The Discursive Construction of Us vs Them: A Critical Discourse Study of Migrant Representation in the Italian Press

In the West, discourse on and about migrants is often characterised by inclusive and exclusive discursive practices that contribute to constructing an “us” vs “them” dichotomy. In Italy, as well as in Europe, the rise of right-wing and populist parties has advanced an increasingly xenophobic and exclusionary rhetoric. Discriminatory ideologies are not innate, but they are produced and reproduced in society through discourse. The present thesis aims to uncover such discriminatory and exclusionary discourses and to understand how the dichotomous “us” and “them” relationship is constructed in a selection of Italian newspapers. This study investigates the discursive strategies employed in migrant representation in right-wing Il Giornale (IG) and centrist Corriere della Sera (CS) drawing from a combination of theoretical and methodological critical discourse study (CDS) frameworks, namely Wodak’s (2001) Discourse-Historical approach, van Leeuwen’s (1996) Social Actor approach, and...Show moreIn the West, discourse on and about migrants is often characterised by inclusive and exclusive discursive practices that contribute to constructing an “us” vs “them” dichotomy. In Italy, as well as in Europe, the rise of right-wing and populist parties has advanced an increasingly xenophobic and exclusionary rhetoric. Discriminatory ideologies are not innate, but they are produced and reproduced in society through discourse. The present thesis aims to uncover such discriminatory and exclusionary discourses and to understand how the dichotomous “us” and “them” relationship is constructed in a selection of Italian newspapers. This study investigates the discursive strategies employed in migrant representation in right-wing Il Giornale (IG) and centrist Corriere della Sera (CS) drawing from a combination of theoretical and methodological critical discourse study (CDS) frameworks, namely Wodak’s (2001) Discourse-Historical approach, van Leeuwen’s (1996) Social Actor approach, and KhosraviNik’s (2010) systematisation of CDS analytical categories. A final total number of twenty-six newspaper articles were qualitatively analysed. The study found that topics such as “arrivals”, “landings”, and “irregular arrivals” are particularly salient in both newspapers. The findings fit in with macro-level discourse on migration in Italy (and the EU) as well as with their migration policies that are almost exclusively focused on managing irregular arrivals. Amongst the most common discursive strategies identified in both newspapers are aggregation (presenting migrants in large numbers), objectivation (naming migrants with terminology that lacks the semantic feature “human”) and classification (naming social actors on the basis of their ethnicity, e.g. Tunisians vs Italians). Furthermore, Il Giornale was found to engage in explicitly anti-immigrant arguments drawing on topoi of financial burden, threat, law, and number.Show less

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The Discursive Construction of Us vs Them: A Critical Discourse Study of Migrant Representation in the Italian Press