Conceptual Networks and the Representation of the Syrian Refugees in the UNHCR Press Releases Between 2011 and 2021

This paper examines the representation of refugees in a non-governmental organisations’ official media discourse. This study draws on Van Dijk’s sociocognitive approach and Conceptual Blending Theory through the focus on the two notions of representation and conceptual blending networks. The corpus analysed consists of 331 press releases about the Syrian refugees posted between 2011 and 2021 on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ home website. The metaphor identification procedure and a reading of the concordances relating to the Syrian refugees led to the identification of the conceptual blending networks. The analysis of the conceptual networks relating to the Syrian refugees unveils how they are represented in the press releases. The study also specifies the representations backgrounded to foster a categorisation of Us and Them instead of Us vs. Them.