Macro and micro legitimation in discourse on Iran’s nuclear programme: The case of Iranian national newspaper Kayhan

Abstract

The present article attempts to throw light on the nature and quality of discursive strategies used in Iranian discourse on the nuclear programme as represented in an influential Iranian daily, Kayhan (کیهان). Working within the general guidelines of critical discourse analysis, the general orientation of the article is towards explicating how the newspaper texts may come to be perceived within an Iranian socio-political context. The article is part of a larger research project which has looked at the discourses of Iran’s nuclear programme as represented in different British and Iranian newspapers, and the ways they may devise micro-linguistic and macro-argumentative strategies to construct and de/legitimise the positions of Self and Other. The focus of this article is on findings on the broad argumentative aspects of one of the influential Iranian dailies which functions as a flagship of what can arguably be called the overarching conservative rhetoric of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Broad discursive approaches of the newspaper are distinguished in terms of a global, overarching, political macro-legitimatory approach versus a local, restricted micro-legitimatory approach towards identities of Self and Other and the nature of the political conflict over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Literacy mediation in marriage migration from Pakistan to the United Kingdom: Appropriating bureaucratic discourses to get a visa

“…Fairclough (1992) refers to this as (re)formulation, as the immigration solicitor presents an interpretation of the family's earnings where Nadia is recast as a working mother with a home of her own, unlike in the first visa application which portrayed Nadia as an unemployed mother without property. This illustrates the notion at the core of CDA that that discourse constitutes social identities as well as relationships between people while also being socially constitutive in that it reproduces the status quo as well as transforming it (KhosraviNik, 2015). Chain migration is sustained in the case of the texts related to earnings while Nadia's role in the family is transformed as she becomes a wage earner.…”

“…In the family’s case, this means identifying what knowledge is required to interpret the discourses of migration instantiated in the visa texts as well as identifying which individuals can be sought to provide this interpretation through literacy mediation. This is because, as KhosraviNik (2015) notes, ‘language users and target social audiences need social and cultural knowledge in order to establish local coherence, to derive global topics and generally make sense of a piece of language thrown at them’ (p. 54). Given that not all language users possess this social and cultural knowledge, the aim of this article is to investigate the extent to which literacy mediators and cultural brokers interpret the meaning of the visa texts by drawing on both old and new ‘repertories of knowledge’ which, KhosraviNik (2015) claims, are constituted in various discourses in place both synchronically – what other discourses in the present are linked to this text/discourse – and diachronically – what other historical discourses/texts in the past are visible or tacitly relevant or called on in the way that the text communicates its messages.…”

A Comparative Study of Competing Discursive Construction of South China Sea Disputes in the Chinese and US English-Language Newspapers

“…In light of the aims of CDA in exploring the relationship between language, ideology and power, it has been extensively applied to the study of media discourse (Chan, 2012;Fairclough, 1998;Khosravinik, 2009Khosravinik, , 2015Oktar, 2001;Teo, 2000). Critical discourse analysis offers a comprehensive and cohesive theoretical framework and a set of conceptual tools for the analysis of ideology and media discourse (Chan, 2012, p. 363).…”

“…He concludes that different representations of the social actors in Chinese and Japanese newspaper reporting of East China Sea dispute may be interpreted as the newspapers' adherence to official narratives and discourses of respective government (p. 361). Khosravinik (2015) analyses the discursive strategies used in representing the nuclear programme in Iranian daily, Kayhan. The study focuses on patterns of language in use in terms of the representations of Self and Other and argumentation strategies used in legitimating the representations.…”

Legitimizing ethno-sectarian conflicts for power: Construction of victimhood and disenfranchisement in Iraqi media interactions

“…Alternatively, actor-oriented (de)legitimization was used to support the ideological biases about self and others; hence, actor-oriented topoi tend to have a ‘panoramic’ sociopolitical focus (cf. micro and macro legitimation in KhosraviNik, 2015). Using actor-oriented topoi to voice disagreements with others and to legitimize an in-group power position in media interactions further deepens inter-communal rifts and weakens national unity in the country.…”