This paper explores the multimodal realization of social polarization in European digital news through the construction of threat. Drawing from both Media and Communication Studies and Cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis, this study investigates how media framing and event-construal operations shape news interpretations through a proximization strategy. For this purpose, a multilingual sample of 73 European newsbites about the attack on Brazilian congress by the followers of Former President Jair Bolsonaro was collected. The analysis reveals several framing devices and construal operations that present the events in Brazil as relevant and potentially threatening to European audiences. Findings indicate that media framing encourages European readers to sympathize with Brazil’s current government under Lula da Silva, while portraying Bolsonaro’s supporters as an imminent threat, thereby reflecting and reinforcing polarization in public perception. These results offer valuable insights for media discourse analysts, cognitive linguists, and researchers examining polarized discourse.
Alonso-BelmonteIPortoMD (2020) Multimodal framing devices in European online news. Language and Communication71: 55–57.
2.
Alonso-BelmonteIPortoMD (eds) (2025) Discursos Polarizados. Modos, medios y estrategias. Comares.
3.
Alonso-BelmonteIPortoMDRomanoM (eds) (in preparation) Polarized Discourse: Language, Cognition and Social Practice. De Gruyter Mouton.
4.
AzzimontiMFernandesM (2023) Social media networks, fake news, and polarization. European Journal of Political Economy76: 102256.
5.
BjornsgaardKDukićS (2023) The media and polarisation in Europe: Strategies for local practitioners to address problematic reporting. Radicalisation Awareness Network and European Commission. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
6.
Blanco-HerreroDArcila-CalderónCTorrealbaMT (2024) Pandemia, polarización y odio: características de la desinformación en España. Estudios Sobre el Mensaje Periodístico30(3): 503–515.
7.
CapP (2013) Proximization theory and critical discourse studies: A promising connection?International Review of Pragmatics5(2): 293–317.
8.
CapP (2017) The Language of Fear. London: Palgrave.
9.
CapleH, (2017) Visual media. In: CotterCPerrinD (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Media. London/New York: Routledge, pp.230–243.
10.
ChenLZhangDHeY, et al (2020) Transcultural political communication from the perspective of proximization theory: A comparative analysis on the corpuses of the Sino–US trade war. Discourse & Communication14(4): 341–361.
11.
ChiltonPA (2005) Discourse space theory: Geometry, brain and shifting viewpoints. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics3: 78–116.
12.
ChiltonPA (2014) Language, Space and Mind. The Conceptual Geometry of Linguistic Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
13.
D’AngeloP (2017) Framing: Media frames. In: RoesslerPHoffnerCAVan ZoonenL (eds) The International Encyclopedia of Media Effects. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.634–644.
14.
De VreeseCH (2003) Framing Europe: Television News and European Integration. Amsterdam: Aksant.
15.
De VreeseCH (2005) News framing theory and typology. Information Design Journal + Document Design13(1): 48–59.
16.
DirvenRPolzenhagenFWolfHG (2010) Cognitive linguistics, ideology, and critical discourse analysis. In: GeeraertsDCuyckensH (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, Oxford: Oxford Academic, pp.1222–1240.
17.
EntmanRB (1993) Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication43: 51–58.
18.
Filardo-LlamasLMorales-LópezEFloydA (2021) Socio-political Polarization and Conflict. Discursive Approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.
19.
FillmoreC (1982) Frame semantics. In (edited by the Linguistic Society of Korea) Linguistics in the Morning Calm: Selected Papers from SICOL-1981. Seoul: Hanshin Publishing Company, pp.111–137.
20.
FletcherRJenkinsJ (2019) Polarisation and the news media in Europe. Brussels: Publications Office of the European Union.
21.
FloreaSWoefelJ (2022) Proximal versus distant suffering in TV news discourses on COVID-19 pandemic. Text & Talk42(3): 327–345.
22.
GoffmanE (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
23.
HampeB (2005) Image schemas in cognitive linguistics: Introduction. In: HampeBGradyJE (eds) From Perception to Meaning. Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.1–14.
24.
HartC (ed.) (2011) Critical Discourse Studies in Context and Cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
25.
HartC (2013) Event-construal in press reports of violence in political protests: A cognitive linguistic approach to CDA. Journal of Language and Politics12(3): 400–423.
26.
HartC (2014) Construal operations in online press reports of political protests. In: HartCCapP (eds) Contemporary Critical Discourse Studies. London: Bloomsbury, pp.167–188.
27.
HartCLukešD (eds) (2009) Cognitive Linguistics in Critical Discourse Analysis: Application and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
28.
IyengarSSoodGLelkesY (2012) Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly76(3): 405–431.
29.
JohnsonM (1987) The Body in the Mind. The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination and Reason. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press.
30.
KnoxJ (2007) Visual-Verbal communication on online newspaper home pages. Visual Communication6: 19–53.
31.
KowalskiG (2022) Proximization and dialogue in Internet news texts and comments. Language and Dialogue12(2): 218–244.
32.
KubinEvon SikorskiC (2021) The role of (social) media in political polarization: A systematic review. Annals of the International Communication Association45(3): 188–206.
33.
LangackerRW (2008) Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction. New York: Oxford Academic.
34.
LangackerRW (2013) Essentials of Cognitive Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
35.
MandoJStackG (2018) Convincing the public to kill: Asian Carp and the proximization of invasive species threat. Environmental Communication13(6): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1492949
36.
Marín-AlbaladejoJA (2022) La polarización discursiva como estrategia de comunicación en las cuentas de líderes y partidos políticos en Twitter. In: Arroyas LangaEPérez-DíazPLPérez-EscolarM (eds) El debate público en la red: polarización, consenso y discursos del odio. Salamanca: Comunicación Social, pp.51–68.
37.
MasipPSuauJRuiz-CaballeroC (2020) Percepciones sobre medios de comunicación y desinformación: ideología y polarización en el sistema mediático español. Profesional de la información, 29(5): 1–13.
38.
PanC (2024) A digitalized approach to discourse production and reception from the perspective of proximization theory. In: KubincováZ, et al (eds) Emerging Technologies for Education. SETE 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 14606. Singapore: Springer.
39.
PanZKosickiGM (1993) Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political Communication10(1): 55–75.
40.
PortoMDAlonso-BelmonteI (2016) Genres and online newspapers: Newsbites from a socio-cognitive perspective. In: StukkerNSpoorenWSteenG (eds) Genre in Language, Discourse and Cognition. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.277–302.
41.
RheeJW (1997) Strategy and issue frames in election campaign coverage: A social cognitive account of framing effects. Journal of Communication, 47(3): 26–48.
42.
RiazM (2021) Ideational metafunction and proximization theory: Semiotics of the fear of covid-19. Global Media Journal: Pakistan Edition13(1): 103–113.
43.
RobertsKM (2022) Populism and polarization in comparative perspective: Constitutive, spatial and institutional dimensions. Government and Opposition57(4): 680–702.
44.
RomanoMPortoMD (eds) (2016) Exploring Discourse Strategies in Social and Cognitive Interaction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
45.
RomanoMPortoMD (2021) Framing conflict in the Syrian refugee crisis: Multimodal representations in the Spanish and British press. In: Filardo-LlamasLMorales-LópezEFloydA (eds.) Discursive Approaches to Socio-political Polarization and Conflict. New York: Routledge, pp.53–173.
46.
RosaRM (2022) De las fake news a la polarización digital. Una década de hibridación de desinformación y propaganda. Más poder local50: 49–65.
47.
SnowD (2024). Polarising Press: The effect of media consumption on Brexit identity. SocArXiv Papers, 19May.
48.
SzwedekA (2023) A cognitive study of force image schemas. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum19: 7–33.
49.
TalmyL (1988) Force dynamics in language and cognition. Cognitive Science12(1): 49–100.
50.
Van DijkTA (2008) Discourse and Context: A Sociocognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51.
Van DijkTA (2014) Discourse-cognition-society. In: HartCCapP (eds) Contemporary Studies in Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Bloomsbury, pp.121–146. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472593580
52.
Van GorpB (2007) The constructionist approach to framing: Bringing culture back in. Journal of Communication57(1): 60–78.
