A Critical Discourse Analysis of Representations of Bilateral Issues Concerning Malaysia and Singapore in Mainstream Newspaper Editorials
The newspaper’s main role is to transmit news and it is often regarded as a source of ideological significance. One of the modes of transmitting the ideologies in the newspapers is through the editorials. The mainstream newspaper editorial uses diverse styles and discursive strategies to express...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/5646/1/FBMK_2008_22_abstract.pdf |
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| Summary: | The newspaper’s main role is to transmit news and it is often regarded as a source of
ideological significance. One of the modes of transmitting the ideologies in the
newspapers is through the editorials. The mainstream newspaper editorial uses diverse
styles and discursive strategies to express the voice of the institution’s opinions and
often the beliefs of any dominant group the institution represents. This study seeks to
explore the ideological similarities and differences within the structure of editorials in
the two widely regarded major means of providing news to the public in Malaysia and
Singapore: the News Straits Times (NST) and Straits Times (ST) respectively using an
analytical paradigm adapted from Wodak’s Discourse-historical approach theoretical
framework and Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework. A
qualitative historical research design was employed in this study to corroborate the findings. The findings were obtained from macro-structural and micro-linguistic
analysis of selected editorials from both newspapers and intertextual and interdiscursive
analysis of the historical background of events and bilateral issues involving both
countries at different time frames from 1965 to 2005. A purposive sampling of one
hundred and twenty (120) NST and ST editorials related to the bilateral relations
between Malaysia and Singapore identified twenty nine (29) NST and twenty five (25)
ST editorials written on the outstanding bilateral issues between 1973 to 2005. The
results indicate that recontextualization of the outstanding bilateral issues involving
both countries were evident in both mainstream newspaper editorials at certain time
frames. Varied patterns of argumentation and linguistic representations particularly ingroup
and out-group deictics of “we”, “us”, “them”, “they” or “their”, emotive verbs
and negative lexis were used implicitly and explicitly in the two mainstream newspaper
editorials at different time frames to voice each newspaper institution’s ideological
stance. The findings showed that each institution’s stance related to the historical
bilateral issues were representative of the voices of the dominant group or the
government of each respective country. Both the NST and ST institutions played
mediator roles between the government and public readers. As a result, only
newsworthy events related to the bilateral issues were reported through selective
choices of words. In this respect, it was found that language was a powerful and
influential tool in both mainstream editorials. This adapted CDA theoretical framework
used in the study has therefore brought about some levels of critical awareness and
insights into the outstanding bilateral issues involving Malaysia and Singapore at
different time frames from 1965 to 2005. |
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