A Study of Ideological Polarization in Political Discourses

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Master of Political Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili

Abstract

A study of ideological polarizations in political discourses




Politics is a field of ideological antagonisms and oppositions that take place en route the stabilizing discursive viewpoints in a society. The current research is to study the construction of a specific ideology through investigating discursive polarizations of 'US' and 'OTHERS'. In this respect, the interview of Dr. Mohammad JavadZarif, the current minister of foreign affairs, broadcasted in a TV talk show named as "Night Vision" was chosen as the corpus. The corpus was analyzed according to the principals of Critical Discourse Analysis by using Van Dijk's "ideological Square". According to the analyses, it is evident that Zarif assigns positive features to the polar of 'US' while he describes 'OTHERS' with negative characteristics. In conclusion, we tried to find out what would be the consequence of achieving hegemony through constructing discursive polarizations in the society; it was argued that such constructivist circumstances may confront a society with plurality of political identities. Therefore, according to political advantages, political discourses transmit social individuals from one polar to another.

Keywords