The article is minimally exaggerated unlike most tabloid newspapers and the language being used in the article seems to be targeting educated readers. The style of the languages used is what makes it attractive to the targeted audience and this will help to increase the producer’s profit, as they will keep maintaining their readership.
The reporter for this article uses the word Syrian forces to describe the army in Syria. This language shows that in reality the army are probably very forceful and we also see lexical mapping with the adjective forces being used with the main character in the story, which is Syria, i.e. the protagonist in this story. As you go through the article a clearer picture is given of the incident that took place and we have a better idea of who has acted violently. Presupposition is being used in the article also with some of the verbs which alter the situation like where it talks about how the ICRC would be allowed in and this influences the reader in the opposite way subliminally because the situation is “...an example of a text in which a newspaper expresses sympathy with the underdog, affirms the need for reform of the system, but in which the overtly reforming aims of the article are gainsaid, in its own discourse, by the power, the ideological entrenchment, of the status quo...”(Fowler, 1991:124,134).
It is very strange that the author of the article is trying to make it seem like things are under control as we read further rather than making the president feel condemned and this is probably due to the fact that the newspaper is trying to protect its image and also that of the country.
The issues that have taken place in Syria are well criticised and substantial detail is given of the incident like where it gives a report from one of the sources that says “They used bayonets on the end of their guns to stab the men in the back. One grabbed a prisoner by the hair and slit his throat” (Sherlock and Blair, 05.03.12).
The reader also gets more information with the transactive statement gotten from the source whose cousin is said to have been involved in the whole scenario but was able to escape when the men retreated. He said, “They laid the men on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and their faces pressed to the floor.”
There is also the use of transitivity in the report where it says, “In this blackout, rumours have swirled of ‘massacres’ committed by the Syrian regime”. (Sherlock and Blair,05.03.12) The Syrian regime is implicated in this situation as an agent of the massacres and massacres could be seen as a form of nominalization as it masks the full details of the situations exactly which have been committed by the Syrian regime. “…By acting in this way, it can hide the agents of decisions because events appear to be spontaneous and self explanatory”(Cornboy, 2007: 65). The word regime also used could be seen as another form of nominalization as it probably means the presidents tenure but is not directly saying that due to reasons unknown.
A lot of modal words have been used in this article and it has given the reporter a lot of opportunity to give their opinion. An example is where the reporter say “…the Syrian regime bows to pressure yesterday and said that Baroness Amos...would be allowed to visit Damascus on Wednesday”. (Sherlock and Blair, 05.03.12) The modality is mainly expressed through verbs in this case.
There is some fact but mainly third party facts not from people who were directly involved in the incident.
The orientation of the media is based on the cultural and current political system so I believe that is why the president has not been greatly condemned in this article because the opinions of powerful people in the society is reproduced by journalism. (Richardson, 2007). At the end of the day there is a symbiosis between the media and the political system. The media can only get their stories from the government and the government can also only send their messages across through the media.
Bibliography:
Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and Power. London and New York: Longman. p5.
Sherlock, R. Blair, D. (05.03.12). Syrian forces ‘carrying out mass arrests and executions’ in Homs. [Online]
Conboy, M. (2007). The Language of the News. London and New York: Routledge. p65.
Richardson, J. (2007). Analyzing Newspapers. Macmillan.
Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press London and New York: Routledge. p124,134.
Syrian forces 'carrying out mass arrests and executions' in Homs
Syrian forces are carrying out mass arrests and summary executions in Baba Amr, the former rebel stronghold in the city of Homs, according to a growing body of evidence.
Syrian rebels gather in front of the remains of a burnt military vehicle belonging to Syrian government forces, Homs province Photo: AP
By Ruth Sherlock, in Beirut and David Blair
7:07PM GMT 05 Mar 2012
The accounts of atrocities coincide with the regime's continued refusal to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to enter Baba Amr, which was captured by the army last week.
President Bashar al-Assad's regime has broken an earlier assurance that the ICRC would be allowed in, suggesting that his army is trying to cover up the aftermath of the fighting.
A resident of Homs styling himself Abu Abdo told the Daily Telegraph how his 17-year-old cousin was caught up in a bloody reprisal attack in Baba Amr carried out by government troops and militiamen from Mr Assad's Alawite sect.
"They laid the men on the ground. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and their faces pressed to the floor," said Abu Abdo. "The soldiers began jumping and dancing across the bodies of the alive men, and hitting them on their backs with their rifle butts."
As they beat their victims, the militiamen, known as the "Shabiha", were laughing and jeering. Abu Abdo's cousin remembered them saying: "Do you think you will get your freedom now oh terrorist?"
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After tormenting their captives, the soldiers and militiamen began executing them. "They used bayonets on the ends of their guns to stab the men in the back. One grabbed a prisoner by the hair and slit his throat," said Abu Abdo. Four men were killed in this way.
But the frenzied brutality became too much for one of the militiamen. "He grabbed the shoulder of the others, and told them to stop," said Abu Abdo. The man is believed to have said: "If we are going to kill them, then let's shoot them." The men retreated and Abu Abdo's cousin was able to escape.
A Syrian woman told the BBC that security forces slit the throat of her 12-year-old son last Friday after the rebels had retreated from Baba Amr. She claimed 35 other men and boys had been detained and killed in the same attack.
These accounts cannot be independently verified. Since its capture last week after 26 days of continuous bombardment, Baba Amr has been sealed off.
In this blackout, rumours have swirled of "massacres" committed by the Syrian regime. The numbers have fluctuated wildly, with claims that dozens of civilians had been found hacked to death.
But videos posted online and the accounts of civilians who have fled into neighbouring Lebanon leave little doubt of the violence they have left behind. One video, posted the day after Baba Amr was captured, shows a pile of male corpses in a truck. Their bodies are wrapped in blankets and carpeted by falling snow, their faces bearing what appear to be stab wounds. The top of one man's skull has been removed, a wound that seems too clean cut to have been inflicted by shrapnel.
Many of the accounts focus on a government co-operative building in Baba Amr where hundreds of detainees are allegedly being held. Last week, reports suggested that ten prisoners were executed at this location.
While keeping aid workers out of the most sensitive areas, the Syrian regime bowed to pressure yesterday and said that Baroness Amos, the United Nations under-secretary for humanitarian affairs, would be allowed to visit Damascus on Wednesday. She is expected to press for aid agencies to be free to deliver help wherever it is needed.
Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general who has been appointed an envoy to Syria, will also be permitted to visit Damascus on Saturday.
by
ladysov (student)
