Refugees in British Media Coverage : A Study of Dehumanizing Conceptual Metaphors

Sammanfattning: This study exemplifies, analyses and discusses the conceptual metaphors refugees are water and refugees are animals in British media discourse. In order to do this, examples of linguistic tokens of the metaphors were collected from four of the biggest newspapers in Britain; Daily Mail, The Sun, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph. Linguistic tokens of the metaphors were found in all of the newspapers. The tokens of refugees are animals often appeared within quotation marks, whereas the refugees are water tokens appeared mostly unmarked, implying that refugees are water is more conventionalized than refugees are animals. The analysis of the tokens showed how different aspects of refugees are either highlighted or hidden when it is conceptualized in terms of water or animals. In the process of highlighting/hiding certain aspects of refugees, the refugees are dehumanized.