The role of stylistic features in constructing representations of Muslims and France in English online news about terrorism in France

Part of a larger study on style and cultural representation in the online news of three European countries, this article examines a corpus of news articles from the online versions of The Guardian and The Telegraph about the terrorist attack that took place in Nice, France in July 2016. Specifically, modality, use of the term ‘jihad’, and treatment of ‘integration’ and of Muslims are analyzed, and instances of alliteration and metaphor observed, to determine how these elements contribute to shaping journalistic representation of the event, Muslims and French society more generally. Preliminary findings suggest that both English news sources sometimes use modality to give suppositions a patina of fact, but that The Telegraph uses ‘reportedly’ and ‘alleged(ly)’ more often. In addition, The Guardian journalists sometimes misuse the term ‘jihad’ and its derivatives, despite the clear indications about this term that are provided in the editorial guidelines, while this does not occur in The Telegraph articles. The news sources also address the topics of integration and Muslims in diverging ways, which in turn lead to distinct portrayals of French society. These differences may be tied to the political affiliations of the sources or to journalist identity, and merit further research.