A critical discourse analysis of news reports: The case of Nagorno Karabakh Conflict - 2020

This study investigates the conflict reporting dynamics in news articles from Armenian and Azerbaijani media outlets concerning the protracted Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, using the socio-cognitive approach of critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk, 2006). Analyzing 24 articles from both the term of conflict's apex and the following peace negotiation phase, the study identifies discernible disparities in discursive structures influenced by political ideologies. Merging quantitative and qualitative analytical dimensions, the findings illuminate interesting trends: the conflict's zenith witnessed the predominant employment of populism, authority, and polarization as discursive tools. However, the post-conflict narrative, especially in the Azerbaijani media, exhibits a more marked inclination towards lexicalization, national self-glorification, and vagueness strategies compared to their Armenian counterparts. On a broader semantic level, the analysis helps to underscore a collective media tendency in both nations towards negative other-representation. However, post-conflict narratives in Azerbaijani media, possibly emanating from their perceived triumph in the conflict, seem to accentuate positive self-representations. The resultant insights are discussed within the academic realms of Critical Discourse Analysis, paradigms of conflict reporting, and the theory of transformative peacebuilding (Fairclough, 1995; Wolfsfeld, 2004; Lederach, 1997).