Conceptualization of National Identity in International Media: Case-study of The Economist Publications

Abstract

National identity, an ever-important concept, today is arguably more verbalized and publicized than at any other time in history. Its media representation both reveals people’s understanding of the idea and serves as a medium of shaping the identity itself, being a powerful tool in the hands of political elites. At the same time in a quest of providing the target audience with a balanced and acceptable view of the reality, global media seek to express their own distinguishable stance. The Economist , a British based global media outlet, is an example of these processes. Value of the events covered lies both in their newsworthiness, and the outer sentiment of journalists that is conveyed to readers. Overall, discourse analysis of media texts may reveal a lot about conceptualization of certain phenomena. And this research of empirical data has identified main conceptual fields and blocks that make up our understanding of what it takes to identify oneself as one nation. Looking into discursive construction of national identity means distinguishing national identity from similar and related concepts and evaluating its role in the processes that take place in the world today. National identity is a complex phenomenon that lies at the core of collective and personal identity alike. For groups of people, nations, it represents an in-group that is — counterintuitively — artificial and illusionary and comes from a natural human desire for the sense of belonging. However, the resulting national identity functions on its own as a symbol of a state. Thus territory, location of a state on the world map, is one of the key features of national identity. Contested national borders and challenged sovereignty made up a majority of national identity issues covered in the analyzed materials of The Economist . There are multiple factors that influence national identity, politics being one of its major drivers. Research shows that it works mostly at the level of national politics and occurs mostly in the context of elections and partisanship. Another significant factor that brings national identity into the spotlight of media is transformation or retention of the status quo. Identity is neither innate nor permanent, and constant fluctuations, push and pull of arising, re-established and defended identities attracts readers attention and provide a venue for manipulating public opinion. Bearing in mind the limitations of this research we describe and suggest an interpretation for the main conceptual fields and contexts national identity is present in the media.