Volume 30, Issue 2

Abstract

Abstract

Despite an increased interest in the discourse representations of refugees in the media, little attention has been paid so far to the circulation and uptake of such portrayals in social media. This article addresses this gap by examining networked users’ reactions to the iconic image of Alan Kurdi, which quickly turned into a shared story. By analyzing story frames, i.e. orientations to the Storyrealm, the Taleworld, or the Outside world (De Fina 2016) in multimodal posts (dated September 3rd 2015), which feature the hashtag #JeSuisAylan, we show how hashtags, comments, and images combine into (Georgakopoulou 2016) that prompt acts of affective and narrative stancetaking. Our analysis calls attention to stancetaking as embedded in storytelling activities and calls for extending the critical examination of discourse representations to the study of their uptake in practices of story participation online.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.18057.gia
2020-03-06
2024-03-28
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/prag.18057.gia.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/prag.18057.gia&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Adami, Elisabetta
    2014 “Retwitting, Reposting, Repining, Reshaping Identities Online: Towards a Social Semiotic Multimodal Analysis of Digital Remediation”. LEA – Lingue e Letterature d’Oriente e d’Occidente3: 223–243.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Adami, Elisabetta, and Carey Jewitt
    2016 “Special Issue: Social media and the Visual”. Visual Communication15 (3): 263–270. 10.1177/1470357216644153
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357216644153 [Google Scholar]
  3. Blommaert, Jan
    2015 “One Crisis, Three Photos: How Europe Started Caring for Refugees”. Alternative Democracy, Ctrl+Alt+Dem. Research on Alternative Democratic Life in Europe [online]. Available at: https://alternative-democracy-research.org/. Accessed: 29/09/2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Bouko, Catherine
    . (this issue). “Emotions through Texts and Images: A Multimodal Analysis of Reactions to the Brexit vote on Flickr”. Pragmatics (Special Issue: Networked Emotion and Stancetaking ed. by Korina Giaxoglou and Marjut Johansson) X (x): xx–xx.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Caple, Helen
    2013Photojournalism: A Semiotic Approach. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137314901
    https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137314901 [Google Scholar]
  6. Chouliaraki, Lilie, and Tijana Stolić
    2017 “Rethinking Media Responsibility in the Refugee ‘Crisis’: a Visual Typology of European News”. Media, Culture and Society39(8): 1162–1177. 10.1177/0163443717726163
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717726163 [Google Scholar]
  7. 2019 “Photojournalism as Political Encounter: Western News Photography in the 2015 Migration ‘Crisis’”. Visual Communication18 (3): 311–331. 10.1177/1470357219846381
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357219846381 [Google Scholar]
  8. Chouliaraki, Lilie, Michael Orwicz, and Robin Greeley
    2019 “Special Issue: The Visual Politics of the Human”. Visual Communication18 (3): 301–309. 10.1177/1470357219846405
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357219846405 [Google Scholar]
  9. Cooper, Samantha, Erin Olejniczak, and Caroline Lenette
    2016 “Media Coverage of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Regional Australia: A Critical Discourse Analysis”. Media International Australia, 16 (1): 78–89. 10.1177/1329878X16667832
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X16667832 [Google Scholar]
  10. Coupland, Nikolas, and Virpi Ylanne
    2006 “Relational Frames in Weather Talk”. InThe Discourse Reader, 2nd edition, ed. byAdam Jaworski and Nicolas Coupland, 349–362. Oxon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. De Cock, Barbara, and Andrea Pizarro Pedraza
    2018 “From Expressing Solidarity to Mocking on Twitter: Pragmatic Functions of Hashtags Starting with #jesuis across Languages. Language in Society47 (2): 197–217. 10.1017/S0047404518000052
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404518000052 [Google Scholar]
  12. de Cock, Barbara, and Andrea Pzzaro Pedraza
    . (this issue). “Any #JesuisIraq planned? Claiming places of affect”. Pragmatics (Special Issue: Networked Emotion and Stancetaking ed. by Korina Giaxoglou and Marjut Johansson) X (x): xx–xx.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. De Fina, Anna, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou
    2012Analyzing Narrative. Discourse and Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. De Fina, Anna
    2016 “Storytelling and Audience Reactions in Social Media”. Language in Society45, 473–498. 10.1017/S0047404516000051
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404516000051 [Google Scholar]
  15. De Groot, M. Jocelyn, and Alex P. Leith
    2015 “R.I.P. Kutner: Parasocial Grief”. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying77 (3): 199–216. 10.1177/0030222815600450
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222815600450 [Google Scholar]
  16. Du Bois, John
    2007 “The Stance Triangle.” InStancetaking in Discourse. Subjectivity, Evaluation, Interaction, ed. byRobert Englebertson, 139–182. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 10.1075/pbns.164.07du
    https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.164.07du [Google Scholar]
  17. Economou, Dorothy
    2014 “Telling a Different Story: Stance in Verbal-Visual Displays in the News”. InCritical Multimodal Studies of Popular Discourse, ed. byEmilia Djonov and Sumin Zhao, 181–201. New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Esses, Victoria, Stelian Medianu, and Andrea S. Lawson
    2013 “Uncertainty, Threat, and the Role of the Media in Promoting the Dehumanization of Immigrants and Refugees”. Journal of Social Issues69 (3): 518–536. 10.1111/josi.12027
    https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12027 [Google Scholar]
  19. Fisher, Kimberly
    1997 “Locating Frames in the Discursive Universe”. Sociological Research Online2 (3). Available at: www.socresonline.org.uk/2/3/4.html. Accessed: 15/09/2018. 10.5153/sro.78
    https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.78 [Google Scholar]
  20. Gabrielatos, Costas, and Paul Baker
    2008 “Fleeing, Sneaking, Flooding: A Corpus Analysis of Discursive Constructions of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK Press 1996–2005)”. Journal of English Linguistics36 (1): 5–38. 10.1177/0075424207311247
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424207311247 [Google Scholar]
  21. Georgakopoulou, Alexandra
    2015a “Small Stories Research. Methods-Analysis-Outreach”. InThe Handbook of Narrative Analysis, ed. byAnna De Fina, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 255–273Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. 2015b “Sharing as Rescripting. Place Manipulations on YouTube between Narrative and Social Media Affordances”. Discourse, Context, and Media9: 64–72. 10.1016/j.dcm.2015.07.002
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2015.07.002 [Google Scholar]
  23. 2016 “From Narrating the Self to Posting Self(ies): A Small Stories Approach to Selfies”. Open Linguistics2: 300–317. 10.1515/opli‑2016‑0014
    https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2016-0014 [Google Scholar]
  24. Georgakopoulou, Alexandra, and Korina Giaxoglou
    2018 Emplotment in the Social Mediatization of the Economy: The Poly-storying of Economist Yanis Varoufakis. Language@Internet16: 1–51.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Georgiou, Myria, and Rafal, Zaborowski
    2017 “Media Coverage of the “Refugee Crisis”: A Cross- European Perspective”. Council of Europe Report (DG1 (2017) 03). Council of Europe.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Giaxoglou, Korina, and Tereza Spilioti
    2018 Mediatizing Death and Suffering: Rescripting Visual Stories of the Refugee Crisis as Distant Witnessing and Mourning. InDiscours des Réseaux Sociaux: Enjeux Publics, Politiques et Médiatiques, ed. byMarcel Burger, Joanna Thornborrow, and Richard Fitzerald, 65–92. Belgium: De Boeck.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Giaxoglou, Korina
    2018 #JeSuisCharlie? Hashtags as Narrative Resources in Contexts of Ecstatic Sharing. Discourse, Context, and Media22: 13–20. 10.1016/j.dcm.2017.07.006
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2017.07.006 [Google Scholar]
  28. Goffman, Erving
    1974Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Goriunova, Olga
    2015 “Introduction”. InThe Iconic Image on Social Media: A Rapid Research Response to the Death of Aylan Kurdi, ed. byFarida Vis and Olga Goriunova, 1–5. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Available at: visualsocialmedialab.org. Accessed: 18/09/2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Gualda, Estrella, and Carolina Rebollo
    2016 “The Refugee Crisis on Twitter: A Diversity of Discourses at a European Crossroads”. Journal of Spatial and Organizational Dynamics6 (3): 199–212.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Hickerson, Andrea, and Kate Dunsmore
    2015 “Locating Refugees: A Media Analysis of Refugees in the United States in “World Refugee Day” Coverage”. Journalism Practice10 (3): 424–438. 10.1080/17512786.2015.1025417
    https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2015.1025417 [Google Scholar]
  32. Hoijer, Birgitta
    2004 “The Discourse of Global Compassion: The Audience and Media Reporting of Human Suffering”. Media, Culture and Society26 (4): 513–531. 10.1177/0163443704044215
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443704044215 [Google Scholar]
  33. Ibrahim, Yasmin
    2018 “The Unsacred and the Spectacularized”. Social Media + Society4 (4): 1–9. 10.1177/2056305118803884
    https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305118803884 [Google Scholar]
  34. IOM
    IOM 2015 Global Migration Trends Factsheet. International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Available at: gmdac.iom.int/global-migration-trends-factsheet. Accessed29/09/2018.
  35. Jaworski, Adam, and Nicolas Coupland
    2006The Discourse Reader. 2nd edition. Oxon: Routledge, 41–48.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Khosravinik, Majid
    2009 “The Representation of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Immigrants in British Newspapers during the Balkan Conflict (1999) and the British General Election (2005). Discourse & Society20 (4): 477–498. 10.1177/0957926509104024
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926509104024 [Google Scholar]
  37. Klastrup, Lisbeth
    2015 “I didn’t know her, but...”: Parasocial Mourning of Mediated Deaths on Facebook RIP Pages”. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia1 (1–2): 146–164. 10.1080/13614568.2014.983564
    https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2014.983564 [Google Scholar]
  38. 2018 “Death and Communal Mass-mourning: vin Diesel and the Remembrance of Paul Walker”. Social Media + Society4 (1): 1–11. 10.1177/2056305117751383
    https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117751383 [Google Scholar]
  39. Levinson, Stephen
    1979 Activity Types and Language. Linguistics17 (5–6): 66–100.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Machin, David, and Andrea, Mayr
    2012How to do Critical Discourse Analysis. A Multimodal Introduction. London: Sage.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Mortensen, Mette
    2017 “Constructing, Confirming and Contesting Icons: the Alan Kurdi Imagery Appropriated by #humanitywashedashore, Ai Weiwei, and Charlie Hebdo”. Media, Culture and Society39 (8): 1142–1161. 10.1177/0163443717725572
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717725572 [Google Scholar]
  42. Olesen, Thomas
    2017 “Memetic Protest and the Dramatic Diffusion of Alan Kurdi”. Media, Culture and Society40 (5): 656–672. 10.1177/0163443717729212
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717729212 [Google Scholar]
  43. Page, Ruth
    2018Narratives Online: Shared Stories in Social Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316492390
    https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316492390 [Google Scholar]
  44. Parker, Samuel
    2015 “‘Unwanted Invaders’. The Representation of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK and Australian Print Media”. eShapr23 (Myth and Nation). Available at: www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_404384_en.pdf.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Rae, Maria, Rosa Holman, and Amy Nethery
    2017 “Self-represented Witnessing: The Use of Social Media by Asylum Seekers in Australia’s Offshore Immigration Detention”. Media, Culture and Society40 (4): 479–495. 10.1177/0163443717746229
    https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717746229 [Google Scholar]
  46. Smith Dahmen, Nicole, Jesse Abdenour, Karen McIntyre, and Krystal E. Noga-Styron
    2018 “Covering Mass Shootings: Journalists’ Perceptions of Coverage and Factors Influencing Attitudes”. Journalism12 (4): 456–476.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Sontag, Susan
    2004Regarding the Pain of Others. London: Penguin.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Steimel, Sarah
    2010 “Refugees as People: The Portrayal of Refugees in American Human Interest Stories”. Journal of Refugee Stories23(2): 219–237. 10.1093/jrs/feq019
    https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/feq019 [Google Scholar]
  49. Tannen, Deborah, and Cynthia Wallat
    2006 “Interactive Frames and Knowledge Schemas in Interaction: Examples from a Medical Examination/Interview”. InThe Discourse Reader, ed. byAdam Jaworski, and Nicolas Coupland, 2nd edition. 332–349. Oxon: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Tewksbury, David
    2015News Framing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Twitter
    Twitter. No date. a. “Connect or Revoke Access to Third Party apps”. Available at: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/connect-or-revoke-access-to-third-party-apps. Accessed: 28/02/2018.
  52. Twitter
    Twitter. No date. b. Twitter API. Available at: https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-api. Accessed: 28/02/2018/.
  53. UK Legislation
    UK Legislation 1998 Data Protection Act. Available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/section/2. Accessed: 14/03/2018.
  54. van Dijk, A. Teun
    1977 “Semantic Macro-Structures and Knowledge Frames in Discourse Comprehension.” InCognitive Processes in Comprehension, ed. byM. A. Just, P. A. Carpenter, 3–32New York, London: Taylor & Francis.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. van Dijck, José
    2013The Culture of Connectivity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199970773.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  56. van Leeuwen, Theo, and Carey Jewitt
    2000Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. van Leeuwen, Theo
    2008Discourse and Practice. New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001
    https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323306.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  58. Vis, Farida, and Olga Goriunova
    2015 “The Iconic Image on Social Media: A Rapid Research Response to the Death of Aylan Kurdi”. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Available at: visualsocialmedialab.org. Accessed: 18/09/2018.
  59. Walker Rettberg, Jill, and Radhika Gajjala
    2016 Terrorists or Cowards: Negative Portrayals of Male Syrian Refugees in Social Media, Feminist Media Studies, 16 (1): 178–181. 10.1080/14680777.2016.1120493
    https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1120493 [Google Scholar]
  60. Wallace, Rebecca
    2018 “Contextualising the Crisis: The Framing of Syrian Refugees in Canadian Print Media”. Canadian Journal of Political Science51 (2): 207–231. 10.1017/S0008423917001482
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423917001482 [Google Scholar]
  61. Walsh, Brian
    2015 “Alan Kurdi’s story: Behind the Most Heartbreaking Photo of 2015”. TIMEAvailable at: time.com/4162306/alan-kurdi-syria-drowned-boy-refugee-crisis/. Accessed: 18/10/2018.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Wodak, Ruth
    2015 “Protecting Fortress Europe?” The Negotiation of ‘Borders’ and ‘Benchmarks’in National and EU Arenas.” Seminar presented atForksning Centre.
    [Google Scholar]
  63. Young Galloway, Katharine
    1987Taleworlds and Storyrealms: The Phenomenology of Narrative. Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff. 10.1007/978‑94‑009‑3511‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3511-2 [Google Scholar]
  64. Zelizer, Barbie
    2010About to Die: How News Images Move the Public. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1075/prag.18057.gia
Loading
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.18057.gia
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Keyword(s): participation; refugee crisis; small stories; stancetaking; story frames

Most Cited