M. W. Milner, "The Discursive Construction of Global Poverty:Social Justice in Media Discourse" in (Currently IN PRESS)"Forming a Culture of Peace: Reframing Narratives of Intergroup Relations, Equity, and Justice" Edited by Karyna Korostelina, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Abstract

This paper will look at an ongoing research project that seeks to examine how global poverty is constructed as a social issue in print media discourse. It uses the peace journalism framework for the reporting of conflict, first developed by Galtung (1992), as a basis for developing a Socially Responsible Journalism (SRJ) ethical framework which is then used as an analytical tool to identify various discourses of poverty in mainstream UK print media. The SRJ is designed to identify the discursive frames used in the media to report on issues of structural violence, such as poverty. The research develops linguistic indicators, drawing from critical discourse theory, to operationalize the SRJ, so how the issue of poverty was discursively constructed in the mainstream UK print media during 2005 can be better understood.

In 2005, it seemed that a tipping point of sorts regarding the need for action on global poverty had been reached, but how was global poverty being framed in the media? This research identifies various discourses of poverty in the mainstream print media and examines whether the linguistic framing of the issue of poverty reflected a social justice orientation based on the principles of human rights, or showed a more conventional fiscal orientation. The research also investigates how useful this set of critical discourse tools are in analyzing issues of structural violence in media discourse.