FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ PERCEIVED BIAS IN NEWS REPORTS

Abstract

As newspapers add their interpretations while reconstructing the representation of events, news reports are open to ideological influences. Although ideologies latent in discourse can be revealed with a functional text analysis, opinions other than an analyst’s must also be consulted in ideological analyses. In this study, 25 freshmen chosen as naive informants were asked to rank news reports about shoe assaults on Bush and Erdogan in terms of the bias they impart and to indicate the linguistic items that affect their perceptions. An open-ended question was administered to determine their views on in which case the event was reported more neutrally. The frequency of the data was calculated in Excel. Consequently, it was accepted by the students that newspapers exhibit a biased attitude in the report of similar assaults. Students’ perception of bias was most influenced by lexico-grammatical devices like word choice for process and participants, voice choice and specification of agency.

Keywords

• Ideology, bias, functional text analysis

HABER METİNLERİNDE ÖĞRENCİLERCE ALGILANAN YANLILIĞIN İŞLEVSEL ÇÖZÜMLEMESİ

Abstract

Gazeteler olayların gösterimini yeniden kurgularken kişisel yorumlarına da yer verdiğinden haber metinleri ideolojik etkilere açıktır. Söylemde gizli ideoloji işlevsel metin çözümlemesiyle ortaya çıkarılabilse de ideolojik çözümlemelerde çözümleyicininkinden başka görüşlere de başvurulmalıdır. Bu çalışmada saf bilgilendirici seçilen 25 birinci sınıf öğrencisinden Bush ile Erdoğan’a ayakkabılı saldırı haberlerini bildirdikleri yanlılığa göre sıralamaları ve algılarını etkileyen dilsel öğeleri belirtmeleri istenmiştir. Hangi durumda olayın daha yansız aktarıldığına ilişkin görüşlerini belirlemek için ise açık uçlu bir soru yöneltilmiştir. Verilerin sıklığı Excel’de hesaplanmıştır. Sonuçta, benzer saldırıların aktarımında gazetelerin yanlı bir tutum sergilediği öğrencilerce onanmıştır. Öğrencilerin yanlılık algısı en çok süreç ve katılımcı gösteriminde kullanılan sözcükler, çatı seçimi ve kılıcıların belirtimi gibi sözcüksel-dilbilgisel araçlardan etkilenmiştir.

Keywords

• İdeoloji, yanlılık, işlevsel metin çözümlemesi.

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