ABSTRACT
According to Fairclough (1995), much of the ideological work of the news media involves particular ways of representing the world, particular constructions of social identity. Van Dijk (1988) similarly observes that these particular constructions of social identity by the news media are not the result of “a direct or passive operation but rather a socially and ideologically controlled set of constructive strategies” (p. 28). As members of distinct social groups, news organizations are deemed to operate on the basis of sociocultural and institutionally specific ideological values, codes, and constructs that organize all interpretations, representations, social relations, and interactions. Like other news organizations, business news networks, such as Bloomberg, CNBC, and FOX Business (FBN), are likely to have internalized specific “group-based schemata of social participants, groups, institutions, and their structural relationships” (Van Dijk, 1988, p. 25). “[E]ach of these categories”, as Van Dijk (1988) elaborates, “may be further associated with sets of often stereotypical criteria that condition such categorizations, such as prototypical appearance, activities, or social situations of manifestation” (p. 25).
