Critical Discourse Analysis of Corruption in the Iranian Press of the 1990s

Corruption means the transformation of social relations into beneficial yet discriminatory exchanges in which general goals give way to specific goals, and status, position, relativism, and rent-seeking replace legalism, fidelity, meritocracy, and honor. In this study, we have examined the situation of corruption in the Iranian press. In this study, four newspapers, Shargh, Etemad, Kayhan, and Vatan-e Emrooz, were selected through purposive sampling. Each of the selected newspapers has a different discourse, each of which reflects a different perspective on corruption, and an attempt has been made to cover a wide range of political currents and discourses by selecting these newspapers. Four newspapers, Vatan-e Emrooz, Shargh, Etemad and Kayhan, have been used to do the work, and each of these dailies has selected a number of texts based on theoretical examples as examples to analyze and interpret the issue of corruption. In referring to each newspaper, special attention has been paid to the 90s and this period has been examined; Because the issues related to corruption have been more prominent in this period and in these newspapers than before. Using purposive sampling as well as standard sampling, only texts, reports, articles have been selected that have the most information and criteria of the researcher in the subject under study. An attempt was made to observe and preserve the diversity of the sample. To answer the research questions, “Fairclough” textual analysis methods have been used. Using Fairclough method, the role of structures in reflecting corruption and hidden ideologies has been studied linguistically and textually. According to the findings, in general, newspapers, instead of structurally examining the issue of corruption and providing solutions to solve the problem, have engaged in exposing corruption and attributing these corruptions to a period when the management of opposition discourse prevails and there is a kind of discourse in the press.