Irish Newspapers Research Articles

The strategic use of news coverage of the 2009 ‘Green Movement’ in the US and Iranian newspapers as social drama

Abstract Drawing on Victor Turner’s framework of social drama, this article employs Robert Entman’s approach to framing, developed in 1974 and revised in 1993, to analyse a series of demonstrations that erupted due to widespread fraud allegations after the elections of the Iranian President in 2009. Analysing the coverage of mass demonstrations, dubbed the ‘Green Movement’, this study investigates how Iranian and the US media have framed events/practices of public persuasion, expressed across political spectrums, given secular, religious, and nationalistic sentiments. Focusing on news framing during times of major social/political upheavals, this study spotlights the media’s use of religious rhetoric as a means of strategic communication. Findings demonstrate that news coverage symbolically reflected political tensions in the countries. The United States and Iranian media were on the opposite poles, with Iranian media vilifying and the US media glorifying the ‘Green Movement’ and opposition. The study juxtaposes the frames used by the media to cover the Arab Spring demonstrations that happened after the Iranian ‘Green Movement’ to those constructed by Iranian and the US media during the ‘Green Movement’ of 2009. Implications about the role of media and religion during popular mobilization movements are drawn.

Exploring Coverage of the 2008 Irish Dioxin Crisis in the Irish and UK Newsprint Media

ABSTRACTThe 2008 dioxin crisis occurred as a result of contamination of Irish pork. The event had significant implications for Ireland’s economy and the reputation of its agricultural industry, as well as raising concerns for human health. This study describes the results of a content analysis of Irish and UK newspaper coverage of the 2008 Irish dioxin crisis, as this is likely to provide insight into how public perceptions of this issue were shaped. Articles from 16 print publications were systematically sampled for the period December 2008 to February 2009. The resulting data set of 141 articles was examined using a coding protocol developed based on previous research and refined during piloting. Results indicated that the dioxin crisis was primarily portrayed by the media as an industry/economic crisis, dominant in 26.9% of articles in the sample. Within this dominant portrayal, the agricultural industry was frequently cited as being in crisis (42.6%); however, the implications of the crisis on the wider economic environment also received attention (17.7%). Differences between Irish and UK-based media were also examined, revealing that while the Irish media most frequently described the crisis in terms of its impact on the industry and economy, the UK media were more likely to portray the crisis as a risk to health. These dominant media messages and message framings have implications for the public understanding of the issue in each country and potential consequences regarding perception of the adequacy of existing food policy and regulatory oversight.

‘With the Irish in France’

In January 1916 a party of journalists from seven Irish newspapers visited Irish regiments serving on the western front. Such a privilege came at a price. Organised by the Department of Recruiting for Ireland, it was made clear to the journalists that this embedded tour had an agenda: they were ‘to set down what they saw there for the benefit of recruiting in Ireland’. This article examines the extent to which the three national titles included on the tour accepted this role of communicating and legitimising recruitment policy. It sheds light on the involvement of two national newspaper editors in shaping recruitment policy in Ireland, illustrates how each of the three national titles reported the tour, and examines the effects such reportage had on recruiting in Ireland.

Persuasion Language in Iranian Newspaper Ads

This article has studied the language of persuasion in advertising texts and has examined persuasion in some Persian newspapers with an emphasis on the gender variable. This study was conducted by analytical approach and its data was collected from Iran's most important and widely circulated newspapers. The study results suggested that in persuasive texts of newspapers, the advertisers encourage viewers and audiences to buy the products by emphasizing on some characteristics specific to women such as beauty, adornment and housewifery as well as some special characteristics of men such as fitness, social prestige, responsibility and the role of being a provider. The findings indicated that the studied texts had characteristics in such a way that they use specific linguistic components and literary forms such as foregrounding, alliteration, hyperbole and exaggeration, metaphors and ambiguity to convey the desired concepts and attract the audience according to gender. Thus, the gender variable is an effective factor in the structure of persuasive texts related to advertising in Persian newspapers. The results of the research implied the fact that gender differences have been reflected in advertising in the form of language and other specific metalinguistic elements such as ideology and culture, and these linguistic and metalinguistic strategies are employed differently for men and women, in a way that this unequal gender approach seems to be man-centered.

Communicating sociocultural norms and social and religious practices in Iranian death notices

ABSTRACTDrawing on a corpus of 100 randomly collected death notices published in an Iranian national newspaper, this study examined generic structures as well as their lexico-grammatical patterning to reveal what communicative functions are articulated by these generic components. Basing our identification of moves on Swales [1990. Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press], we identified 12 rhetorical moves in the corpus. We illustrated that these recurrent rhetorical moves reflect the Iranian sociocultural norms, as well as social and religious beliefs. Also, the results substantiated [Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge] multimodality perspective on textual analysis in that they rejected linguistic items as the only meaning-making device and identified colour, position, photo and size, among others, as worthwhile veritable semiotic devices.

The Great Famine in Nationalist and Land League propaganda 1879-1882

Introduction In late 1870s news of famines in India and China appeared continuously in Irish newspapers. The reporting of these famines in Ireland sometimes directly alluded to Ireland’s Great Famine with The Nation reporting: A great deal has been said about over-population in India, just as there has been talk about overpopulation in Ireland, and Earl of Beaconsfield, or some other political leader, may yet call for three cheers for famine for having removed the redundant people....

Joyce’s use of Lists

This note outlines the methodology Joyce used in sourcing from lists the hundreds of names which appear in Ulysses . It was necessary for the scheme of the book to use so many characters as Joyce was depicting the whole city and not just a segment of it. Joyce had an obsession with lists. He obtained names from a variety of sources, including Thom’s Official Directory, The Irish Catholic Directory , newspapers and journals such as the Freeman’s Journal , the Irish Times , the Evening Telegraph , and the list of contents of magazines such as Dana . This essay also illustrates how Joyce drew heavily from the names of his father’s friends. He described his working methods as those of both ‘engineer’ and a ‘scissors and paste man’ and Ulysses ‘as a sort of encyclopaedia’ in a letter he wrote to Carlo Linati on 21 September 1920 when he sent him a schema of Ulysses .

The construction of a ‘historical moment’: Queen Elizabeth’s 2011 visit to Ireland in British and Irish newspapers

Queen Elizabeth’s visit to the Irish Republic in May 2011 was seen by many as a significant moment in the long process of normalisation in Anglo-Irish relations, facilitated by the peace process in Northern Ireland. For journalists, it was a newsworthy story because it captured the values of this process of peace-making in a concrete, organised media event, involving high-profile heads of state, official speeches and photo opportunities. This article examines the representation of this state visit in British and in Irish daily newspapers, and finds similar coverage across a number of shared themes. Journalists in both countries supported the conciliatory message embedded in the media event, with very little questioning, and marginalised voices of opposition. This approach contributed to an ideological consensus that the conflict between the two countries was in the past, with conciliation and collaboration the only future.

Irish newspaper coverage of NGOs, legitimacy and accountability: what relevance for NGOs?

Based on a quantitative content analysis of Irish Times newspaper articles, this study investigates how Irish relief and development NGOs were linked with the concepts of legitimacy and accountability in newspaper coverage between 1994 and 2009. Key findings included that NGO accountability received more coverage than NGO legitimacy, and “principal-agent” approaches to NGO accountability received more coverage than “stakeholder” approaches. Employing the media theories of agenda-setting and priming, one can infer that Irish Times readers might be more likely to evaluate Irish NGOs in terms of accountability than legitimacy and to consider NGO accountability in principal-agent rather than stakeholder terms.

Macro and micro legitimation in discourse on Iran’s nuclear programme: The case of Iranian national newspaper Kayhan

The present article attempts to throw light on the nature and quality of discursive strategies used in Iranian discourse on the nuclear programme as represented in an influential Iranian daily, Kayhan (کیهان). Working within the general guidelines of critical discourse analysis, the general orientation of the article is towards explicating how the newspaper texts may come to be perceived within an Iranian socio-political context. The article is part of a larger research project which has looked at the discourses of Iran’s nuclear programme as represented in different British and Iranian newspapers, and the ways they may devise micro-linguistic and macro-argumentative strategies to construct and de/legitimise the positions of Self and Other. The focus of this article is on findings on the broad argumentative aspects of one of the influential Iranian dailies which functions as a flagship of what can arguably be called the overarching conservative rhetoric of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Broad discursive approaches of the newspaper are distinguished in terms of a global, overarching, political macro-legitimatory approach versus a local, restricted micro-legitimatory approach towards identities of Self and Other and the nature of the political conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Jewish-Iranian Identities in the Pahlavi Era

A few years ago, while conducting archival research on Pahlavi-era Iranian newspapers, I came across a photo from the anti-shah demonstrations that took place in late 1978 and early 1979. It showed a large group of Armenians protesting against the shah. In these years many Iranians and Westerners considered the shah's policies beneficial for religious minorities in Iran. Around the same time, I found a sentence that made this discovery more intriguing. In his seminal workIran between Two Revolutions, Ervand Abrahamian mentions that throughout the Muhammad Riza Pahlavi era, the opposition to the communist Tudeh party accused it of being controlled by “Armenians, Jews, and Caucasian émigrés.” I tried to find references in the current scholarship to Jews participating in the party, which could have earned them their part in this propaganda campaign, but found very little. Having read the important works of Joel Beinin, Orit Bashkin, and Rami Ginat on Jewish revolutionaries, including communists, in the Middle East, I wondered where the Jewish radicals in Iran were. Several factors may contribute to this silence in the historiography: the writing of Iranian history from a Zionist vantage point, a lack of interest in the history of the Iranian left in the postrevolutionary historiography, and an inability to conceptualize the transregional and global nature of the Iranian Jewish community.

How mainstream Iranian newspapers portray the West: the influence of anti-Westernism and anti-Americanism

The present paper is about the role of media in creating anti-American and anti-Western sentiments amongst Iranians. It studies how anti-Americanism has evolved in Iran and how, as an ideological representation, has influenced the press portrayal of the West in the country. It also identifies dominant frames in newspaper reporting of the West and indicates how the perception of reality and meaning-construction work in mainstream Iranian newspapers. For this purpose, content analysis and critical discourse analysis are used to analyse sampled news items published during Reformism (1997–2001) and Conservatism (2005–2009) in Iran. The current study also evaluates the impact of political affiliation of newspapers (as the first independent variable) and the political period in which they are published (as the second independent variable) on the representation of the West (as the dependent variable) in Iran. The findings of the present study are yet another contribution to study the West within the context of Occidentalism.

Representing the Arab Spring in the Iranian press: Islamic awakening or foreign-sponsored terror?

The Islamic Republic of Iran, the largest non-Arab country in the region, has sought to play an influential role in regional politics since its establishment in 1979, and the Arab Spring protests have provided the prime opportunity for doing so. The Iranian government has vocally supported the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, but has also remained defiantly supportive of the Syrian president despite popular opposition to his government. The Iranian media have been pivotal in communicating the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Using qualitative thematic analysis and Social Representations Theory, this article examines emerging media representations of the Arab Spring in two major English-language Iranian newspapers, The Tehran Times and Press TV. The following two themes are discussed: (1) “Islamic Awakening”: Islamicizing the Arab Spring, and (2) “Bashar Al-Assad is not Muammar Al-Gaddafi”: Compartmentalizing the Syrian Ally. Islamic identity and ingroup–outgroup dynamics are mobilized in order to increase the political influence of Iran and to undermine that of its foes. It is argued that there is a systematic “instrumentalization” of the Arab Spring in the Iranian press – it is employed to validate and accentuate tenets of the Islamic Republic of Iran's revolutionary ideology and to support its political interests in the region.

Representing the ‘Zionist Regime’: Mass Communication of Anti-Zionism in the English-Language Iranian Press

Anti-Zionism constitutes an important ideological building block of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This article provides insight into the mass communication of anti-Zionism in the English-language Iranian press in order to examine how this ideology is ‘exported’ to an international readership. The article presents the results of an empirical study of two leading English-language Iranian newspapers, The Tehran Times and Press TV. The study uses critical discourse analysis and draws upon tenets of Social Representations Theory from social psychology. The following themes are discussed: (i) resisting social representations of Israeli statehood; (ii) constructing threat: the Zionist regime as a terrorist entity; and (iii) responding to threat: anti-Zionism as a religious duty for the Muslim Ummah. As a ‘mouthpiece’ of Iran, these outlets adopt and encourage a fervently anti-Zionist stance by refusing to recognise the statehood and civilian population of Israel and by constructing the ‘Zionist regime’ as a terrorist threat which should be mitigated collectively by the Islamic Ummah. Implications are discussed.

Resisting magic waves: ideologies of “English language teaching” in Iranian newspaper advertisements

Discourse practices play crucial roles in shaping the cultural environment of social events and, therefore, influence how they actually take place. Promotional materials and media advertisements are significant instances of such discourses through which understandings of social practices, including language education, are both reflected and shaped. In this study, I explore the advertisements of Iranian private language teaching institutes appearing in Hamshahri newspaper to uncover ideologies behind them and to examine the subtleties of how the advertisements represent and at the same time reproduce the ideological assumptions regarding “English language teaching” in Iran. A contextual investigation of ideological presuppositions underlying the discourse of these advertisements reveals that they tend to reproduce mystified instrumentalist images of language learning. From a critical view of language education, I discuss this simplistic ideological representation and the obligation of the profession of language education to address it.

The Pragmatic Role Of Meta-Discourse Markers In The Attainment Of Persuasion: A Study Of An Iranian Newspaper Advertisement Headlines

The present study aimed at investigating the persuasive role of metadiscourse markers in an Iranian newspaper advertisement headlines; say, Hamshari. To achieve the afore-mentioned purpose, the study adopted Fuertes-Olivera, et. al. (2001)s framework of pragmatic elements of advertising which is, in turn, adapted based on Jakobsonian communication model of the advertising discourse, and Fuertes-Olivera et al. (2001)s framework suggesting different functions of metadiscourse in advertising English. The selected examples showed that while textual metadiscourse helps addressees to interpret headlines within the constraints of genre and epistemology, interpersonal metadiscourse provides a kind of balance between informing and persuading the addressees. Moreover, the findings indicated a variety of metadiscourse strategies used by the advertisers in order to persuade prospective customers, including person markers, hedges, emphatics, endophoric markers and evidents. Regarding pedagogical implications, the present study attempted to broaden the pragmatics of advertising discourse and to stress the important role of metadiscourse in EFL courses.

Content analysis of newspaper reports on alcohol-related deaths.

International research indicates that the role which alcohol plays in accidents tends to be understated in media reports. Evidence suggests that public support for alcohol harm reduction policies would increase if people were better informed about the role of alcohol in serious injuries. We hypothesized that the role of alcohol in Irish accidental deaths is under-reported in the Irish print media. We identified all traumatic and poisoning deaths (excluding suicides) in Ireland during the years 2008 and 2009 where alcohol was mentioned on the death certificate. We conducted an Internet-based search for newspaper reports of these deaths. The content of each report was examined and rated for mention of alcohol's possible role in the individual death. This study demonstrates the under-reporting in Irish newspapers of the role of alcohol in traumatic and poisoning deaths. Where deaths were reported, the role played by alcohol was generally ignored. This represents a missed opportunity to inform the public about the role of alcohol in these deaths. More accurate information would permit the public to make more informed decisions regarding their own behaviour and regarding their support for alcohol harm-reducing strategies.

Media representation of depression in young people: a corpus-based analysis of Irish newspaper coverage

Newspaper media are an important source of information regarding mental health and have a significant influence on people's awareness of, and decision making around, mental health issues. Depression in young people has seen increasing media attention in recent years, but few studies have examined media representation of mental health, specifically in young people. The current study used a quantitative approach to examine the words used in reports concerning depression in young people, in Irish broadsheets, published between 2007 and 2011. A sample of 269 texts, containing 176 223 words, was collected from three Irish broadsheet newspapers, using the search terms 'depression' or 'depressed' or 'mental health' and 'youth' or 'young people'. A corpus-based approach was used to examine word frequencies, clusters and keywords. The analysis identified textual patterns, suggesting recurring associations between youth depression and suicide, and, to a lesser extent, alcohol use and bullying. Keywords relating to emotional distress and symptoms of depression were less frequent and sometimes associated with constructions inferring lack of agency (such as 'suffering from'). A focus on the role of the parents was also evident. Of the professions mentioned, psychiatrists were referred to most often. The analysis suggests that media coverage of depression in young people accurately reflects concerns reported in surveys by young people, but provides less information that might help in recognising depression in a young person.

The role of the media in fiscal consolidation programmes: the case of Ireland

A number of European countries have implemented austerity programmes since the onset of the current economic crisis. This paper focuses on fiscal consolidation, a central aspect of such programmes, using the case of Ireland. It investigates the significant role of the mass media in presenting such policies to the public, a role which has so far remained unexamined. Conceiving of the Irish experience over the past few decades as a case of neoliberalisation, it uses a critical political economic conceptualisation of news organisations to consider 431 editorials and opinion articles discussing fiscal consolidation in three leading Irish newspapers between 2008 and 2012. It finds that the majority of articles present viewpoints in favour of fiscal consolidation and display a preference for spending cuts over tax hikes, which substantiates the claim that Ireland has adopted neoliberal policies to address the crisis. Only a minority of articles oppose fiscal consolidation. These mostly contest specific spending cuts but usually fail to criticise fiscal consolidation itself by calling for economic alternatives, such as Keynesian stimulus. Differences between newspapers are also discussed, highlighting their ideological cleavages.

‘I am not a tragedy. I am full of hope’: communication impairment narratives in newspapers

Individual attitudes and more general attitudes in society can negatively influence the functioning of people with communication disorders according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) (2002). Personal narratives have been recommended as the best means to convey and understand a person's life experience and have been investigated extensively. Investigations of personal narratives of communication impairment in mass media continue to be relatively rare in the literature. Published narratives can enrich understandings of clients' experiences by elucidating available representations of lived experiences of communication impairment. To answer the following research questions: What types of personal narratives of communication impairments are currently being disseminated in Irish newspapers? How are experiences of communication impairments represented in these narratives? The study was qualitative, deploying inductive analysis and drawing on Frank's (1995) typology of illness narratives to analyse narratives that were published in two Irish national newspapers over a 12-month period. The results illustrate the under-representation of communication impairments in Irish newspapers as ten out of 51 narratives in the corpus pertained to conditions that may have associated communication impairments. None of the narratives related the lived experience of a person with communication impairment in depth. A combination of quest and chaos narrative types was identified in six out of the ten narratives. Three out of the ten narratives featured a combination of chaos and restitution narrative types. One narrative was identified as being entirely a quest narrative. Three narratives contained elements of restitution. Inductive analysis revealed six main themes in the data (two for each narrative type) with one sub-theme identified for each main theme. The six main themes are: positive stances, re-evaluation of life, despair, fear, hope and support of others. The under-representation of the lived experience of people with communication impairments in Irish national newspapers may be seen as contributing to a general lack of understanding and awareness of communication impairments. This under-representation, coupled with a lack of awareness, may potentially affect the ability of people with communication impairments to re-engage with and reintegrate into their communities.