Operation military representation: A critical discourse historical analysis of the United States military in the news

The aim of this dissertation is to identify and examine the sociolinguistic elements of news-media discourses mobilizing the production of difference between the US military and the US civilian sector. The research is grounded broadly in critical discourse studies to examine themes of ideology, institutional awareness, and discursive influences on social thought in civil-military relations, specifically as it relates to the formation of the civil-military divide in news media from 1972 - the Global War On Terror. Using a modified version of the Discourse Historical Analysis, I textually analyzed two institutionally contrasting new sources, The New York Times (NYT) and the Stars and Stripes, during specific time frames spanning four different military operations. My findings confirmed the existence of a large amount of representational productions of difference between the media sources but also a non-insignificant amount of overlap and intertextually. In the civilian/NYT data, these productions of difference or instances of overlap occurred in a varied pattern across the total time frame of the study in conjunction with societal views, public endorsements or objections to military action of the corresponding era. The exo-construction in the NYT data of military representation also varied in accordance with public opinion on the military’s conflict activities. In contrast, I found that the military consistently constructed an institutionally positive endo-representation in the Stars and Stripes publication’s data set regardless of the public’s view outside of the institutional boundary. Overall, this study and its findings do support my claim that media discourses, due to their sociolinguistic contrasts, do construct some level of divide between the institutions. The views expressed in this dissertation do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Defense or the United States.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Clark, Sarah Ann

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bhatt, Rakesh
• Yoon, James
• Sadler, Randall
• Calfas, George

• Sociolinguistics
• Military Studies

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Sarah Clark

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121990

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121990