Discourse Construction in the Headlines of French Media Le Figaro on the Ban Hijab at the 2024 Paris Olympics

Abstract

This research aims to examine the discourse construction in the headlines of the French newspaper Le Figaro regarding the hijab ban at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The focus of the study lies in how the media represents this issue through language choices and discourse structure. This study employs a qualitative approach using Teun A. Van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis model, which encompasses macro-structural, superstructural, and micro-structural analysis (semantic, syntactic, stylistic, and rhetorical). The research data consists of five news headlines discussing the hijab ban at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The results show that Le Figaro consistently employs nominalization, incorporating external parties such as the UN, athletes, and others. It also adopts different focal points, including criticism of the UN as an international institution, the legitimacy of the policy, reactions from specific organizations, and the voices of athletes as affected parties. These issues are presented to illustrate that Le Figaro aims to maintain neutrality in its discourse, obscuring its alignment with any particular side, and seeks to position itself as an objective source of information. Based on this analysis, Le Figaro is indeed a media outlet that is both liberal and conservative. It is liberal because it features external parties expressing negative opinions regarding this policy, and conservative because it also explains the policy’s legitimacy under the legal framework of the Olympics.