Topic 8 - Discourse structure and point of view > Ideological viewpoint > Task B

Ideological viewpoint

Task B - The Press

Below is an excerpt from a larger table which appeared in The Guardian on 23 January 1991. It was written during the 'Gulf War', when Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army invaded Kuwait, and American and British forces repulsed them. The table was effectively a critique of the biased ideological representation of the war in the British (mainly) tabloid press. The table was constructed on the basis of terms which had appeared in the press in the week before the article was published.

1. Look carefully at the lexical items a section at a time (beginning with the title and a general overall indication of what is happening) and how they are contrasted in the table. We have added numbers to indicate how we would like you to look at the text, section by section.
   
   
2. How are they being used (a) to represent the ideology of the majority of British newspapers and (b) to be critical of it?
   
   
3. Can the table tell us anything about the ideological viewpoint of the Guardian writer?
   
   
4. When you have worked out careful answers for each section, compare your commentary with ours by choosing the section number.
   

(Excerpt from a larger table which appeared in The Guardian, 23 January 1991)

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