Corpus Linguistics 2015
Abstract Book
Edited by Federica Formato and Andrew Hardie
Lancaster: UCREL
Online edition 21st July 2015, with errata corrected
Studying the framing of the Muslim veil in Spanish editorials Ricardo-María Jiménez Universitat Internacional de Catalunya
[email protected]
1
Introduction
Throughout 2010, the problem of the Muslim veil was current in Spain. In April 2010, Najwa Malha, a teenage girl who studied at Camilo José Cela Secondary School (Pozuelo, Madrid, Spain), attended her school wearing a Muslim veil. The head of the school had forbidden the wearing of this kind of veil because the school regulations do not allow students to wear head coverings.
2
Theoretical background, methodology and corpus
This paper undertakes a linguistic and framing analysis of the social debate concerning the regulation of the wearing of the Muslim veil in public —in other words, the use of the burqa and niqab, both of which cover the wearer’s face— and, by extension, the presence of religious symbols in the public sphere. The social debate is studied in a corpus of editorials from four major national newspapers in Spain belonging to clashing ideologies: ABC (right-wing), El País (left-wing), La Vanguardia (center) and El Periódico (left-wing). I study editorials –the voice of the newspaper (Morley 2004)– because “they play a crucial role in the formation and change of public opinion, in setting the political agenda, and in influencing social debate” (Dijk 1996). I used corpus methodology to uncover the frames, complementing my qualitative reading by bringing them out into the open. Sketch Engine tools were used to process the texts and identify key words and terms that might shed light on the ideological framing of the issues. The subcorpus of editorials is composed of 154,173 tokens. The whole corpus of editorials is 2,692,837 tokens. To select editorials related to the topic of the presence of religion in public spaces, a list of keywords was drawn up, with Sketch Engine tools, related to religious issues and the persons involved. The manually-selected items formed subcorpora of four newspaper editorials. Sketch Engine allows the extraction of candidates for collocations (terms) in the subcorpus of editorials. However, candidates found by Sketch Engine are not properly-speaking collocations, but terms referring to people involved and relevant facts.
I analysed terms (Table 1) that are expressions or common syntagmas. I think critical discourse analysis have often been used for their “impressionistic” or “manipulative” accounts of media text (Breeze 2011), so methods normally associated with corpus linguistics can be effectively used by critical discourse analysts (Baker and al 2008). Techniques of frame analysis are used to identify and evaluate how issues involving the religious symbols worn by Muslims (Muslim veil) in Spain are discussed. Since the early 1990s there has been a steady growth in the use of frame analysis in research about news and journalism, in an effort to offer insight into the forces that shape media interpretations of reality and their potential influence on audiences. The roots of framing as a theory are situated in the field of sociology, where the term has been in use since the mid-1950s (Bateson 1955). It is this sociological approach to framing that has underlain the study of news frames so far, with frames being examined as social constructs and outcomes of journalistic norms or organisational constraints, as well as sponsored by social and political actors. Goffman’s (1974) prominent formative work has been pivotal in this field. Goffman defines frames as ‘schemata of interpretation’ that enable individuals to understand certain events and ‘to locate, perceive, identify and label’ occurrences. He calls these schemata primary frameworks because ‘they turn what should be a meaningless aspect of a scene into something meaningful’ (pp. 21–22). Entman (1993) states frames are not only in texts, but also in the emissary, the receptor and in culture. An important implication for media and communication research is that the coverage of events in the news media depends on the frameworks employed by journalists (Scheele, 2000). The researcher has to examine the texts to detect possible framing elements, quantify their presence in the texts, and then explore the way in which these elements cluster together in order to assess the extent to which they form coherent frames containing all or most of the elements outlined by Entrant (1993). Contreras (2004) analysed framing in journalistic discourse about the Catholic Church in international press in an extensive study that follows traditional journalistic analysis. The paper seeks to demonstrate the contribution that corpus linguistic software can make in the frame analysis of editorials and how it can help address some of the methodological challenges in the study of frames. One of the first studies applying corpus linguistic software in framing was that of Touri and 427
Koteyko (2014).
3
Results and discussion
Term ‘velo integral’ (Muslim veil, burqa and niqab) appears as shown in Table 1. Newspaper El País El Periódico La Vanguardia ABC
Term ‘velo integral’ 11 2 6 4 Table 1
In the editorial of El País the issue is a ban of the full veil in public places. The full veil is defined as an article of clothing that discriminates against women –an aspect which is not abandoned in subsequent editorials– and as a symbol of religious expression. The first element of the definition remains in editorials; however, the second element definition changes: first, it is mentioned that is a symbol of religious expression and then later this is rejected. Perhaps this change is due to the difficulty of presenting a frame regarding an item of wear without a tradition in Spain which has caused a heated social debate. The evaluation of the problem is a very thorough one. There is reference to electoral interests which lie behind the debate. In this editorial the problem is set out and there is discussion to determine the most appropriate solution. The integration of Muslims is only touched on in the editorial. Although it favours a ban on the full veil, the writer of the editorials clarifies many different solutions in the case of the veil or headscarf, which raise any more questions, perhaps for fear of provoking the fundamentalists, as stated in an editorial. The debate on the headscarf is a subordinate frame. In the editorials of El Periódico the issue is that banning the full veil will backfire. In El Periódico the burqa and the veil or headscarf are defined as religious symbols and that element of the definition remains in editorials. Regarding evaluation, frame elements of both veils are included within the same group. Several editorials the ramifications of a headscarf ban are contemplated: such as how the Muslim community might be integrated into European society. On the other hand, as in the editorial of El País, although less frequently, there is mention of the fact electoral considerations may have pushed politicians to ban the veil. As for solutions, it is argued that there are reasons to ban it and reasons for not doing so. In any case the key is discussion to find the best solution and not cause adverse reactions among Muslims. The issue in the editorials of ABC is that the veil 428
should be banned. In these editorials the full veil and the veil or headscarf is not defined as a religious symbol. The evident problem in the frame elements in the editorials of ABC is to ban any kind of veil. They state that the burqa is a garment of cultural significance and then subsequently to deny it. As for the evaluation, there is frequent mention of the false liberalism of those who want to allow their use and fallacies made by those who defend the veil and then defend the ban Christian symbols in public spaces. It supports its argument to the rule of law, democratic principles and legality. In the first editorial of ABC one of the reasons to ban their use is the rejection of shelters, but that case was subsequently abandoned and not re-quote in the remaining publishers. The necessary integration of Muslims is mentioned. There is a reference in editorials of ABC to multiculturalism, which is the excuse used by those who want to allow their use. It highlighted in the editorials of ABC more solutions than those offered by El País and El Periódico. The solution for ABC is clear: we must ban the headscarf, both the full veil as the Islamic headscarf. The issue in the editorial of La Vanguardia is that the headscarf should be banned. In the Editorials of La Vanguardia only defined in a text Muslim veil is equivalent to wearing a cross religious symbol, but not the frame element shown in the remaining texts. On evaluation, it is emphasized the authorities should take action on the matter, and do not leave it in the hands of the Municipalities. It stresses the need for Muslims to integrate, as proposed by El Periódico, ABC and slightly El País. Also it goes to the ambiguous sense as a place of reference to know why or why not is to prohibit element also it is mentioned in other newspapers. It refers to the concept of multiculturalism, in this case paper with positive value and why we live in Europe in a multicultural society. About solutions, it is proposed to be flexible with headscarf lets face uncovered and prohibit the wearing of full veil.
4
Conclusions
The paper reflects the usefulness of frame analysis to explore the media representation of controversial questions of this kind and the relations between discourse and ideology. The Journalism trenches (López-Escobar 2008) of El País and ABC is clearly reflected in the topics related to Christian/Catholic, but the ideological polarization of the newspapers is quite blurred in the treatment of Muslim veil, that is, in a religion that is not Catholic. The polarization is quite blurred in La Vanguardia and El Periódico in matters of both the
Catholic and Muslim religions. There is a correlation between the ideological line arguments newspapers and editorials. Frame analysis needs complemented with a textual and linguistic analysis detailed discoursive. Therefore the analysis of the frames will delve into literalism, formulation and structure of the text.
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