'All of a sudden for no reason they've been displaced': Constructing the 'contingent refugee' in early media reports on the Ukrainian refugees

This paper analyzes descriptions of Ukrainian refugees in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Findings of previous research on news media descriptions of refugees point to problematic descriptions of refugees that downgrade their deservingness of refuge and treat refugee status as an inherent feature of fleeing individuals instead of as contingent on external circumstances. However, there is a widespread perception that Ukrainian refugees are being reported on in a more positive light. We therefore examine how news media describe these refugees. Our corpus includes English media news coverage from February 25, 2022, to March 25, 2022, the initial period of the invasion. A discursive psychological analysis of news interactions where hosts elicit information from correspondents about current ongoings with Ukrainian refugees shows that Ukrainian refugees are constructed as vulnerable, and their actions are treated as reasonable given the situation. These descriptions construct Ukrainian refugees as those who are only contingently refugees and legitimate help-giving by other parties. Our findings, therefore, highlight distinct, previously unanalyzed ways that refugees are constructed: contingent refugees. We discuss implications of our findings for understanding refugee inclusion and exclusion.

'My countrymen have never disappointed me': Politics of service in Modi's speeches during Covid-19

In this paper I study discursive practices of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the pandemic, political leadership across the globe had to take tough decisions such as restrictions on the social and personal lives of individuals. This meant addressing concerns over ensuring compliance with these restrictions. I examine how Modi managed these concerns in his communication with the Indian polity over TV and radio broadcasts. I do so in instances where Modi gave specific instructions about following restrictions or other COVID appropriate behaviours. Using discourse analysis, I analyse data from two prominent ways of communicating in the pandemic, Mann Ki Baat and addresses to the nation. Analyses show that Modi developed two sets of non-electoral relations across his communication, which treated compliance as normatively expected: a) between Modi and Indians and b) among Indians themselves. These relations made way for treating audiences as those who are in specific social roles where duty and service were normative. Instructions and their compliance were embedded in these roles and treated as expected and consequently moral acts. Modi's discursive practices worked to perform a politics of service and duty, where compliance is ultimately treated as expected service.

'A police officer shot a Black man': Racial categorization, racism, and mundane culpability in news reports of police shootings of black people in the United States of America

The current socio-political circumstances in the United States (US), constituted by the increasing visibility of police shootings of Black people, present a compelling moment for analysing how news media report about law enforcement, culpability, and racism. This paper conducts a membership categorization analysis of recent news media reports of police shootings of Black people (May 2020-October 2020) and investigates how news media negotiate culpability of agents involved these shootings. Findings illustrate how news reports (1) use the repeated category formulation 'police shooting of a Black man' to imply police are culpable for engaging in racist shootings, (2) upgrade culpability of police officers through adding to racial categorization of victims in ways that foreground victims' moral character (e.g., 'unarmed Black man'), and (3) highlight racism as an explanation for shootings and culpability of police through using racial categorizations for police officers. Overall, news media reports use racial categories as a resource to construct racism as an explanation for police shootings and to construct police officers and policing institutions as culpable for these shootings. Thus, we highlight how race and racism are constitutive of, and inseparable from, culpability in news media reports.

'Her choice of course': Negotiating legitimacy of 'choice' in abortion rights deliberations during the 'Repeal the Eighth' movement in Ireland

Discourses of 'choice' are routinely involved in sexual and reproductive rights' advocacy. In this article, we offer a discursive psychological examination of how 'choice' is oriented to, in online deliberations on the ongoing movement for abortion rights in Ireland. Comment posters treated 'choice' as involving outcomes of and motives for choosing, in negotiating legitimacy of women's rights to choose. These accompanied alternative versions of women, either as independent or as intimately bound up with pregnancy/motherhood, which were flexibly used in negotiation legitimacy of women's rights to 'choice' in abortion practices. Choice advocacy is then situated in particular discursive practices.