2022 Abstract: Within the theoretical framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004, 2005, 2019; Musolff, 2004, 2006, 2016) our paper looks at how the natural disaster metaphor employed in news media discourse to conceptualise four different crises (the 2008 global financial crisis, the 2016 Brexit referendum crisis, the 2015 European migrant crisis, and the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis) exhibits its remarkable capacity to not only communicate complex phenomena and their frequently extreme consequences in a more comprehensible manner to the recipients but also to reveal and shape ideological stances. Drawing on the data gathered from various British and American online news media outlets during four different time periods, each characterised by a distinctive social crisis, and using the somewhat adapted Pragglejaz (2007) metaphor identification procedure, we aim to provide insights into how the natural disaster metaphor used in news discourse reveals its both ideological and rhetorical roles and its power to frame a certain topic in a desired way. This stems from its two main characteristics – first, its ability to highlight the allegedly uncontrollable nature of a crisis, and second, its power to mask the agency, both serving the purpose of holding force majeur responsible for the consequences of important events. Keywords: metaphor, crisis, natural disaster metaphor, news media discourse, English https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:30123 The NATURAL DISASTER metaphor in the conceptualisation of crisis in news media discourse http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode eng Jezici i kulture u vremenu i prostoru 10(1) info:eu-repo/semantics/article Đurović, Tatjana Silaški, Nadežda application/pdf 2326001 bytes