Making a terrorist: The discursive construction of Islamist and right-wing extremist threats in Swiss media reporting

Abstract

Dissertation｜2460442M Abstract The discourses structuring news coverage of terrorist attacks influence our understanding of the nature, drivers and severity of the threat emanating from a specific extremist actor category. Therefore, they are a powerful tool to further socio-political goals. Acknowledging the role of language in shaping reality, this dissertation project uses Critical Discourse Analysis/Critical Discourse Studies to reveal current discursive trends in the understudied coverage of Islamist and right-wing extremist attacks in the Swiss press. With the dominant social factor distinguishing the two extremist categories being ethnicity, it hypothesises that Western media discourses reflect the presuppositions of Orientalism and Critical Race Theory. Both theories expect texts to express, enact and legitimise social hierarchies based on racial affinity to solidify the supremacy of the white elite. The exemplarily analysis of the reporting of two recent extremist incidents by three newspapers representing political perspectives from the right-wing to the left-wing shows that while the Swiss press is indeed influenced by and reproduces racial inequalities, publications do so to a varying degree.