Reflection of Pakistani Socio-political Events in Western Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

Abstract

The ideologies are expressed through discourse practices, from classrooms to corporate media, is hardly contested. Since the fateful events of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has been in the grip of a perpetual 9/11 scenario. As a result, it remains in the international media focus for all the negative reasons. Media discourse, as one of the most influential discourses, is opaque with ideologies, politics and overt and covert agendas worldwide. The present research aims to analyse this impactful medium of discourse and the embedded discursive practices of the Western media with special focus on one the most representative, widely followed and trusted media establishments, that is, the BBC, CNN and the Maxnews. The data is derived from the web pages in order to analyse the discursive and linguistic strategies employed in the news stories about Pakistan. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks developed by Van Dijk, that is, Ideological Square (1998c) in critical discourse analysis and the Socio-cognitive Model (2006c), the study analyses the selected media discourse qualitatively. The research calibrates the Western Media coverage of socio-political events, especially those surrounding the Global War on Terror (GWOT) in Pakistan during 2009 and 2010. The rationale for the selection of data from 2009 to 2010 is that it was during these years that Pakistan suffered a maximum number of terrorist attacks and civilian casualties. Pakistan suffered not only physically but also socially and ideologically as its image as the most dangerous region in the world was constantly portrayed and framed by the news media. The strategies and discursive structures used to depict Pakistan amount to a whole ideology that calls for careful and critical analysis.