TY - JOUR
T1 - Constructing undesirables
T2 - A critical discourse analysis of othering of Fulani nomads in the Ghanaian news media
AU - Nartey, Mark
AU - Ladegaard, Hans J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Many thanks to Loislyn Addison for help with the data collection. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/Fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security.
AB - The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/Fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security.
KW - critical discourse analysis
KW - Fulani nomads
KW - Ghana
KW - media representations
KW - minority groups
KW - othering
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098959232&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1750481320982095
DO - 10.1177/1750481320982095
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85098959232
SN - 1750-4813
VL - 15
SP - 184
EP - 199
JO - Discourse and Communication
JF - Discourse and Communication
IS - 2
ER -