INTERNATIONAL PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND HUMANITIES RESEARCHES, 2016
Öz: Medya söylemi türü olan gazete köşe yazıları söylemi kitleleri etkileme ve/ya da ikna etme am... more Öz: Medya söylemi türü olan gazete köşe yazıları söylemi kitleleri etkileme ve/ya da ikna etme amacı taşımaktadır. Köşe yazarları dünyada olup bitenlere ilişkin bilgi verirken, olayları yorumlarken kendilerinin ve üyesi oldukları gazetenin ideolojisi çerçevesinde açık ya da örtük olarak belirli dilsel seçimler yapmakta, tutum ve yargılarını ifade etmektedir. Değerleme Kuramı çerçevesinde Tutum dizgesi, değerlendirici dilsel kaynaklar aracılığıyla yazar ya da konuşucuların öznel konumunu ifade ettiği bir ulamdır. Bu dizgenin bir alt türü olan Yargı, kişi ya da grupların düşüncelerinin, davranışlarının, sözlerinin takdir edildiği/ eleştirildiği ya da övüldüğü/onaylandığı ifadelerle ilgilidir. Bu bağlamda, köşe yazarlarının tutum ve yargılarının ortaya konmasına ilişkin kapsamlı bir çözümleme sunmaktadır. Çalışmamızın amacı, günlük gazetelerde köşe yazarlarının yeğledikleri bir Yargı türü olup olmadığını ve bunda ideolojinin olası etkisini saptamaktır. Bulgularımız, hem köşe yazıları metin türünün hem de politik ideolojinin Yargı türü seçiminde etkili olduğunu ortaya koymuştur.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aim... more EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aims to affect or persuade people. While giving information and commenting on the current affairs, op-ed article writers make implicit or explicit linguistic choices and express their attitude and judgment in line with their own ideology and the ideology of the newspaper they are a member of. The system of Attitude is a category within the framework of Appraisal Theory in which writers or speakers express their subjective positions through evaluative linguistic resources. Judgment which is a sub-category of this system is about the expressions via which the ideas, actions or utterances of people or groups are admired/criticized/, or praised/condemned which are called judgments of Social Esteem and Social Sanction respectively. Social Esteem consists of three categories: Normality, Capacity, and Tenacity. Social Sanction on the other hand, consists of Veracity and Propriety. They all have positive and negative aspects as well. In this regard, it provides a comprehensive analysis for revealing the attitudes and judgments of op-ed article writers. Objective: The objective of our study is to find out if there is a preferred type of Judgment by op-ed article writers and whether the political ideology of the newspaper has an effect in the selection of the Judgment type. Data base and Methodology: To this end, the op-ed articles written on current political issues in six different Turkish daily newspapers published between 10-24 November, 2014 known to be representing different political ideologies, i.e. Secular (Cumhuriyet, Aydınlık), Liberal (Hürriyet, Milliyet), and Islamist were chosen as our database. With ‘selected sampling’ method, these newspapers were classified according to the topics. During this period, op-ed articles were mainly on six topics: AKP government, PKK/Resolution process, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, CHP, Atatürk, and The Congregation/Parallel Structure. The topics on which less than 10 articles were written on were regarded as miscellaneous and thus 327 out of 476 articles were analyzed for the linguistic resources expressing Judgment. In order to answer our first research question, the linguistic resources were grouped according to the types of Judgment and their sub-types, the percentage of the frequency of their usage was taken. Then, for answering our second question, the relation between the frequency and ideology has been researched. Findings: The analysis of our database reveals that except for the Capacity the writers of Liberal ideology prefer using the positive dimension of Social Esteem judgments Normality and Tenacity most and the negative dimension the least. The percentage of Capacity judgment is high both in the positive and negative aspects in all ideologies; though the highest ratio is in the newspapers adopting Islamic ideology (43.55%). On the other hand, op-ed articles in the newspapers of Secular ideology make use of negative Normality and Tenacity judgments more frequently than the others. Judging from these findings, it can be alleged that writers of liberal ideology refrain from making negative judgments as the ideology requires them to be “middle of the roader” and expressing their opinions sharply. Writers in the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology on the other hand, can be argued to attempt to judge the “others” using linguistic resources expressing ‘negative Social Esteem Judgment’ as a persuading strategy. Relating Social Sanction judgments, both positive and negative aspects of Veracity and Propriety are used in similar frequency in all ideologies; however negative Social Sanction judgments are used in higher percentage. This shows that in line with Social Esteem judgments, writers prefer to emphasize the negative sanction about the “other” person or groups. When the Social Esteem and Social Sanction judgments are considered as a whole, it has been detected that negative aspects of all judgment types outweigh the positive ones. The most frequent negative judgement type is Social Sanction of Propriety (Secular 39%; Liberal 32.4%; Islamist 40%). Social Sanction of Veracity follows this (Secular 23%; Liberal 17%; Islamist 20.3%). Compared to the judgments of Social Sanction, Social Esteem judgments are found to be used much less frequently in op-ed articles. This finding reveals that Social Sanction is the preferred type of judgment in Turkish op-ed articles. As for the effect of ideology, in newspapers of Liberal ideology, positive dimensions of Social Esteem judgments and Social Sanction judgment of Veracity are used at a higher percentage than in newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, which have higher percentage of negative judgments. Conclusion: In conclusion, the research questions aiming to find out whether in the genre of op-ed articles opt for a type of Judgment and if the political ideology of the newspaper is effective in this, have been answered within the scope of this study. The analysis of the database shows that 793 of 1031 linguistic resources (i.e. 77%) are used to express negative judgment, which means that writers prefer to use negative judgment expressions in op-ed articles so that they can criticize and condemn the ‘others’ and persuade their readers in line with their opinions. Regarding the answer to our second research question, it was determined that political ideology is effective on the type and dimension of the judgment used. In the op-ed articles from newspapers of Liberal ideology, the percentage of linguistic resources expressing positive judgment is higher than the ones from other ideologies. However in articles from the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, linguistic resources of positive judgment are more frequent. Thus, it can be concluded that political ideology is an important factor in the choice of judgement type and dimension. Keywords: Appraisal Theory, System of Attitude, Judgment, Media Discourse, Op-Ed Articles
INTERNATIONAL PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION AND HUMANITIES RESEARCHES, 2016
Öz: Medya söylemi türü olan gazete köşe yazıları söylemi kitleleri etkileme ve/ya da ikna etme am... more Öz: Medya söylemi türü olan gazete köşe yazıları söylemi kitleleri etkileme ve/ya da ikna etme amacı taşımaktadır. Köşe yazarları dünyada olup bitenlere ilişkin bilgi verirken, olayları yorumlarken kendilerinin ve üyesi oldukları gazetenin ideolojisi çerçevesinde açık ya da örtük olarak belirli dilsel seçimler yapmakta, tutum ve yargılarını ifade etmektedir. Değerleme Kuramı çerçevesinde Tutum dizgesi, değerlendirici dilsel kaynaklar aracılığıyla yazar ya da konuşucuların öznel konumunu ifade ettiği bir ulamdır. Bu dizgenin bir alt türü olan Yargı, kişi ya da grupların düşüncelerinin, davranışlarının, sözlerinin takdir edildiği/ eleştirildiği ya da övüldüğü/onaylandığı ifadelerle ilgilidir. Bu bağlamda, köşe yazarlarının tutum ve yargılarının ortaya konmasına ilişkin kapsamlı bir çözümleme sunmaktadır. Çalışmamızın amacı, günlük gazetelerde köşe yazarlarının yeğledikleri bir Yargı türü olup olmadığını ve bunda ideolojinin olası etkisini saptamaktır. Bulgularımız, hem köşe yazıları metin türünün hem de politik ideolojinin Yargı türü seçiminde etkili olduğunu ortaya koymuştur.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aim... more EXTENDED ABSTRACT
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aims to affect or persuade people. While giving information and commenting on the current affairs, op-ed article writers make implicit or explicit linguistic choices and express their attitude and judgment in line with their own ideology and the ideology of the newspaper they are a member of. The system of Attitude is a category within the framework of Appraisal Theory in which writers or speakers express their subjective positions through evaluative linguistic resources. Judgment which is a sub-category of this system is about the expressions via which the ideas, actions or utterances of people or groups are admired/criticized/, or praised/condemned which are called judgments of Social Esteem and Social Sanction respectively. Social Esteem consists of three categories: Normality, Capacity, and Tenacity. Social Sanction on the other hand, consists of Veracity and Propriety. They all have positive and negative aspects as well. In this regard, it provides a comprehensive analysis for revealing the attitudes and judgments of op-ed article writers. Objective: The objective of our study is to find out if there is a preferred type of Judgment by op-ed article writers and whether the political ideology of the newspaper has an effect in the selection of the Judgment type. Data base and Methodology: To this end, the op-ed articles written on current political issues in six different Turkish daily newspapers published between 10-24 November, 2014 known to be representing different political ideologies, i.e. Secular (Cumhuriyet, Aydınlık), Liberal (Hürriyet, Milliyet), and Islamist were chosen as our database. With ‘selected sampling’ method, these newspapers were classified according to the topics. During this period, op-ed articles were mainly on six topics: AKP government, PKK/Resolution process, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, CHP, Atatürk, and The Congregation/Parallel Structure. The topics on which less than 10 articles were written on were regarded as miscellaneous and thus 327 out of 476 articles were analyzed for the linguistic resources expressing Judgment. In order to answer our first research question, the linguistic resources were grouped according to the types of Judgment and their sub-types, the percentage of the frequency of their usage was taken. Then, for answering our second question, the relation between the frequency and ideology has been researched. Findings: The analysis of our database reveals that except for the Capacity the writers of Liberal ideology prefer using the positive dimension of Social Esteem judgments Normality and Tenacity most and the negative dimension the least. The percentage of Capacity judgment is high both in the positive and negative aspects in all ideologies; though the highest ratio is in the newspapers adopting Islamic ideology (43.55%). On the other hand, op-ed articles in the newspapers of Secular ideology make use of negative Normality and Tenacity judgments more frequently than the others. Judging from these findings, it can be alleged that writers of liberal ideology refrain from making negative judgments as the ideology requires them to be “middle of the roader” and expressing their opinions sharply. Writers in the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology on the other hand, can be argued to attempt to judge the “others” using linguistic resources expressing ‘negative Social Esteem Judgment’ as a persuading strategy. Relating Social Sanction judgments, both positive and negative aspects of Veracity and Propriety are used in similar frequency in all ideologies; however negative Social Sanction judgments are used in higher percentage. This shows that in line with Social Esteem judgments, writers prefer to emphasize the negative sanction about the “other” person or groups. When the Social Esteem and Social Sanction judgments are considered as a whole, it has been detected that negative aspects of all judgment types outweigh the positive ones. The most frequent negative judgement type is Social Sanction of Propriety (Secular 39%; Liberal 32.4%; Islamist 40%). Social Sanction of Veracity follows this (Secular 23%; Liberal 17%; Islamist 20.3%). Compared to the judgments of Social Sanction, Social Esteem judgments are found to be used much less frequently in op-ed articles. This finding reveals that Social Sanction is the preferred type of judgment in Turkish op-ed articles. As for the effect of ideology, in newspapers of Liberal ideology, positive dimensions of Social Esteem judgments and Social Sanction judgment of Veracity are used at a higher percentage than in newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, which have higher percentage of negative judgments. Conclusion: In conclusion, the research questions aiming to find out whether in the genre of op-ed articles opt for a type of Judgment and if the political ideology of the newspaper is effective in this, have been answered within the scope of this study. The analysis of the database shows that 793 of 1031 linguistic resources (i.e. 77%) are used to express negative judgment, which means that writers prefer to use negative judgment expressions in op-ed articles so that they can criticize and condemn the ‘others’ and persuade their readers in line with their opinions. Regarding the answer to our second research question, it was determined that political ideology is effective on the type and dimension of the judgment used. In the op-ed articles from newspapers of Liberal ideology, the percentage of linguistic resources expressing positive judgment is higher than the ones from other ideologies. However in articles from the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, linguistic resources of positive judgment are more frequent. Thus, it can be concluded that political ideology is an important factor in the choice of judgement type and dimension. Keywords: Appraisal Theory, System of Attitude, Judgment, Media Discourse, Op-Ed Articles
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Papers by Esra Dizdarci
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aims to affect or persuade people. While giving information and commenting on the current affairs, op-ed article writers make implicit or explicit linguistic choices and express their attitude and judgment in line with their own ideology and the ideology of the newspaper they are a member of. The system of Attitude is a category within the framework of Appraisal Theory in which writers or speakers express their subjective positions through evaluative linguistic resources. Judgment which is a sub-category of this system is about the expressions via which the ideas, actions or utterances of people or groups are admired/criticized/, or praised/condemned which are called judgments of Social Esteem and Social Sanction respectively. Social Esteem consists of three categories: Normality, Capacity, and Tenacity. Social Sanction on the other hand, consists of Veracity and Propriety. They all have positive and negative aspects as well. In this regard, it provides a comprehensive analysis for revealing the attitudes and judgments of op-ed article writers. Objective: The objective of our study is to find out if there is a preferred type of Judgment by op-ed article writers and whether the political ideology of the newspaper has an effect in the selection of the Judgment type. Data base and Methodology: To this end, the op-ed articles written on current political issues in six different Turkish daily newspapers published between 10-24 November, 2014 known to be representing different political ideologies, i.e. Secular (Cumhuriyet, Aydınlık), Liberal (Hürriyet, Milliyet), and Islamist were chosen as our database. With ‘selected sampling’ method, these newspapers were classified according to the topics. During this period, op-ed articles were mainly on six topics: AKP government, PKK/Resolution process, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, CHP, Atatürk, and The Congregation/Parallel Structure. The topics on which less than 10 articles were written on were regarded as miscellaneous and thus 327 out of 476 articles were analyzed for the linguistic resources expressing Judgment. In order to answer our first research question, the linguistic resources were grouped according to the types of Judgment and their sub-types, the percentage of the frequency of their usage was taken. Then, for answering our second question, the relation between the frequency and ideology has been researched. Findings: The analysis of our database reveals that except for the Capacity the writers of Liberal ideology prefer using the positive dimension of Social Esteem judgments Normality and Tenacity most and the negative dimension the least. The percentage of Capacity judgment is high both in the positive and negative aspects in all ideologies; though the highest ratio is in the newspapers adopting Islamic ideology (43.55%). On the other hand, op-ed articles in the newspapers of Secular ideology make use of negative Normality and Tenacity judgments more frequently than the others. Judging from these findings, it can be alleged that writers of liberal ideology refrain from making negative judgments as the ideology requires them to be “middle of the roader” and expressing their opinions sharply. Writers in the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology on the other hand, can be argued to attempt to judge the “others” using linguistic resources expressing ‘negative Social Esteem Judgment’ as a persuading strategy. Relating Social Sanction judgments, both positive and negative aspects of Veracity and Propriety are used in similar frequency in all ideologies; however negative Social Sanction judgments are used in higher percentage. This shows that in line with Social Esteem judgments, writers prefer to emphasize the negative sanction about the “other” person or groups. When the Social Esteem and Social Sanction judgments are considered as a whole, it has been detected that negative aspects of all judgment types outweigh the positive ones. The most frequent negative judgement type is Social Sanction of Propriety (Secular 39%; Liberal 32.4%; Islamist 40%). Social Sanction of Veracity follows this (Secular 23%; Liberal 17%; Islamist 20.3%). Compared to the judgments of Social Sanction, Social Esteem judgments are found to be used much less frequently in op-ed articles. This finding reveals that Social Sanction is the preferred type of judgment in Turkish op-ed articles. As for the effect of ideology, in newspapers of Liberal ideology, positive dimensions of Social Esteem judgments and Social Sanction judgment of Veracity are used at a higher percentage than in newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, which have higher percentage of negative judgments. Conclusion: In conclusion, the research questions aiming to find out whether in the genre of op-ed articles opt for a type of Judgment and if the political ideology of the newspaper is effective in this, have been answered within the scope of this study. The analysis of the database shows that 793 of 1031 linguistic resources (i.e. 77%) are used to express negative judgment, which means that writers prefer to use negative judgment expressions in op-ed articles so that they can criticize and condemn the ‘others’ and persuade their readers in line with their opinions. Regarding the answer to our second research question, it was determined that political ideology is effective on the type and dimension of the judgment used. In the op-ed articles from newspapers of Liberal ideology, the percentage of linguistic resources expressing positive judgment is higher than the ones from other ideologies. However in articles from the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, linguistic resources of positive judgment are more frequent. Thus, it can be concluded that political ideology is an important factor in the choice of judgement type and dimension.
Keywords: Appraisal Theory, System of Attitude, Judgment, Media Discourse, Op-Ed Articles
Introduction: The discourse of op-ed articles, a type of media discourse, aims to affect or persuade people. While giving information and commenting on the current affairs, op-ed article writers make implicit or explicit linguistic choices and express their attitude and judgment in line with their own ideology and the ideology of the newspaper they are a member of. The system of Attitude is a category within the framework of Appraisal Theory in which writers or speakers express their subjective positions through evaluative linguistic resources. Judgment which is a sub-category of this system is about the expressions via which the ideas, actions or utterances of people or groups are admired/criticized/, or praised/condemned which are called judgments of Social Esteem and Social Sanction respectively. Social Esteem consists of three categories: Normality, Capacity, and Tenacity. Social Sanction on the other hand, consists of Veracity and Propriety. They all have positive and negative aspects as well. In this regard, it provides a comprehensive analysis for revealing the attitudes and judgments of op-ed article writers. Objective: The objective of our study is to find out if there is a preferred type of Judgment by op-ed article writers and whether the political ideology of the newspaper has an effect in the selection of the Judgment type. Data base and Methodology: To this end, the op-ed articles written on current political issues in six different Turkish daily newspapers published between 10-24 November, 2014 known to be representing different political ideologies, i.e. Secular (Cumhuriyet, Aydınlık), Liberal (Hürriyet, Milliyet), and Islamist were chosen as our database. With ‘selected sampling’ method, these newspapers were classified according to the topics. During this period, op-ed articles were mainly on six topics: AKP government, PKK/Resolution process, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, CHP, Atatürk, and The Congregation/Parallel Structure. The topics on which less than 10 articles were written on were regarded as miscellaneous and thus 327 out of 476 articles were analyzed for the linguistic resources expressing Judgment. In order to answer our first research question, the linguistic resources were grouped according to the types of Judgment and their sub-types, the percentage of the frequency of their usage was taken. Then, for answering our second question, the relation between the frequency and ideology has been researched. Findings: The analysis of our database reveals that except for the Capacity the writers of Liberal ideology prefer using the positive dimension of Social Esteem judgments Normality and Tenacity most and the negative dimension the least. The percentage of Capacity judgment is high both in the positive and negative aspects in all ideologies; though the highest ratio is in the newspapers adopting Islamic ideology (43.55%). On the other hand, op-ed articles in the newspapers of Secular ideology make use of negative Normality and Tenacity judgments more frequently than the others. Judging from these findings, it can be alleged that writers of liberal ideology refrain from making negative judgments as the ideology requires them to be “middle of the roader” and expressing their opinions sharply. Writers in the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology on the other hand, can be argued to attempt to judge the “others” using linguistic resources expressing ‘negative Social Esteem Judgment’ as a persuading strategy. Relating Social Sanction judgments, both positive and negative aspects of Veracity and Propriety are used in similar frequency in all ideologies; however negative Social Sanction judgments are used in higher percentage. This shows that in line with Social Esteem judgments, writers prefer to emphasize the negative sanction about the “other” person or groups. When the Social Esteem and Social Sanction judgments are considered as a whole, it has been detected that negative aspects of all judgment types outweigh the positive ones. The most frequent negative judgement type is Social Sanction of Propriety (Secular 39%; Liberal 32.4%; Islamist 40%). Social Sanction of Veracity follows this (Secular 23%; Liberal 17%; Islamist 20.3%). Compared to the judgments of Social Sanction, Social Esteem judgments are found to be used much less frequently in op-ed articles. This finding reveals that Social Sanction is the preferred type of judgment in Turkish op-ed articles. As for the effect of ideology, in newspapers of Liberal ideology, positive dimensions of Social Esteem judgments and Social Sanction judgment of Veracity are used at a higher percentage than in newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, which have higher percentage of negative judgments. Conclusion: In conclusion, the research questions aiming to find out whether in the genre of op-ed articles opt for a type of Judgment and if the political ideology of the newspaper is effective in this, have been answered within the scope of this study. The analysis of the database shows that 793 of 1031 linguistic resources (i.e. 77%) are used to express negative judgment, which means that writers prefer to use negative judgment expressions in op-ed articles so that they can criticize and condemn the ‘others’ and persuade their readers in line with their opinions. Regarding the answer to our second research question, it was determined that political ideology is effective on the type and dimension of the judgment used. In the op-ed articles from newspapers of Liberal ideology, the percentage of linguistic resources expressing positive judgment is higher than the ones from other ideologies. However in articles from the newspapers of Secular and Islamist ideology, linguistic resources of positive judgment are more frequent. Thus, it can be concluded that political ideology is an important factor in the choice of judgement type and dimension.
Keywords: Appraisal Theory, System of Attitude, Judgment, Media Discourse, Op-Ed Articles