Trivializing the Crime through Indifference: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Headlines on the Assassination of Afzal Kohistani

Abstract

It is hypothesized that with the help of styling/framing and the language used in the news reports, the least important story can be turned into a top story, and similarly a very important issue can be sidelined. The present study investigates the news related to the assassination of Afzal Kohistani, who raised his voice against honor killings in Kohistan. The study aims at identifying the various linguistic features used by the mainstream print media about the assassination of Afzal Kohistani. Furthermore, the study unveils the effect of such linguistic choices on meaning projection. The data has been gathered from five local Urdu newspapers, four national and seven international. English newspapers, and news agencies that reported this event on 7th March 2019. The critical discourse analysis provides the theoretical underpinning; furthermore, Van Dijk's (2001) and Olowe's (1993) approaches have been used for the data analysis. The finding establishes that the topic is trivialized despite the importance of the issue. Moreover, the intensity of the incident is toned down by the indifferent approach of some reporting agencies.