Abstract
Language is a tool used for the social construction to frame public opinion. The study highlights that newspapers shape, reshape and manipulate the news headlines by representing them differently to achieve the desired objectives. This paper aims to investigate the coverage of Pakistani newspapers on Aasia Bibi’s acquittal decision by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Content analysis considering Dijk Model and Framing Theory was conducted for the purpose. Unit of analysis was the news headlines of four famous dailies of Pakistan i.e., Daily Dawn, The Nation, Daily Jang and Daily Ummat published in the week of judgment of Aasia Bibi Case. Results revealed that the newspapers portrayed the same issue differently with the distinct discursive techniques. The Nation used lexical choices and emotional phrases to mold public opinions. Comparatively, Jang and Dawn were more objective and sensible in publishing its news headlines
Highlights
Newspapers are one of the main sources of information in this digital age
A model of discourse analysis was proposed by the Dijk (2006) in his work “Politics, Ideology and Discourse”
Selected seventeen similar news headlines from above mentioned newspapers were considered for the discourse analysis
Summary
Newspapers are one of the main sources of information in this digital age. They help the general masses to understand the important issues and to construct opinions. According to Reah (2002), news is a term that defines and gives the information about any recent happening that has an impact on the lives of the various people and groups and may be of interest for the people whereas the Tuchman (1976) defined the term news as a constructed reality while Cohen and Young (1973) argued that the news is a product that is being manufactured by the journalists based on some real incident
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.