Words map out concepts: representations of migrants in the Portuguese digital press
Keywords:
migrants, social representations, Portuguese digital press, corpus analysisAbstract
This article analyses the discursive construction in the digital press of the terms EMIGRANT, EXPATRIATE, IMMIGRANT, MIGRANT, and REFUGEE during the period 2011-2015. The study explores how discursive practices (re)construct and (re)frame the various groups of migrants. Based on a specialized corpus of articles and titles collected from the digital platforms of three newspapers, the analysis combines corpus analysis and critical discourse analysis. The study demonstrates the existence of positive representations of Portugal in hosting migrants in contrast to more negative representations of the international community in general and clearly presents the difference between media representations and dictionary definitions and points to the Eurocentrism of the discourses and the passivization and impersonalization of the people on the move.
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