The Social Construction of Evil:

A Case Study in

Newspaper Reporting

A Call to War

Chapter 1

“Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.” (WP September 12, 2001)

The term evil is first applied to the action involved.

“Today our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature.” (WP September 12, 2001)

Evil becomes an entity.

“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.”

(WP September 12, 2001)

On September 12, 2001 at the National Cathedral and later that day at ground zero in NY.

“Our responsibility to history is clear:

to answer these attacks

And rid the world of evil.”

(WP September 12, 2001)

Op-Ed Finger Pointing

Laurie Mylorie (2001) in A Study of Revenge points a finger at Saddam Hussein as having a reason to attack the U.S.

(Hoagland, September 11, 2001)

Op-Ed expresses strong reactions.

Steve Dunleavy, “Kill the bastards, blow them to smithereens, bomb them into basketball courts.” (Kurtz, September 13, 2001)

Former Sec. of State Geo. Shultz, “You can’t mount a systematic attack like this unless have a place to plan and train. …So states that harbor terrorists look out.”

(Mufson, September 12, 2001)

Problem StatementProblem Statement

The social construction of evil framing the

present conflict that the U.S. is currently

involved in is worth sociological

investigation because it informs our

understanding of how social problems are

presented to the public.

Research Questions

1. Is the use of the term ‘evil’ associated with particular imagery in the media?

2. What role did or does President Bush and or his administration play in the claims-making process?

3. Is ‘evil’ associated with other terms or themes and do these associations change over time?

Literature Review

Chapter 2

Gains perspective on our present by exploring the past as represented in news reports and many aspects of popular culture.

Blends interpretive, ethnographic, and ethnomethodological approach with ‘media logic’. It is also crosses several perspectives including symbolic interactionism, structuralism, and cultural studies.

Tracking Discourse

‘Media Logic’ refers to the assumptions and processes of constructing messages within a particular medium. This includes rhythm, grammar, and format.

“Format’ is singularly important because it refers to the rules or codes for defining, selecting, organizing, representing, and recognizing information as one thing rather than another, i.e. “evening news.”

Terms

Terms

‘Symbolic Interaction’ suggests that the impact of any message is its contribution to the definition.

‘Structuralism’ stresses the cultural contexts of messages, suggesting more meaningful communication resonates with deeply held and take-for-granted meanings and relationships between a symbolic signifier and its referent, or the signified.

‘Cultural studies’ draws on a Marxist view of the production of reality, draws attention to the essential role of mass-mediated messages in sustaining the status quo.

It is the distinctive media logic and format of TV reports that separate them from newspaper reports

TV signals importance by the order that the item is placed in the newscast and the time it is given.

Newspaper signal importance by location (front page), number of column inches, and photos.

Some Distinctions

Nuances

Other perspective that will be used in the study are:

Moral Panics — ben Yehuda (1994)

Labeling — Becker (1963)

Claims-Making — Spector & Kitsuse ([1977] 2001)

Loseke (2003) and Best (2001)

Spectacle — Edleman (1988)

Chapter 3

Methodology

◆◆ Research Strategy and Rationale ◆◆

I intend to examine the media’s discursive framework

centering on “evil” brought about by terrorist acts and

its closely related element of fear.

Two classical elements are at work in my analytical framework —the hermeneutical perspective and Weber’s verstehen.

Hermeneutics is a special approach to the understanding and interpretation of published documents.

Verstehen is a rational procedure of study involved with doing systematic and rigorous research (Ritzer 2000).

Altheide’s tracking discourse perspective is a longitudinal study (10 years) that followed the use of “fear” in the media in the social construction of a culture of fear, across different media.

I will limit my study to the Washington Post during the period January 2001 through March 2003. In place of fear I will substitute “evil.”

Disadvantages

The magnitude of published news reports.

The dangers of research bias entering into the selection of material and interpretation of data.

AdvantagesTacking Discourse has a link to Grounded Theory.

Grounded theory provides systematic procedure for shaping and handling rich qualitative materials.

Allows for simultaneous involvement in data collection and analysis phases of research.

Creation of analytical categories developed from data and not from a preconceived hypothesis.

Sampling for theory construct and not for representation of a given population.

ThanksThanks

The The endend…

Questions