The Others” Lexical and Textual Representation (Bias) of Refugees: A Critical Discourse Analysis of America and Pakistani Press
Abstract
Refugees are among the most vulnerable humans in the world. Their representation in media creates particular perception among the masses. This research aims to analyze media discourse of Pakistani and American newspapers regarding refugees. For this purpose Fairclough’s 3Dmodel of CDA has been applied. CDA focuses on language manipulation to maintain power and propagation of hidden ideologies in text through media. To explore the lexical and textual othering of refugees it has been found that the media discourses of the given newspapers tend to mold ideologies using language as a tool. It renders unknown people (refugees) crossing border to take refuge in the host countries as outsiders. The findings of the CDA reveal that textual representation of refugees in the defined media represents them as “the others”, unwanted foreigners who are not welcome into the host countries.
Authors
Saima Khan
M. Phil Mass Communication, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Hafiz Bilal Ahsan
MS Film & TV, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Muhammad Tariq
Ph. D. Scholar, Department of Mass Communication, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan