A Critical Discourse Analysis of Active and Passive Voice in Three News Texts

Abstract

This paper applies CDA (critical discourse analysis) to display the hidden relationship between language and power in the discourse of the media; it focuses on the issues which are related to the use of passive or active voice, and tries to investigate which forms of voice are used (passive or active). Data have been collected from three different news texts on the subject of Iraq War Logs. The data have been analysed by using the framework model of Fowler et al. [6] and the findings have been discussed within the framework which is provided by Fairclough, N. [4]. The results show that there is a hidden relationship between language and power in the discourse of the media. Access to the media discourse is limited to specific people only, while other people lack this access. Moreover, the types of voice (passive or active) that are used in different texts determine which sentences are more powerful.