This article examines the idiom ‘smoking gun’ which has been much used in the controversy about the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is necessary to take a historical approach to understanding how metaphors might enter the political lexicon and how their usage and meaning might change over time. The passage from metaphor to idiom is often characterized in terms of a movement from ‘living’ metaphor to ‘dead’ metaphor. To understand how such a passage occurs, the current investigation draws upon Glucksberg’s ‘property attribution’ model of metaphor and contrasts it with Lakoff’s notable theory of metaphors. The ‘smoking gun’ idiom is traced to the Watergate controversy and its pragmatic uses in the political rhetoric of accusation are examined. It is suggested that there is nothing automatic in the use of such a phrase, as the rhetoric of blame can be countered by attempts to return the idiom from literal to metaphorical meaning. The ideological effects of the idiom ‘smoking gun’ are discussed and so, more generally, is the passage from metaphor to idiom in political discourse.
This analysis of education coverage in the national media examines the kind of events that attract media attention, and shows how subsequent education stories get worked up by the tabloid press into a generalized comment on social issues. Such 'meta-stories' are ways of commenting not only on the events themselves, and interrelated themes of school standards, but also on wider issues of morality, discipline, and social order. The study examines how blame gets apportioned by the press, both overtly, as in headline statements, and implicitly, in the recruitment of outside opinions, and in the choice of speci c words to describe events. A discourse analysis of news stories shows how descriptions construct events as meaningful, as news sensation, and as a general re ection of social disruption and moral decline.
We examine the British newspapers' coverage of the death of Princess Diana and its immediate aftermath. Our main focus is on how the press dealt with the issue of their own potential culpability, as a feature of news reporting itself. The press deployed a series of descriptive categories and rhetorical oppositions, including regular press vs paparazzi; tabloid vs broadsheet; British vs (various categories of) foreign; supply vs demand (for its content); and a number of general purpose devices such as a contrast between emotional reactions and considered judgments. The study has two major aims: (1) to analyse the textual workings of the press, as a medium of factual reportage operating within a range of normative requirements for factual objectivity, public concern, responsible journalism, meeting readers' demands, etc.; and (2) to contribute to a generally applicable discourse analytic approach to how factual reports are assembled, used, and undermined, in an interplay of description and accountability.
Discussions on computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software often begin with the assumption that research will automatically be improved through the use of such software. Consequently, reviews frequently focus on practical concerns with the various software packages. Rather than theoretical considerations of its suitability to the method of analysis, such descriptions frequently treat software as the method of analysis. The following article calls for a clearer understanding of the role of software within research, with critical evaluation focusing on the methodological issues surrounding software use, as well on its technological innovations. The authors examine a number of factors that foster a tendency toward uncritical appraisal-including unrealistic expectations of the software as a methodology in itself; the treatment of qualitative analysis as a single, homogenized category; and the use of grounded theory as a legitimating link between tool and method.
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