discourse & newspaper

A N A M K H A L I DH I R A FAT I M A

N A B I R A Z A

Newspaper and Discourse

Critical Discourse Analysis

According to Van Dijk;

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies

the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by

text and talk in the social and political context.

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Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a branch of linguistics that seeks to understand how and why certain texts affect readers and hearers.

Through the analysis of grammar, it aims to uncover the 'hidden ideologies' that can influence a reader or hearer's view of the world.

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Analysts have looked at a wide variety of spoken and written texts – political manifestos, advertising, rules and regulations – in an attempt to demonstrate how text producers use language (wittingly or not) in a way that could be ideologically significant.

Analysts therefore have a role of investigating peculiar social ideologies that manifest inequality and abuse of social power to the detriment of the minorities or the underprivileged in society.

Their main focus is to present the various ways in which these inequalities are enacted by the privileged and resisted by the underprivileged.

Media Discourse

Media discourse refers to interactions that take place through a broadcast platform, whether spoken or written, in which the discourse is oriented to a non-present reader, listener or viewer.

In other words, media discourse is a public, manufactured, on - record, form of interaction. It Is not ad hoc or spontaneous(in the same way as casual speaking or writing is); it is neither private nor off the record.

Media texts are a common subject of analysis in Critical Discourse Analysis.

Types of Media

There are two main types of media:

Written:Newspapers and Magazines

Spoken: Radio and Television, News broadcasts, Drama

Media Focus

Media basically focus on following aspects:Immediacy: Specific actions and eventsDrama: Violence, crisis or conflict, extremist

behaviors, outrageous acts.Simplicity: Clear-cut opinions, images, major

personalities, two-sided conflicts.Ethnocentrism: ‘Our’ beliefs, myths and

symbols, ‘Our’ suffering, the brutality of ‘Others’.

Media and Ideology

The ideology may be:Government supportingAnti-governmentImpartialTo attract public attention for high rating To do businessTo educate the masses

Newspaper and Critical Discourse Analysis

In our societies, mass media are the predominant social field in the creation of the public knowledge and information, beliefs, values and attitudes which are necessary for establishing and sustaining economic, social and political systems and orders (Fairclough, 2010: 468).

This suggests that critical analysis of newspaper discourse may reveal aspects of how hegemony is maintained.

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Newspapers are noted for using particular patterns of language in their discourse to mediate various ideologies, especially when writing on typical social issues.

This is contrary to their occupational norms which entail “reporting something called ‘news’ without commenting on it, slanting it, or shaping its formulation in any way” Schudson (2001:150).

Journalists who have total control of newspaper articles therefore have the power to use the genre in order to mediate various ideologies, thereby controlling the minds of their readers as they wish.

NEWS Focus

The main focus of NEWS is on:Government conflicts DisagreementsDecisionsProposalsFunctionsProtestsCrimes, scandalsInvestigations and disasters

Organization of Newspaper Articles

The rhetorical organization of newspaper articles reflects the strategy used by the journalists to control the minds of the audience:

HeadlinesLeadBody

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Because headlines are designed to be short and catchy, and given that most readers often read and recall only headlines, journalists tend to exploit them to express their ideological view of the news stories they report (Van Dijk 1988).

In the lead, which is the first sentence of the news story, they introduce the story by advancing some explanations to harness the view initiated in the headlines.

The body consists of a series of details, examples, statistics, etc. that serve as concrete illustrations that sustain and justify intended ideologies.

Example

Dawn News 16 Nov, 2013 had a headline stating;

“Curfew imposed, Ashura clashes turn Pindi into ghost town.”

RAWALPINDI, Nov 16

Example

Critical Discourse Analysis of The Title of News

The title of the news has beautifully summarized the whole incident. Title has revealed three different situations by using three words in a most précised manner.

“Curfew”“Ashura clashes”“Ghost town”

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Use of the above mentioned words in the title of news is revealing the incident in a summarized way. Author has used the word, curfew, which signals towards a situation which compels people to be at home.

The use of “Ashura clashes” is enough here to reveal the cause of curfew. Instead of going into details to investigate the reason behind this curfew, readers can easily perceive it by going through the title.

Ashura clashes caused destruction and the author used the term “GHOST TOWN” which is pointing towards the worse situation of the city and destruction caused by the Ashura clashes.

Incident in the title has been defined in a sequenced way. The “Curfew imposed” tells the current situation of the city and that this imposition was due to Ashura clashes and these clashes brought destruction to the city as well.

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Conclusion

Elements of exaggeration can be seen in title as “GHOST TOWN”.

It gives the impression as if there has been destruction on a very large scale.

The use of certain words most of the time horrifies readers.

To attract readers and catch their attention and capture their thoughts media usually creates a situation like this.