the Ideological Representation of Political Voice in Front Page Headlines of Pakistani English Newspapers

Abstract

In order to create awareness in the global social arenas, media studies have attained considerable attention in exploring ideological representation of political voice. The reason for this significance is the biasness of media that is treated non- critically, and believed as transparent and apolitical by the general masses. Therefore, it is viewed independent and free from any bias. However, instead of producing factual information, media discourses are ideological and serve the purpose of manipulating the ideas of its public. In this regard, data has been obtained from widely circulated three Pakistani English newspapers (Dawn, The News International and The Nation). This study examines how politicians are socially, discursively and linguistically represented in the selected Pakistani English newspapers. To answer the question of ideological representation of political voice in media discourse, the study uses Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA) to investigate the representation of politicians in front page news reports of the newspapers from 01 July, 2012 to 31 December, 2012 very significant pre-election period. The analysis examines firstly, both discursive and social practices related to constructing political discourse in relation to the process of news making role of ideology, political parties and the regimes. Secondly, the news headlines are analyzed linguistically in terms of metaphor, metonymy, transitivity, modality, lexical choices, presupposition and intertextuality. Moreover, the news headlines are analyzed at broader social and political level in order to find ideological underpinnings incorporated in political discourse using Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis.