A comparative analysis of online alternative & mainstream newspapers in Malaysia & Pakistan during the 2018 general election
The study discovered the representational roles of social actors (Dr. Mahathir, Najib Razak, Imran Khan & Nawaz Sharif) in alternative and mainstream newspapers (Malaysiakini, The New Straits Times, Dawn & The News) of Malaysia and Pakistan in 2018 elections’ campaigns. The varied represe...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8481/1/24p%20SAIRA%20ASAD.pdf http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8481/2/SAIRA%20ASAD%20COPYRIGHT%20DECLARATION.pdf http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/8481/3/SAIRA%20ASAD%20WATERMARK.pdf |
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| Summary: | The study discovered the representational roles of social actors (Dr. Mahathir, Najib
Razak, Imran Khan & Nawaz Sharif) in alternative and mainstream newspapers
(Malaysiakini, The New Straits Times, Dawn & The News) of Malaysia and Pakistan
in 2018 elections’ campaigns. The varied representation of social actors showed an
ideological inclination of newspapers. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of
Fairclough’s (1995) serves to discover the political developments of contexts in both
countries. Social actors’ representation in news reports led to differentiation of their
roles through activation and passivation. It was analyzed by employing van Leeuwen’s
(2005) socio-semiotic analysis. Halliday’s (1978, 1985) framework of Systemic
Functional Linguistics (SFL) also fulfills the aim of the study in disclosing the power
relations among the social actors, newspapers and news reports. Halliday and
Matthiessen’s (2014) analytical tool of ‘Transitivity’ analyzed the social actors’ role
in processes and participants that differentiate their representation in both streams of
newspapers, while interpersonal realization was analyzed through Martin and White’s
(2005) ‘Attitude’ analysis. The hard news reports from online newspapers were
selected on the issue of ‘corruption’. The news reports were selected from April 26th,
2018 to May 23rd, 2018 in Malaysia, and July12th, 2018 to August 7th, 2018 in Pakistan
based on two weeks before and two weeks after the elections’ time frames. The study’s
main findings showed that Dr. Mahathir and Imran Khan were the most activated
social actors. In Malaysia, the social actors presented higher in ‘Material’ and ‘Verbal’
processes, while occupying the participant roles of ‘Verbiage’, ‘Sayer’, and ‘Actor’.
In contrast in Pakistan, most occurrences were found in the ‘Verbal’ process in ‘Sayer’
participant role through the Transitivity analysis. Higher interpersonal realization of
social actors showed in ‘Judgment’ attitudinal resource in all newspapers. The results
revealed that previous governments’ performances in both countries were supported a
higher negative presentation of the issue. In Malaysia, issues such as high cost of
living, general service tax, corruption, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), and
shifting loyalties of former Barisan Nasional’s (BN) leaders were influential factors
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that caused BN decline. In Pakistan, military involvement, corruption, and previous
government corrupt practices were the main factors of political developments. The
social situations (context) found the power dynamics behind the discourse. The
findings will contribute in print journalism, communication studies, linguistics,
cultural studies, and political science to represent the inclination of newspapers toward
a particular social actor by the analysis of transitivity analysis and attitude subsystem
used in news reports. This study is a beneficial contribution in literature, where the
2018 elections of Malaysia and Pakistan were not investigated earlier through textual
analysis. For future recommendations, further studies are suggested to compare
between Asian and Western hard news reporting on similar issues through Transitivity
and Appraisal analysis. |
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