JISCMail - MECCSA Archives

Dear all,

We are pleased to announce that Dr Laura Costelloe, from the University of Limerick, Ireland will be delivering a guest lecture at the next Newcastle Critical Discourse Group session on Wednesday 13th November. This event will take place at 4pm in ARMB.CETL Seminar Room, Newcastle University.

All colleagues and students welcome.

http://www.criticaldiscoursegroup.net/

Title and abstract as follows:

A CORPUS-ASSISTED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATIONS OF YOUNG PEOPLE (LES JEUNES) IN NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE ON FRENCH URBAN VIOLENCE IN 2005

Laura Costelloe

November 2005 saw a significant flashpoint in the long-running history of tensions between minority groups and those in power in France. For three weeks there were widespread clashes throughout France between “les jeunes” (“young people”) and the forces of law and order. Mindful of the printed news media as important sites of ideology production (Fairclough, 1995), this study contributes to a growing body of work on newspaper representation of urban violence in the suburbs or banlieues, with focus on the particularly traumatic events of November 2005 (c.f. Moirand, 2010; Peeters, 2012; 2010; Sedel, 2009).

This paper explores the representation of young people in newspaper discourse on the 2005 riots and proposes that a distinction is implicitly drawn between les jeunes (des banlieues/des cités) and ‘other’ or ‘French’ young people. It begins by using Critical Discourse Analysis to examine a small but representative sample of texts (following Fairclough 1995; 1989), and considers the homogenisation and categorisation of suburban and immigrant youth. Following that, Corpus Linguistics techniques are used in the analysis of a corpus of 2,271 newspaper texts incorporating a variety of perspectives from the French printed news media (right/left, regional/national). Concordance, cluster and collocation analysis reveals that the noun jeunes carries particular connotations when used in the context of the riots, and les jeunes des banlieues/cités are repeatedly negatively characterised throughout the corpus of texts. The paper thus exposes the role played by the printed news media in consolidating negative clichés associated with the suburbs, and argues that the sustained use of the noun jeunes to signify immigrant and suburban youth who are linked to high unemployment rates and civil disturbances reinforces a prejudicial view of young people living in the banlieues.

Fairclough, N. (1995) Media Discourse, London: Edward Arnold.
Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power, London: Longman.
Moirand, S. (2010) 'Le choc des discours dans la presse française : la crise des banlieues de novembre 2005 et la crise des universités de mars 2006' in Fornasiero, J. and Mrowa-Hopkins, C., eds., Explorations and Encounters in French, South Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
Peeters, S. (2012) 'La couverture médiatique de la « crise des banlieues » : métaphores, représentations et l'apport indispensable du cotexte', RJC Cotexte, Contexte, Situation, available: http://corela.edel.univ-poitiers.fr/index.php?id=2079.
Peeters, S. (2010) ''The suburbs are exploding': metaphors as framing devices in the French suburban crisis coverage', Belgian Journal of Linguistics, 24(1), 103-119.
Sedel, J. (2009) Les Médias et la Banlieue, Latresne: Le Bord de l'Eau.

Dr Darren Kelsey

Lecturer in Journalism and Discourse Studies
BA Degree Programme Director, Media and Cultural Studies

School of Arts and Cultures

Newcastle University

Room 2.85, Second Floor, Armstrong Building

Newcastle Upon Tyne

NE1 7RU

Tel: 0191 222 6474

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/staff/profile/darren.kelsey
www.JDSjournal.net

http://www.criticaldiscoursegroup.net/