·
Gnanaseelan,
J. (2012). A Discourse Analysis of Ethnic Conflict and Peace in the
Editorials of English Newspapers –
A Case Study. The Sri Lanka Journal of Advanced Social Studies,
Vol.1, No 2. of the National Centre for Advanced Studies of the
A Discourse Analysis of Ethnic Conflict and Peace in the Editorials of English NewspapersA Case Study of Sri Lanka
Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan
Vavuniya Campus of the University
of Jaffna
ABSTRACT
Discourse
constitutes power in constructing ideational, textual and interpersonal
constructs which are ideological. It can transmit and even legitimize power in
society. In the post-war development scenario, the editorials of Sri Lankan
national newspapers should develop constructive discourse on politics and
development to make a positive impact on legislative changes. This paper
reveals subtle representation of ethno nationalism in the editorials in the Sri
Lankan English newspapers. The study focuses on whether the media has been a
part of the problem or a part of the solution to the Sri Lankan conflict. Since
newspaper and editorial discourses are the constructions of journalists and
editors of the elites, community biased ideologies are traceable in the
linguistic expressions which are often ‘revealed in mild forms’. This case study
uses Social Constructionist approach (qualitative), mainly discourse analysis,
which aims at the shared meanings and on how they are produced on ethnic
conflict and peace by investigating the themes, structures and strategies of an
editorial of The Island newspaper to arrive at its linguistically
embedded ideological and attitudinal positions. [Key Words: discourse analysis, social construction, ethnic
conflict, peace, freedom]
1.
Introduction
This paper makes an attempt at tracing cultural and linguistic nationalism in the editorial constructs of the Sri Lankan English newspapers. The prevalence of these ideologies in the Sri Lankan texts has been studied and confirmed (Abeysekara, 2002; Balachandren, 1999; Bartholomeusz, 2002; Bartholomeusz et al, 1998; de Silva, 2006; Devotta, 2004a, 2004b, 2007; Dharmadasa, 1992; Gunawardena, 1990; Kearney, 1967; Little, 1994; Manor, 1994; Obeyesekere, 1970; Ponambalam, 1983; Smith, 1978; Tambiah, 1986; Uyangoda, 1996; Wilson, 2000 etc,).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Dr. Jeyaseelan Gnanaseelan is a Senior
lecturer at English Language Teaching Unit, Vavuniya Campus, University of
Jaffna, - 0717477503- jeya86@hotmail.com
The
Editorials in English Newspapers have been generally commented as ethno-nationalistic
(International Centre for Ethnic Studies, 1996; Centre for Policy Alternatives,
2004). Media Monitor (2006) reports that “eighty seven per cent (87%) of Sri
Lankan journalists believe that the Sri Lankan media is failing to provide
accurate, balanced and fair information. Media Monitor (1997) of the CPA
published a report giving the results, after monitoring English, Sinhalese and
Tamil newspapers over a three-month period in 1997. In it, The Sri Lankan press
has been accused of “war mongering, racism and ignorance about the country's
ethnic conflict”
This study focuses on
the editorials published during the negotiation period after the Ceasefire
Agreement (CFA) which was signed between the GoSL and the Tamil militants from
February 2002 and its unilateral abrogation by the GoSL on 16 February 2008. It
finds more evidence that the media has been a part of the problem not a part of
the solution. Media Monitor (2004:28) observes:
What
would have been the reasons for different truths to be reported to the Sinhala
and Tamil people? Such reporting confirms the statement that the Sri Lankan
media are not partners in the resolution of the conflict but participants in
the disharmony among the communities.
The Significance
of analyzing the Editorials
Since
newspaper and editorial discourses are the constructions of journalists and
editors of the elites, ideologies are “hidden or subtle in expressions and
often revealed in mild forms” (van Dijk, 1995c, 1995d, 1995e). An editorial is
defined as “an article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors
or publishers” (“Editorial,” n.d). “An editorial is a statement or article by a
news organization (generally a newspaper) that expresses the opinion of the news
organization or one of its members; editorials are (usually short) opinion
pieces, written by members of the editorial board of the paper” (“Editorial,”
2007). The interpretative and discourse analysis approach to the editorials may
offer a closer understanding and useful insights. Although the content and
linguistic analyses of news reports, articles, and editorials, have been amply
done earlier in the West, it received less attention in South Asia, especially
in Sri Lanka. This necessitates the study of how the editorial writers
construct social reality and shape public opinion. So far the editorials have
not been studied at the academic level by linguists.
The
grammatical structure of the editorial is “meaning potential” (Halliday, 1994).
It brings out ‘what can be said’ with a set of rules. But the Discourse
Analysis is interested in the sociopolitical and critical relevance of
editorial discourse (ED). Editorials use complex strategies in expressing the
conflicts, thereby promoting ideologies. Editorials play an important part in
the national and international socio-political and economic systems of a
country, and through which social reality is produced, negotiated and changed.
Van
Dijk (1998, pp.21-63) gives a detailed account of the status of editorials and
op-ed articles in the Press and their "workings" in terms of opinion
making, from a socio-cognitive perspective. He defines the concept of
“ideology”, in terms of its main social function (co-ordination of the social
practices of group members for the effective realization of the goals of a
social group and the protection of its interests), and its main cognitive
function (to organize specific group attitudes) which is eventually reflected
in discourse filtered through models. He talks about mental models as being the
interface between the social and the personal, the general and the specific. He
goes on to argue that people continually "model" their everyday
lives, through the communicative events they are engaged in, or the news reports
they read in the Press. "Thus, remembering, storytelling and
editorializing involve the activation of past models...."(ibid, p.27) He
concludes that a text is merely the tip of the iceberg of what is represented
in models and people usually understand much more of a text than it actually
expresses.
Journalists
who write editorials and opinion columns, do not form our ideologies, but shape
and group them in texts which we are able to process due to our pre-existing
mental models ( or schemata) and social cognition which is ‘the study of
people's knowledge of the social’ (Contor and Antaki, 1997, p.343).
2.
Objective
The Basic Assumption of
the Research Problem is the editorial discourse constructions of journalists and editors of the
Sri Lankan elite media “hide or express their ideological and attitudinal
positions in subtle and mild forms” (van Dijk, 1995a). The general objective is:
To investigate the themes, structures
and strategies of an editorial of the Sri Lankan English newspaper on the
ethnic conflict and peace to arrive at the Ideological and Attitudinal
Positions and its consequent contribution to the sustainable peace in the country.
The Research Questions are formed to trace the appropriate answers. The general question is “how does the editorial
discourse discursively construct social reality?” and the sub-questions are “what
discursive practices help to construct the meaning in the editorial
discourse?”and “how is social distinction constructed interactively in an
editorial discourse?”
3.
Theoretical
Background
Discourse analysis reveals that “the relations between
notions such as ideology, discourse, and text have been more complexly reconceptualized”
(Canagarajah, 1999:30). In the context of the Sri Lankan press, “discourse
is the linguistic realization of the social construct, ideology; the abstract
paradigms of discourse are linguistically manifested in text”
(ibid.). Lyotard (1984) attacked the grand theories,
meta-narratives, and totalities which have shackled the heterogeneity of
discourses to impose unitary meaning” (Canagarajah,1999:32).This study makes
use of the frameworks of the Ideological Discourse Analysis (IDA) of Van Dijk (1995b;1995d;1995e)
and the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Norman Fairclough (1989;1995) for
analyzing the media texts. The texts have been often politically analyzed by
the political scientists, but not by the linguistic (or discourse) analysts of
media discourse in both national and international levels in Sri Lanka.
Therefore it necessitates
the study of how the editorial writers construct social reality and shape
public opinion. The existing presuppositions (EP) and propositional attitudes
(PA) reveal covert and overt positions of the editorial discourse. This
research studies how the use of the discourse conventions related to “knowledge
production, distribution and consumption” (Fairclough, 1995:16) construct the
structures of the state and the concept of sovereignty and nationalism.
‘Discourse’ is a concept often used by the social
theorists (Foucault, 1972; Fraser, 1989) and linguists (e.g. Stubbs, 1983; van
Dijk, 1985). It refers to the use of language as a social practice and “to
genres of thinking, communicating, interacting that are influenced by
concomitant forms of sociolinguistic conventions, ideological complexes, and
knowledge paradigms” (Canagarajah, 2002:7). van Dijk, (1988:11) observes “...the
media are not a neutral, common-sensed or rational mediator of social events,
but essentially reproduce pre-formulated ideologies”. Rumelhart (1980:35-58) and Fowler (1991:43)
have also studied the significance of mental schemata and ideology in textual
representation. Social constructionism (SC) as an approach focuses on the
shared meanings and on how they are produced. There are four assumptions about
the meanings: 1) they are dynamic and socially constructed; 2) inter-textually
linked with meanings of other socio-political and cultural objects in a
historically constituted system; 3) a multiplicity of meaning or schematic
systems available for a single social actor for constructing and negotiating it
in a particular situation; 4) the chains of meanings as multiple and
overlapping resources, from which social actors can select, combine and juxtapose
(Askegaard, Jensen, & Holt, 1999:33-39).
4.
Research Methodology
Discourse
Analysis is useful in analyzing the ways of social construction in editorial
discourse using the methods of Social Constructionist
Approach (SCA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Canagarajah (1999:30)
notes that “critical linguists interpret how speech genres and texts may serve
the ideological interests of the powerful”. This study focuses on the text and
the discourse themes in it, and not on the individuals. It also focuses on the
discursive practices behind ideological and attitudinal positions and the
discourse constructions. A case study is done on the editorial of the Island, “Twenty years after” dated 24 July 2003 in detail.
The figure
illustrates the components and methodological path of the study.
Figure
1.
The Components of the Research Methodology
Source: Gnanaseelan (2009:23)
It takes into
consideration of the Context of situation: the activities and goals around
which the community is organized, the behaviour of the community: the field
(what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place),
the tenor (who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their
statuses and roles), the mode (what part the language is playing, what is that
the participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation). In
addition, it focuses on the Context of Culture: the immediate events and the
whole cultural history behind the text. Knowing where, when the text is set
will help to understand the text more. All discursive practices are necessarily
context-dependent (Alvesson & Skoldberg, 2000:202). The communicativeness
of language is established through three aspects: Textual, Interpersonal and
Ideational (Halliday, 1994).
5.
Analysis of Discourse Construction
In
Sri Lankan context, the discourse themes help the construction of binary
positions/discourse of dichotomy, through the use of US and THEM. van Dijk’s
(1991:13) describes that the term ‘THEM’ refers to deviance and threats, viz.,
threats to OUR country, space, population composition, and ethnic
representation in political power, employment, education etc. It recognizes the
concerns of dominant group, their prejudices, group norms and goals, as well as
dominant ideologies. The themes (semantic macro-structures) of editorial texts
are identified according to van Dijk’s (1991:13) view that ethnic minorities
are linked to the prominence and availability of the overall social cognitions
such as (a) Socio-cultural difference and lack of adjustment and tolerance; (b)
Deviance of established (dominant) norms (including terrorism, violence and
crime); (c) Competition for scarce resources (educational, economic and natural
recourses). After the victory over the Tamil militants in May 2009, the
editorials almost backgrounded the significance of resolving the conflict
politically and started commenting on the positive dimensions of the victory
over terrorism, especially economic development and the outcomes of the
provincial, parliamentary and presidential elections and resettlement and
rehabilitation. All the editorials constructed a situation that economic development
of the country is the real solution to the ethnic conflict.
The editorials use universal discourse of higher order
of abstraction and impression management in the form of nominalization in
commenting about the conflict; The Island,
in its editorial, “‘The Tamil Problem’ and the Problem of
the Tamils”, appeared on 07
December 2004, comments, “‘the Tamil problem’ which can be resolved through
discussions and negotiations in a civilised manner with any government.” Pointing out the failure, it says:
“some Tamils complain that these problems have remained for decades and nothing
been done about them and certainly there are many problems to be resolved which
have dragged on over decades” but “in other quarters Tamils enjoy even greater
rights than the Sinhalese such as the freedom to live freely in any part of the
country enjoying their rights although no Sinhalese or Muslim could do so in
the Northern Province” (Apparent contrast Move). However, Hariharan
(2008) distinguishes the effects from the causes:
President Rajapaksa’s government has repeatedly given
an impression that once the LTTE is vanquished it would be all smooth sailing
with the Tamil population automatically joining the democratic mainstream. It
appears to identify the LTTE as the problem, rather than as the manifestation
of the problem.
The media’s failure in distinguishing “Sinhala people”
from “Sri Lankan people” at the ideological level has manifested in their
discourse construction. Both the Sinhala and Tamil Press have played a negative
role in sharpening the ethnic conflict. The discourse generally lacks the
well-known (obligatory) Resolution category (Gamson, 1992). The minority groups
and the International Community are assumed to create all kinds of problems for
the majority. The ideological value structure of such editorials emphasizes
order, authority, and control: the minority community should be obedient,
patriotic, and loyal, and if they do not obey the law, then they will have to
suffer the ‘inevitable actions’ of the radical nationalists of the majority
community. The editorials reveal the ‘intent and content’, ‘insular and
secular’ approaches, and ‘commands and demands’ of the dominant community.
Analysis
of Linguistic Construction
The
full text of the editorial titled, “Twenty years after”, taken from The Island dated 24 July, 2003 is analyzed here in detail. It
retrospectively comments on the causes and consequences of the 83 riots in the
South.
1. Twenty
years ago (Inter-textual), the Sri Lankan nation (Nominalization1)
went through (Ergative & Passivization) the most agonising
shameful days of its contemporary history (Nominalization 2) when
innocent Tamils were killed (Passivization) on the streets and in
their (Inter-personal & Pronominalization) homes while their properties
were looted (Passivization) and business establishments set on
fire (Passivization).
The
title denoting “Twenty years after”
connotes a change quite opposite to what happened in July 1983, blaming ‘some
Sinhalese’ as the aggressors. Now it tries to project the Sinhalese as victims
and the Tamils, by foregrounding ‘the Tamil militants and Tamil nationalists’
as aggressors. The concern is about ‘the Sri Lankan nation’, not the Tamil people
(Binary: The Sri Lankan nation versus the
Sri Lankan Tamils). The editorial foregrounds the situation of the country, not the suffering of the Tamils. It
was “the days” which were “agonising and shamefu1”, not the agonized Tamils and
the shameful acts of the aggressors (Binary: Aggressors versus Victims).
The positioning of the attributes distancing the victims and the aggressors and
the description of the destruction (Passivization & Verb of Material Process)
plays down the suffering of the Tamils and foregrounds the consequent impacts on the nation as a sovereign country. The
interpersonal anaphoric reference, “their” implicitly foregrounds the
unilateral position. Whenever they address the losses of the Sinhala people,
they used to call, “our people” and “our properties” (Binary: US versus Them).
2. Whatever
the causes (Topicalization & Forgrounding, Inter-textual)
that led to these shameful incidents, the bestial acts (Nominalization1)
that (Who) were committed (Passivization & Ergative)
on innocent citizens of this country (who) cannot be excused (by
whom) (Passivization & Ergative). These riots took place (Passivization)
at a time (Inter-textual) when the political climate was extremely
volatile (Attributive Complement)—a fact (Assertive) that
may escape the attention of recent political commentators of the Sri Lankan
scene. It was a time when (Inter-textual) India for the first
time appeared in the form of a monster attempting to gobble up (Metaphorical)
this little island (Nominalization2) (Binary: Aggressors versus
Victims). Tamil separatist terrorists were being nurtured, trained, financed
and backed internationally by the New Delhi government to serve their political
agenda. When the terrorists ambushed (Active) a truckload of 13
soldiers and killed (Active) them all —the biggest number (Quantitative
Enumeration) of servicemen killed till that incident — extremists and
fanatics (Nominalization 3) provoked and inspired goondas to
run riot (Binary: The provoker versus the provoked).
After
revealing “the most agonising and shameful days” of Sri Lankan history in the
first ‘small paragraph’, immediately in the second paragraph, it urgently lists
out the causes and justification of the happening of it (Binary: Causes
versus Consequences). Though it downplays the causes in the sentence adverb,(
“whatever…incidents), ironically the whole paragraph describes the Indian
interference and the militants’ ambush. “The bestial acts” of the ‘goondas’ are compared equally with ‘the monsterization of
India’ and ‘the terrorization of the Tamil militants,’ so that the intensive
effect of the former is lessened. Now it is the Sri Lanka which was the victim.
The justification is given in intensity (“extremely volatile”) and in
negativity (extremists and fanatics),
and in quantity (the biggest number). It excludes the real elected
representatives of the then government (extremists and fanatics) who
planned and encouraged this riot. The demonization frame is evoked in the
nature of beast positioned against monster which is far worse. In these two
paragraphs, passivization and ergative are used to construct the victim frame
of the Tamils to background the aggressors. On the other hand, the active voice
is used to foreground the aggressor frame to the Tamil militants when the security
forces are the victims.
3. But (Conjunction of contrast) by far (Inter-personal)
the majority of the Sinhalese (Topicalizaion) were (Verb
of Relational Process) against this carnage.
4. There were large
numbers (Quantitative Enumeration) of them who risked
(Active1) their lives and property to save (Active 2)
Tamils from being attacked (Passivization1) by mobs (Nominalization1)
(Binary: Humanization versus demonization). Yet (Apparent Admission
Move), it was poor consolation to those Tamils (Nominalization
2) who had been subjected (Passivization 2) to humiliation,
torture, their loved ones killed (Passivization 3) and their
homes destroyed (Passivization 4) (Apparent Compassion move & Apparent
Altruism move).
To
project the innocence of the majority community, the editorial has devised this
statement as a single paragraph (3). The fixed character of the community is
represented (‘were’). This paragraph is the continuation of the earlier one. It
illustrates their humane nature against the suffering of the Tamils
de-emphasizing it as “a poor consolation”. But, the positioning of the saving
acts of the Sinhalese in active voice as the topic sentence prioritizes its
significance against the suffering acts of the Tamils. The destructive acts
causing the sufferings, written in the passive voice, backgrounds the aggressors. The semantic moves
support the editorial position.
5. What is
striking (Topicalization & Assertive 1) about these
despicable acts (Nominalization) is (Verb of Relational Process)
that they ceased to be in a few days time and have not been repeated
ever since (Assertive 2) (Binary: The sudden act versus sustained
act). This underlies the fact (Assertive 3) (Binary: fact versus
fiction) that there has been no animosity between the Sinhalese and
Tamils who had been living together amicably for centuries (Cliché) and could and will continue
to do so. Unlike in communities that are opposed to each other such as the
Muslims and Hindus of India who go for each others jugulars quite often,
the Sinhalese and Tamils have co-existed in peace except for (Cliché ) the two major aberrations
—the 1958 and 1983 riots.
The
rhetorical expression foregrounds the immediate cessation of the acts
positioned against “these despicable acts”. The propositional attitude is that
these acts are the sudden outcomes, a temporary departure or lapse which will
be back to normalcy soon (‘days’, ‘incidents’,
‘aberrations’ ‘except’). The media
always had the tendency of attributing the causes of the prolonged ethnic
conflict to these sudden outbursts of violence of the extremists and fanatics
of the majority community. They often exclude or de-emphasize the planned acts of political
discrimination perpetrated against the minority community over the half century
over. The emphasis on non-repetition of such riots excludes the facts that the
violence and discrimination against the minority community has been
‘institutionalized’ at present. The discourse of violence from then onwards is
discursively attributed to ‘the acts of the non-state actors and organizations’
and the discourse of security is exclusively linked to ‘the acts of the security
forces’ (Binary: Violence versus Security).
The
editorial asserts the taken for granted nature of the statements in Paragraph 5:
Sentence 2, Paragraph 2: Sentence 2 and Paragraph 6: Sentence 1. The history of the conflict has revealed
quite the opposite (Little, 1994; Manor, 1994; Obeyesekere, 1970; Ponambalam, 1983; Smith,
1978; Tambiah, 1986; Uyangoda, 1996; Wilson, 2000 etc,).
The use of the clichéd expressions (Paragraph 5: Sentence 2, Paragraph 10: Sentence
2 and Paragraph 5: Sentence 4) have been a discourse strategy for a long time
to exclude the political discrimination and the violence unleashed against the minority
community. Another is to quote a comparative larger and worse example from the
international or Indian scenes to lessen and de-emphasize the impact of the
similar incident in Sri Lanka.
6. Another
point often overlooked (Assertion) by foreign
commentators who want to interpret events in journalistic shorthand — Sinhala
Buddhist majority determined to suppress the rights of the Tamil minority (Unit1)
— is that despite the severe provocations during the past two decades
(Repetition) there has been no adverse reaction on the part of the Sinhalese
against the Tamils (Unit 2 & Impression Management). The
provocations (Repetition) by Tamil terrorist groups (Negative
Lexicalization) have been calculated to get a backlash of Sinhala
reaction against the Tamils living in Sinhala predominant areas. But (Conjunction
of contrast) that has failed in toto (Unit 3 & Impression
Management).
The
editorial asserts and repeats its propositional attitude that “it did not occur
again”. The explanation given within the two dashes makes the idea a biased one
(Unit1). What prevents the repetition of such violence could be the fear of the
reprisals by the organized violence by the militants and the military. This
might have prevented the civilians from both communities engaging in riots (Binary:
disorganized ad hoc violence versus
organized and institutionalized violence). But on and off, pockets of violence,
reported in the media, question this statement (Unit 2-3).
7. The ethnic
cleansing of the Northern Province of all Sinhalese (and Muslims) (Nominalization1) by the LTTE within 72 hours, slaughter of people
in remote hamlets bordering the Eastern and Northern Provinces — men, women and
children being brutally massacred, Buddhist devotees meditating under the
sacred Bo Tree, venerated Buddhist places of worship being machine gunned, two
busloads of Buddhist monks being gunned down in cold blood, bombing of the
Sacred Temple of the Tooth, assassination of national leaders, including
President Premadasa, attempted assassination of President Chandrika Kumaratunga
and attacks on civilian targets such as the Oil Storage tanks, the Central Bank
and the Colombo Airport are some such acts intended to provoke the Sinhalese
community (Nominalization 2 & Repetition) (Binary: The provoker
versus the provoked) so that international opinion would turn in favour of
the terrorists, the LTTE (Unit1).
The
rhetorical argument continues to counter the riot (Binary: Humanization versus demonization). A list of violent acts committed
by the militants is given but the list of the violent acts against the minor community
is excluded. Thus the rival’s demonized acts are repeated to humanize the acts
of the Sinhala community.
8. By bearing these
crimes of grave provocation (Nominalization
& Topicalization, Repetition) with fortitude and monumental patience
(Positive Lexicalization), the Sinhalese have been able to prevent
the entire community (Unit1) being painted with the brush of
raving communalists (Metaphorical).
The
provoker is pitted against the provoked with positive lexicalization (Binary: The provoker versus the provoked). The
picture given by the minority community is manipulated to exclude the
editorial’s canonization of the majority community against the cannibalization
of the minority community.
9. On the other
hand, the great paradox (Nominalization1)
is that after 1983, the Tamils have fled the North and East, where large
areas are under control of their (Pronominalization) ‘liberators’
(Within Quotes) (Unit1), so much so that there are more Tamils now
living outside the Northern and the Eastern Provinces in Sinhala areas (Unit
2). In fact (Assertion), in Colombo, Sinhalese are (Verb
of Relational Process) in the minority outnumbered by the Tamils (Quantitative
Enumeration) who have taken residence and the Muslims who continue to live
in the traditional Muslim pockets. New Tamil residences are particularly
evident in Colombo’s Kotahena area where plush residences (Nominalization
2) have come up in the last twenty years.
The
Units 1-2 are reproduced discursively
(Binary: Living in the Northeast versus
living in the South & Fleeing from the militants versus fleeing
from the war zone). On the other hand, Tamils living in the Northeast and
fleeing from the war zone due to the military and militant operations are
resisted. The South is praised for racial tolerance and harmony amidst the
often provocative acts of racial hatred in the Northeast (Binary: racial hatred versus racial harmony).
The false themes (the great paradox) are foregrounded with the
exaggerated expression of jealousy (plush residences). The editorial
completely excludes the majority of the Tamils living in the south with real
political insecurity and fear, paying exorbitant prices and forced ransoms for
their survival during the war times. Another reason was ‘the establishment of
the High Security Zones’ of their lands and houses.
10. The BBC’s
Asia Today programme yesterday went back to the sad days 1983 and attempted to
revive their (Pronominalization) horrors and tragedies
(Nominalization) (Unit1). Had Asia Today, also (Logical
reasoning and proof or logos) shown the Tamils of today living amicably
with the Sinhalese in areas such as Kotahena and Wellawattte (Cliché),
it would have been a more accurate picture (Positive Lexicalization)
of what Colombo and Sri Lanka are (Verb of Relational Process)
today (Unit 2).
The
editorial defends the unilateral ethno-nationalist foreign policies (Binary: international media versus national media
reporting). Its propositional attitude is that the International media is
ignorant and gives false reports on the ethnic conflict; it thus maintains
double standards when reporting the similar events in the West or the Middle East.
It presupposes that the national media is the sole enhancer of the conflict
reporting. Another attitude is that the national media reporting is for
national harmony, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation whereas
the foreign media is against them and for devolution and division of the
nation. The quote from Perera (2007), a renowned Sinhala political analyst
reveals this position:
The present
ground reality for Tamil people in the north, east and also the south, is one
of immense suffering. This is because both the government and LTTE are giving
priority to the military course of action. Each side claims that it is ready
for peace and that it is only reacting to the other’s military strategies.
The intensity (Unit
1) is lessened and implicitly resisted by the present picture (U2).
11. The
Sinhalese, we believe (Verb of Mental
Process) are (Verb of Relational Process) not anti-Tamil.
There is (Verb of Relational Process) a great difference being
anti-Tamil and anti-LTTE (Nominalization). To be anti-LTTE is (Verb
of Relational Process) not being anti-Tamil (Binary: anti-LTTE
versus anti-Tamil).
The
editorial backgrounds uncertainty of the idea expressed. It presupposes that
the Sinhalese are only anti-LTTE but they treat the minority without any
cultural or linguistic nationalism. It excludes the causes of the political
struggle: the claims of their equal national status and political power
sharing. Though many ‘moderate Tamils’
are for a non-violent approach to the resolution, the editorial excludes the Sinhala
community’s intransigent attitude. Therefore, the editorial’s attribution of
the position of the Sinhalese towards the Tamils is vague and ambiguous.
6.
Findings
The Critical Discourse
Analysis helps us to reveal the linguistic constructions of the positions and
power relations, and the ‘ingroup-outgroup’ polarization. van Dijk (1995e:19) says, “socially
controversial opinions reveal the writing strategies, cognitive strategies and
interactional strategies”.
It
apparently transfers the causes of the violence of the ‘goondas’ to the Indian
interference and the militants’ killings of the soldiers; it apparently denies that it was not the Sinhalese as a whole but
only some ‘goondas’ who committed this violence against the Tamil community;
its apparent compassion and altruism is seen in its sympathy for the Tamils in
their sufferings. It praises the Sinhalese and the Sinhalese owned national
media and blames the Tamils, the militants, India and the international media while
at the same time critiquing the ‘goondas’ who committed the 1983 violence.
While there is a detailed description of the violence by the Tamil militants,
there is only a vague description of the role of the Sinhalese radical
nationalists in the 1983 riot. The editorial makes an impression management of
the non-violent and accommodative nature of the Sinhalese.
The semantic moves of
apparent admission, compassion and altruism are created over the grievances of
the minority community. The lexical, metaphorical and inter-textual choices
(Thetela, 2001) were traced behind the binaries and the socio-cognitive
ideological significance. The
English press marginalizes the minority communities. Comparisons and metaphors
emphasize the negative evaluation of ‘them’. ‘Silencing’ and
backgrounding of the injustices and discrimination of the minorities are
traceable. The media exploit the inter-textual and interpersonal functions of
discourse to make persuasive statements about the ethnic conflict and peace
contextualized and co-textualized in the grand narratives, scripts and frames in
the forms of war against terrorism, democracy, national
security and sovereignty. ‘The ‘double standard’ of the international media
is constructed through these grand narratives.
The sympathy of India and
International Media towards the Tamil community was seen as
internationalization of and interference in the national conflict. These
relations were hinted as creating ‘many problems’. The Tamils’ political
struggle can be easily solved once ‘the terrorism’ is suppressed – the major
obstacle for reaching a solution –whereas the problem of party rivalry and
absence of southern consensus are neglected.
Impression management
and self-glorification in the guise of self-criticism help commenting on the
attitudes and approaches of the collective ideologized psyche. The semantic
move of apparent admission of ‘the grievances’ is made, not ‘the aspirations’
of the Tamil community. Apparent Altruism and Compassion moves are made to show
that the Tamil community is ‘the victim of the conflict and the terrorism’. The
omission of the agent, and the varied use of all these strategies cognitively
contribute to construct 'preferred models' (van Dijk, 1998) of a situation,
and, socio-politically, to hide ‘institutional or elite group responsibility’ (Marín
Arrese (Ed.), 2002).
The use of the verbs of
relational process and verbs of material process intensifies the positions of
the majority community on terrorism, national security and sovereignty. But the
verbs of mental process and verbs of verbal processes are used in complicating
the positions on conflict resolution. The editorials de-legitimize the power of
India over Sri Lanka within aggressor versus victim frame. They always legitimize
the positions of the majority community and de-legitimize those of the minority
community. The ethno-nationalist extremism and its intransigence in denial of
devolving power are backgrounded. They gloat on the illusive scripts and frames
of national security and exploit the universal terms of abstraction. Thus the
media passivize the violations of human rights of the minorities at the
national level.
‘The present-oriented
epideictic (ceremonial) rhetoric’ is developed to support ‘suppressing
terrorism and violence’. The ‘past-oriented judicial (forensic) rhetoric’ is
used in balancing the dominant community-induced political causes of the
conflict: the assistance and support of India in the 80s.
The “inclusiveness and
exclusiveness of the pronouns” (Fairclough, 1995) in pronominalization and
lexicalization is to include the positive side of the majority community and exclude
the positive characteristics of the minority community whenever it suits the
ideological agenda of the press and to claim or disclaim the authority of the
statement.
Though the rhetoric is
often subtle and seemingly innocent, it has been carefully mobilized to
emphasize evaluations that positively portray the ideology of integration by
minimum or no power devolution within the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka. When Nye (1966:79) observed that the media were
instrumental in integrating East Africa, he was setting a research agenda. This
notion was supported by Ngugi (2005); but this study has found out that the
media in Sri Lanka were instrumental in disintegrating the Sri Lankan identity.
Apparent
compassion is developed to maintain the ‘outward image of being humanitarian’
in commenting the conflict issues. Yet, it subtly confirms the dominance of the ethnic group through the
processes of inferiorization, marginalization and exclusion of minority groups.
(van Dijk, 1995)
The functional syntax shows that the Tamils and
militants are primarily in the first position when they are agents of negative
actions, whereas the security forces and other majority institutions appear as
victims rather in neutral or passive roles and have a less prominent position,
or are often absent when they are agents of negative actions.
The process of social
distinction exercised in the writing of the media can negatively influence the reader. At the
interpersonal level, the media identifies itself with the Sinhala community
readers. They construct them as critical readers and regard the Tamil community
and International media as shallow readers who either do not know the
contextual implication of the issues or they are not interested in the
sovereignty and security of Sri Lanka. At the societal level, they insist that
the readers be a part of ‘the Sri Lankan society’ with the base of cultural
nationalism, not of the constitutional nationalism.
The media include and
reproduce the discourses of separatism, terrorism, international interference,
and discourses of constitutional nationalism, party rivalry, power politics and
the Sinhala Buddhist resistance, and Muslim resistance at the national level.
They exclude and resist the discourse of power sharing and the voices of
minority communities. They are silent over proposing and discussing the
viability and the practical aspects of a fair solution and constantly resisted
the proposals as conspiracy and “Missions Impossible”.
Table given
below lists out the presuppositions, propositional attitudes and binaries of
ideological themes implicated through the linguistic strategies in this
analysis. They are used
unfairly to mystify the issues to serve ideological and political purposes.
Table 1 the Discourse of Dichotomy and Linguistic
Strategies identified in the Editorial
Discourse of
Dichotomy
|
Linguistic
Strategies
|
Ethnic
Conflict versus terrorism or freedom struggle versus terrorism
|
nominalization
|
Aggressors
versus Victims
|
ergative & passivization, active voice
|
Causes
versus Consequences
|
inter-personality, pronominalization, anaphoric
reference
|
The Sri Lankan
nation versus the Sri Lankan Tamils
|
implicit
and explicit expressions and meanings
|
US versus Them
|
foregrounding ad backgrounding, the positioning of
the attributes
|
The provoker versus
the provoked
|
Verb
of Material Process, Verb of
Relational Process, Verb of Mental Process
|
Humanization
versus demonization
|
topicalization, attributive complement, assertion
|
The sudden act
versus sustained act
|
Metaphor
and framing
|
Violence
versus Security
|
Exemplification and explanation
|
fact versus
fiction
|
the
sentence adverb manipulation, conjunction
of contrast
|
disorganized
ad hoc violence versus organized and institutionalized violence
|
emphasis versus de-emphasis, rhetorical
exclamation, cliché
|
Canonization
versus cannibalization
|
exclusion
and inclusion, repetition
|
Living in the
Northeast versus living in the South
|
negative lexicalization and positive lexicalization
|
Fleeing from
the militants versus fleeing from the war zone
|
the
rhetorical argument and quotes
|
racial hatred
versus racial harmony
|
single paragraphing
|
international
media versus majoritarian national media reporting
|
inter-textuality
|
the
majoritarian media reporting versus
the minority media reporting
|
title language and connotation
|
anti-LTTE
versus anti-Tamil
|
quantitative enumeration, attribution of
intensity, negativity and quantity
|
The media show
that Tamils are the victims only of the militants, the ethnic conflict, the Indian
interference, not of the security forces, the discriminatory treatments in the
past, the cultural nationalist interests of the state and the Sinhalese. The
unequal distribution of power relations in state politics as well as media
questions the status of Sri Lanka as a “pluralist and multi-cultural state.” On the other hand, there have been pressures
on the media to conform to that expectation. Canagarajah (1999:33) observes:
Power works by
absorbing alternate forms of power to further its hegemony. This dialectical-or
conflict-oriented-perspective accounts for the possibility of resistance. If
power is sustained by controlling the irrepressible interplay of heterogeneous
discourses, this provides scope for the creative and critical reinterpretation
of those discourses for purposes of resistance.
This work has
challenged long-held beliefs about the media’s engagement in constructing a
positive atmosphere, especially amidst the intensive emotional and ideological
historical conflict. The media seem to be inadequate in revealing the forces
underlying ethnic violence in the context of political and economic dynamics of
globalization.
7.
Contributions,
Limitations and Suggestions
This case study exemplifies the failure of the
newspaper to challenge the stereotypes and to provide the ‘other picture’. It
contributes to the interdisciplinary media language researches of the impacts
of the political ideologies inherent among the Sri Lankan media professionals
and the politicians done by a discourse analyst belonging to the discipline of
applied linguistics, for, it was only the political scientists and commentators
who did witness the existence of cultural and linguistic nationalism. But the
significance of this study lies in its focus on the Sri Lankan English
newspaper editorials through the Discourse Analysis models to uncover the
linguistically embedded ideologies found in the media.
The study
endorses the notion that the media in ‘democratic and constitutional states’
are likely to be harmfully ideological as well. Thus, it contributes to the
body of literature that investigates media political discourse in the third
world countries and, in particular, to the limited body of works within Sri
Lanka.
This study is a case
study of one sample text only from the English Press and there is a need for a
specialized research focusing on the media of other languages such as Tamil and
Sinhala and a need for a
proper discourse analysis of the press owned by the Tamils. There has been a
perception that the mainstream Tamil media ignoring the Muslims’
concerns and they have even failed to project the positive accommodating characteristics
of the moderate Sinhalese and ordinary innocent Sinhala people. They had been
less critical on the violence committed on the innocent Sinhalese during the
intensive conflict times in the past in fear of the Tamil militants. There is a
need for holistic study of the
media coverage and the multi-ethnic nature of the media. The study should be
extended to the changes and growth of the media, their reporting system,
the diachronic evolution (Halliday, 1988) and media and their influences using
the Discourse Analysis methodology. After conducting a journalistic study of
the Tamil and Sinhala media, Media Monitor (2004:11) questions that:
Is it not
reasonable to conclude that the Sinhala and Tamil newspapers were intoxicated
with nationalistic sentiments and as a result, they failed to impress the
realities of the Sri Lanka’s ethnic war to the country?
It has chosen only the
newspaper editorial and avoided the op-ed and guest columns (Greenberg, 2000).
There is a need for an
analysis of the different texts in
‘journals’ and ‘magazines’, the news stories and feature and opinion columns, the interviewed or
surveyed texts from all the communities. There is a need for in-depth interviews with writers; analyzing
schematic macro-structures of texts is an invaluable way of looking at texts.
8.
Concluding
statement
The editorial discourse
constructions hide or express their ideological and attitudinal positions in
subtle and mild forms. The findings are the result of an analysis of a
particular genre in its past time and space. Therefore, this study claims that
since the genre of the editorial is dynamic and always in flux due to the
change in the contexts, especially the editorial committees, the Sri Lankan
English newspaper editorial discourse may have different positions at present
and in future. Hence, these findings need not be construed as fixed positions. The
changing current political circumstances in this post-war, development-focused
scenario may positively or negatively influence the ideological and attitudinal
positions of the media elites in Sri Lanka. The researcher through an alternative reading has
located a different voice in the media discourse. It has challenged the media voice
in the literature.
Reference
Abeyasekara, A. 2002. Colors of the Robe: Religion, Identity and Difference. Colombia:
University of South Carolina Press.
Alvesson, M., & Skoldberg, K. 2000. Reflexive methodology. New vistas for qualitative research. London:
Sage.
Askegaard, S., Jensen, A.F., & Holt,
D.B. (1999). Lipophobia: A transatlantic concept? Advances in Consumer Research, 26, 331-336.
Balachanddran,
P.K. 1999. Buddhist Monks feel the heat for theory of Hindu-Muslim take over of
Lanka,” Hindustan Times, August 30. 1999: Delhi.
Bartholomeusz, T. J. 2002. In Defence of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in
Buddhist Sri Lanka. London: Routledge Curzon.
Bartholomeusz, T. J., and Chandra R. de
Silva. 1998.Buddhist fundamentalism and identity in Sri Lanka. In
Bartholomeusz, Tessa J., and Chandra R. de Silva, eds. 1998. Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority
Identities in Sri Lanka. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Canagarajah, A. Suresh. 1999. Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Canagarajah, A. Suresh. 2002. The Problem. A Geopolitics of Academic Writing:
Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. p.7.
Centre for
Policy Alternatives, 2004. Monitoring of Media Coverage: Final Report. Retrieved November 25,
2006, from
<http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/2004_GE_Media_Monitoring_Report.pdf>
Contor A. and
Antaki C. (1997) Discourse as Structure and Process in van Dijik T.A. (Ed)
London, California, New Delhi: Sage
Deshapriya, S. 2004. Contesting hegemonies”:
Trilateral (linguistic) media in Sri Lanka. Media
Monitor, August, 2004: Retrieved October 14, 2007, from
Deshapriya, S. 2006. National
Languages, News Media and Peace. Article published in Media Monitor, May-June 2006. Retrieved October 23, 2007, from
de Silva, Chandra R. 2006. Buddhist monks and
peace in Sri Lanka. In Deegalle, ed. Buddhism,
Conflict and Violence in Modern Sri Lanka. London: Routledge.
Devotta, Neil. 2004a. Sri Lanka: Ethnic
domination, violence and illiberal democracy. In Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. 2004. Civil Society and Political Change in Asia:
Expanding and Connecting Democratic Space. Stanford: Stanford University
Press.
Devotta, Neil. 2004b.Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay and Ethnic
Conflict in Sri Lanka. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Devotta, Neil. 2007. Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Conflict Resolution in Sri
Lanka. Policy Studies 40: Washington: East West Centre. Retrieved May 13,
2007, from<
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/ps040.pdf>
Dharmadasa, K.N.O.1992. Language, Religion, and Ethnic Assertiveness: The Growth of Sinhala
Nationalism in Sri Lanka. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Editorial.
(n.d). Online encyclopedia and Dictionary Project.: Answers Corporationhttp.
Retrieved May 18, 2007, from <//www.answers.com/topic/editorial>
Editorial.(2007)
Encylopedia Project. Retrieved May 18, 2007 from
Fairclough, N. 1989: Language and Power, Longman.
Fairclough, N. 1995: Ideology and identity Change in political
television. In Fairclough, N., Critical Discourse Analysis, Longman.
Foucault, M.
1972: The Archeology of Knowledge, trans. Sheridan-Smith, A.M.,
Tavistock Publications.
Fowler R.1991. Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology
in the Press. London and New York: Routledge
Fraser, N.
1989: Unruly Practice: power, discourse and gender in contemporary social
theory, Polity Press.
Gamson,
W.A. 1992. Talking Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gnanaseelan,J. 2009. Ethnic Conflict and International Relations
in the Editorials of Sri Lankan English Newspapers: a Discourse Analysis. Ph.D.
University of Madras.
Greenberg, J.
2000, January 1. ‘Opinion Discourse and Canadian Newspapers’: The Case of the
Chinese "Boat People". Canadian Journal of Communication
[Online], 25(4). Retrieved March 15, 2007, from
Gunawardena, R.A.L.H. 1990.
The people of the lion: The Sinhala identity and ideology in the history and
historiography. In Spencer Jonathan, ed. 1990.Sri Lanka: the History and the roots of Conflict. London:
Routledge.
Halliday, M. A.
K. 1988. On the language of physical science. In M. Ghadessy, (ed.). registers
of written English: Situational factors and linguistic features (pp. 162-178).
London: Pinter Publishers.
Halliday, M.A.K.
1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (Second Edition). London:
Edward Arnold. (FG)
Hariharan, R. 2008 War, peace & relations across palk straits. Features, the Island,
Retrieved August 23, 2008, from
<http://www.island.lk/2008/08/23/features1.html>
International
Centre for Ethnic Studies.1995/96. the
survey data. Kandy
Kearney, R. N. 1967.Communalism and Language in the Politics of
Ceylon. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Little, David. 1994. Sri Lanka: The Invention of Enemy. Series on Religion, Nationalism
and Intolerance. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.
Lyotard, J.F. 1984. The Post-modern Conditions: a Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press. Quoted in Suresh. A. Canagarajah’s (1999)Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Manor, James. 1994. Organizational Weakness
and the Rise of Buddhist Extremism. In Marty, Martin E., and R. Scott Appelby
eds. 1994. Accounting for Fundamentalism:
The Dynamic Character of Movements. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press.
Marín Arrese,
Juana I. (Ed.) 2002. Conceptualization of Events In Newspaper Discourse:
Mystification of Agency And Degree of Implication In News Reports. Retrieved
May 11, 2007, from <http://www.ucm.es/info/fing1/psl/Research/Marin%20Arrese%20JI%20ed.pdf>
Media Monitor,
1997. The Report on the survey of the
print media, 1997. Retrieved July 12, 2007, from <http://www.cpalanka.org/media.html>
Media Monitor
2004 Kandapola shooting: One story two interpretations. Retrieved July 21,
2007, from <http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/Media_Monitor_August_2004_English.pdf>
Media Monitor 2006 Looking at Ourselves.
Report for May-June 2006. Retrieved September 19, 2007, from <http://www.cpalanka.org/publications/May_June_Media_monitor_English.pdf>
Ngugi, C. M.
2005. Media and the sustenance of collective identifications in Africa.
Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://msu.edu/~olsonluk/politicalEconomy/PoliticalEconomyMedia.htm
Nye, J. S., 1966.Pan-Africanism and East
African Integration. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Obeyesekere, G.1970. Religious symbolism and
political change in Ceylon. Modern Ceylon
studies 1:43-63.
Perera, J. 2007.A glimmer of hope that just Tamil aspirations could be met, the Daily
Mirror. Opinion Article, published on 06th Feb.2007
Ponambalam, S. 1983. Srilanka: The National Question and the Tamil Liberation struggle.
London: Zed Books. Retrieved September 18, 2007, from
Rumelhart, D. E.
1980. Schemata: The building blocks of cognition. In Theoretical Issues in Reading
Comprehension, ed. Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce, and William F. Brewer.
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Smith, B. L. 1978. Religion and legitimation of Power in Srilanka. Chambersburg,
PA:Anima Books.
Stubbs, M.
1983. Discourse analysis, Basil Blackwell.
Tambiah, S. J. 1986. Srilanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the
Dismantling of Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thetela, P. 2001. Critique discourses and ideology in newspaper reports: A discourse
analysis of the South African press reports on the 1998 SADC's military
intervention in Lesotho, Discourse &
Society. Sage Publications. Retrieved June 2, 2008, from
<http://das.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/347>
Uyangoda, J. 1996. Militarization,Violent
State, Violent society: Srilanka. In Rupesinghe, Kumar and
Khawar Mamtaz eds.(1996). Internal
Conflicts in South Asia. London: Sage Publications.
van Dijk, T.
(ed.) 1985: Handbook of discourse analysis, 4 vols, Academic Press.
van Dijk, T. A.
1988. News Analysis. Case studies of
international and national news in the press. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1988.
van Dijk, T. A.
1991. Racism and the press. London:
Routledge.
van Dijk, T. A.
1995a. Opinions and Ideologies in Editorials. Paper for the 4th International Symposium of Critical Discourse Analysis,
Language, Social Life and Critical Thought, Athens, 14-16 December, 1995.
van Dijk, T. A.
1995b. Discourse semantics and ideology. Discourse
& Society 6(2), 243-289.
van Dijk, T. A.
1995c. Power and the news media. In D. Paletz (Ed.), Political Communication and Action. (pp. 9-36). Cresskill, NJ:
Hampton Press.
van Dijk, T. A. 1995d Ideological Discourse Analysis. New Courant (English
Dept, University of Helsinki), 4 (1995), 135-161. Special issue Interdisciplinary
approaches to Discourse Analysis , ed. by Eija Ventola and Anna Solin.
van Dijk, T. 1995e. Discourse analysis
as ideology analysis. In C. Schäffner & A. Wenden (Eds.), Language and
pace (pp. 17-33). Aldershot: Dartmouth.
van Dijk T.1998 News as Discourse. New Jersey, Hove and
London: Lawrence Erlbawn
Wilson,A. J. 2000. Srilankan
Tamil Nationalism: Its origins and Developments in the Nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Vancouver:
University of British Colombia press.
No comments:
Post a Comment