Political Bias on BBC, CNN, and Fox News - Doria

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(Fairclough 1995: 23), such as conventions related to turn-taking, politeness (ibid.) or rules about who one is allowed to address (e.g. in patriarchal societies). The theory of naturalization includes an aspect relating to dominance. Fairclough explains that naturalization advances further and becomes more solidified in the minds of people according to how dominant that view is in the surrounding society (Fairclough 1985: 744 and 1989: 92). In addition to dominance, the aspect of frequency applies to cases of naturalization (for more information about the importance of quantity of input in ideological discourse, see Fairclough 1989: 37 and Fowler 1991: 121). For example, terrorism discourse by the police and various intelligence and government agencies not only originates from an authoritative source but is also extremely frequent, which, in and of itself, is an effective tool to forward naturalization of the idea of terrorists as a major threat. Therefore, repeatedly (mis)informed readers of online news will more easily consider the (mis)information as natural - how things are and should be - rather than question that which is repeatedly reported. The concept of naturalization will resurface when discussing CDA in connection to the media as well as when introducing the three websites chosen for analysis. It is important to note, however, that common-sense structures tend to lose their influence when their role is realized in the process for "sustaining power inequalities at one's own expense" (Fairclough 1989: 85). That is, one rarely accepts that one's own actions are retaining those hierarchical structures that favor someone else. The importance of critical analysis of discourse becomes evident best in this quote from Fowler: "The ideological function of conversation is to naturalize the terms in which reality is represented, and the categories those terms represent" (1991: 57, see also Fairclough 1985: 739). Therefore, the importance of language in reproducing such ideologies and structures must be realized and examined in order to expose and better understand the hidden agendas. Because ideologies are reproduced rather through discourse (Fairclough 1995: 219) than any other medium, such as brute force, the employment of CDA becomes necessary. 14
3.3 Critical Discourse Analysis and the media One of the major areas of interest for research in the CDA vein is media language. CDA is, in fact, the approach through which media language has been explored most (Garrett and Bell 1998: 6). This is partly because CDA views all language as reproducing an ideology of sorts and is interested in exposing and investigating those hidden agendas in language that may be ideological. This relates directly to the media. Because of (but not limited to) the reasons discussed in section 2.2, media language can be seen as dependent on various factors ranging from the society to corporate interests and the power of advertisers. In this view, the media functions as a kind of mirror of the society through which it reflects that image of the world which represents these outside interests and ideologies. In other words, "all news is always reported from some particular angle" (Fowler 1991: 10, also argued by McNair 1996 as quoted in Allan 2005: 57). CDA aims to uncover these ideologies and views critical analysis as the tool through the use of which it becomes possible to expose hidden prejudices and conscious or subconscious viewpoints of the writers, the particular language community, or even the entire society. The quantity of input plays an important role in ideological influence. This idea has been visited by Fowler (1991: 121) and also Fairclough through the concept of naturalization. In the words of Fairclough, "the constant doses of 'news' which most people receive each day are a significant factor in social control" (1989: 37). To explain this idea of social control further, one must consider the kinds of people who are employed as sources in news stories - they are, for the most part, people with power (ibid.: 50, see also Covert and Wasburn 2007: 68-69, Fowler 1991: 22, and van Dijk 1988: 87). Politicians and heads of corporations are more likely to be referred to than someone who is not in a position of power. Even a news report about blue-collar auto workers is more likely to include quotes from the manager or supervisor than the people who physically assemble the cars. This issue has been widely researched by, for example, Fishman (1978), Gans (1979), Holstein and Gubrium (2000), and Sigal (1973). 15
Page 1 and 2: "It's Barack Obama Who's Soft" <str
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents 1 Introduction...
Page 5 and 6: 1 Introduction In the past two deca
Page 7 and 8: 2 The news media The news is often
Page 9 and 10: 2.2 An outline of media discourse a
Page 11 and 12: ecomes clearer how newsworthiness (
Page 13 and 14: 3 Critical Discourse Analysis In th
Page 15 and 16: (Wodak 2001: 4). The key linguists
Page 17: grammatical and lexical analysis of
Page 21 and 22: In addition to the distorted view t
Page 23 and 24: it can be argued that her own inter
Page 25 and 26: One type of conservatism, classical
Page 27 and 28: In their study, Covert and Wasburn
Page 29 and 30: percent respectively; Morris and Fr
Page 31 and 32: transitivity and Theme are not defi
Page 33 and 34: BBC is part of the establishment, a
Page 35 and 36: the United Nations in 1997; ibid.).
Page 37 and 38: initial methodology, an appropriate
Page 39 and 40: in the headline analysis when the s
Page 41 and 42: The popularity of Hallidayan SFG pa
Page 43 and 44: Lexis in general as well as colloca
Page 45 and 46: 8.1.1 Theme in the headlines The ge
Page 47 and 48: As the above examples demonstrate,
Page 49 and 50: Verbal processes result in two Them
Page 51 and 52: CNN, and 8.8 on Fox News (numbers w
Page 53 and 54: all four CNN headlines refer to the
Page 55 and 56: The topic of illegal immigrants 12
Page 57 and 58: highlight the connection between th
Page 59 and 60: The fact that the headline includes
Page 61 and 62: The lack of such explicit presence
Page 63 and 64: Instead, when the police are identi
Page 65 and 66: Finally, to provide a comprehensive
Page 67 and 68: Another aspect of Theme to discuss
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Starting with the Theme structure a
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When considering the way the law is
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trillion in savings over the course
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ing in more revenue by spurring eco
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mentions taxes 11 times, which cons
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While the BBC article does not cont
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easy access to all types of birth c
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does not refer to the drug in this
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Beyond the instances of supporters
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at all. It could be argued that if
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was not expected to be present at a
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hidden agendas varied considerably,
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irreplaceable, the additional suppo
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maintain, however, that the methods
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Primary sources BBC Online. 116 art
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Chilton Paul and Wodak Ruth (eds) 2
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Harris Paul 2006. OJ 'confession':
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Schoetz David 2010. David Frum on G
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Appendices Appendix 1. Table detail
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Cedillo called Saturday's signing "
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Appendix 3. Finnish summary - suome
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ideologian käsitteisiin (Blommaert
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(Democrats 2008: i). Konservatismii
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kaikenkattavimpia, puolueettomimpia
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(Halliday ja Matthiessen 2004: 64-6
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Obamasta enemmän kuin Fox News (16
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keskuudessa. Yleisesti ottaen demok
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mahdollista tämän tutkielman puit
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Political Bias on BBC, CNN, and Fox News - Doria

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