The Good Guy vs. The Bad Guy : An analysis of how American presidential inaugurations are described in British newspapers

Abstract: The aim of this essay was to demonstrate whether the descriptions of Donald Trump’s inauguration 2017 differed from Joe Biden’s inauguration 2021 in three of the biggest British newspapers: The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph. One article from each newspaper concerning the inaugurations 2017 and 2021 was investigated. Different linguistic tools such as path strategy, the inverted pyramid, whether passive or active voice was used, polysemy, quantitative iconicity, denotation or connotation, binary oppositions, metaphors and newsworthiness were focused on. The results have shown that the British newspapers reported in favor of Biden. Trump was often described with words of negative connotations such as dark, fears, anxious, grim, uncertain and testy, while Biden was often described with words of positive connotations such as rejoin, repeal, unity and fulfill. Further, Trump was often actor in sentences making him a bad guy, while Biden was often actor in sentences making him a good guy. Since Trump was often connected with negativity, news about him was considered to be of higher newsworthiness, and he was mentioned considerably more in the articles about Biden’s inauguration than the former President Obama was mentioned in the articles about Trump. Furthermore, Trump was described more than Biden, as for instance his high age was referred to, but not Biden’s age, which is higher than Trump’s. The metaphors ARGUMENT IS WAR and POLITICS IS WAR are used in articles about both presidents.