“Those Nation Wreckers are Suffering from Inferiority Complex”: The Depiction of Chinese Miners in the Ghanaian Press

This article studies the depiction of Chinese miners in the Ghanaian news website entitled Modern Ghana. A total of 87 articles comprising 43752 words were retrieved. Van Leeuwen’s (2008) theory of the representation of the social actors was utilised to examine the depiction of Chinese miners in the Ghanaian press. In this regard, six applicable tools were used and these include exclusion, role allocation, genericization and specification, assimilation, indetermination and differentiation, and functionalization and identification. Furthermore, Van Dijk’s (1998a) ideological square theory was also implemented to investigate the depiction of the Self and the Other. The results of the study indicated that the Chinese miners in Ghana are regularly depicted in a negative way because they are believed to be a direct cause for the killing of several Ghanaians and also the destruction of the Ghanaian environment. It is hoped that this research, with its multifaceted analysis of discourse, will provide awareness to readers regarding the way certain social actors are represented in media discourse.