The Role of Language in the Media in Influencing Public Perceptions of Refugees

The refugee crisis has become a worldwide epidemic in recent years. As refugee entrance into host countries is debated, media outlets are covering the issue regularly. These media outlets use various types of language when portraying refugees. Many publications have been found to convey hostile and divisive themes as well as use specific linguistic tools, which contribute to negative portrayals of refugees. Media outlets have the potential to influence public perceptions of refugees because the general public in a host country receives its information primarily from the media. Overt and subtle language used to describe refugees has been previously found to influence public opinions. This study of 101 students at a conservative Christian university in the mid-Atlantic United States was designed to examine whether manipulated language in news articles impacted perceptions of refugees. Participants were randomly assigned to the positive or negative language condition and then asked to complete a survey assessing four facets of perception. None of the results were significant, indicating the language in the article did not impact perceptions of refugees. This study was limited by lack of diversity in the sample, the use of self-report data, potential personal confounds, and a small sample size. The results implied a need for balance when calling for media ethics and a need for many more empirical studies in this area

Beyond the Refugee Crisis how the UK news media represent asylum seekers across national boundaries

Migration is one of the most pressing, divisive issues in global politics today, and media play a crucial role in how communities understand and respond. This study examines how UK newspapers (n = 974) and popular news websites (n = 1044) reported on asylum seekers throughout 2017. It contributes to previous literature in two important ways. First, by examining the ‘new normal’ of daily news coverage in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Second, by looking at how asylum seekers from different regions are represented. The content analysis finds significant variations in how asylum seekers are reported, including terminology use and topics they are associated with. The paper also identifies important commonalities in how all asylum seekers are represented - most notably, the dominance of political elites as sources across all media content. It argues that Entman’s ‘cascade network model’ can help to explain this, with elites in one country able to influence transnational reports

Praying for Peace: Family Experiences of Christian Conversion in Bhaktapur

In Nepal’s public discourse, Christianity is often described as a divisive force, perhaps a plot by foreign powers to undermine the cohesion of Nepali society. In this article, I present ethnographic material from Bhaktapur suggesting that, at least with respect to family life, the social effects of conversion may often differ from this stereotypical picture. In Bhaktapur, I argue, conversion is more frequently a consequence of pre-existing conflicts within families than a source of new ones. Furthermore, in some contexts, the social, ethical, and ritual practices of Bhaktapurian churches can bring reconciliation to troubled families. In other contexts, conversion can heighten intrafamilial tensions, in particular through the commitment it brings to exclusivist theology. I explore how converts negotiate the conversion process and the tensions that precipitate and result from it, describing how familial power dynamics influence such negotiations. To give the reader a fleshed-out sense of the lived experience of Christian and part-Christian families in Bhaktapur, I give thick descriptions of the conversions of one church minister and his family, and of a church house fellowship in which post-conversion family tensions are discussed. Connecting this ethnography with wider research on Bhaktapurian Christianity, I delineate the competing forces at work in converts’ family lives. In light of the rapid growth of Christianity in Nepal, and the heated and sometimes violent nature of political responses to this, ethnographic research is urgently needed to examine not just the causes but also the longterm effects of Christian conversion; this will help to clarify whether patterns found in Bhaktapur are replicated elsewhere in the country

"So you're saying": the interrogation of Jordan Peterson

[EN] In this article, I analyse the infamous Cathy Newman interview with Jordan Peterson on the 16th of January 2018 and subsequent viewer comments on Channel 4's YouTube channel. My first hypothesis is that Newman's frequent attribution of statements to Peterson using the now notorious "so you are saying" gambit (YSG) is what triggered outrage among Peterson's followers, which, in turn, generated media interest. My second hypothesis is that the interview is best understood as a series of Face threats by Newman on Peterson using the YSG. To ascertain if my hypotheses are true, I performed corpus linguistic analyses on the interview and comments to provide objective descriptions of both.  Episodes in which the YSG were used were identified and analysed using Goffman's (1967) Facework approach. My analysis shows that the YSG was indeed a salient feature of the interviewer's discourse and was used to attack the interviewee's Face.Pennock-Speck, B. (2021). "So you're saying": the interrogation of Jordan Peterson. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 16(1):161-173. https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2021.14618OJS161173161Beattie, G. W. (1982). "Turn-taking and interruptions in political interviews-Margaret Thatcher and Jim Callaghan compared and contrasted." Semiotica, 39,93-114. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1982.39.1-2.93Brown, P. & Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085Bousefield, D. E. (2008) Impoliteness in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.Bull, P. (2012) "Watch dogs or guard dogs? Adversarial discourse in political journalism." In L N. Berlin & A. Fetzer (eds.) Dialogue in Politics. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 69-87. https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.18.07bulBull, P. (2019) "The construction of political journalism: A microanalytic approach." 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The News You Choose: News Media Preferences Amplify Views on Climate Change

How do choices among information sources reinforce political differences on topics such as climate change? Environmental sociologists have observed large-scale and long-term impacts from news media and think-tank reports, while experimental science-communication studies detect more immediate effects from variations in supplied information. Applying generalized structural equation modeling to recent survey data, previous work is extended to show that political ideology, education and their interaction predict news media information choices in much the same way they predict opinions about climate change itself. Consequently, media information sources serve as intervening variables that can reinforce and, through their own independent effects, amplify existing beliefs about climate change. Results provide empirical support for selective exposure and biased assimilation as mechanisms widening political divisions on climate change in the United States. The findings fit with the reinforcing spirals framework suggesting partisan media strengthens climate change beliefs which then influences subsequent use of media

The Crisis of Secularism: How Democracy Fuels Moral Panics and Religious Fundamentalism

While identifying humanity’s most cherished ideals, there is one notion that ultimately supplants all others: the notion of freedom. The concept itself and its encompassing rhetoric have been utilized ad nauseam by virtually all contemporary social orders to validate the levels of civilizational maturity and, perhaps more importantly, to set goals to which the same should strive. However, irrespective of its categorical position at the very summit of conscious human existence, its interpretational elasticity allows for a diminishing number of concessions. This paper offers critique and examines interactions between multiculturalism, cultural relativism, religion, and secularism within contemporary Western societies. It utilizes historical examples of overt and latent free speech and human rights violations to demonstrate futility and incompatibility of the conventional and fundamentalist religious ideologies with the concepts of egalitarianism and secularism. The Abrahamic religion of Islam serves as a centerpiece example of instances discussed. The paper further describes and employs sociologist Stanley Cohen’s concept of moral panic in an attempt to anatomize the problem and the reactions stemming from it. The conclusion reiterates exigency of the matter and offers a glimpse into the perplexity, danger, and evolution of the soi-disant progressive Western democracies in relation to palpable prosperity of the human enterprise. Research materials comprise various internet-based and traditional print sources

Prospects for the 2011 BTWC Review Conference

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Nonunion Employee Representation in North America: Diversity, Controversy, and Uncertain Future

The diverse conceptual perspectives and practical experiences with nonunion employee representation (NER) in the United States and Canada are reviewed. We first propose a 6 dimensional descriptive schema to categorize observed NER practices. Dimensions of diversity include (1) form, (2) function, (3) subjects, (4) representation characteristics, (5) extent of power, and (6) degree of permanence. We then turn to the NER controversy, which is a tangled skein consisting of many different threads of values and prescriptions. To unbundle the controversy, we develop four "faces" of NER - (1) evolutionary voice, (2) unity of interest; (3) union avoidance, and (4) complementary voice -- so that future research can more consciously test the validity of competing perspectives with hard data. Generalizing about NER is problematic because of these many dimensions of diversity, and because NER is viewed through different ideological and conceptual lenses. We conclude that NER's future trajectory is uncertain due to conflicting trends but in the short-run is most likely to remain a modest-sized phenomenon. Working Paper 06-4

The potential harms of online targeting

Despite increasing attention being paid to the potential harms of online targeting over the last year, there is still a lack of clarity over what precisely those harms are. To help address this lack of clarity, this submission focuses on question 1: What evidence is there about the harms and benefits of online targeting? This question was discussed at a workshop we held on “The Methodology and Ethics of Targeting” at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence in May 2019 (organized by the authors of this submission, and attended by some members of the CDEI). Our submission summarises some of these discussions and attempts to map out some of the key researchers, groups, and publications we know are working on various harms of targeting. This is not intended to be comprehensive, but we hope will help highlight areas worthy of more attention for the CDEI.Leverhulme Trust, under Grant RC-2015-067