [TT12]) include an
additional video fragment of the crime, in order to show the cruelty of the offender, which
makes the news report more sensational.
4.2.2 The Guardian
The news reports retrieved from The Guardian include no more than two news report that
involve an unidentified offender. Consequently, ten news reports publish the identity of the
offender, eight of which report on a crime committed by an out-group member, two report on
a crime that involves an ethnic minority. It is relevant to keep in mind that this distinction is
based on the name and/or photograph mentioned in The Guardian (cf. section 4.2.1). Even
though in [TG12], the offender is a white British citizen, he is considered as an out-group
member, as he is portrayed as a Muslim convert.
The descriptions of the crime and the offenders in The Guardian are rather explicit.
Particularly when the offender is of multi-ethnic origin, the lexical choices may seem rather
exaggerated. As a result, the word choices that may contain an ideological stance and the
experiential value resulting from it are not expressed in an implicit manner. Below, some
examples are provided of explicit lexical choices, such as the al-Qaida ideology (example 1),
zealot (example 1), reprisal (excerpt 2), to terrorise (excerpt 3), Muslim veil (excerpt 4) and
horrific (example 5).
1. It was the first murderous attack in Britain by those motivated by the al-Qaida
ideology of violence since the 7 July 2005 bombings of London's transport system
43
2.
3.
4.
5.
by four suicide bombers. It showed the continuing power of that ideology to turn
Britons – in this case both with professional parents and who had been seemingly
integrated into national life – into zealots who believed they were soldiers of Allah
commanded to murder in retaliation for western foreign policy in Muslim lands.
[TG01]
Adebolajo, from Romford, Essex, and Adebowale, from Greenwich, south London,
claimed they were soldiers of Allah and their violence was a reprisal against
western foreign policy, which had led to the deaths of Muslims. [TG02]
Three members of 'Muslim Patrol' terrorised couple for holding hands, abused
woman over her clothing and attacked drinkers [TG04]
Mary Konye, 21, disguised herself in a Muslim veil and attacked Naomi Oni after
following her home from work, a jury at Snaresbrook crown court in London
found. [TG06]
Barnes, 23, of Hackney, east London, this week pleaded guilty to posting videos on
YouTube glorifying the horrific killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby in May last year.
[TG12]
Euphemism and understatements are not present in the news reports retrieved from The
Guardian. Metaphors, on the other hand, are detected twice in the corpus. Both in [TG01]
and [TG02], the killers are described as ‘butchers attacking a joint of meat’, which
demonstrates the cruelty of the multi-ethnic offender (excerpt 6), whereas the victim in
[TG10] is called ‘no shrinking violet’ (excerpt 7), creating empathy for the white offender.
As there are only two metaphors detected in the corpus, it is difficult to conclude whether
there is a difference in the expression of ideological stances when a multi-ethnic offender is
involved.
6. He described how he held the soldier's hair as he hacked at his neck in a motion
described by one witness as like a "butcher attacking a joint of meat". [TG02]
7. District judge Elizabeth Roscoe told Kiddie at a hearing at Westminster
magistrates' court in central London: "This was no shrinking violet, this woman,
but, as a police officer, obviously higher standards are required from you." [TG10]
None of the news reports use nominalizations in order to conceal a person’s responsibility.
Responsibility tends to be de-emphasised through the use of passive constructions. It is
observed that especially news reports that involve an out-group offender apply this strategy.
In excerpt 8, the journalist reports on attacks on mosques, but does not state who has attacked
the mosques. The assumption can be made that these attacks were done by in-group members
to avenge the killing of Lee Rigby, but the agency is kept silent in the news report. In the
second example (excerpt 9), no answer is provided to the question ‘by whom had he been
denied asylum?’. In other words, the excerpt conceals the responsibility of the British
government. The same goes for excerpt 10, in which someone could ask who has given the
asbo and who ordered the offender to stop preaching.
44
8. The savagery of the murder, in which Rigby, 25, was repeatedly stabbed and
hacked at the neck by a cleaver, shattered community relations when mosques were
attacked. [TG01]
9. An Afghan national murdered his wife because he feared being forced to leave the
UK if she divorced him, a court has heard. […] Sarfi had been denied asylum in
the UK but after the wedding his status changed and he could stay as a spouse of
the European national. [TG08]
10. A Muslim convert who targeted members of the public as part of a campaign for a
sharia state in Britain has been given a groundbreaking asbo, police have said.
Jordan Horner, 20, from northeast London has been ordered to stop preaching in
public, in a legal first. [TG12]
With regard to the use of tenses, no particular observations are detected in the news reports
selected from The Guardian. The majority of the news reports is written in simple or perfect
tenses without concealing an implicit ideological stance.
The corpus of The Guardian contains one grammatical question (excerpt 11). It is included
in a quote of an offender of multi-ethnic origin. He asks rhetorical questions in order to
express his ‘Islamist message’, which emphasises the cruelty of the offender.
11. "You think David Cameron is going to get caught in the street when we start
bussin' our guns? You think politicians are going to die? No it's going to be the
average guy, like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our
troops back so you can all live in peace." [TG02]
Modal verbs are used frequently in the news reports retrieved from The Guardian,
particularly in news reports that involve a multi-ethnic offender, which may indicate the
presence of an ideological stance. For instance, the use of ‘would’ in example 12 implies that
martyrdom is an illusion of the killers. Other examples are provided in excerpts 13 and 14.
12. They claimed they wanted to be shot dead so they would be martyrs. [TG02]
13. It was, according to Singh, to be hoped that all necessary inquiries will have been
made by various authorities to establish that everything was done to protect the
boy's life that could reasonably have been done. [TG03]
14. The judge, David Radford, said she would face jail when he sentences her on 7
March. [TG06]
The corpus of The Guardian contains three disclaimers, all in news reports that involve an
out-group offender. They are not necessarily concerned with the ethnic origin of the offender,
but rather with the religion of the offenders. All disclaimers, as demonstrated in examples 15,
16 and 17, imply that the offender’s religion is (part of) the reason why he committed the
crime.
15. It showed the continuing power of that ideology to turn Britons – in this case both
with professional parents and who had been seemingly integrated into national life
45
– into zealots who believed they were soldiers of Allah commanded to murder in
retaliation for western foreign policy in Muslim lands. [TG01]
16. Adebolajo, who was born into a church-going Nigerian family but converted to
Islam, had complained of harassment by MI5 in the last three years after he came
to the intelligence agency's attention. [TG02]
17. The judge said that the couple, otherwise "dedicated and humble", were strict
Seventh Day Adventists. But he added: "However their views (in particular Mr
Kunene's) appear to be very extreme and do not reflect the official doctrine of that
church." [TG03]
With regard to the use of pronouns to create a polarization, and, as a result, relational value,
it is remarkable that, similar to the use of disclaimers, the examples can be found in news
reports that involve a multi-ethnic offender with a different, i.e. other than Christianity,
religion. The polarization is generally created in quotes, both of the offenders (excerpt 18)
and of the relatives of the victim and the authorities (excerpts 19 and 20).
18. "You need to control this area and forbid people from exposing themselves outside
the mosque. Remove yourselves now. Muslim Patrol. Move away from the mosque.
Don't come back. We don't respect those who disrespect God." [TG04]
19. "These people have taken him away from us forever but his memory lives on in all
of us and we will never forget him. [TG01]
20. David Cameron said: "We have to redouble our efforts to confront the poisonous
narrative of extremism and violence that lay behind this and make sure we do
everything to beat it in our country." [TG01]
The connectors employed in the news reports cannot be interpreted as implicit racial bias.
They are simply used to mark a consequence or the succession of events, and, hence, will not
be discussed in this analysis.
Examples of subordination that are employed to make a distinction between the main issue
and the side issue will not be discussed, since they do not reveal an implicit ideological
stance. However, some excerpts reveal the use of subordinate clauses to express an implicit
ideological position. In example 21 the journalist portrays the multi-ethnic offender as fully
responsible, since he does not have mental problems. Excerpt 22 reveals that ‘the death of
Muslims’ is de-emphasised, as if their deaths are not important. Finally, in example 23 it is
remarkable that the previous ‘disciplinary findings’ of the white offender are represented as
background information.
21. Adebolajo, assessed by a psychiatrist as sane, was recorded at the scene
brandishing a cleaver and a knife in his bloodied hands, and with the body of
Rigby lying metres away, saying: [TG01]
46
22. Adebolajo, from Romford, Essex, and Adebowale, from Greenwich, south London,
claimed they were soldiers of Allah and their violence was a reprisal against
western foreign policy, which had led to the deaths of Muslims. [TG02]
23. Prosecutor Rupert Kent told the court that Kiddie had no previous convictions, but
the Met officer had two previous disciplinary findings of "incivility" against him on
his police record. [TG10]
Quotes are abundantly inserted in the crime news reports of The Guardian. The elite groups,
such as a judge, a counsel, the police and the prime minister are being quoted, but it is of
particular interest to observe that the multi-ethnic offenders are frequently cited as well.
These quotations do not generate empathy for the offenders, but create a cruel image and
aggravate their actions, as demonstrated in excerpts 24, 25, 26 and 27. One final observation
can be made with regard to the quotation of the offender’s brother in example 28. By quoting
him, the journalist implies that the acts of the offenders are not an isolated case of extremist
Muslims and that other Islamist people think like them.
24. When family members expressed serious concerns, Mr Kunene responded by
saying "we are praying" and "we can't do anything about it until the lord
sanctions". [TG03]
25. They said that they were there to "enforce Sharia law" in "Allah's land", and
shouted: "Kill the non-believers". [TG04]
26. In May last year, Morawiec told her mother that she had tried to leave the flat and
her husband leaned out of the window and shouted: "You must come back and if
you do not I will take this knife and kill you." [TG08]
27. Barnes and his wife, Rebekah Dawson, 22, recorded and uploaded three videos
shortly after the murder in Woolwich, south London. In one of the videos posted
through his Musa Real Talks account, Barnes hailed the murder as a "brilliant
day". [TG12]
28. Speaking to al-Jazeera's Investigations Unit, Jeremiah Adebolajo, who like his
brother Michael is a Muslim convert, predicted another Woolwich-style attack due
to British foreign policy. In the interview, the 26-year-old, who was banned from
attending the Old Bailey for some of his brother's trial for security reasons, said:
"I suggest that it won't be the last [attack], simply because of the tactics of the
British secret service and foreign policy. For every violent action is a violent
reaction." [TG02]
The penultimate strategy to be discussed is the news structure. The crime news reports in
The Guardian generally apply the traditional news schemata, describing the most
newsworthy facts in the first paragraph, as defined by Fairclough (cf. section 3.1).
Photographs are regularly used in the news reports selected from The Telegraph. Six news
reports are accompanied by a (uncensored) photographs of the offender(s), the victim, the
victim’s relatives and/or the crime scene are inserted. The choice to add a photograph might
be ideologically motivated, since the readers might pass judgement more rapidly when they
47
see that an offender of multi-ethnic origin is involved. One news report contains a neutral
photograph ([TG05]) and two news reports do not include photographs at all ([TG08],
[TG09] and [TG11]). Furthermore, two news reports ([TT01] and [TT10]) include a video
fragment instead of a photograph, in order to show the cruelty of the offender, which makes
the news report more sensational and to provide an analysis of the crime, as demonstrated in
[TT01].
4.2.3 Comparison
The critical discourse analysis of the British sample of the corpus reveals that both The
Telegraph and The Guardian quite regularly includes an ideological stance when reporting on
crime committed by an out-group offender. First of all, it is vital to observe that the British
newspapers do not necessarily consider an offender as an out-group member because of their
ethnic origin, but rather because of their religion, particularly Islam. In both newspapers,
implicit ideological references towards Muslims can be found, but it appears that The
Guardian includes slightly more of those implicit ideological opinions.
A similarity between the newspapers can be detected in the lexical choices, since both
newspapers tend to use explicit descriptions to report on a crime committed by an out-group
member. Furthermore, it appears that both newspapers do not use euphemisms and
understatements as a strategy to express an ideological position in an implicit manner. The
same goes for the use of connectors, tenses and news schemata. The use of pronouns to create
a polarized model uncovers strong similarities as well. Through the use of quotes, both The
Telegraph and The Guardian express a distinction between ‘our country’ and the ‘Muslim
extremists’. Both newspapers generally use the declarative mode. In each newspaper,
however, one example of a question can be found. Finally, the use of photographs in both
newspapers is similar as well. Photographs are frequently used in both The Telegraph and
The Guardian and tend to be rather explicit, e.g. uncensored photographs of the offender or
photographs of the crime scene. Consequently, these photographs might be added to change
the readers’ opinions and attitudes towards the offenders.
Even though there are quite a few similarities between The Telegraph and The Guardian, the
current analysis proves that there are at least as much differences. A first slight difference can
be observed in the use of nominalizations. While The Guardian does not employ
nominalizations, The Telegraph reveals one example of a possibly ideologically motivated
nominalization. A more explicit difference is observed in the use of passive and active
48
constructions in order to conceal the agency, as The Guardian tends to use this strategy more
frequently than The Telegraph. Furthermore, the use of modal verbs to imply an ideological
stance appears to be applied more by the journalists of The Guardian than of The Telegraph
and unlike The Guardian, The Telegraph does not use disclaimers in order to portray the
multi-ethnic offenders in a negative way.
It seems that the journalists of The Guardian prefer using subordinate clauses to include
implicit ideological stances. The Telegraph, on the other hand, primarily employs
subordination to make a distinction between the main issue and the side issue.
As observed in Van Dijk’s theory, elite groups are frequently quoted in both newspapers.
However, the out-group offenders are regularly quoted as well, especially in The Guardian.
These citations do not generate empathy, but intend to demonstrate the cruelty of the multiethnic offender. As a result, this strategy is clearly employed to imply an ideological position.
Everything considered, it can be concluded that both newspapers tend to express an
ideological stance with regard to ethnic minority groups, whether implicitly or explicitly. The
Guardian, however, tends to put particular emphasis on the religion of the offenders. As a
result, the ideological stances are not completely related to the ethnic origin of the offender,
but rather to the belief of the offender, especially when his or her religion is Islam.
4.3
Comparison between the British and Belgian press
In the following sections, De Standaard and The Telegraph, both traditionally characterized
as conservative quality newspapers, will be compared in order to uncover differences in
reporting between the English and Flemish press. The same goes for De Morgen and The
Guardian, that are both traditionally characterized as progressive quality newspapers.
4.3.1 De Standaard and The Telegraph
As observed in sections 4.1.3 and 4.2.3, the Belgian newspapers seem to report in a rather
neutral manner when a crime is committed by a multi-ethnic offender, whereas the British
newspapers tend to take an ideological stance. The differences between the British and the
Belgian conservative quality newspapers will be discussed below for each strategy that was
considered for the analysis.
Both newspapers intend to create a polarization through the use of pronouns, such as ‘we’ or
‘our’. Other similarities can be found in the lack of use of disclaimers, modal verbs and
connectors, modes and simple tenses to imply an ideological position. Furthermore, De
49
Standaard and The Telegraph employ subordinate clauses to make a distinction between the
main issue and the side issue, rather than to conceal an ideological stance. A final similarity is
found in the news schemata, since both newspapers tend to opt for the classical schemata.
With regard to the lexical choices of the newspapers, it appears that both newspapers opt for
rather explicit descriptions. However, The Telegraph applies this strategy more often than De
Standaard. As a consequence, experiential value is more present in the vocabulary of The
Telegraph. Unlike De Standaard, The Telegraph does not use euphemisms and
understatements to imply an ideological stance. However, The Telegraph does employ
metaphors when a multi-ethnic offender is involved, whereas this linguistic strategy is not
applied in De Standaard.
The agency can be concealed by nominalization and by passive constructions. While The
Telegraph applies both strategies to de-emphasise, De Standaard seems to prefer the use of
passive voice only.
It can be observed that both newspapers quote elite groups. The Telegraph, however, does
this far more frequently. Moreover, the British newspaper quotes the (cruel) statements of
offenders, and especially of the out-group offenders, as well. As a result, the out-group
offenders are portrayed in a more negative way than in De Standaard.
Finally, an observation can be made with regard to the photographs accompanying the news
reports. Even though The Telegraph adds more photographs to the crime news reports, a
similarity can be found in the kind of photographs: both newspapers prefer rather explicit
photographs of, for example, the offender or the crime scene.
This comparison can be concluded by stating that both newspapers show quite a few
similarities. However, The Telegraph contains more examples of ideological stances per
strategy and as a result, the British conservative newspaper can be considered as more
racially biased than the Belgian conservative newspaper.
4.3.2 De Morgen and The Guardian
First of all, it is important to note that, based on the current corpus selection, it appears that
The Guardian is more inclined to publish the name or a photograph of the offender. In De
Morgen, no more than six news reports revealed the identity of the offender, whereas ten
news reports in The Guardian published the offender’s identity.
50
Similar to section 4.3.1, the differences between the British and the Belgian progressive
quality newspapers will be discussed for each strategy that was considered for the critical
discourse analysis.
It appears that De Morgen and The Guardian do not have a lot in common when reporting on
crimes committed by out-group offenders. Similarities can only be found in the use of video
fragments and in the lack of use of modes, simple tenses and connectors to imply an
ideological stance.
With regard to the lexical choices, the vocabulary of De Morgen is rather neutral in
comparison with the word choices of The Guardian, in which the crimes are often explicitly
described when an ethnic minority is involved.
Unlike The Guardian, De Morgen does not use euphemisms and understatements to report on
multi-ethnic offenders. The Guardian, however, does use metaphors to imply an ideological
stance. Furthermore, The Guardian tends to use passive sentences to conceal someone’s
responsibility. De Morgen applies the same strategy, but uses nominalizations as well.
Whereas The Guardian rather often creates a polarized model through the use of pronouns,
this strategy cannot be detected in De Morgen. The same goes for the strategies of modality
and disclaimers: The Guardian often applies these implicit manners of expressing an
ideological stance, while De Morgen barely uses modal verbs and does not include any
disclaimer.
Furthermore, De Morgen opts not to employ subordination in order to express an ideological
stance in an implicit way. The Guardian, on the other hand, regularly applies this strategy
when reporting on a crime committed by an out-group member.
Similar to The Guardian, De Morgen quotes a multi-ethnic offender. However, De Morgen
only applies this strategy once, while The Guardian does this frequently. Consequently, the
out-group, and more particularly, Muslim offenders are represented negatively in The
Guardian.
The two final strategies to be discussed show some differences as well. It appears that De
Morgen prefers to repeat the facts at the beginning and the end of a news report. The
Guardian rather relies on the classical news schemata, as defined by Fairclough (cf. section
3.1). As for the photographs accompanying, both The Guardian and De Morgen add video
51
fragments to their news reports. However, the photographs accompanying the news reports of
The Guardian are much more explicit than those of De Morgen.
As a conclusion, it can be stated that The Guardian tends much more towards racial bias than
De Morgen. Moreover, the British progressive quality newspaper particularly seems to
express an ideological stance towards Muslim offenders.
52
5
CONCLUSION
Today, the mass media is the most prominent source of knowledge, attitude and opinion in
modern information societies. Even though one may argue that a reader has the freedom to
interpret and, as a result, question, disbelieve or reject what is being said by the media,
research has revealed that people often do not have the knowledge to uncover implicit
strategies in discourse or to detect lies that are being reported as the truth. They tend to
believe everything the media says as they see the media as a credible and trustworthy source,
providing the first facts and definitions of a situation.
Journalists possess the power to implicitly insert ideological stances in their news reports in
order to influence their readers’ opinions and attitudes. The purpose of this study has been to
analyse the presence of implicit ideological stances, that can be considered as a form of
racism, in Belgian and British quality newspapers that are traditionally characterized as either
conservative or progressive. In order to delimit this ample concept, the focus of the current
study has been narrowed down to the reporting on delinquency in Brussels and London, and
more specifically when ethnic minorities are involved. The present analysis has drawn on
Critical Discourse Analysis, with N. Fairclough and T. A. Van Dijk’s research as an
important reference. The presence of implicit strategies to express an ideological position,
e.g. the use of euphemisms, connectors or quotes, has been studied in a limited corpus of
news reports on delinquency.
As the main aim of this study has been to examine whether there are differences in reporting
on delinquency involving ethnic minorities between British and Belgian quality newspapers
that are traditionally characterized as either progressive or conservative, the focus of the
present analysis has been two-fold. On the one hand, an analysis has been provided of news
reports on delinquency in Brussels in the Belgian quality newspapers De Standaard and De
Morgen, that are traditionally defined as conservative and progressive respectively, and of
news reports on delinquency in London in the British quality newspapers The Telegraph and
The Guardian, traditionally characterized as conservative and progressive respectively. On
the other hand, both De Standaard and The Telegraph and De Morgen and The Guardian has
been compared in order to detect differences in reporting between the Belgian and British
quality press.
The corpus compiled for this study includes 48 news reports published between 1 December
2013 and 31 March 2014. All reports cover cases of delinquency, i.e. they either report on the
53
crime committed, the detention of the suspect(s) and/or the trial. The location is London in
the British sample of the corpus and Brussels in the Belgian newspapers. Twelve news
reports were retrieved from the archives of each newspaper. The search keywords that were
used to compile the corpus were ‘overval+Brussel’, ‘moord+Brussel’ and ‘diefstal+Brussel’
in the Belgian case and ‘assault+London’, ‘murder+London’ and ‘robbery+London’ in the
British case.
The analysis of the corpus has revealed that the Belgian newspapers report in a rather neutral
manner when an ethnic minority is involved. Occasionally but not consistently, an ideological
stance is expressed with regard to ethnic minority groups. Although there are quite a few
similarities, such as the use of euphemisms or the lack of disclaimers, each newspaper seems
to have its own preferences in the use of particular strategies. As a result, it is difficult to
determine whether one newspaper implicitly tends towards racial bias more clearly than the
other does.
The British newspapers, on the other hand, regularly include an ideological stance when
reporting on a crime committed by an out-group offender. It is observed that The Guardian,
that is traditionally characterized as progressive, particularly tends to express an ideological
stance when a multi-ethnic offender is involved. Moreover, the progressive newspaper often
emphasises the religion of the offenders (especially Islam), rather than the ethnic origin.
When comparing the British and Belgian conservative newspapers, on the one hand, quite a
few similarities can be found, such as the creation of a polarization through the use of
pronouns or the use of subordinate clauses to make a distinction between the main issue and
the side issue, rather than to conceal an ideological stance. On the other hand, the British and
Belgian progressive newspapers exhibit many differences, e.g. the use of disclaimers,
polarized models and subordination in order to imply an ideological stance.
In sum, it can be concluded that of the four newspapers, The Guardian tends most towards
racial bias, with a particular focus on Muslim offenders.
To conclude this study, it is crucial to state that the current analysis has been developed in a
limited framework, with a limited corpus. It is obvious that more research is required in order
to confirm the conclusions drawn from the results mentioned above.
54
6
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7
APPENDICES
7.1
Corpus: references
List of articles selected from The Guardian
[TG01]
Dodd, V. & Halliday, J. (19.12.2013). Lee Rigby killing: two British Muslim converts
convicted of murder. The Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2013/dec/19/lee-rigby-killing-woolwich-verdict-convicted-murder
[TG02]
Dodd, V. & Halliday, J. (19.12.2013). Lee Rigby murder: Michael Adebolajo and Michael
Adebowale found guilty. The Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2013/dec/19/lee-rigby-murder-michael-adebolajo-adebowale-guilty
[TG03]
Haddou, L. (28.02.2014). Parents jailed for manslaughter of baby who had rickets. The
Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/28/parents-jailedmanslaughter-baby-rickets
[TG04]
Jones, S. (06.12.2013). Muslim vigilantes jailed for 'sharia law' attacks in London. The
Guardian.
[Online]
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/06/muslimvigilantes-jailed-sharia-law-attacks-london
[TG05]
Press Association. (18.12.2013). Man shot dead in London nightclub on Boxing Day named.
The Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/28/man-shotdead-london-nightclub-boxing-day
[TG06]
Press Association. (23.01.2014). Woman guilty of acid attack on friend while disguised in
niqab.
The
Guardian.
[Online]
http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2014/jan/23/naomi-oni-acid-attack-mary-konye-guilty-niqab-disguise
[TG07]
Press Association. (05.02.2014). Man arrested over murder of woman in west London. The
Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/05/man-arrestedmurder-prostitute-west-london
[TG08]
Press Association. (18.02.2014). Afghan man feared deportation if wife divorced him, murder
trial
told.
The
Guardian.
[Online]
http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2014/feb/18/farhad-sarfi-trial-orina-morawiec-murder
[TG09]
Press Association. (19.02.2014). Burglar stabbed pensioner 22 times, court told. The
Guardian.
[Online]
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/19/burglarstabbed-man-22-times-court
[TG10]
Press Association. (11.03.2014). Policeman who punched woman sentenced to community
order.
The
Guardian.
[Online]
http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2014/mar/11/policeman-punched-woman-community-order
[TG11]
Quinn, B. (22.02.2014). Man hurt in suspected drive-by shooting in London. The Guardian.
[Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/22/man-hurt-in-suspecteddrive-by-shooting-london
57
[TG12]
Rawlinson, K. (15.02.2014). Muslim convert who agitated for sharia state in UK given
groundbreaking asbo. The Guardian. [Online] http://www.theguardian.com/uknews/2014/feb/15/sharia-law-campaign-muslim-groundbreaking-asbo
List of articles selected from The Telegraph
[TT01]
Agencies. (23.12.2013). Man battered girlfriend to death with hockey stick after Christmas
present row. The Telegraph. [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/lawand-order/10535502/Man-battered-girlfriend-to-death-with-hockey-stick-afterChristmas-present-row.html
[TT02]
Agencies. (11.03.2014). Policeman who hit 'snarling’ shoplifter on the head faces sack. The
Telegraph.
[Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-andorder/10691266/Policeman-who-hit-snarling-shoplifter-on-the-head-faces-sack.html
[TT03]
Barret, D. & Carter, C. (26.02.2014). Lee Rigby murderers sentenced to life in prison. The
Telegraph.
[Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-theuk/10662836/Lee-Rigby-murderers-sentenced-to-life-in-prison.html
[TT04]
Carter, C. (01.12.2013). Father stabbed because of 'mistaken identity'. The Telegraph.
[Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10486725/Father-stabbedbecause-of-mistaken-identity.html
[TT05]
Duffin, C. (22.03.2014). 15 year-old girl shot dead in London, police say. The Telegraph.
[Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10717010/15-year-old-girl-shot-dead-inLondon-police-say.html
[TT06]
Evans, M. (29.12.2013). Teenage girl found on fire in street dies. The Telegraph. [Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10541249/Teenage-girl-found-onfire-in-street-dies.html
[TT07]
Evans, M. (21.03.2014). Bungling 'umbrella robber' jailed for life. The Telegraph. [Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10714614/Bungling-umbrella-robberjailed-for-life.html
[TT08]
Perry, K. (11.02.2014). Pensioner collapses and dies after armed robbers burst into his home.
The Telegraph. [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10632235/
Pensioner-collapses-and-dies-after-armed-robbers-burst-into-his-home.html
[TT09]
Perry, K. (21.02.2014). Man shot by motorbike gunman on Waterloo Bridge. The Telegraph.
[Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10655197/Man-shot-bymotorbike-gunman-on-Waterloo-Bridge.html
[TT10]
Perry, K. (11.03.2014). Axe-wielding robber wrestled to the ground near Buckingham Palace.
The Telegraph. [Online] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10690022/
Axe-wielding-robber-wrestled-to-the-ground-near-Buckingham-Palace.html
58
[TT11]
Rayner, G. (20.01.2014). 'Burglar' caught on webcam by BBC Springwatch team. The
Telegraph.
[Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10584447/
Burglar-caught-on-webcam-by-BBC-Springwatch-team.html
[TT12]
Whitehead, T. (19.12.2013). Islamist fanatics Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale
found guilty of murdering Lee Rigby. The Telegraph. [Online]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10527796/Islamist-fanatics-MichaelAdebolajo-and-Michael-Adebowale-found-guilty-of-murdering-Lee-Rigby.html
List of articles selected from De Morgen
[DM01]
Belga. (14.12.2013). Twee gewapende mannen gearresteerd na overval op postkantoor in
Schaarbeek.
De
Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1758229/2013/12/14/T
wee-gewapende-mannen-gearresteerd-na-overval-op-postkantoor-inSchaarbeek.dhtml
[DM02]
Belga. (04.01.2014). Algerijn opgepakt na 14 diefstallen op luchthaven Zaventem. De
Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1767987/2014/01/04/Al
gerijn-opgepakt-na-14-diefstallen-op-luchthaven-Zaventem.dhtml
[DM03]
Belga. (16.01.2014). Abdelmoutalib Bouchal schuldig aan moord op ex-vrouw. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1775703/2014/01/16/A
bdelmoutalib-Bouchal-schuldig-aan-moord-op-ex-vrouw.dhtml
[DM04]
Belga. (31.01.2014). Vahagn Smbatyan schuldig bevonden aan roofmoord. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1784737/2014/01/31/Va
hagn-Smbatyan-schuldig-bevonden-aan-roofmoord.dhtml
[DM05]
Belga. (14.02.2014). Baby doodgestoken in Brussel, moeder aangehouden. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1793414/2014/02/14/Ba
by-doodgestoken-in-Brussel-moeder-aangehouden.dhtml
[DM06]
Belga. (14.02.2014). Duo probeert drugdealer thuis in Brussel te overvallen. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1794016/2014/02/14/D
uo-probeert-drugdealer-thuis-in-Brussel-te-overvallen.dhtml
[DM07]
Belga. (16.02.2014). Man (34) doodt buurman in Brussel. De Morgen. [Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1794683/2014/02/16/M
an-34-doodt-buurman-in-Brussel.dhtml
59
[DM08]
Belga. (19.02.2014). Acht Roemenen opgepakt na mislukte overval op juwelier. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1796727/2014/02/19/Ac
ht-Roemenen-opgepakt-na-mislukte-overval-op-juwelier.dhtml
[DM09]
Belga. (20.02.2014). Politie Brussel Zuid klist daders van twee overvallen. De Morgen.
[Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1797559/2014/02/20/Po
litie-Brussel-Zuid-klist-daders-van-twee-overvallen.dhtml
[DM10]
Belga. (28.02.2014). Twintigers plegen mislukte overval in Molenbeek. De Morgen. [Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1802629/2014/02/28/T
wintigers-plegen-mislukte-overval-in-Molenbeek.dhtml
[DM11]
Redactie. (13.12.2013). Kopstuk diamantroof Zaventem opgepakt. De Morgen. [Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1757711/2013/12/13/K
opstuk-diamantroof-Zaventem-opgepakt.dhtml
[DM12]
Redactie. (02.01.2014). Nieuwe verdachte diamantroof aangehouden. De Morgen. [Online]
http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/989/Binnenland/article/detail/1766957/2014/01/02/Ni
euwe-verdachte-diamantroof-aangehouden.dhtml
List of articles selected from De Standaard
[DS01]
Barbieux, Y. & Van der Aa, J. (10.01.2014). Verkozen in Albanië en ook hier onschendbaar.
De Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140109_00920936
[DS02]
Belga. (14.12.2013). Nieuwe verdachte opgepakt. De Standaard. [Online]
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20131213_00886900
[DS03]
Belga. (22.12.2013). Gewapende man overvalt café. De Standaard. [Online]
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20131222_00899144
[DS04]
Belga. (21.02.2014). Politie pakt daders op van twee overvallen in september. De Standaard.
[Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140220_00990809
[DS05]
Boel, L. (11.03.2014). Tieners proberen winkel te overvallen. De Standaard. [Online]
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140311_01019139
[DS06]
De Becker, R. & Barbieux, Y. (19.02.2014). Politie pakt acht Roemeense bendeleden op. De
Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140218_00987196
[DS07]
De Becker, R. & Barbieux, Y. (20.02.2014). Ook achtste verdachte van overval aangehouden.
De Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140219_00989063
[DS08]
De Raedt, K. (06.12.2013). Minderjarige overvallers bedreigen 6-jarig meisje met pistool. De
Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20131206_00874205
60
[DS09]
De Vriendt, S. (01.01.2014). Jongeren opgepakt na overval op krantenwinkel. De Standaard.
[Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140101_00909086
[DS10]
Nijs, J. (02.01.2014). Parket bevestigt arrestatie nieuwe verdachte in zaak diamantroof. De
Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140102_00909883
[DS11]
Nijs, J. (28.01.2014). Piepjonge handtasdieven opgepakt in Anderlecht. De Standaard.
[Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140128_00951157
[DS12]
Temmerman, M. (13.01.2014). Gewapende overval op fastfoodrestaurant in Wemmel. De
Standaard. [Online] http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140113_00926068
7.2
Corpus
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