Multiculturalism as Reported by the European Online Press: A Qualitative Study on the Manifestation of Othering Discourses

This study critically examined how issues of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration are discursively constructed within the English language European online press. Through the use of a frame analysis as well as a more focused discourse analysis, an examination was undertaken to uncover how “us” versus “them” perspectives were manifest within a public discourse. A total of 132 articles from The Daily Mail, Le Monde Diplomatique, Dutchnews.nl, Spiegel Online and The International Herald Tribune were selected using a systematic sampling method based on the results of a search query for multiculturalism at each news site. The analysis of the data corpus revealed the news media's depiction of multiculturalism and Muslim immigrants as not wholly negative on the surface but under closer scrutiny revealed discursive and linguistic techniques that consistently marginalized and “othered” them. The themes found in the data corpus also illuminated a trend of the subordinated population as lacking proper representation and always being spoken for by the news media.

Author dc:creator

• Chakrabarti, Shomik

Contributors dc:contributor

• Musambira, George

• Multiculturalism
• globalization
• intercultural communication
• media framing
• discourse studies
• orientalism
• marginalization
• Communication
• Interpersonal and Small Group Communication

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

CFE0005587

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-1059