Representation of Social Actors in the Discourse of Political Issues: The Case of the Teachers' Pay Reform Cover Image

Socialinių veikėjų reprezentacijos politinių problemų diskurse: etatinio mokytojų darbo apmokėjimo reformos atvejis
Representation of Social Actors in the Discourse of Political Issues: The Case of the Teachers' Pay Reform

Author(s): Eimantė Zolubienė, Jurgita Jurkevičienė
Subject(s): Education, State/Government and Education
Published by: Mykolas Romeris University
Keywords: social actors; discourse; political problems; news media;

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses social actors’ representation in the political discourse. The theoretical part of the article discusses the issues related to the communication of political problems in news media as well as social actors’ participation as the basic condition of the discourse. The remaining part of the article introduces the study which reveals the social representation of social actors in the political discourse with a focus on the case of the teachers’ pay reform. The analysis of the research data shows that the discourse of the teachers’ pay reform existed as the battleground for various social groups and information about the planned and implemented reform was disseminated to the public. The data presented in this article show that representatives of the state and authorities as well as teachers represented by the trade unions were the most active social actors’ groups in the mediated discourse. The first category of actors was actively pursuing the campaign to promote the reform while the second was seeking to draw attention to the shortcomings of the reform and calling for its improvement. The confrontation between these two camps was consistently accompanied by the analyzed discourse on the reform of teachers’ pay.

  • Issue Year: 21/2022
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 321-331
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Lithuanian