#WelcomeRefugees: a critical discourse analysis of the refugee resettlement initiative in Canadian news
This study focuses on the frames utilized in the depiction of Syrian refugees and social and political actors involved in the Syrian resettlement in Canadian online news media. The role of the media is vital in portraying Syrian refugees' image and affects how the Canadian public perceive...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2020
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16814/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16814/1/39958-143241-2-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | This study focuses on the frames utilized in the depiction of Syrian refugees and social and
political actors involved in the Syrian resettlement in Canadian online news media. The role of
the media is vital in portraying Syrian refugees' image and affects how the Canadian public
perceives them. This paper focuses on utilizing the referential and predicational strategies
introduced by the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) in framing the Syrian refugees,
Liberal government, Conservative party, Canadians, and Canada (henceforth social and
political actors). This study examines a total of 31 articles selected from three of the most
visited Canadian news sites, namely, the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, and the National Post.
News articles were collected beginning from the arrival of the first group of refugees in
December 2015 and ending in March 2017, which marked the first anniversary of the refugees’
arrival. The results obtained show that both liberal and conservative-leaning media utilized
frames in ways that correspond with their ideological stance. In most cases, the limelight rarely
focused on Syrian refugees. Instead, they were used as props to push the news source's
ideological convictions and to condemn and shame the opposition. Therefore, it is understood,
that the framing and portrayal of refugees in this narrow manner through discursive strategies
obscures the complexity of the plight of Syrian refugees and depicts them as one-dimensional
characters that audiences would either fear or pity. |
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