Representations of Natural Catastrophes in Newspaper Discourse.

Intro -- Contents -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Corpus of data for analysis -- 1.2 Research goals -- 1.3 Methodology -- 1.4 Book structure -- 2 Critical discourse analysis -- 2.1 Origins of CD A -- 2.1.1 Interconnectedness between language, thought and culture -- 2.1.2 Halliday's systemic functional theory -- 2.1.3 Critical linguistics -- 2.2 Framework of CDA -- 2.3 Tools for analysis -- 3 Cognitive theory of metaphor -- 3.1 Historical over view of approaches to metaphor -- 3.2 Main concepts of the cognitive theor y of metaphor -- 3.3 Recent research on metaphor -- 4 Newspaper discourse -- 4.1 Newspaper discourse as an instance of institutional discourse -- 4.2 Power in/behind newspaper discourse -- 4.3 Newsworthiness -- 5 Natural catastrophes -- 5.1 Unnatural aspects of natural catastrophes -- 5.2 The Indian Ocean tsunami -- 5.3 Hurricane Katrina -- 5.4 The Haiti earthquake -- 5.5 The Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami -- 5.6 Summary -- 6 Semantic macrostructures of newspaper articles on natural catastrophes -- 6.1 The immediate aftermath of the catastrophe -- 6.2 Eyewitness stories -- 6.3 Consequences of the disaster -- 6.4 Aid to the affected -- 6.5 Man-made factors -- 6.6 Idiosyncratic semantic macrostructures -- 6.6.1 Anticipation of Hurricane Katrina disaster -- 6.6.2 Nuclear plant disaster in Japan -- 6.7 Summary -- 7 Representations of the natural phenomenon -- 7.1 Metaphorical representations of the natural phenomenon -- 7.1.1 The natural phenomenon as an ANIMATE BEING -- 7.1.2 The natural phenomenon as a MONSTER -- 7.1.3 The natural phenomenon as a W ARRIOR -- 7.1.4 Other metaphorical themes -- 7.1.5 Origins of the metaphors -- 7.1.6 Functions of the metaphorical themes -- 7.1.7 Absence of a metaphorical representation of the Haiti earthquak e -- 7.2 Representations of the natural phenomenon in terms of van Leeuwen's categorization -- 7.3 Summary.

8 Representations of people -- 8.1 Representations of people in terms of van Leeuwen's categorization -- 8.2 Ideological square of the 'First World' versus the 'Third World' in discourse on the Haiti earthquake -- 8.3 Victim stories -- 8.4 Summary -- 9 Discursive strategies of dramatization -- 10 Conclusion -- Summary -- Bibliography.

The monograph is a research on the representation of natural catastrophes in newspapers published in Western English-speaking countries. It aims to reveal who the newspaper discourse puts the blame on for the damage and destruction (whether the catastrophe is portrayed as a joint outcome of the natural phenomenon and social factors), how the discourse deals with the tension between natural disasters and the Enlightenment ideology of superiority of humankind over nature, and what are common discursive strategies dramatizing the events. The methodology of the research is critical discourse analysis, with the focus on the exploration of semantic macrostructures of the articles, lexical and syntactical analysis and investigation of the narrative structure of victim stories.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.