Constructions of Risks to Life in News Media
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publishing:5th Feb '26
£95.00
This title is due to be published on 5th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Investigates how British newspapers use language to discursively construct different types of risks to life: terror attacks, earthquakes, road accidents, and heart attacks.
This book investigates the construction of risks through discourse to provide new insights into the relationship between risk discourse and society.
It explores how British newspapers used language to discursively construct four different types of risks to life, namely terror attacks, earthquakes, road accidents, and heart attacks, between 2017 and 2020, examining what makes some risk events newsworthy, and how this relates to the way they are perceived.
The author offers new insights into risk reporting by using an approach combining theories and methodologies from corpus linguistics and critical discourse studies focusing on news values and risk perception. Through a focus on risks to life, related social actors, and consequences, he demonstrates salient discursive strategies found in risk reporting, including dramatisation, naturalisation, impersonalisation, blame, responsibility, and risk management. These strategies contribute differently to the construction of the risks and can potentially be linked to how the media amplify or attenuate risk perception in society, a consequence of media language use.
This interdisciplinary book goes beyond linguistics to engage with discussions related to media studies, e.g. the concentration of media ownership in the UK, and news values; risk literature, e.g. risk perception, sociological theories of risk, and risk communication; and the relationship between media and risk perception, and studies related to each risk.
In his pathbreaking book, Rakan Alibri unpacks how British newspapers amplify dramatic risks like terror attacks and earthquakes while downplaying everyday dangers such as road accidents and heart disease. Combining linguistic and discourse analysis he reveals how the media influences what we fear — and why responsible reporting matters. * Jens O. Zinn, University of Melbourne, Australia *
Constructions of Risks to Life in News Media reveals how British newspapers dramatize rare threats like terrorism while downplaying everyday killers such as heart disease and road accidents. Carefully documenting how language distorts perception and behavior, this important book shows us how to better manage health and safety risks. * Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA *
The experience of risk is only partly driven by factual evidence and statistical analysis but often dominated by perceptions inspired and shaped by media coverage of social constructions of risk. The study by Rakan Alibri provides a competent, brilliant but also provocative insight into the mechanisms and biases of risk constructions in the public media highlighting both dramatization and attenuation of the real threat. * Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Ortwin Renn, Former Director of the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies, Germany *
ISBN: 9781350530638
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
288 pages