A wall of human misery : Critical metaphor analysis and the media representation of Ukrainian refugees in the British news

Koller, Veronika (2024) A wall of human misery : Critical metaphor analysis and the media representation of Ukrainian refugees in the British news. In: Metaphor in socio-political contexts : Current crises. Applications of Cognitive Linguistics [ACL] . de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 81-106. ISBN 9783111001258

Abstract

This chapter investigates how Ukrainian refugees were represented in four different British news outlets between February and May 2022, asking what metaphor scenarios are used, what ideologies can be inferred to underlie them and what possible discourse goals they contribute to. After outlining the main tenets of critical metaphor analysis, metaphor scenarios are operationalised as consisting of participants, processes, circumstances, evaluation and modality. The qualitative analysis of 16 news articles in the chapter focuses on the first two elements. The most frequent source domains in the data are journey/movement and support, the latter of which is particularly dominant in left-wing news. Over the period, Ukrainian refugees are increasingly identified and nominated, signalling a shift towards a more personal representation. Left-wing publications refer to refugees more frequently and with greater variety. Refugees are agentive in both scenarios and represented with the widest range of emotions, but the frequency and variety of emotion lexis for Britons increase over time, especially in rightwing news. Ideologically, we find the exceptionalist narrative of Britain as welcoming being realised, while refugees are represented as weak but relatable. This latter finding differs from much of the previous literature and suggests a possible change in some news discourses.