Representation Of Social Actors Research Articles

Characters Appraisement In G. B. Shaw's Man And Superman In Terms Of Van Leeuwen's Social Actor Representation

Characters Appraisement In G. B. Shaw's Man And Superman In Terms Of Van Leeuwen's Social Actor Representation

Political cartoons as carnivalesque: a multimodal discourse analysis of Argentina’s Humor Registrado magazine

ABSTRACTPolitical cartoons, although generally neglected by academic criticism, are often one of the only forms of socio-political critique permitted during authoritarian rule (Barajas, Rafael. 2000. “The Transformative Power of art: Mexico’s Combat Cartoonists.” NACLA Report on the Americas, 3: 6–41). This paper explores the reasons behind this, reading the genre as a form of Bakhtin’s carnivalesque, a participatory space of oppositional discourse outside the official version with which it has an “ambivalent” relationship (Bakhtin, Mikhael. 1984. Rabelais and His World (Trans Iswolsky H). Bloomington: Indiana University Press) and can be allowed to circulate as a “safety valve” (Holquist, Michael. 1984. “Prologue.” In Rabelais and his World, edited by M. Bakhtin, xiii–xxiii. Bloomington: Indiana University Press) of controlled protest. Drawing on tools of Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Social Semiotics (Kress, Gunther, and Theo Van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge) and Semiology (Barthes, Roland. 1968. Elements of Semiology. New York: Hill and Wang) for methodological purposes, this study investigates this hypothesis through the political cartoons of the covers of satirical fortnightly publication Humor Registrado during the final year of Argentina’s last dictatorship, 1982–1983. The magazine’s role in challenging the dictatorship is explored through an analysis of its representations of key social actors and events during Argentina’s difficult period of transition from dictatorship to democracy following defeat in the 1982 Malvinas/Falklands War.

Socio-Semantic Processes in Social Actors Representation: A Case Study of “Ya-Sin”

AbstractThe academic field of Qurʾānic Studies employs a wide range of approaches, each one of which helps to open up a new perspective on the Qurʾānic text. The Holy Book was revealed to guide people; it is thus of relevance to all aspects of people’s lives. This article focuses on the way social actors are represented in one Meccansūra, entitled “Ya-Sin”, and employs a case-study approach to do so. The analysis carried out includes the socio-semantic processes that thesūrauses in order to represent social actors either by behavior (action) or meaning (reflection), and it also analyzes the actors as they are represented in processes such as activation and passivation. The methodology adopted is eclectic and analytic. It is a hybrid of Swales’ move analysis, El-Awa’s identification of shift-markers, and Halliday’s and Van Leeuwen’s theories of social actor representation. This study shows how such an analysis can contribute to understanding the apparently fragmented and non-linear nature of “Ya-Sin”.

Critical discourse analysis of war reporting in the international press: the case of the Gaza war of 2008\u20132009

This paper employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse the representation of political social actors in media coverage of the Gaza war of 2008–2009. The paper examines texts of systematically chosen news stories from four international newspapers: ‘The Guardian, The Times London, The New York Times and The Washington Post’. The findings show substantial similarities in representation patterns among the four newspapers. More specifically, the selected newspapers foreground Israeli agency in achieving a ceasefire, whereby Israeli actors are predominantly assigned activated roles. By contrast, the four newspapers foreground Palestinian agency in refusing ceasefire through assigning activated roles. The findings of this study suggest that news reports on the Gaza war of 2008–2009 are influenced by the political orientations of the newspapers and also their liberal and conservative ideological stances. Overall, the most represented actors are Israeli governmental officials, whereas Palestinian actors are Hamas members. This representation draws an overall image that the war is being directed against Hamas.

People as property: Representations of slaves in early American newspaper advertisements

AbstractUsing van Leeuwen’s (1996) categories of social actor representations, this paper investigates the ways in which slaves were represented in four types of slavery-related advertisements (for sale, want to buy, runaways and captured runaways). The materials consist of 860 notices in total, and they are collected from eighteenth and nineteenth -century newspapers in Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and South Carolina. Of particular interest are the two aspects simultaneously present in slavery: how the advertisements can represent their subjects, on the one hand, as human individuals and, on the other hand, as someone’s property. The study examines, for example, the use of nomination and various kinds of categorization strategies used to represent the slaves, as well as the ways in which they are explicitly referred to as “property”. Examination of the advertisements shows that the representational strategies differ somewhat depending on the type of advertisement as well as the geographical area. Furthermore, the various representational possibilities also indicate that the advertisers could, by their word choices, choose either to highlight the slaves’ status as property or to leave it more implicit in the texts.

Representation of social actors in Chinua Achebe’s novel “Things Fall Apart” and its two Persian translations

This paper discusses the feasibility of employing a discourse-based approach in examining the (un)successful portrayal of a given socio-cultural context through translation. In so doing, instances of two Persian translations of Chinua Achebe’s post-colonial novel “ Things Fall Apart ” were selected to illustrate the congruence as well as incongruence of translations with their source text. Van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2008) model of representation of social actors was used as the analytical framework and proved to work well for the aims of the study. The implications of using a discourse-based approach, along with possible future directions, are discussed.

Telling stories: Credibility and the representation of social actors in Australian asylum appeals

To secure protection in the global North, asylum-seekers must overcome restrictive government policies and present a convincing refugee narrative. Their credibility becomes their main asset and must survive the multiple challenges arising from intercultural communication and interactions involving multiple institutional actors. Aiming to explore the impact institutional understandings of refugee narrative creation have on credibility assessment, I present the findings of an analysis of a corpus of documents from the Australian tribunal responsible for the administrative review of asylum decisions. I critically analyse these texts to identify how the tribunal and its agents discursively present the various actors involved in asylum appeals. I argue that despite the cautions of existing scholarship, these texts present the asylum-seeker as the sole author of the final refugee narrative, regardless of the role that decision-makers and other actors, such as lawyers and interpreters, play in its co-construction. Thus, the institution places disproportionate responsibility on the asylum-seeker for communication outcomes, creating significant challenges for their credibility.

Representations of mental health and arts participation in the national and local British press, 2007-2015.

We analysed news articles published in national and local British newspapers between 2007 and 2015 to understand (1) how mental health and arts participation were framed and (2) how the relationships between participants in arts initiatives were conceptualised. Using corpus-assisted qualitative frame analysis, we identified frames of recovery, stigma and economy. The recovery frame, which emphasised that mental illness can be treated similarly to physical illness, positioned arts participation as a form of therapy that can complement or substitute medication. The stigma frame presented arts participation as a mechanism for challenging social conceptions that mentally ill individuals are incapable of productive work. The economy frame discussed the economic burden of mentally ill individuals and portrayed arts participation as facilitating their return to employment. Using thematic analysis, which paid attention to the representation of social actors, we found that service users were identified as the prime beneficiaries of arts initiatives, and arts participation was conceptualised as a way to bring people with mental health issues together. We discuss these findings against existing research on media representations of mental health and the concept of 'mutual recovery' and suggest what wider concurrent developments in the areas of mental health and the media may account for the uncovered frames and themes.

(De)legitimating electronic surveillance: a critical discourse analysis of the Finnish news coverage of the Edward Snowden revelations

ABSTRACTIn 2013, ex-National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden shocked the world by revealing the American NSA’s (and its partners’) extensive surveillance programs. The ensuing media discussion became a focal point for the justification and contestation of surveillance in the digital age. This article contributes to the growing body of literature on the discursive construction of surveillance, concentrating on how the practice is (de)legitimized. Methodologically, the paper draws on Critical Discourse Studies, applying the concept of discourse and utilizing insights from Van Leeuwen’s categories of legitimation and social actor representation. The data come from the media coverage of the Snowden affair in Finland, whose hitherto very limited state surveillance is now being transformed into extensive digital monitoring. The study concludes that surveillance is (de)legitimized through two main discourses, one legitimizing it by constructing it as a tool for protection against terrorism, the other contesting it by depicting it as a threat to the basic building blocks of democracy. The study suggests that the latter understanding tends to be favored in the media, but the critique of surveillance is on a rather abstract level.

Discursive representation and violation of homeless people’s rights: Symbolic violence in Brazilian online journalism

This article is part of the research project ‘Representação midiática da violação de direitos e da violência contra pessoas em situação de rua no jornalismo on-line’, associated with Red Latinoamericana de Análisis Crítico del Discurso de la Extrema Pobreza (REDLAD), and focuses upon the ways in which electronic news media represent homeless people in Brazil. The focus is a pair of texts, related through internal hyperlinks, about the controversy concerning the installation of a social center in a middle-class neighborhood in central Sao Paulo. The texts are analyzed on the theoretical basis of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and considering the following analytical categories: metaphor, representation of social actors and intertextuality. Analyses show a scenario of ‘invasion by unwelcome people’, who are not perceived as rights holders, but as a threat to the rights of others.

A Critical Discourse Study of a German Children’s Book Series: Representation of Social Actors and Construction of Legitimation

<p class="1"><span lang="X-NONE">Among practitioners of critical discourse studies (CDS), German storybooks for children are relatively unexplored in comparison with storybooks targeted at the Anglophone communities. In this study, I investigated a German children’s book series called <em>Siggi Blitz</em>. Containing a total of 23 639 words, this series comprises twelve storybooks which were released between 2013 and 2014. Focus was given to the discursive representation of characters and the legitimation strategies used to convey ideologies. Specifically, I would like to explore how female and male characters are represented. To this end, two analytic frameworks from van Leeuwen (1996, 2007, 2008)—the Social Actor Theory and the discursive construction of legitimation—were employed. The findings indicate that gender stereotyping is pervasive in the storybooks. For instance, on the dimension of “categorization,” female characters tend to be represented by reference to their physical appearance (viz., “physical identification”) while male characters are regularly associated with their occupations (viz., “functionalization”). Analysis of the legitimation strategies used demonstrates that “rationalization” is the most frequent form of legitimation. “Rationalization” has two functions in the storybooks: (i) to justify acceptable and/or unacceptable behaviors; (ii) to mark the utility of common artifacts. Furthermore, it was found that “role model authority” is exclusively applied to male characters, echoing the findings regarding gender stereotyping in the earlier part of the study. Given the “socializing” nature of storybooks for children, the present study reveals that awareness in relation to the representation of gender has to be increased among story contributors.</span></p>

A REPRESENTAÇÃO DE ATORES SOCIAIS EM COMENTÁRIOS ELETRÔNICOS: QUE FIGURAS HABITAM O IMAGINÁRIO POLÍTICO DOS BRASILEIROS NA ATUALIDADE?

A proposta do artigo é examinar o imaginário político brasileiro após a eleição da presidente Dilma Roussef, por meio de investigação da representação discursiva de atores sociais em comentários eletrônicos, publicados em um site de notícias. Para tanto, são utilizados o argumento de Laclau & Mouffe (1985) pela natureza aberta do social e das identidades coletivas, assim como os conceitos de discurso polêmico (AMOSSY, 2011), de ideologia (EAGLETON, 1991; PEDRO, 1997) e de imaginário social (FAIRCLOUGH, 2015; CASTORIADIS, 1982). A partir de quadro analítico de Van Leeuwen (1996) para o estudo da representação de atores sociais no discurso, são identificados três tipos de atores sociais no corpus; apontadas algumas correlações entre posicionamento discursivo e representação de atores sociais; além de feitas algumas considerações sobre a natureza heterogênea e dinâmica do imaginário social.

The gendered discourse of ‘equal opportunities for men and women’ in Iranian EFL textbooks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the representations of male and female social actors within the subversive gendered discourse of “equal opportunities for men and women” in Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks. Design/methodology/approach From the methodological perspective, this study fused van Leeuwen’s (2003) “Social Actor Network Model” and Sunderland’s (2004) “Gendered Discourses Model”. Findings Data obtained from this study showed the subversive gendered discourse of “equal opportunities” was supported through such representations within a narrow perspective in line with dominant gender ideologies in Iran. The findings suggest the resistance against such subversive gendered discourse in Iranian EFL textbooks underpins gender norms and religious ideologies existing in Iran. Originality/value Such representations of male and female social actors in school textbooks show inclusive education and the discourse of “equal opportunities” have yet to be realised in education system of many countries, including Iran.

Multimodal Representation of sub-Saharan Immigrants as Illegal: Deconstructing their Portrayal as Victims, Heroes and Threats in a Sample from the Spanish Press

This paper analyses the main linguistic and visual characteristics of sub-Saharan immigrants represented as illegal in a sample from the Spanish press, and the ideological consequences for the audience of the newspapers. The data consists of all the news items published on sub-Saharan immigrants in the digital editions of the three most popular Spanish newspapers, El Pais, ABC and El Mundo, from 1 June 2011 to 1 June 2014. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and van Leeuwen’s (2008) model for the verbal and visual representation of social actors will be used to study the main characteristics of the written language used to refer to sub-Saharan immigrants as illegal in three main ways: as victims, as heroes and as threats. In addition, Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) visual grammar will be the theoretical framework used to analyse the photographs published in the newspapers studied in order to observe the main visual characteristics that contribute to the portrayal of immigrants as illegal.

Gendered Representations of Male and Female Social Actors in Iranian Educational Materials

This research investigates the representations of gendered social actors within the subversionary discourse of equal educational opportunities for males and females in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) books. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the theoretical framework, the authors blend van Leeuwen’s (Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis, Routledge, London, 2003) ‘Social Actor Network Model’ and Sunderland’s (Gendered discourses, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2004) ‘Gendered Discourses Model’ in order to examine the depictions of male and female social actors within this gendered discourse. The gendered discourse of equal opportunities was buttressed by such representations within a tight perspective in proportion to gender ideologies prevailing in Iran. Resorting to CDA, we can claim that resistance against such gendered discourse in Iranian EFL textbooks militates against such gender norms. These representations of male and female social actors in school books are indicative of an all-encompassing education, reinforcing that the discourse of equal opportunities is yet to be realized in the education system of Iran.

The Chantelles of Benefits Britain: Collective representations of the clients of the welfare state in conservative British press (2008-2012)

This paper outlines the representation of Claimants, a key social actor relevant to the welfare state, as groups in two conservative British newspapers, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph. With recourse to critical discourse analysis, in particular van Leeuwen’s 2008 work on the representation of social actors, as well as to corpus methods, the paper shows how the representation of this social actor in collective terms helps entrench the discourse of (mainly class-based) prejudice, thus working to delegitimise the welfare state.

The Representation of Male and Female Social Actors in the ILI English Series

Textbooks are important parts of all educational systems nowadays, which can make people ready for globalization and new concepts emerging through it. These individuals need to be given the chance of feeling as successful and important, in a world which is neither blue nor pink. Equality can pave the way to a better world, and the study of the representation of male and female social actors in textbooks can lead to elimination of inequality from textbooks and societies. This study is an attempt to analyze the representation of males and females at the ILI English Series. The dialogues examined critically through Van Leeuwen’s framework (1996, 2008), and they proved to be gender-biased. These series depict a men-without-women world in which females are waiting for a chance to ‘be’, ‘be seen’ and ‘be heard’. (140)

La cobertura regional del movimiento estudiantil chileno 2011: Prensa impresa y prensa digital en La Región de Los Ríos (Chile)

This research aims to discover, through critical discourse analysis (CDA), the processes and forms of representation of social actors linked to the Chilean student movement in 2011, through the analysis of regional coverage of “El Diario Austral Region de Los Rios” and the electronic journal “El Naveghable” during June, October and December 2011. The work of this research is aimed at describing how local media in the city of Valdivia constructed reality, dialogue, review, social actors, prejudices and stereotypes in covering the regional student movement.

Culture and Gender Representation in Iranian School Textbooks

This study examines the representations of male and female social actors in selected Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks. It is grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis and uses van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network Model to analyze social actor representations in the gendered discourses of compulsory heterosexuality. Findings from the analysis show that the representations endorse the discourse of compulsory heterosexuality which is an institutionalized form of social practice in Iran. Three male and three female students were interviewed to find out what they think about these representations. Their responses with regard to whether they think textbooks should also include representations of other forms of sexuality were non-committal and vague. To them LGBT people are the “Other” practicing a form of sexuality that is not normal. Such exclusions could obscure the reality regarding the existence of such gender identities and represent the world in a particular manner.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Family and Friends Textbooks: Representation of Genderism

The present study employed a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach to investigate the linguistic representation of male and female social actors in Family and Friends 4, 5 and 6 . To this end, van Leeuwen’s (1996) representational framework and Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2004) Transitivity Theory Model were adopted to reveal the ideology behind the constructions. The findings indicated a “sexist attitude” in favor of male social actors in which males were portrayed more than females and also had high activity. In addition, it was revealed that there was attempt to avoid traditional stereotypes of females in most parts of textbooks and women were not portrayed at home as housewives engaged in child care, however, it can be claimed that they suffered most obviously from low visibility. The findings may help EFL teachers, material developers and policy makers to be aware of equality/inequality issues in textbooks in order to make an equality perspective to learners.