SHAPING NARRATIVES: PRESUPPOSITIONS IN ONLINE NEWS DISCOURSE ON THE SYRIAN CONFLICT

As an implicit assumption embedded within language, presupposition plays a critical role in shaping audience perceptions and framing narratives. In this paper, we study the use of presuppositions in online news discourse regarding the Syrian conflict in order to investigate the ideological stance reflected by the presupposed news. By employing a corpus of online news reports posted on France 24, a news website publishing in English, we use a discourse analytic approach to identify the voices expressed, the frequency and distribution of presuppositions and the presupposition triggers, and explain their resulting patterns related to ideological evaluations. The findings indicate that reporters presuppose certain outcomes and interpretations which align with the broader ideological biases. In this paper, we highlight the implicit, yet powerful ways in which news discourse can influence the audience in their coverage of social movements.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/lit/0759/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>