Abstract:
One of the goals of critical discourse analysis is to examine the unequal relations and dominance prevailing in the media and to create awareness, insight, and a critical perspective in media audiences. The socio-semiotic paradigm of the representation of social actors (Van Leeuwen, 2008) provides an appropriate theoretical framework for linguists and discourse analysts to conduct research in this field. In the present study, fifty news items and articles published in reputable international media regarding the atomic case of the Islamic Republic of Iran during the last two months of 2010 were examined within the aforementioned paradigm. The manner of representing the social actors of the two sides of the conflict (Iran-West) is analyzed to reveal the extent of impartiality or bias of these media in representing the role players of this international struggle. The results of the research confirm the fact that despite the claim of impartial representation of events by major international news agencies and press, a purposeful flow of linguistic and social mechanisms can be seen in the content published by them regarding Iran's atomic case: Iranian social actors are represented differently from Western actors in terms of volume, content, and the manner of naming and identification, presenting an irrational and combative image of them; whereas the actors on the other side of the conflict are introduced with more empathy and as rational and peace-loving individuals.
Machine summary:
In this research, within the framework of the Critical Discourse Analysis approach, we examine the linguistic representation of Iranian and Western actors present in our country's nuclear case by international media, including major global newspapers and news agencies, and we attempt to answer this question: is there a significant difference observed in the way the main actors of both sides of this conflict are represented in international media, and if the answer is positive, what is the purpose of this dual representation?
To this end, fifty titles of articles and news from major international news agencies and newspapers published in the last two months of 2010 were randomly selected and analyzed within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, specifically the social actor representation paradigm based on the socio-cognitive-semantic components of Van Leeuwen 2 (2008), to reveal any potential homogeneity or bias in the way the Iranian and Western parties of this case are represented by major global media.
Although research has been conducted in the field of discursive analysis of various media regarding Iran's nuclear case, the present research possesses novelty and innovation in terms of the freshness of the research data, the breadth and diversity of the news sources used, and its theoretical framework (Van Leeuwen's model of social actor representation).
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