lehreonline.net - Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hoinkes

Sara-Ann Simon

Sara-Ann Workshop

        Sara-Ann Simon (MEd)

         (Kiel University)

    


After Charlie Hebdo - Optimism and Hope or Resentment and Revenge? An International and Interlingual Discourse Analysis on the Basis of French and Spanish Printed Mass Media

In 2015, France declares the state of emergency.
At the very start of 2015, on 7 January, the editorial offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo became victim of an Islamic motivated terror attack. The two brothers belonging to Al-Qaida, shot 11 persons, hurt several persons present and killed a policeman during the escape. Until the day of the attacks on the Bataclan, theses aggressions were the deadliest in France since 1961. On the evening of 13th November of the same year, a series of jihadist-motivated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris. The attackers killed 130 people, including 89 in the Bataclan concert hall.

The attacks on Charlie Hebdo in January, against the Bataclan in November and other attacks that claimed more lives, raised difficult questions about issues ranging from free speech and satire to immigration, religion, diversity and extremism in a civil society.

The idea of my research work is to analyze all the sentiments people express in traditional medias of Romance countries (mainly France and Spain) in order to make a data-based assessment of the level of consensus about the value of multiculturalism and freedom. This analysis refers to a fixed period of approximately one month before and one year after the first attacks and will be done by a discourse analysis.

A discourse analysis studies larger linguistic units such as written texts in different languages, connected to social questions and problems. In my case, I will focus on the following research questions:

  • Does France and Spain react in a different way to the attacks?
  • Did the consciousness of people change? How?
  • Does people tend toward deepening the conflict in the society or toward reinforce the consensus in the society?
 

To work out these questions, I will refer to each three renowned daily French and Spanish newspapers, which are relevant to the formation of public opinion and open to European topics. Consequently, I assume that my research will be representative in democratic countries like France and Spain.

Biography

I  studied French and Spanish Philology in Kiel. During my studies, I spent several months in France and Spain. Currently I am writing my master’s thesis in Spanish literature and translation. After this, I will apply for a position of a teacher training.

During my studies, I also completed a correspondence course that enables me to teach German as a foreign language. Since one year, I work in a language school, teaching not only private and company courses, but also daily integration courses for refugees and citizens of the EU who want to learn German – an important experience and challenge for me.