"A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Portrayals of Haiti and Haitians Following the 2010 Earthquakes on American 24-hour Cable News Networks"
Open Access
- Author:
- Herring, Courtney Celiese
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- May 02, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Anthony Olorunnisola, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Anthony Olorunnisola, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Earthquakes
News ethics
Disaster communication
Semantic strategies
Critical Discourse Analysis
Natural disasters
Haiti
Poverty
Hegemony - Abstract:
- Haiti has long been considered by the world as a “Third World” country and as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, primarily because of its poverty and political instability. Because of its close proximity to the United States, the two countries have shared a long and troubling history since Haiti’s independence in 1804. After a series of devastating earthquakes shook the country in January 2010, Haiti was launched into the American media once again. The earthquakes and the aftershocks that followed were the worst to impact the nation in nearly 200 years, causing the United States to send millions of dollars in aid, search and rescue personnel, and military officials to organize the relief effort. Twenty-four hour cable news networks were among many other news providers to monitor nearly all aspects of the disaster. Prior studies have explored how the American media cover disasters. However, few have sought to understand how 24-hour American cable news providers handle disaster coverage, and even fewer have investigated how American media depict Haiti and Haitians. Therefore, the purpose of this study was two-fold. First, to investigate how American 24-hour cable news networks, specifically Cable News Network (CNN), Microsoft and National Broadcasting Company (MSNBC), and Fox News Channel (FNC) discursively portrayed Haiti and its people in the aftermath of this overwhelming disaster. Secondly, to gain an understanding of what aspects of this disaster these cable news providers considered most newsworthy. Discourse is a powerful rhetorical tool that is often used to perpetuate existing ideologies, both implicitly and explicitly. In this case, it is imperative to consider how discourse perpetuates and justifies power and dominance. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of American 24-hour cable news networks in framing both Haiti and Haitians discursively during a vulnerable time. To accomplish this, the study uses Teun A. Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis approach to analyze a total of 224 news transcripts from the three most viewed cable news networks: CNN (n=184), MSNBC, (n=13) and FNC (n=17) from January 12, 2010 to December 31, 2010. Five main themes emerged from the disaster coverage: problematic pre-conditions, incompetence of the Haitian government, U.S. involvement in the relief efforts, victim experience and recovery. In their uneven coverage, the three networks “recontextualized” the disaster for American viewers by using semantic strategies that Teun A. Van Dijk (1991) would describe as: “presupposition,” “hyperbole,” “vagueness,” “over-completeness,” “blaming the victim,” “comparison” and “admission.” Overall, the coverage portrayed Haiti as a charity case in need of not only funding, but of order and proper governance – which could be accomplished by U.S. intervention. Additionally, the coverage offered by these networks perpetuated some long-standing notions of Haiti and its people and focused on poverty, political instability, and weak infrastructure. Limitations were also identified. Hopefully, this study’s findings contribute to literature on American media portrayals of Haiti and its people, while offering insight to how discourse on 24-hour cable news networks can potentially impact the way in which viewers perceive Haiti and countries like it.