(By Aryavart International University, India)
Zahraa Salah Shukur
Vol. 19, Issue 1, Jan-Jun 2025
Abstract:
The present research focuses on analyzing prejudiced discourse from a pragmatically perspective regarding the Gaza war on October 7, 2023, as reported by journalists from American and Iranian newspapers. In other words, it compares and contrasts the prejudiced content used in the news coverage of the selected data as part of the discursive representation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during that war. Thereby, the current research is an attempt to bridge this gap by answering the following questions: (1) what are the prejudice components and function in the selected data?;(2) how are the macro and micro linguistic strategies used to release prejudice in the selected data?(3) what are the frequencies of occurrence of micro level strategies that are used to release prejudice in the selected newspaper articles? The data was collected from two American newspapers (The New York Times and The New York Post) and two Iranian ones (Tehran Times and Kayhan). The researcher employed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods to gain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of prejudice in the selected data. An eclectic model was used to analyze 6 prejudiced articles, drawing on Van Dijk's models of prejudice function (1984),(1988b,1998,2016). The research concludes the following: (1) Prejudiced content in the articles from two opposing newspapers reflects cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspects, using syntactic strategies (e.g., transitivity, role allocation) and semantic strategies (e.g., lexicalization) (2) Major differences include: (a) American newspapers favored a pro-Israel prejudice, while Iranian newspapers were pro-Palestinian; (b) both sets of newspapers presented the news in a prejudiced manner that aligned with their ideological stance, using similar linguistic strategies that supported