A linguistic corpus-driven approach to American domestic politics

Abstract: Using the modern cognitive linguistic framework of recorded corpora data, this essay attempts to investigate the political climate in American domestic politics as it is represented by media in the form of newspapers. By approaching the language usage of media in a linguistically holistic way I aim to elicit subtle attitudes towards ideologies present in news press articles. This approach is carried out by analyzing the usage of certain political concepts in American newspapers together with the American magazine TIME on the assumption that the concepts vary depending on which political party is in power on a national level. The idea was to use a non-traditional way to explore the attitude towards the political parties through the concepts used to represent them in newspapers. The concepts are analyzed against the background of which of the two political parties is in power, the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, following a diachronic pattern starting with the George W. H. Bush administration in 1989 up to the current Barack Obama administration. In between these lie Bill Clinton (Democratic Party), who served two terms, and George W. Bush (Republican Party) who also served two terms. Three terms of each party in power with a representing president in the White House will serve as the background for the analysis of how political concepts are viewed in the American media. How are the ideologies treated in the media depending on which political faction is in power?