Deception: a critical discourse analysis of undercover policing and intelligence operations in <i>Star Wars: The Clone Wars</i>

Atkinson, Colin

doi:10.1080/18335330.2022.2030489

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 43 publications

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“…Beyond the shores of Nigeria, scholars in the humanities have critically engaged police discourse in the areas of policing and intelligence operations, police interview discourse, police and criminal justice discourse, police comments, policing and racial profiling, dynamics of power and resistance in police interview discourse, respectively (cf. Atkinson, 2023, Jenkins, 2022, Methven, 2018, Haworth 2009, Glover, 2007. In the same line of discourse, previous studies in Nigeria have investigated the English language competence of the men of NPF, conversational strategy in police-suspect interaction, forensics of police investigation reports and court proceedings, Nigerian police-suspect discourse, and concealment in police-suspect interaction, respectively (cf.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nigeria Policemen Digital Memes as Reformative Indices

Oluremi,

Olaniyana

2023

ANAPHORA

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The corrupt activities of some officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) at checkpoints have in recent times drawn the senses of hypermemetic logic. A number of research studies have investigated Nigerian police discourse. However, digital memes deployed to reflect corruption-related activities at police checkpoints have attracted inconsequential research. This paper, therefore, examines selected Nigeria Police digital memes – multi-moulded socially constructed Nigeria police discourse, instantiated digitally to satirise corruptible policing and privilege reformative advocacy in Nigeria. Seven selected police digital memes were collected from Opera News Nigeria, an app that allows African authors and bloggers to create online content and share such with a fast-growing subscriber base. In interpreting the selected digital police memes, this paper engages the theoretical underpinnings of Gunther Kress’ (2010) social-semiotic theory of multimodality. Through its theoretical apparatus, functional loads such as contemptible open extortion, symbolic blind allusions, duty deviance, wrong motif towards checkpoints, detrimental frustration, checkpoints’ main duty negligence and lawlessness were established. Thus, this paper concludes that the satirical philosophy embedded within most Nigeria Police digital memes points towards reformation and reorientation of members of the Nigeria Police Force.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nigeria Policemen Digital Memes as Reformative Indices

Oluremi,

Olaniyana

2023

ANAPHORA

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Protective and Enabling Factors That Facilitate Undercover Police Work: A Qualitative Study

Cajada,

Stephenson,

Bishopp

2024

J Police Crim Psych

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Inadequate coping strategies in dealing with occupational stress have been linked to negative outcomes such as burnout. Research in police forces has somewhat overlooked protective factors that sustain this type of work. This study aimed to explore coping and detection avoidance strategies that enable police officers to be effective undercover operatives. This qualitative study was part of a wider mixed methods project. Participants were recruited from a Portuguese Police Force. Twenty-five police officers with undercover/plainclothes experience were interviewed using non-probability purposive sampling. Results of the study identified seven themes which addressed the research aims: ‘Secrecy’, ‘Work Satisfaction’, ‘Undercover Tactics’, ‘Stress’, ‘Deception’, ‘Support’ and ‘Things to Improve’. Overall, the findings of this study provide some support to the scarce literature available on this topic. The study indicates that participants generally seem able to cope well with detection avoidance strategies (e.g. secrecy, adaptation to the environment, use of cover stories/improvisation, deception and submersion to fictitious identities). Having an appropriate selection of undercover operatives is crucial to determine their psychological health and safety. The need for more research in this area is highlighted and discussed in reference to alternative study designs. In addition, an overview of implications for practice is provided.

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‘There is more than one sort of prison, Captain’: A popular criminology of prisons and penal regimes in Star Wars

Atkinson,

Brangan

2023

Crime, Media, Culture

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In this paper we emphasise how science fiction, as a projection of the possible, can forewarn of dystopic dangers in emergent and future penal regimes. In this popular criminology we explore three archetypes of the prison as they have appeared across the Star Wars franchise: the panoptic prison; the labour camp; and the smart prison. The panoptic prison of the Galactic Republic invokes reflective nostalgia; prompting critical discussion of the deficiencies of the modern prison. Under the Galactic Empire prisons become labour camps, recalling the horrors of the Gulag as violent and cruel manifestations of underpinning ideology. Whilst the fall of the Galactic Empire signalled a return to governance based on democratic values, the representation of the smart prison in the New Republic continues to resonate as a techno-Gulag, reading as an allegory for a deeper crisis of liberal democracy. Analysed as such, prisons in Star Wars exist at the intersection of the past, present and possible futures of penal regimes, and in our current political climate can be a resource for resistance to technological trends and dystopic dangers. Star Wars, we conclude, and science fiction more broadly, is well-positioned to inform a radical re-imagining of future prisons and penal regimes.

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Deception: a critical discourse analysis of undercover policing and intelligence operations in Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Cited by 4 publications

References 43 publications

Nigeria Policemen Digital Memes as Reformative Indices

Nigeria Policemen Digital Memes as Reformative Indices

Protective and Enabling Factors That Facilitate Undercover Police Work: A Qualitative Study

‘There is more than one sort of prison, Captain’: A popular criminology of prisons and penal regimes in Star Wars

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