News from the pit: Journalistic performativity and discourse on Belgian internment policy

Abstract

This contribution examines the ways in which newspapers open or close mediated debate on the Belgian internment issue, and whether this can be connected to different journalistic practices. Although human rights guarantees are often articulated as a matter of near-universal consensus, Belgium has been convicted 23 times by the European Court for Human Rights for its treatment of mentally disabled criminal offenders. Considering news media's central role in shaping debate on human rights issues, we study internment news in two Dutch-language newspapers between 2013-2015 using critical discourse analysis. Our research shows that studying media as a site of struggle enables a deeper understanding of how debate is opened or closed, and explores the possibilities of studying discursive strategies that shape the mediated debate together with practices that reinforce journalistic credibility.

Manufacturing Consent: Rereading News on Four Climate Summits (2000-2012)

“…In previous research on issues such as genetically modified food (Maeseele, Van der Steen, Raeijmaekers, Reul, & Paulussen, 2017), government crises (Raeijmaekers & Maeseele, 2014), or internment policy (Reul, Paulussen, & Maeseele, 2018), an analytical framework of CDA has been developed to analyze the ways in which media discourse closes or opens debate on underlying ideological disagreements. Two analytical aspects of media discourse have been identified as key in this regard: its scope and form (Maeseele & Raeijmaekers, 2017; see also Carvalho, 2008).…”

The Discursive Construction of National Image —A Case Study of People’s Daily Online’s Reports on Beijing Winter Olympics

“…It was first systematically introduced into news discourse research by Van Dijk, and has gradually become the mainstream framework of news discourse research. For example, Reul et al made a critical discourse analysis of the news of two Dutch newspapers from 2013 to 2015, revealing that the study of media is conducive to people's deeper understanding of the whole process of the initiation and termination of social debate [17] . A few studies have shifted from a critical perspective to a positive one, and explored the good phenomenon of promoting social equality in news through positive discourse analysis.…”