| Since the events of September 11, 2001, the western world has developed a deep interest in understanding the Islam and the area of the Middle East. Many American and German newspapers reflect this interest in the Middle East and its people. For this reason, this study will look at the discourse of 60 editorials published in three major American newspapers and three major German newspapers (10 each) between the years 2001 and 2005. In doing so, this study adheres to the principles of discourse analysis and melds them with some in-depth analysis of the society characteristic of critical discourse analysis with focus on the word and collocation levels. The purpose is to analyze how Middle Easterners and Muslims in general are represented in the editorial discourse. In addition to that, this study looks at the similarities and differences among the newspapers' editorials studied. |
