Nationalism, gender and the multivocality of war discourse in television news

Abstract

War discourse is typically characterized by a confluence of nationalist and sexist discourses, and tends to reduce the multiple identities and affiliations of human beings to a black-and-white contrast of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Yet, as argued in this article, we should be wary of over-emphasizing the homogeneity and monovocality of war discourse. While the onset of conflict certainly narrows the range of collective identities and narratives on offer in the public domain, it does not impose a total closure on the negotiation and contestation of meanings. Rather, mediated war discourse retains a measure of ambiguity and multivocality, which can be of vital importance to its appeal. We demonstrate this by examining a sample of war-time news bulletins broadcast in Yugoslavia in 1991, focusing on representations of women.

‘I think it's absolutely exorbitant!’: how UK television news reported the shareholder vote on executive remuneration at Barclays in 2012

“…The analytical techniques associated with CDA have been applied to news broadcasts internationally, for example to examine coverage of Hurricane Katrina (Johnson, Sonnett, Dolan, Reppen, & Johnson 2010), the reporting of SARS in Belgium (Joye, 2010) and conflict in the former Yugoslavia (Pankov, Miheli, & Bajt 2011). This research takes a similar approach to Ekstrom (2001) in that it quantifies some rudimentary variables to supplement CDA; the small quantitative element includes timing report lengths and the lengths of the journalistic contributions within them.…”

Gendered frontlines: British press coverage of women soldiers killed in Iraq

“…(Pankov et al 2011(Pankov et al :1057. The emphasis on their feminine qualities as conveyed through words such as 'beautiful,'' bubbly,' 'caring', 'wife' and 'sister,' stripped them of the tough soldier identity.…”

“…The emphasis on their feminine qualities as conveyed through words such as 'beautiful,'' bubbly,' 'caring', 'wife' and 'sister,' stripped them of the tough soldier identity. They did not present the figure of the warrior, which in 'war discourse, is typically associated with strength, aggressiveness and virility -all characteristics that are at odds with the archetypal 'feminine' qualities emphasized in the patriarchal gendered order' (Pankov et al 2011(Pankov et al :1044. Given that the military's main activity is defined in terms of masculinity and in contrast to femininity, the emphasis on their feminine qualities reinforced the suggestions that they were not 'real' soldiers but 'women' or 'girl' soldiers.…”

Historical, temporal and contemporary trends on gender and media

“…The studies of media discourses in periods of conflict point to the confluence of nationalist and gendered discourses as characteristic of reporting in the involved countries (e.g., on Russia, see Riabov 2013, on Yugoslavia in 1991, see Pankov et al 2011). The logic of war discourse is polarizing (Pankov et al 2011(Pankov et al : 1044 and the border between Us and Others is often demarcated in media discourses by ascribing masculine attributes to the first and demasculinized attributes to the latter (Riabov 2013). Media tend to put in the centre the most traditional gender archetype of the strong masculine warrior who defends the state and is placed on the top of the patriarchal gender order (Edenborg 2015, Riabov 2013, Yuval-Davis 1997.…”