“We can do it!” Discursive strategies of linguistic constitution of the beginning of the refugee crisis and its key players in the print media discourse on the basis of the weekly magazine DIE ZEIT Cover Image

„Wir schaffen das!“ Diskursive Strategien sprachlicher Konstituierung des Beginns der Flüchtlingskrise und ihrer Hauptakteure im Pressediskurs am Beispiel der Wochenzeitung „DIE ZEIT“
“We can do it!” Discursive strategies of linguistic constitution of the beginning of the refugee crisis and its key players in the print media discourse on the basis of the weekly magazine DIE ZEIT

Author(s): Marta Smykała
Subject(s): Media studies, Theory of Communication
Published by: Instytut Germanistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: linguistic discourse analysis; refugee crisis; Germany; print media discourse; catchwords; persuasion

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to analyse the media discourse on the so called refugee crisis in Germany. The analysis is based on articles from the weekly magazine DIE ZEIT published between the end of August and the middle of September 2015. The study concentrates on the lexical level in order to identify the discourse-specific expressions denoting and linguistically constituting the beginning of the crisis. Moreover, the article deals with the linguistic terms used to denote the key players of the crisis. Within the framework of this paper they are metalinguistically and in representation of the whole concept referred to as refugees (German: Flüchtlinge). Both aspects are examined from the perspective of theory of semantic fights (cf. Felder 2006, 2010) and persuasive specifics. The paper is empirically oriented and lies in the field of linguistic discourse analysis.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 183-202
  • Page Count: 20
  • Language: German