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Style, Lexical Choices and Media Ideology in Selected English-Medium Newspaper Reports on Niger Delta Conflicts, 1997 – 2009
Published 2014Subjects: “…Lexical indices…”
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LEXICAL CHOICES AND LEADERSHIP IDEOLOGY IN SELECTED SPEECHES OF OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, 1976-1979 AND 1999-2007
Published 2012Subjects: “…Lexical indices…”
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- Leadership ideology 1 results 1
- Media ideology 1 results 1
- Media reports on Niger Delta (ND) crises in Nigeria have reflected a relationship between lexico-stylistic choices and reporters‘ ideological stances. Existing studies on these reports have, however, neglected this relationship, concentrating on general stylistic, pragmatic and discourse features. These features, which are concerned more with the linguistic and contextual dimensions to the reports than the interaction between the ideology and style used by newspaper reporters, have prevented a full understanding of group-induced motivations for the crises and reports. This study, therefore, investigated the styles, contexts and strategies that manifest in selected Nigerian newspaper reports of the ND conflicts with a view to establishing the link between media ideologies and lexicostylistic choices in the reports. The study adopted Lesley Jeffries‘ critical stylistics, Teun van Dijk‘s context model, and aspects of evaluative semantics and conceptual metaphor. One hundred and fifty reports on ND conflicts were sampled: 81 from four ND-based newspapers (NDPs): The Tide, New Waves, The Pointer and Pioneer; 69 from four national newspapers (NNPs): The Punch, The Guardian, Vanguard and THISDAY between 1997 and 2009: two years before and after Obasanjo‘s 1999-2007 administration. While NDPs were selected based on their consistency in reporting on the conflicts, the NNPs were selected for their wider readership. The data were subjected to stylistic analysis. Three styles, influenced by specific ND issues and context, characterise the lexical choices in the newspaper texts – evaluative, manipulative and persuasive styles; they are achieved through four stylistic strategies: naming/describing, equating/contrasting, hypothesising, and viewing actions/events. The evaluative style is represented by emotive metaphors from three source domains – crime, hunting, and military – that name the news actors, their violent encounters, locations, and roles. The manipulative style is indexed by synonymous, hyponymous, and meronymous lexical items and intentional material actions that highlight the effect of armed struggle in the discourse. The persuasive style is realised with reiterations, lexical fields and collocations that appear as appositional and intensive relational equivalences, exploited to present the struggling situations engaged in and social labels given to the news actors. Three media ideologies are observed: propagandist, framist, and mediator ideologies. Propagandist ideology, dominated by viewing actions/events and naming/describing, is represented by reiterations and collocations used to construct the ND violence as war and threat. Framist ideology, associated with naming/describing, is enacted by reiterative and emotive labels relating to sabotaging and sanitising, which assess the news actors and their intentions in positive/negative terms. Mediator ideology, associated with hypothesising and equating/contrasting, is constructed with reiterations, lexical fields and collocations that express epistemic and boulomaic meanings, which project news actors‘ views that align with those of the news reporters‘. Thus, propagandist ideology motivates the persuasive style; framist ideology, the evaluative style, and mediator ideology, the manipulative style. The styles in newspaper reports on Niger Delta conflicts, deployed through lexical relations and stylistic strategies, are motivated by the reporters‘ ideological roles as propagandists, framists and mediators in the discourse. Therefore, there is a close interaction between lexico-stylistic choices and ideological positions in ND media reports 1 results 1
- Military and Civilian governance 1 results 1
- Niger Delta conflict 1 results 1
- Olusegun Obasanjo 1 results 1
- Presidential speeches 1 results 1
- Scholarly studies on presidential speeches in Nigeria have concentrated on general pragmatic, stylistic, discourse and rhetorical features of the speeches to the neglect of an investigation of the link between leadership styles and ideology projected through the speeches, thus, preventing a full understanding and logical explanation of their ideological leadership styles. This study focuses on the ideology in the speeches delivered by Olusegun Obasanjo as military head of state and civilian president with a view to identifying the leadership ideology and lexical indices that characterise the ideology. The study adopted Teun van Dijk's Socio-cognitive model and Michael Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar which respectively account for ideologically driven meaning and linguistic forms. Fifty scripted speeches (33 delivered as civilian president and 17 delivered as military head of state) were purposively selected from the Internet, newspapers and national archives. The lopsidedness in the selection results from the number of years Obasanjo served as civilian president and military head of state. The data were subjected to content analysis.Three leadership ideologies manifested in the speeches from the two terms, namely, authoritarian ideology, reformist ideology and messianic ideology. At the level of authoritarian ideology, antonyms, synonyms, polysemes, hyponyms and lexical collocations that project imposition, direction and restraint are manifested. Reformist ideology is represented by antonymous, synonymous, polysemous and hyponymous lexical items and collocations that depict the model of hope. Messianic ideology is enacted by antonyms, synonyms and collocations that are used to project the model of a deliverer. Imposition, as an authoritarian trait, is realised by lexical indices that portray unity, antagonism, stringent measures, and criticism. Direction is lexicalised through the models of development, peace and servitude. Restraint is lexicalised by the model of restriction, societal ills, self-reliance, togetherness, destruction, responsibility, awfulness, and selflessness. The model of hope is projected through lexical indices related to development, oppression, optimism, commitment, and self-reliance. The model of a deliverer is accounted for by lexical items that project optimism, failure, cynicism and despair. Comparatively, authoritarian ideology is a feature of both military and civilian speeches and shows Obasanjo's resentment for unethical behaviours and undemocratic practices. Reformist ideology is a major characteristic of the civilian speeches and it reveals Obasanjo's claim to proffer solutions to diverse political and socio-economic problems. Messianic ideology is only represented in the civilian speeches and is characterised by lexical indices that project drastic transformation.Obasanjo's ideological engagements, projected through lexical relations and collocations, portray his leadership styles as authoritarian, reformist (both as military head of state and civilian president) and messianic (as civilian president). Thus, lexical choices play significant roles in indexing ideology in his scripted speeches. Future collaborations between linguists, historians, sociologists and political scientists are capable of producing further rewarding results on the leadership ideology evident in his scripted and unscripted speeches. 1 results 1
- Style 1 results 1
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