From other-representation to self-representation: exploring identity and activism in historical news media writing

Author:

Caple Helen

Abstract

This study addresses a significant gap in our understanding of self-representation in historical news media reporting. It focusses on one significant historical publication: the first nationally distributed Indigenous Australian newspaper written and edited by First Nations people – The Australian Abo Call: The Voice of the Aborigines (hereafter The AAC). The AAC was published in six editions in 1938, the year of the 150th anniversary of invasion of the continent now known as Australia. The corpus consists of all (non-fiction) articles from all six editions of this newspaper, which was founded, edited and largely written by Yorta Yorta man J.T. (Jack) Patten. As such, the study offers a synchronic ‘snapshot’ of a particular moment in Australian history. The study uses corpus-assisted discourse analysis to explore the linguistic construction of self-representation – how First Nations people write about themselves and the communities they represent. I proceed from inductively identifying group-based identity labels to categorising these labels in terms of their positionality in relation to ‘self’ and ‘other’. Using concordances, the study also qualitatively examines these identity labels through transitivity analysis. The results suggest that The AAC was a site of political awakening directed at both Indigenous and white Australians, calling on the former to mobilise, on the latter to listen, and on both to act. The analysis also shows that this activism sits very much within the dominant Western/Colonial frame, reflecting the historical settler-colonial context of the period in which this newspaper was published. The study has broader implications for corpus-assisted discourse analysis, by indicating the insights we gain by shifting our gaze away from ‘other’-representation in mainstream newspapers towards ‘self’-representation in community-led publications.

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3