Look Beyond The Facts: Evaluative Language Use In Malaysia's Six-State Election News Coverage

Abstract

The 12 August 2023 six-states elections is the first test of the Perpaduan Government led by Anwar Ibrahim, who became the tenth prime minister of Malaysia on 26 November 2022. The election narrative in the newspapers is intriguing because his political background is not clear-cut as he had been with the ruling government and the opposition at different junctures of his political career. The study examined the evaluative aspects of language in newspaper articles on six-states elections in Malaysia published in Harian Metro, a leading Malay daily. Altogether 71 Harian Metro articles between 1 January and 31 August 2023 (18,381 words) were analysed using Martin and White’s (2005) appraisal theory. Out of 1,408 instances of evaluative language, 61.58% were in the graduation category, 23.58% were in the engagement category, and only 14.84% were in the attitudes category. The graduation category was dominated by the number sub-category, to provide precise facts about the elections, including a time-stamp on events. The engagement category features frequent acknowledgement of information sources to lend authenticity to views. Within the attitudes category, judgement words were frequently used to assess the attitudes and behaviours of politicians. The minimal presence of the affect and appreciation sub-categories shows avoidance of emotive expressions. The inclination towards a fact-focussed reporting maintains impartiality in the election narrative involving political parties aligned to important past and present political figures.