Monitoring anti-minority rhetoric in the Czech print media

Abstract

This paper describes selected outcomes of media monitoring for anti-minority hate speech in the Czech Republic. In keeping with the agenda of critical discourse analysis, we aim to integrate historical, linguistic and cultural specificities with their linguistic manifestations in news articles about minorities, and here we present findings from a long-term study devoted to tracking xenophobia against two of the main minority groups. The AntiMetrics project, of which the work described here is one part, is designed to detect signs of anti-minority rhetoric in a society, with a view to taking steps to prevent such indicators from developing into more embedded prejudice and ultimately inter-group violence. The paper aims to provide a snapshot of what is a broad, long-term interdisciplinary project. Using a critical discourse toolkit, we analyse a sample news story about the Roma community, and identify a number of discursive and linguistic features that indicate the entrenchment of “new racism” in media at some levels. The toolkit also seeks to go beyond lexical signs to identify more implicit rhetorical devices, such as framing and (de-)contextualization of news events, and to quantify lack of balance in the selection of witnesses and other primary definers. Our ongoing content survey indicates the embedding of linguistic patterns that raise concern about leakage of far right discourse via media into everyday communication.

Critical Linguistics of The Crimea Bridge Explosion on The Guardian and CNN Online News

“…This indicates that the ideology of both media outlets is anti-Russian. The historical context in which discourse is embedded, and power relations also be investigated in Slavíčková & Zvagulis (2018). The results of this study show that the ideology of some sample news stories about the Roma community contains new racism in the media.…”

“…Moreover, critical studies emphasize the historical context in which discourse is embedded, and power relations can be investigated using a discourse history approach (Burak, 2020). The discourse history approach has been frequently used to investigate racial issues in order to construct positive self-images and negative others (Slavíčková & Zvagulis, 2018;Baig, 2019;Idoko & Abioye, 2021;Savhira & Junaidi, 2018). Slavíčková and Zvagulis (2018) used a critical discourse historical approach to examine a sample news story about the Roma community and identify a number of discursive and linguistic features that indicate the entrenchment of "new racism" in media.…”

“…Slavíčková and Zvagulis (2018) used a critical discourse historical approach to examine a sample news story about the Roma community and identify a number of discursive and linguistic features that indicate the entrenchment of "new racism" in media. In addition, lexical devices were sought to identify more implicit rhetorical devices, such as framing and contextualization of events (Slavíčková & Zvagulis, 2018). In Burak (2020) the discourse history approach in this study focused on cybersecurity-related news in Turkish print and online media that played an important role in monitoring cybersecurity in Turkey.…”

Linguistic Discrimination Against the Roma in the Polish-Language Web 2.0 Discourse

“…6-13, 18-22;Kozakiewicz, 2016, pp. 71-93;Slavíčková & Zvagulis, 2014;Szymańska & Hess, 2014, pp. 42-54;van Dijk, 2016, pp.…”

Non-committal memory: The ambivalent inclusion of Romani suffering under National Socialism in hegemonic cultural memory

“…In the Czech Republic, this nascent recognition of Romani victimhood has no connection to current migratory policies simply because Romani immigrants are not a public issue there. In this particular post-socialist case, public discourse continues to contradict the official commemoration of Romani victimhood, most notably the multiple manifestations of everyday racism, be it by state officials and politicians or the media (Albert, 2012; Belavusau, 2013; Čada, 2012; Slavíčková and Zvagulis, 2014). It seems then as if commemoration of NS persecution does not adequately address nationalist sentiment in either Austria or the Czech Republic, which regularly labels Romani presence as a ‘threat’ to the nationalist ‘cause’, in many instances fostering pervasive racism against Romani communities.…”