Sedimentation, erosion, earthquakes and eruptions of images: social representations’ reproduction and transformation in journalistic narrative

Abstract

This article suggests a connection between Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, Moscovici’s social representations theory and Lotman’s semiosphere. The paper classifies the production of meaning in journalistic reports as reproduction (the “sedimentation” of stereotypes), questioning (the “erosion” of presupposition) denial (“earthquakes” in the basis of the semiosphere) or creation (the “eruption” of new ideas) of social representations.