Sociocognitive discourse structures in the news as indicators of hope: Might Corona save the

planet?

Quite unlike the dominating practice of the media to pursue sensationalism and fake news in the
attempt to increase readership when reporting on politics, the economy or social events, during the
Corona pandemic news agencies seem to have been grasping at the opportunity not to violate the
principles of journalism when reporting on the possibility of a healthier planet. The presentation of
Corona-induced human behaviour indicating hope of a less polluted planet in the media seems to
follow the principles of an impartial and humane approach to reporting. Based on Van Dijk’s theory
of Sociocognitive Discourse Studies and Mauch’s discussion on radical or slow hope, this research
explores how sociocognitive discourse structures are employed to attract readers’ attention and sell
the story without violating the core principles of journalism, a practice which has become quite
uncommon in the media nowadays. The corpus compiled for this research consists of news
representations of a decrease of pollution in the spring of 2020 in the Canadian daily paper The
Globe and Mail. By identifying sociocognitive discourse structures that cleary reflect a hopeful
though critical way of engaging with the topic of Hazardous Hope, this research will demonstrate
that news agencies are capable of presenting news in an objective, impartial, humane yet
informative and appealing way. In other words, news agencies might not always resort to whatever
resource possible, or violate the core principles of journalism just to sell their story. They might
preserve their integrity when hoping for a healthier planet.