Discourse of Domination

Words have power. From rhetoric employed by politicians to ideologies espoused by political movements, words have the capacity to shape our understanding about what the world is like, what goals are possible, and what obstacles to overcome. As such, it behooves political scientists to learn about how language plays a role in creating, consolidating and changing the developmental paths nations take and their outcomes. To this end, this dissertation examines which political discourses are dominant in Western media sources pertaining to Western developmental activity in Africa. This study will use quantitative and qualitative textual analysis to discover and categorize the ways of framing and describing African development and therefore fashioned in the minds of Western media consumers. These practices will demonstrate the instrumental role of ideologies and discursive patterns in the development field.