Response to language used in articles describing Polish president's death

For the past few days, the news of Polish President Kacynski's death has dominated news networks, examined and discussed by various media sources. In response to this proliferation of news, I examined three different online news sources in three different languages: an AlJazeera article written in English, an ElMundo.es article written in Spanish, and a ChosonIlbo article written in Korean. I juxtaposed the language used in these sources describing Kacynski's death with that of mainstream American news sources (such as CNN) and found the differences quite interesting. Following my instructor's suggestion, I focused my examination on the different words and phrases used to describe Kacynski's death. I deviated slightly from the exact instructions - which were to find five sources from the same country in that country's official language - and found three different sources in three different languages instead to focus more closely on the difference between American and foreign news coverage.

Out of the four sources I studied, the CNN.com article was the only news source to claim that President Kacynski was "killed" in the plane crash (in the actual news headlines). The AlJazeera article, written in English, mentions that the President "dies" in the headline (but later gives details of the crash - "... killing all 135 passengers on board." The Korea ChosonIlbo article's headline reads: "폴란드 대통령 부부 탄 비행기 추락, 97명 전원사망" which literally translates into "Poland President and First Lady in Plane Crash, 97 person powerful disaster." The term "kill" or even "death" is entirely absent from the headline. The ElMundo similarly avoids mentioning the Spanish verb "to kill" - matar. ElMundo's headline reads: "Muere el presidente del Polonia al estrellarse su avión en Rusia" - "The President of Poland dies in his airplane crash in Russia." The language within the article avoids mentioning "kill" as well: su gabinete presidencial y los principales jefes del Ejército del país han perdido la vida ..." - the presidential cabinet and the Supreme judges of the country have lost their lives. Another example reads: "En la catástrofe han muerto 97 personas," which in this context loosely translates into "the catastrophe has killed 97 personas," but with the verb "morir" which holds a different connotation to the verb "matar." All three foreign sources' headlines differ significantly to the CNN article's headlines, which reads "Plane crash kills Polish president."

A plane crash killed the Polish president. If this statement were translated into most other non-English languages, the connotations would imply that the plane crash - a living, sentient being - had the motive and capability to murder the Polish president. I think that's why most foreign news sources avoided using the verb "to kill" directly in its respective language. So why do reputable American news sources, written in American English, use the term "to kill" so loosely? This frequent use of "kill" surfaces in other news reports across all networks as well. Just this week, I heard on TV that a car crash "killed" an entire family and that an individual "was killed" in an apartment fire (this is not to say that American news sources refer to death with the verb "to kill" exclusively, just more frequently than foreign sources).

For some reason, Americans seem to be obsessed with what I like to call "violent language." The use of the verb "to kill" is only a small sampling of this linguistic tendency. For example, the government tends to label many of its programs with the prefix "War on-." The "War on Poverty" was supposed to destroy the enemy that was underprivileged or unemployed families and individuals living in America. The "War on Terror" insisted on defining a seemingly vast, unidentifiable enemy.

Why do Americans feel it is necessary to assign blame (to some unknown, unidentifiable force) in accidents such as plane crashes or fires? Why do Americans need to define the enemy and contribute to the "us" vs "them" attitude through language? It's certainly an interesting linguistic pattern that I look forward to discussing more in depth in class tomorrow.

CNN article: http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/10/plane-crash-kills-polish-president/

AlJazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/04/20104107407467926.html

ChosonIlbo: http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/10/2010041000475.html

El Mundo: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/04/10/internacional/1270884924.html