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

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holds of Cain. Transitivity analysis, furthermore, supports this view. As the Carrier, Cain carries the Attribute of bad president. Other headlines are less interesting in terms of bias: one headline, for example, refers to inappropriate behaviour [sic], which is less striking than the word grope. As for headlines about Cain directly, CNN has only two, whereas BBC has nine. Of these, one CNN headline (50 percent) and five BBC headlines (55.5 percent) can be suggested to be biased in one way or another. In the CNN headline, Cain's wife is quoted defending Cain's honor, which can be seen as an attempt to humanize Cain by presenting him as a married man. Additionally, one could claim that if the wife supports him despite her intimate connection to the scandal, so should the general public. Three BBC headlines are inconclusive about bias. For example, one BBC headline also determines the duration of the affair, 13 years, and the same conclusions apply as with the CNN headline. Two (or 22.2 percent of the nine) BBC headlines, however, can be suggested to be almost incriminating: (35) Herman Cain gave cash to Ginger White (36) Herman Cain 'gradually recalls' sexual harassment case In example (35), the implication is that Cain paid White for her silence, and example (36) suggests that Cain may have lied concerning his knowledge of the incident(s). Considering transitivity, both headlines also implicate Cain as the Actor and Senser in the material and mental process, respectively. No similarly suggestive headlines are present in the CNN data. Considering also that no headlines about Cain are present in the Fox News data, it can be proposed that in this instance BBC may hold the most anti-Cain stance, while Fox News, based solely on the lack of reporting about Cain, can be claimed to be most pro-Cain due to the lack of negative reporting or, alternatively, passively anti-Cain in the sense that no headlines in the data discuss any aspect of him or his campaign. Considering the amount of possible negative coverage as seen in the headlines of BBC and CNN, Fox News' position as pro-Cain is more supported. 50
The topic of illegal immigrants 12 , the smallest category, appears in the headlines of all three websites. The BBC data features four headlines concerning the issue (or 3.4 percent of the total 116) compared to CNN's nine (7.4 percent of 121) and Fox News' five (4.3 percent of 117). In the case of BBC, none of the four headlines feature families or undocumented immigrants in Theme position. Instead, a variety of authorities (e.g. Mexico's Calderon and Jerry Brown) and other entities constitute Theme. This suggests an attempt to dehumanize the illegal immigrants by focusing on the related administrative troubles and on the law itself. No patterns emerge from the BBC data, and no hint of bias can be detected beyond Theme structure. For example, BBC does not refer to undocumented immigrants or illegal immigrants - a choice of words that could suggest at least a liberal bias in the case of the former. In the case of CNN and Fox News, a slight liberal bias is detected. Of CNN's nine headlines concerning illegal immigrants, all but one (or 88.9 percent) feature an authority or an entity other than the illegal immigrants themselves in Theme position. As with BBC, this suggests an attempt to dehumanize the illegal immigrants. Beyond the Theme structure, three headlines (33.3 percent) feature an authority that in some way opposes tough immigration laws 13 (e.g. U.S. sues South Carolina over immigration law). These types of headlines can be analyzed also as an attack on the law without just cause, and, thus, no definite bias can be determined. One headline, however, points to the ill-effects of designing tough immigration laws: Author of tough Arizona immigration law loses recall election. Another headline, furthermore, seems to take a stance through its wording: (37) Judge denies motion to block Alabama immigration law An alternative headline here could have been, for example, Judge upholds Alabama immigration law, but instead CNN opts to highlight the judge as the participant that denies the motion that would have blocked key portions of the law, effectively suggesting that the motion would have been a positive occurrence. In comparison, 12 Illegal immigrants are viewed less favorably by conservatives than liberals (see Appendix 1). For further reference, see Diamond (1996: 154-168) and section 8.2.2. 13 Tough immigration laws are those that most aggressively attempt to remove illegal immigrants from an area (e.g. a state). 51
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 and 18: grammatical and lexical analysis of
Page 19 and 20: 3.3 Critical Discourse Analysis and
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: all four CNN headlines refer to the
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
Page 69 and 70: Starting with the Theme structure a
Page 71 and 72: When considering the way the law is
Page 73 and 74: trillion in savings over the course
Page 75 and 76: ing in more revenue by spurring eco
Page 77 and 78: mentions taxes 11 times, which cons
Page 79 and 80: While the BBC article does not cont
Page 81 and 82: easy access to all types of birth c
Page 83 and 84: does not refer to the drug in this
Page 85 and 86: Beyond the instances of supporters
Page 87 and 88: at all. It could be argued that if
Page 89 and 90: was not expected to be present at a
Page 91 and 92: hidden agendas varied considerably,
Page 93 and 94: irreplaceable, the additional suppo
Page 95 and 96: maintain, however, that the methods
Page 97 and 98: Primary sources BBC Online. 116 art
Page 99 and 100: Chilton Paul and Wodak Ruth (eds) 2
Page 101 and 102: Harris Paul 2006. OJ 'confession':
Page 103 and 104: Schoetz David 2010. David Frum on G
Page 105 and 106:
Appendices Appendix 1. Table detail
Page 107 and 108:
Cedillo called Saturday's signing "
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Appendix 3. Finnish summary - suome
Page 111 and 112:
ideologian käsitteisiin (Blommaert
Page 113 and 114:
(Democrats 2008: i). Konservatismii
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kaikenkattavimpia, puolueettomimpia
Page 117 and 118:
(Halliday ja Matthiessen 2004: 64-6
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Obamasta enemmän kuin Fox News (16
Page 121 and 122:
keskuudessa. Yleisesti ottaen demok
Page 123:
mahdollista tämän tutkielman puit
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Political Bias on BBC, CNN, and Fox News - Doria

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