Racism and the Press - Discourse in Society

1 I Racism and the Press Teun A. van Dijk 1991 Routledge London and New York i Racism and the Press This book presents the results of an interdisciplinary study of the Press coverage of ethnic affairs. Examples are drawn mainly from British and Dutch newspapers, but data from other countries are also reviewed. Besides providing the reader with a thorough content analysis of the material, the book is the first to introduce a detailed Discourse analytical approach to the study of the ways in which ethnic minorities are portrayed in the Press .

2 The approach focuses on the topics, overall news report schemata, local meanings, style and rhetoric of news reports. Highly original, accomplished and penetrating, the book is the fruit of a decade of research into the question of Racism and the Press . The author is an internationally known scholar in the field of Discourse analysis, and the first who has addressed the problem of prejudice and Racism from a Discourse perspective. The readership for Racism and the Press is as interdisciplinary as the book itself: ethnic studies, mass communication and media studies, sociology and linguistics.

3 Teun A. van Dijk is Professor of Discourse Studies at the University of Amsterdam. After earlier work in text grammar and psychology, his present fields of expertise are news analysis and the study of Racism in Discourse . Professor van Dijk is the author/editor of several books in each of these fields, and founding editor of the international journals TEXT and Discourse and Society . ii Critical studies in Racism and migration Edited by Robert Miles University of Glasgow iii Racism and the Press Teun A. van Dijk Routledge London and New York iv First published in 1991 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge a division of Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.

4 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 1991 Teun A. van Dijk Typeset from the author's disks by NWL Editorial Services, Langport, Somerset, England Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Dijk, Teun A. van (Teun Adrianus),1943 Racism and the Press .

5 1. Great Britain. Race reporting newspapers I. Title Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Dijk, Teun Adrianus van, 1943 Racism and the Press / Teun A. van Dijk. p. Cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Racism in the Press - Great Britain. 2. Racism - Great Britain. 3. Mass media and race relations - Great Britain. I. Title. 1991 90-39276 '493058'0941 - dc20 CIP ISBN 0-415-04733-1 0-415-04734-X (pbk) v Contents List of illustrations vii Preface ix Acknowledgements xiv 1 The study of Racism and the Press 1 Ethnic events 1 A multidisciplinary approach 4 A critical, anti-racistperspective 5 Research framework 6 Materials and research procedures 8 Racism and the mass media.

6 Earlier work 10 To be or not to be a racist 21 2 Theoretical framework 23 Introduction 23 Racism 24 Reproduction 32 Social cognition 35 Structures and strategies of news 40 Public reproduction 42 Elite Racism 43 The Discourse analytical approach 44 Conclusions 48 3 Headlines 50 Structures and functions of headlines 50 Headlines in the British Press 52 Conclusions 69 4 Subjects and topics 71 The relevance of topical analysis 71 Subjects in the British Press 78 Topics in the British Press 90 Subjects and topics in the Dutch Press 108 Further comparisons and overall conclusions 115 vi 5 News schemata, argumentation and editorials 118 Illustrations A theory of superstructures: the schema of news reports 118 News schemata in reports about minorities 121 Argumentation 124 Editorials on the riots : persuasive rhetoric and argumentation 133 6 Quotations and sources 151 Quotation and news production 151 Some quantitative results 154 Special topics 161 Affirmative action 163 7 Meanings and ideologies 176 Figures Racism and meaning.

7 An example 176 Perspective 179 The organization of the system of racismImplicit meanings 180 Article from the Daily Mail, 15 October 1985 Semantic strategies 187 Hypothetical structure of a news schemaNorms and values 199 Article from The Times, l7 September 19858 Style and rhetoric 209 Ideological group schema according to the editorialsThe relevance of style and rhetoric 209 of the right-wing British PressLexical style 210 Ideological value structure of the editorials in theSyntactic style 215 right-wing British Press Rhetoric 216 Conclusions 222 9 The reproduction of news about ethnic affairs 224 The Press and its public 224 Most frequent words in the headlines of five BritishNotions from a theoretical framework 227 newspapers, August 1981 The interviews 232 Frequencies of actors in the headlines.

8 The readers 233 August 1985-January 1986 Information reproduced 234 Frequencies of relations in the headlines,Opinions 237 August 1985-January 1986 Conclusions 243 Frequencies per subject, August 198510 General conclusions 245 January 1986 Introduction 245 Topic frequencies and size of reports in the BritishQualifications 246 Press , January-July 1989 Interpretation 250 Frequencies of general subjects in the Dutch Press ,Final remarks 253 August 1985-January 1986 Appendix Guidelines on race reporting 255 Frequencies of major topics in the Dutch Press , References 258 August 1985-January 1986 Author index 267 Schematic news categories of text Subject index 270 vii Illustrations Figures The organization of the system of Racism 36 Article from the Daily Mail, 15 October 1985 76 Hypothetical structure of a news schema 119 Article from The Times, 17 September 1985 122 Article from the Daily Telegraph.

9 1 August 1985 126 Ideological group schema according to the editorials of the right-wing British Press 142 Ideological value structure of the editorials in the right-wing British Press 148 Tables Most frequent words in the headlines of five British newspapers, August 1981-January 1986 54 Frequencies of actors in the headlines, August 1985-January 1986 59 Frequencies of relations in the headlines, August 1985-January 1986 60 Frequencies per subject, August 1985-January 1986 80 Average size per subject (in sq. cm), August 1985- January 1986 83 Topic frequencies and size of reports in the British Press , January-July 1989 87 Frequencies of general subjects in the Dutch Press , August 1985-January 1986 111 Frequencies of major topics in the Dutch Press , August 1985-January 1986 112 Schematic news categories of text 123 viii Frequencies of quotation for minority and majority actors, August 1985-January 1986 155 Quotation patterns per subject in five newspapers, August 1985-January 1986 157 Frequency and size (in sq.)

10 Cm) of quotes of minorities, per newspaper and topic 162 Frequency and size (in sq. cm) of quotes of majorities, per newspaper and topic 162 Amount of recall for se in the Dutch Press , August 1985-January 1986 235 ix Preface Racism remains one of the most pernicious problems of white Society . Though often less blatantly and overtly than in the past, it continues to permeate racial and ethnic relations in Europe, North America and other westernized countries. Resistance and protests against this social, economic and cultural oppression of minorities have brought about limited civil rights gains during the past two decades, but the fundamental relations of inequality have hardly changed.