Cogent Social Sciences (Dec 2024)
A critical analysis of the representation of America’s withdrawal and the Taliban’s takeover in world powers’ newspaper headlines
Abstract
This study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how major world powers represented and reacted to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover in August 2021, as reflected in newspaper headlines. The data corpus comprises 76 headlines from leading national newspapers in the US, the UK, China, and Russia over a one-month period. Fairclough’s three-dimensional CDA framework was applied, focusing on textual descriptions, discursive interpretations, and explanations of broader social practices. The analysis revealed contrasting representations shaped by underlying ideologies and geopolitical interests. US headlines exhibited a pragmatic approach, cautiously exploring engagement with the Taliban. UK tabloids have adopted sensationalized condemnation, reflecting the lingering narratives of moral superiority. The Chinese and Russian media portrayed the events as a strategic victory over Western hegemony, aligning with their ambitions to challenge US dominance. Linguistic strategies such as emotive lexis, modality, and transitivity constructed diverse discursive framings - the US balancing uncertainties, the UK amplifying outrage, and China/Russia asserting triumphalism. These narratives negotiated power dynamics and reinforced divergent worldviews, resonating with broader social practices such as China’s Belt and Road, Russia’s regional influence, and Britain’s post-US vacuum concerns. The findings illuminate how media discourse is shaped by, yet also shapes the shifting geopolitical landscape. Contrasting ideological forces discursively constructs pivotal events to legitimize interests and assert dominance in an increasingly multipolar world order. This analysis contributes to understanding the media’s role in representing global conflicts through the lens of competing nationalist agendas.
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