Constructing threat through proximization in digital news
A multimodal analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6421709 |
|---|---|
| Authors | María Dolores Porto Requejo (0000-0003-0111-9356, Universidad de Alcalá), Isabel Alonso Belmonte (0000-0001-8811-1976, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 926-945 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Discourse & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0957-9265 • E-ISSN: 1460-3624 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09579265251333449 |
| OpenAlex | W4409995151 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 38 |
This paper explores the multimodal realization of social polarization in European digital news through the construction of threat. Drawing from both Media and Communication Studies and Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis, this study investigates how media framing and event-construal operations shape news interpretations through a proximization strategy. For this purpose, a multilingual sample of 73 European newsbites about the attack on Brazilian congress by the followers of Former President Jair Bolsonaro was collected. The analysis reveals several framing devices and construal operations that present the events in Brazil as relevant and potentially threatening to European audiences. Findings indicate that media framing encourages European readers to sympathize with Brazil’s current government under Lula da Silva, while portraying Bolsonaro’s supporters as an imminent threat, thereby reflecting and reinforcing polarization in public perception. These results offer valuable insights for media discourse analysts, cognitive linguists, and researchers examining polarized discourse
Conversation analysis · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Ideology · Internet privacy · Linguistics · Media studies · Multimodality · Political science · Politics · Sociology · World Wide Web · Communication · Computer Science · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Media and Politics
The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
Cognitive Grammar
Discourse and Context
News framing
The Body in the Mind
Event-construal in press reports of violence in two recent political protests
Proximization and dialogue in Internet news texts and comments
Transcultural political communication from the perspective of proximization theory
Social media networks, fake news, and polarization
Strategy and issue frames in election campaign coverage
The role of (social) media in political polarization
Proximal versus distant suffering in TV news discourses on Covid-19 pandemic
Visual-verbal communication on online newspaper home pages
Percepciones sobre medios de comunicación y desinformación
Pandemia, polarización y odio
Convincing the Public to Kill
Multimodal framing devices in European online news
Framing analysis
Populism and Polarization in Comparative Perspective
Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition
Framing
Affect, Not Ideology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |