Critical discourse analysis of the representation of Venezuela's crisis in the western press

Abstract EN

The current paper is intended to explore the social representations of the western newspapers, i.

e.

, their ideologies, attitudes, opinions, etc.

in representing and presenting the Venezuelan crisis to the world.

The problem is that the discourse structures used by newspapers to embed their ideology is so opaque and totally naturalized that ordinary people can not have access to easily.

To achieve that, it is hypothesized that western newspapers rmake use of discursive structures intricately interwoven with the social structure to express their ideology.

The data brought under analysis are opinion editorial articles of the two most widely circulated newspapers in the U.

S.

and UK, namely The Guardian and Washington Post.

Van Dijk's Socio-Cognitive Approach (1995, 2006) which focuses on the relation between discourse and society, is proposed to breakdown the data.

The findings have shown that newspapers use various discourse structures and strategies (e.

g.

, positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation as well as polarization of ingroup and outgroup) to express their ideologies and attitudes about the crisis, and influence the public The current paper is intended to explore the social representations of the western newspapers, i.

e.

, their ideologies, attitudes, opinions, etc.

in representing and presenting the Venezuelan crisis to the world.

The problem is that the discourse structures used by newspapers to embed their ideology is so opaque and totally naturalized that ordinary people can not have access to easily.

To achieve that, it is hypothesized that western newspapers rmake use of discursive structures intricately interwoven with the social structure to express their ideology.

The data brought under analysis are opinion editorial articles of the two most widely circulated newspapers in the U.

S.

and UK, namely The Guardian and Washington Post.

Van Dijk's Socio-Cognitive Approach (1995, 2006) which focuses on the relation between discourse and society, is proposed to breakdown the data.

The findings have shown that newspapers use various discourse structures and strategies (e.

g.

, positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation as well as polarization of ingroup and outgroup) to express their ideologies and attitudes about the crisis, and influence the public opinion.