Browsing by Subject "war news"

This thesis investigates the representation of NATO in online news from the UK, USA, and India in the years preceding, during, and after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The study synthesizes appraisal theory (Martin and White, 2005) with corpus methods and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to identify variation in conflict news coverage across different nationalities and time periods. The data was collected from the News on the Web corpus comprising online news articles that a) included the term NATO, b) were sourced from British, American, and Indian online news, and c) dated from the year before the invasion, the year of the invasion, and the year after the invasion. A total of nine subcorpora were analyzed—three for each country, using corpus methodologies such as frequency and collocation analysis. Qualitative research was conducted using a thematic analysis of 36 online news articles, chosen based on the most evaluative collocates from the nine subcorpora, and subsequently employed for the APPRAISAL analysis. The study’s findings suggest that NATO is mentioned the most in news articles from the UK in the year of the invasion, whereas the US and India most frequently mention the alliance in the year following the invasion. The discourse surrounding NATO changes over time in online news from each of the three selected nations. The year before the war includes warning articles discussing the mounting tensions in Ukraine and NATO, leading up to an imminent invasion, whereas references to the alliance in the year of the war mainly discuss NATO’s economic, military, and diplomatic might to counter Russia’s attack. The results show a clear shift in the discourse in the year after the invasion, with frequent references to Finland, Sweden, and Ukraine’s NATO memberships. In the evaluative sample of 36 articles, more reflective and opinion-based texts surface, wherein the alliance is criticized for provoking Putin’s belligerent actions and having a big-brother, manipulative, and condescending attitude towards Russia. The majority of appraisals of NATO in the selected texts were however positive, relating to the JUDGEMENT–CAPACITY, and APPRECIATION–VALUATION subcategories. The alliance is described as ready, best-armed, and the most powerful. Across nations, the UK (66.4%) and the US (65.3%) appraise NATO largely positively, whereas India appears to be taking a more neutral stance with 51.6% positive and 48.4% negative appraisals, indicating that nationalist ideologies often influence news and the representation of social actors involved in conflict news coverage. Overall, the findings suggest that NATO has primarily been portrayed positively in news media from all three nations, with the highest positive references to NATO’s readiness, powerfulness, and strength.