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Beautifying Controversial African Politicians Through Metaphors: A Study of the Cameroonian Media Discourse

Beautifying Controversial African Politicians Through Metaphors: A Study of the Cameroonian Media Discourse

Grace Eugenie Ndobo Essoh
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 20
ISBN13: 9781522598213|ISBN10: 1522598219|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781522598220|EISBN13: 9781522598237
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9821-3.ch011
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MLA

Essoh, Grace Eugenie Ndobo. "Beautifying Controversial African Politicians Through Metaphors: A Study of the Cameroonian Media Discourse." Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication, edited by Floribert Patrick C. Endong, IGI Global, 2020, pp. 253-272. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9821-3.ch011

APA

Essoh, G. E. (2020). Beautifying Controversial African Politicians Through Metaphors: A Study of the Cameroonian Media Discourse. In F. Endong (Ed.), Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication (pp. 253-272). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9821-3.ch011

Chicago

Essoh, Grace Eugenie Ndobo. "Beautifying Controversial African Politicians Through Metaphors: A Study of the Cameroonian Media Discourse." In Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication, edited by Floribert Patrick C. Endong, 253-272. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9821-3.ch011

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Abstract

This chapter critically analyses the use of conceptual metaphors in selected Cameroonian newspapers articles aimed at beautifying or criticizing President Paul Biya and his aides. The selected articles covered a 2018 US-Cameroon diplomatic crisis triggered by US Ambassador's advice to Biya to relinquish power. In the light of a textual analysis of the corpus, the chapter argues that journalists and citizen journalists whose articles were considered for this study portrayed Biya and his close aides along a variety of metaphors. Positivity or negativity in the metaphors used in the media text generally depended on their authors' tones and editorial policies. The pro-government and neutral media voices (notably Cameroon Tribune and Mutations) mostly used metaphors such as nation building (representing Biya as an accomplished nation builder) and scaling (by which Biya and his aides were judged or rated high above standards). Meanwhile, anti-government media outlets (such as Cameroon Concords, Cameroon Post, Le Messager and Bareta News) used such metaphors as bestiality, scatology/garbage, theatre, oppression, transgression, and sickness/handicap among others, to criticize Biya's rule.

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