Para citar este artículo / to reference this article / para citar este artigo Martínez-Lirola, M. (2017). Analysing visual dysphemisms in news items on the arrival of sub-saharan immigrants to Spain in small boats: Visual strategies of pity, fear and compassion. Palabra Clave, 20(2), 411-443. DOI: 10.5294/pacla.2017.20.2.6 Abstract This paper is a multimodal critical discourse study of the representation of sub-Saharan immigrants who arrive on the Spanish coasts in small boats. The main objective of this research is to analyse the visual portrayal of the way the Spanish press transmits news items dealing with the arrival of the above mentioned immigrants. The data of this article consists of all the news items published upon arrival of these immigrants in the digital edition of the two most popular Spanish newspapers (ie. El País and ABC), from 1 June 2011 to 1 January 2015. For its framework of analysis, the study draws on the principles of critical discourse analysis and visual grammar in order to observe the main visual strategies used by the press to portray the immigrants under analysis. The analysis of the corpus of examples is intended to assist in the creation of a typology of the main ways in which immigrants 1 orcid.org/0000-0002-6427-425X. Universidad de Alicante. España. mlirola@hotmail.com
412Analysing Visual Dysphemisms in News Items on the Arrival of Sub-Saharan... -María Martínez-Lirola are represented visually. The study reveals that immigrants are represented dysphemistically, which means that the negative aspects of them and their arrival are highlighted. The results show that the general tendency is to represent sub-Saharan immigrants as victims, distanced from the readers and as strangers and different from the majority group. Moreover, they are portrayed as vulnerable and dependent people who are sick or in need or, in other words, as a people-problem.
KeywordsSub-Saharan immigrants; critical discourse analysis; visual grammar; social actors; dysphemisms (Source: Unesco Thesaurus). Análisis de los disfemismos visuales en las noticias sobre la llegada de inmigrantes subsaharianos a España en pequeñas embarcaciones: estrategias visuales de lástima, miedo y compasión
ResumenEste trabajo es un estudio de discurso crítico multimodal sobre la representación de los inmigrantes subsaharianos que llegan a las costas españolas en pequeñas embarcaciones. El objetivo principal es analizar la representación visual de la forma en que la prensa española transmite las noticias relacionadas con la llegada de los inmigrantes mencionados. Los datos de este artículo fueron tomados de todas las noticias publicadas a la llegada de estos inmigrantes en la edición digital de los dos periódicos españoles más populares, a saber, El País y ABC, del 1 de junio de 2011 al 1 de enero de 2015. Para su marco de análisis, el estudio se basa en los principios del análisis crítico del discurso y de la gramática visual para observar las principales estrategias visuales utilizadas por la prensa para retratar a los inmigrant...