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The Polarisation of US Society and its Representation in the Media

A Linguistic Analysis of Selected Editorials on the 2020 Presidential Election Campaign

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Christopher Berning

    1. Lingen, Germany

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Part of the book series: BestMasters (BEST)

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Table of contents (5 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Christopher Berning
    Pages 1-15

  3. Theoretical Framework

    • Christopher Berning
    Pages 17-57

  4. Methodology

    • Christopher Berning
    Pages 59-72

  5. Findings

    • Christopher Berning
    Pages 73-137

  6. Conclusion and Outlook

    • Christopher Berning
    Pages 139-150

  7. Back Matter

    Pages 151-162
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Keywords

About this book

This book is concerned with the polarisation of US society as represented in 27 editorial articles on the presidential election campaign 2020, taken from three different newspapers. The aim of the study is to develop an integrated framework for the linguistic analysis of societal polarisation, which combines findings from the political sciences and sociology with critical linguistic concepts from political discourse analysis and newspaper discourse analysis. The main finding is that all three newspapers, irrespective of their political orientation, make use of polarising discourse around the presidential election 2020 and thus partially contribute to a split US society. The explicit presentation of the media company’s stance as well as the distinct rejection and the explicit portrayal of aversion towards opposing positions can be detected as main factors in creating a polarising environment. Equally interesting appeared the prevalence of the topos Threat/ Crisis/ Defeat in all three newspapers, indicating a focus on negativity. De-polarising elements are only rarely found and do not seem to be contributing to the easing of tensions in society. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • Lingen, Germany

    Christopher Berning

About the author

Christopher Berning works as a secondary teacher and developed a special interest in English linguistics when he was studying at university. In both his bachelor and master thesis, he performed discourse analyses on English newspaper articles. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Polarisation of US Society and its Representation in the Media

  • Book Subtitle: A Linguistic Analysis of Selected Editorials on the 2020 Presidential Election Campaign

  • Authors: Christopher Berning

  • Series Title: BestMasters

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-42962-1

  • Publisher: Springer VS Wiesbaden

  • eBook Packages: Social Science and Law (German Language)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-658-42961-4Published: 27 September 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-658-42962-1Published: 26 September 2023

  • Series ISSN: 2625-3577

  • Series E-ISSN: 2625-3615

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 162

  • Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Political Science and International Relations, general

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