A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Representation of No-Confidence Movement 2022 in Ideologically- Loaded Headlines of Pakistani English Newspapers

Abstract

This study aims at exploring that how the issue of No-Confidence Movement has been presented by the newspapers in their headlines and what is their ideological stance behind the representation of this particular event. For this purpose headlines of two newspapers ‘Dawn and the News International’ on the coverage of No-Confidence Movement have been selected purposively from 24 March till the decision of Supreme Court, 6^th April 2022. Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach (2016) was adopted for the purpose of critical Discourse Analysis of the Headline. Opinion and emotion words, deictic expressions, tone, style, metaphors, ideological polarization and presuppositions were analyzed from the culled headlines to reveal the mental and contextual modals of the writers in the projection of ideological stance. The analysis revealed that the lexical choice, tone, style and use of metaphors of the author of ‘The News International’ built the negative image of the PTI government and it showed positive attitude towards the action and speeches of the opposition, it revealed the ideology of ‘The News International’ as against PTI government. On the other side the positive mental modal has been depicted by the authors of the ‘Dawn’ through their choice of words and the tone of style while depicting certain events and statements in the headlines. Hence, Dawn newspaper showed pro-PTI attitude throughout the coverage of the No-Confidence Movement.