Language, Power &

Discourse
Harpreet Kaur
Media’s role in shaping views
and creating racial discourse.
The media's the most powerful
entity on earth. They have the
power to make the innocent guilty
and to make the guilty innocent,
and that's power. Because they
control the minds of the masses. ~

Malcolm X
 Introduction
Globalisation has enabled the crossover of cultures and
ideologies from one place to another. Media, being the main
drivers of globalisation, portrays these ideologies to the
masses. Everyone relies on media to attain information and
knowledge.

By analysing different sources of media, and exploring the

extent to which the discourses are shaped that may lead to
racism and otherization in an intercultural communication,
the power of media is understood.
 Purpose of the analysis
► Examine two texts from different media sources on racism
issue

► Analyse the way the media outlets have portrayed that issue

► Highlight the strategies and tools used in these texts-tone,

lexical terms and references which portray power

► Contrast between the different outlets disseminating the

information

► Discuss how media has used power to manage the issue

 Reasons for the texts chosen
► Both these texts are based on racism towards people
‘different’ from the majority. They have a similar theme,
but are found in different media outlets.

► A close analysis of these texts reveal the power displayed

in these media sources and how racism is in play.

► These texts make use of linguistic tools which clearly show

the power play and highlights the unequal distribution of
power between the dominant groups and the minorities.
 Theme
► The theme for this presentation is racism and otherization
present within an intercultural society.

► The texts discussed portrays both the old and new forms
of racism

► These texts show how even in this day, racism is subtly

embedded in the language and discourse used.
 Definitions
► Intercultural Communication- Communication between people of
different social groups. Culture has an influence in the communication
taking place (Spencer-Oatley,2006).

► Racism- The ideology, structure and process involved when viewing a

different ethnic group and the act of dominance and use of power
from one group over the rest.

Two types of racism:

► Old racism- Overt and unapologetic form of racism displayed towards
the minorities.
► New racism- Democratic and respectable form of racism, where
minorities are not seen as inferior but different and need guidance to
correct their “deficiencies”.
► Otherization- As described by Holliday et al. (2004), individuals tend to
assign identity for themselves and their cultures tend to construct an
idea on how to read and understand those of different cultures.
 Text One: For One Night

Image source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/For_One_Night_oficial_p
oster.jpg
 Context of the text
Background information:
► The movie starring Raven Symone and Aisha Tyler was
directed by Ernest R. Dickerson.

► The movie based on a true life story, is about racism

towards the African Americans by the Americans

► The film focuses on how an African American, with the

help of a freelance reporter and her senior from her
school, reverse the years of racist traditions of having
segregated proms for the Whites and Blacks and manage
to have an integrated prom for one night, making
history.
 Context
► For one night is a film inspired by a true story, of Gerica McCary who
in 2002 made news by planning an integrated prom in her school
Taylor County high school. There has been a segregated prom
because the school had stopped funding for proms due to interracial
dating.

Target Audience:
► This movie is mainly targeted at youths to show that racism still exists
today and also to educate them to change their views. It shows that
isolatio is created if people are segregated and it is unfair to both the
Blacks and Whites as they had grown up together but not allowed to
graduate together.
► It is aimed also at Americans, who have a mixture of ethnicities around
them and people with different socioeconomic status demographics.
 Student Gerica McCary who made headlines in 2002 by
bringing national attention to Butler, Georgia

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/01/national/main551926.shtml

Shandra Hill Smith, a freelance Image sources:

journalist who focussed media http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/shandra-hill-smith
attention towards the fight of an
http://foronenightmovie.blogspot.com/2011/09/real-gerica-mccrary-aka-gerica-
integrated prom. mcrary.html
Source: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0503-03.htm Source:
http://nyourwill.blogspot.com/2006/03/pro
ms-divided-by-race.html
 Racism in play
Some excerpts from the movie:
► B: I just don’t understand, Carla wasn’t suspended.
P: I have all the facts and you don’t.
B: Is it because Marvin is Black?
P: Brianna, you know me better than that.
B: They both broke the rules.
P: And they both are being disciplined appropriately. Look,
one size fits all is not how I do things here.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmiiqe_I7WY (56
secs to 1:30 sec)
 Racism in Play
► B: It’s not an original idea y’know, most schools have one senior prom.
D: Yeah, but y’know this is Mersey A and we’re not just talking about
any prom, we’re talking about an integrated prom.
B: No one says ‘integrated’ about our schools any more
D: Just cause someone doesn’t say a word out loud, doesn’t mean they
are not thinking it. Sure, nobody says ‘segregated’ about school either.
Ya, I went to school here too and we called it “Black Prom” and “White
Prom" and we didn’t think about it as segregated but that’s what it
was. That’s what you are fighting.
B: It’s not a fight. We’re friends, we just want to have our parties
together- it’s not that big a deal.
D: then why all the objections and the committees and the-
B: you used to live here, you know exactly how it is.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWNuoarkFGQ (1:19 mins to

2:05 mins)
 Significant features
► The most evident feature here is old racism present in this text.
It is evident that the Blacks are being shunned down because
they have coloured skins. The use of words such as
“segregation”, “integration” and “coloured people” demonstrates
this.
► The practice of having two separate proms for 31 years
illustrates clearly that the Whites do not consider the Blacks to
be of the same level as them, despite the students gaining the
same amount of education together.
► The school stopped funding for proms because of interracial
relationships. The way the Whites are acting towards the Blacks
shows that the Whites are the ones in power and the dominant
class, and do not want to engage in intercultural communication.
► Explicit racism is practised throughout this movie, where
ethnicity, social inequalities and power distribution is portrayed.
 Media’s role
► Media plays a part through the freelance journalist, Desiree Howard.
She being a Black and a former student of that school has an interest
in this issue.
► If it was not for her, this history would not have broken.
► However, media has portrayed racism too.
► No journalist from the majority group covered this issue on why this
school had two proms while the rest had one.
► When Howard brought in media attention, she and Brianna had to
fight to gain media’s and public’s attention, while many “White”
parents were disapproving of it.
► At the end, there was an integrated prom. This is where new racism is
portrayed, where there are subtle differences between the different
ethnicities.
► Media, hence, does portray racism, as they tend to favour the
majority, and only a minority speaks on behalf of another minority.
The majority are in the power position.
Text Two: When silence is yellow, not
golden

http://www.salient.org.nz/features/when-silence-is-yellow-not-golden
 Context
Background Information:
► An article written by Nicola Jean for Salient, the student
magazine of Victoria University, Wellington and published
in March 2007.
► Article is a feature on Asians in New Zealand and an
opinion in response to the cover story “Asian Angst: is it
time to send some back?” by former ACT MP Deborah
Coddington’s for North and South magazine.
► This article shows how the Asians are viewed as the
“others” and how they feel that racism is being practised
towards them and that the Asians are not represented in
New Zealand.
 Context
Target Audience:
► Students who are about to step into the working world,
where they will be socialising with people of different
ethnicities.

► It is also aimed at New Zealanders on behalf of Asian

voices.

► This text is intended for those who are concerned with the
immigration policy especially concerning those who come
from the Asian countries.
 Context
Style of text:
► The article is written in formal and academic style with
words such as “launched”, “prominent” and “latent
racism”.

► The quotes presented in the article maintain the formality

with words such as “atrocious”, “unreserved apology” and
“miscommunication”.

► The tone of the article is analytical as well as the quotes

are objective as those concerned are of an Asian culture.
 Racism in play

► As said by Potter, all mainstream news values have racial inflection.

► The headline reads “when silence is yellow, not golden”.
► Reading from the headlines it is known that the article is based on the
Chinese as they are termed as “yellow-skinned”.
► The term “yellow” also appears within the article in paragraphs 19 and
23 in the form of “yellow peril” and in paragraphs 28 and 29 as
“banana in a nutshell”, which performs as a synonym as “yellow”.
► This portrays overt racism.
 Racism in Play
► “Quotes admit only of those in power and influence and
neglect opinions of those who are powerless.” (Teo, 2000).
► In addition, “ minorities are largely silent and are hardly
quoted or quoted with distance and suspicion” (van Dijk,
2000).
► One of the sources in this text states that he had given an
interview to Coddington for her article and the way in
which she quoted him made it seem that “use of my quote
would have given the impression that I supported her
views – which I most definitely do not”
► The source is a minority and an Asian and hence, his quote
was altered.
 Racism in Play
► However, it is not only the Asians migrants that have to
face the racism.

► Those New Zealand born Chinese also face racism.

► These people are termed “banana” which means yellow on

the outside and white on the inside. This is indicated to
Chinese born in New Zealand.
 Otherization
► “Sandwiched between tales of drug pushers and
kidnappers is the claim that between 1996 and 2005
crimes committed by “Asiatics” – that is, Asian migrants
excluding those from the Indian subcontinent – increased
by fifty per cent.” (Kean, 2007, para 7)
► This statement shows that Asians are considered as
“others” and do not fit in among the New Zealanders. The
Asians are read as “ Asiatics” and as mentioned by the
author earlier that the prior article named Asians as
criminals.
 Significant features
► This text has exemplified racism in New Zealand towards
the Asian migrants and anyone who is Asian looking
► New racism is present in this text, where it is not directly
told to the Chinese, but expressed in indirect matters.
More often, people stereotype the Chinese to be
committing the crimes.
► The Asians do not feel comfortable and do not feel that
they have blended in with the New Zealand culture
because of the way they are treated.
► Kean ends her article well, as she states that having colour
in the society is beneficial and that now there is mostly
stereotypes and new racism.
 Media’s role
► In this text, media has played a role of disseminating the
message from the minorities.
► Nicola Kean has covered this feature on the minorities and how
they felt about the article published prior to this feature.
► It is reflected in this feature that the Asians were not featured
well in the prior article and their quotes were altered with.
► Coddington’s article had unequal power distribution where she
focuses on viewpoints of the New Zealanders and not of Asians.
► In this article, the power is distributed towards the Asians and
mainly Chinese are focussed on. Chinese seems to represent the
Asian population. However, the other Asian migrants are not
represented in this article.
► Even in the New Zealand television, Asians are not represented
much and because of this they do not engage in the media due
to the miscommunication.
 Conclusion
► Both texts have represented the different racism methods and how
media has portrayed them.
► Racism is embedded in our everyday lives. We may start off with
holding stereotypes which may lead to a racist action.
► As stated by Van Dijk “discourse plays a fundamental role in the
formation of racist beliefs and in the discriminatory practices based on
these beliefs” (2005, pg 9-10).
► Media is influential in creating racist attitudes especially amongst those
who have little contact with members of minority groups.
► Media decides what is to be represented to the people and how much
and hence the dominant are in power as they are shown more in the
media.
► Because there is little coverage on the minorities and the minorities are
portrayed in a bad light, stereotypes are formed and this creates
racism.
 References
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Colour blind racism and the
persistence of racial inequality in the United States (2nd ed.). Lanham:
Rowman & Littlefield
Dijk, T.A.V. (2000). New(s) Racism: A discourse analytical approach. In S.
Cottle (Ed.), Ethnic minorities and the media (pp. 33-49). Buckingham,
UK: Open University Press.
Holliday, A., Hyde, M., & Kullman, J. (2004). Interculural communicaion: An
advanced resource book. London: Routeledge
Kean, N. (2007, Mar 5). When Silence is Yellow, Not Golden. Retrieved from:
http://www.salient.org.nz/features/when-silence-is-yellow-not-golden
Minor, E. (2009, Feb 11). Ga. Students Plan Whites-Only Prom. Retrieved
from:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/01/national/main551926.shtml
Proms divided by race. (2006, March 13). Retrieved from:
http://nyourwill.blogspot.com/2006/03/proms-divided-by-race.html
 References
Spencer-Oatley, H. (2006). Sociolinguistics and intercultural
communication. In U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheir & P. Trudgill
(Eds.), Sociolinguistics/soziolinguistik. An international handbook of the
science of language and society (Vol. 3, pp.2537-2546). Berlin: Mouton
de Grutyer
Teo, P. (2000). Racism in the news. A critical discourse analysis of news
reporting in two Australian newspapers. (pp. 18-20). Discourse &
Society,11(1), 7-49.
Younge, G. (2003, May 3). White-Only Proms: Dancing to an Old
Southern Segregationist Tune. Published by Guardian: UK Retreived
from: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0503-03.htm
X, M. Retrieved from: http://www.finestquotes.com/select_quote-
category-Media-page-0.htm