ISLAMOPHOBIA AND IDEOLOGICAL POLARISATION IN WESTERN MEDIA POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON GAZA: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.7155Keywords:
Islamophobia, Critical Discourse Analysis, Ideological Square, Political Discourses, Gaza Crisis, Power and IdeologyAbstract
This study presents a critical discourse analysis of Islamophobia as discursively constructed and legitimised in Western media political discourse during live media interviews, particularly with reference to the Gaza crisis. It aims to examine how ideological polarisation discourse is systematically performed through live media interaction. Basing on van Dijk’s Ideological Square approach within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, this study analyses sixteen live media political interviews with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from 2023-2025. A qualitative approach is adopted to determine the repeated performance of positive self-representations, negative other-representations, attribution of responsibility, and moral justification. The findings indicate that ideological polarisation is systematically embedded in Western media political discourse to position Western political agents as rational, humanitarian, peace-seeking, and legitimate, while representing Muslim agents, more particularly Hamas, as source of violence, instability, threat, and illegitimate. This study argues that such polarisations function to normalise Islamophobic discourse under the excuse of security, legality, and humanitarian concern, thus reinforcing unequal power relations in Western media political discourse.
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