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Article published In: ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 123/124 (1999) ► pp.1–35

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Strategies of constructing meaning

A critical discourse analysis of news on the North Korean nuclear threat

 | Department of Linguistics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.)
Published online: 1 January 1999
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https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.123-124.01jun
Abstract
This study examines the linguistic structures and processes through which news reports about a political issue in South Korea serve to propagate specific ideologies. Critical linguistic analysis is used as the theoretical and analytical framework to examine news reports about the North Korean nuclear threat to South Korea in the New York Times and the Korea Herald. Through a comparative analysis of two newspapers, it illustrates how the linguistic structures and processes in news discourse combine to produce particular meanings which construct ideological representations of social reality by establishing an 'us vs. them' dichotomy from their own particular ideological position. This study makes two contributions. First, it contributes to the development of a theoretical and methodological framework which is capable of revealing the ideological underpinning of news texts. Second, this study demonstrates the ideological role of language within news discourse as an apparatus for molding attitudes and value-systems in readers. This study has an implication for teaching language awareness of the constructive and functional nature of language in general and news discourse in particular in and out of a school setting, (key words : critical linguistic analysis, language awareness, language and ideology, naturalization, propagation)
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