Syrian Civil conflict, which started in 2011, as a consequence of the uprisings that spread across the whole country to overthrow Assad’s regime, is the conflict that witnessed the highest mobilization of foreign fighters in human history. Particularly noteworthy was that the majority of those who decided to take part in the war, also joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist organization. This aspect made them troublesome, as their home countries started to see foreign fighters as a threat to national security. Besides, Isis’ claims of credit for several attacks carried out in Western highlighted the urgency to address this specific aspect of terrorism. Given the importance media have in contributing to shaping discourses, this study contributes to enlarging the field of studies of the representation of terrorism. Yet, the aim of the present work is not simply to identify biased discourses in newspapers, but especially to uncover the relations of power and dominance that hide in apparently neutral pieces of texts. Thus, by combining a more quantitative Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies approach, with a more qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, this study has examined a corpus of articles published in six different newspapers from Australia, the UK and the USA. In particular, the analysis carried out in the present work investigates the corpus through three different perspectives: diachronic, gendered, and cross-cultural. The study shows how the discursive construction of foreign fighters evolved through the decade under examination and how the events contributed to shaping their representation: while, in the first years under analysis, there was more of a focus on actors such as rebels and militants, that also reflected the fact that several Western countries were supporting the rebellious factions in Syria, in more recent times, especially following the terrorist attacks carried out by Isis in Europe and the loss of power by Isis towards the end of the analysed decade, the discourses surrounding foreign fighters were more and more related to terrorism and to the threat they were said to be posing to their home countries. Furthermore, the present work questions the discursive representation of female foreign fighters, showing how they were often infantilized in the news and represented as mere young girls who wanted to rebel against their families and communities and become jihadi brides. Finally, after having highlighted that the discourses surrounding foreign fighters in the six analysed newspapers were rather similar, this research suggests that there has been a rather homogeneous representation of foreign fighters in the news of three of the most influential countries in Western society. Indeed, this study shows how discourse is a powerful tool in shaping and maintaining power relations, especially when dealing with a phenomenon such as terrorism, that – through a recurring ‘us’ vs ‘them’ discourse – contributes to creating differences and divisions between different cultures and religions.
L’obiettivo di questa tesi è stato quello di analizzare la rappresentazione mediatica dei foreign fighters nei media anglofoni, nel decennio tra il 2011 e il 2021. Infatti, il conflitto siriano è quello che ha visto la mobilitazione del maggior numero di foreign fighters dopo la seconda guerra mondiale, con circa 50,000 persone provenienti da altre parti del mondo che hanno preso parte al combattimento. Si definiscono foreign fighters coloro che prendono volontariamente parte ad un conflitto che non coinvolge il loro Paese d’origine. Si tratta di un fenomeno che è sempre stato piuttosto comune nella storia dell’uomo ma che, oggi, è maggiormente legato ai conflitti asimmetrici, ovvero quelli in cui almeno una delle parti coinvolte non è uno stato come, appunto, il conflitto siriano. Inoltre, nel caso del conflitto siriano – iniziato, appunto, nel 2011, a seguito di una serie di rivolte che interessarono tutta la Siria, nel tentativo di rovesciare il regime di Assad – la maggior parte dei foreign fighters si unì anche allo Stato Islamico di Syria e Iraq, organizzazione terroristica più comunemente nota con il nome di Isis. Questo aspetto è ciò che rese maggiormente problematica la figura dei foreign fighters, che iniziarono ad essere percepiti come una minaccia per la sicurezza nazionale dai paesi di cui erano cittadini. Data l’importanza dei media nel plasmare i discorsi, questo lavoro ha l’obiettivo di contribuire ad ampliare il campo di studi riguardanti la rappresentazione del terrorismo nel discorso mediatico. In particolare, la scelta per la selezione del corpus da analizzare è ricaduta su quotidiani in lingua inglese, provenienti da tre Paesi anglofoni. Il corpus è stato analizzando utilizzando l’approccio Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies, ovvero combinando una fase di analisi più quantitativa ad una più qualitativa, in cui è stata seguita la metodologia della Critical Discourse Analysis, o analisi critica del discorso. Nello specifico, gli articoli sono stati analizzati da tre punti di vista differenti, che hanno composto i tre diversi capitoli di analisi. Nel capitolo diacronico, l’obiettivo è stato quello di analizzare come la costruzione discorsiva dei foreign fighters sia evoluta nell’arco dei dieci anni e come gli eventi abbiano contribuito a plasmarne la rappresentazione. Ciò che è emerso è che, mentre nei primi anni il focus era maggiormente su attori sociali come ‘rebels’ e ‘militants’, più si prosegue nella linea temporale, più si inizia ad utilizzare un linguaggio maggiormente legato al terrorismo. Analizzando il corpus da una prospettiva di genere, si è invece evidenziato come le foreign fighters donne siano state spesso infantilizzate negli articoli e rappresentate semplicemente come giovani donne che volevano ribellarsi alle loro famiglie di origine diventando ‘spose della jihad’. Infine, da un punto di vista cross-culturale, questo studio ha dimostrato una certa omogeneità nel costruire discorsivamente i foreign fighters da parte dei media dei tre Paesi anglofoni esaminati. Pertanto, questo studio dimostra come il discorso sia un importante mezzo per la costruzione e il mantenimento di relazioni di potere, specialmente quando si tratta un fenomeno come il terrorismo che – attraverso il ricorrente utilizzo di una narrazione che contrappone ‘noi’ e ‘loro’ – contribuisce a creare differenze e divisioni tra diverse culture e religioni.
Dieci anni di rappresentazione dei foreign fighters dell’Isis nel discorso mediatico: dal 2011 al 2021 / Marta Giallombardo , 2024 Nov 29. 35. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2021/2022.
Dieci anni di rappresentazione dei foreign fighters dell’Isis nel discorso mediatico: dal 2011 al 2021.
GIALLOMBARDO, MARTA
2024
Abstract
Syrian Civil conflict, which started in 2011, as a consequence of the uprisings that spread across the whole country to overthrow Assad’s regime, is the conflict that witnessed the highest mobilization of foreign fighters in human history. Particularly noteworthy was that the majority of those who decided to take part in the war, also joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist organization. This aspect made them troublesome, as their home countries started to see foreign fighters as a threat to national security. Besides, Isis’ claims of credit for several attacks carried out in Western highlighted the urgency to address this specific aspect of terrorism. Given the importance media have in contributing to shaping discourses, this study contributes to enlarging the field of studies of the representation of terrorism. Yet, the aim of the present work is not simply to identify biased discourses in newspapers, but especially to uncover the relations of power and dominance that hide in apparently neutral pieces of texts. Thus, by combining a more quantitative Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies approach, with a more qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, this study has examined a corpus of articles published in six different newspapers from Australia, the UK and the USA. In particular, the analysis carried out in the present work investigates the corpus through three different perspectives: diachronic, gendered, and cross-cultural. The study shows how the discursive construction of foreign fighters evolved through the decade under examination and how the events contributed to shaping their representation: while, in the first years under analysis, there was more of a focus on actors such as rebels and militants, that also reflected the fact that several Western countries were supporting the rebellious factions in Syria, in more recent times, especially following the terrorist attacks carried out by Isis in Europe and the loss of power by Isis towards the end of the analysed decade, the discourses surrounding foreign fighters were more and more related to terrorism and to the threat they were said to be posing to their home countries. Furthermore, the present work questions the discursive representation of female foreign fighters, showing how they were often infantilized in the news and represented as mere young girls who wanted to rebel against their families and communities and become jihadi brides. Finally, after having highlighted that the discourses surrounding foreign fighters in the six analysed newspapers were rather similar, this research suggests that there has been a rather homogeneous representation of foreign fighters in the news of three of the most influential countries in Western society. Indeed, this study shows how discourse is a powerful tool in shaping and maintaining power relations, especially when dealing with a phenomenon such as terrorism, that – through a recurring ‘us’ vs ‘them’ discourse – contributes to creating differences and divisions between different cultures and religions.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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PhD thesis Giallombardo definitiva.pdf
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Descrizione: Ten years of representing Isis’ Foreign Fighters in news discourse: from 2011 to 2021.
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