Strategic Ambiguity and Discursive Power in The Contemporary Political Media Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis (Published)
The Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach is used in this study to examine the connection between strategic ambiguity and discursive power in the political discourse of the contemporary media. Ambiguity has become a key language and ideology in contemporary political communication, a method used by political actors and media institutions to create persuasive stories, mediate ideational conflict and consolidate institutional power. This study seeks to investigate the role of strategically ambiguous language in political media discourse and its role in creating/producing discursive power. This study is of a qualitative nature, following Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis, which is further strengthened by the socio-cognitive perspective of van Dijk and discourse-historical perspective of Wodak. The texts are selected political media texts such as political speeches, televised interviews, news report, press conferences and social media’s political statements. The analysis is concerned with the identification of linguistic elements linked to strategic ambiguity like vagueness, euphemism, modality, metaphorical framing, implication and lexical indeterminacy. The results show that strategic ambiguity is a conscious communication tactic to allow political figures interpretive latitude, deflect direct blame and reach ideologically different audiences at once. The study also shows the active participation media in consolidating the ambiguity of political narratives, either by framing or selective representation, which is used to consolidate the ideology and public opinion management. Ambiguous political discourse was identified as a discursive and symbolic power that works not only as a rhetorical imprecision, but as an advanced rhetorical device. Furthermore, the analysis shows that today’s digital environments amplify the persuasive power of ambiguity by speeding up the flow of disembodied and politically charged messages that are both loaded with emotion and uncertain. This means that ambiguity fosters ideological polarization, multiplicity of interpretation and the normalization of hegemonic political narratives in today’s society. The study ends with the finding that strategic ambiguity is one of the core elements of the political media discourse of today and is an effective discursive power. It additionally shows how the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) method can be useful for revealing ideological patterns and power dynamics in political communication. The research is useful for discourse studies, political linguistics, and media analysis since it helps to better understand the role of language as a tool of ideological manipulation and socio-political control in current media environments.
Keywords: Ideology, Media Discourse, Political Communication, critical discourse analysis, discursive power, linguistic manipulation, political media discourse, strategic ambiguity
Framing Autism in Iraqi Media: An Integrated Stigma and critical Discourse Analysis Approach (Published)
This study aims to examine the construction of the linguistic stigma of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the discourse of the Iraqi media in the period from 2020 to 2025. The theoretical framework used in this study is qualitative research, which involves the use of three theories, namely: Stigma Theory (Goffman, 1963); Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 1995); and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003). Based on a focused study of authentic media texts in Iraq, the analysis highlights three important qualitative trends: clinical medicalization (e.g., “مرضى التوحد”), victimization and burden framing (e.g., “مكسورة مادياً وصحياً”), and evaluative sensationalism (e.g., “رقم خطير”). The results show that media choice is an additive process and unveils the stigmatizing aspects of the deficits as a public spectacle. The paper ends with some suggestions for media reporting and future corpus-based research that takes into account context.
Keywords: Iraqi media, autism spectrum disorder, critical discourse analysis, discursive framing, stigma theory
A Contrastive Critical Analysis of George Floyd’s Death in China Daily and The New York Times (Published)
Based on Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, the paper conducts a critical contrastive analysis of the reports related to George Floyd’s death in China Daily and The New York Times to reveal the hidden positions and ideologies of the Chinese and American media. It is found that at the description stage, China Daily objectively presents the main participants and holds a critical attitude towards the violent law enforcement, while The New York Times portrays George Floyd and the protesters as negative images and affirms the actions of the US police. In the interpretation level, specified sources and direct speeches are used more frequently in both media reports. But China Daily had a wide range of news sources, and a higher percentage of direct speeches than The New York Times. Regarding explanation, social factors and institutional factors contribute to the similarities and differences in constructing images of key players in the two media.
Keywords: Floyd’s death, Ideology, critical discourse analysis, three-dimensional model
Discursive constructions of Gay(s), Homosexual(s) and Homosexuality in selected Nigerian and South African Newspapers: A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis (Published)
Same-sex relationship is a critical topic globally, especially as non-heterosexuals often get marginalized both overtly and covertly. Previous studies on same-sex sexualities in the African context have examined the discursive construction of non-heterosexuals, with little attention paid to the comparative reading of how gay people are discursively constructed in two contextually different African countries. Therefore, this study examines the usage patterns of three labels, gay, homosexual, homosexuality, that are commonly used to denote same-sex sexualities in selected Nigerian and South African newspapers. To do so, corpus-based critical discourse analysis is conducted to detect convergence and divergence of such usages since the countries have opposing laws on same-sex relationships. Similar semantic prosodies were found. However, differing prosodic features show that heteronomativity is mainly emphasized in the Nigerian corpus, while this is sometimes challenged in the South African corpus. The overall conclusion is that there could still be some homophobic tendencies in both the Nigerian and South African contexts as shown by the media representations.
Keywords: Nigerian Newspapers, South African newspapers, critical discourse analysis, lexicalization, representation of same-sex relationships
Ideology in Unequal Treaties: A Social Actor Representations Study (Published)
This paper is an analysis of the social actors in bilateral and multilateral unequal treaties investigating the system of ideas that expresses the interests of the powerful states engaged in the treaties in question. It tries to answer the following: how do the unequal treaties represent the social actors? Thus, the study aims at uncovering the ideological stance behind including or excluding treaties’ participants. For this end, the study analyzes six treaties using Van Leeuwn’s (1996:66) model .It has been found that social actors are represented in various ways and for various rationales. They are included to be assigned a responsibility, and to legitimate the stipulations agreed upon. They are excluded when the most significant part of the message is introduced instead, as being more important than its doers or to generalize the intended acts. In all cases, the ideological perspective involves satisfying the states’ interests.
Keywords: American treaties, Ideology, Power, critical discourse analysis
A Critical Discourse Analysis of Newspaper Headlines on the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon (Published)
This research explores private and public newspaper headlines on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. The aim is to find out the lexical choice and rhetorical questions used in reporting the crisis, and how they portray the ideologies of the reporters and newspaper ownership, as well as shape readers’ thoughts. Data for this study comprises 130 headlines collected from 29 randomly selected newspapers in Cameroon. Results show the use of vocabulary that shows imposition, tension and dialogue. Some rhetorical questions were also discovered. However, there was a lot of incompatibility in the way government and private newspapers reported the Anglophone crisis. Lexical choice in private newspaper headlines paint a negative picture of the Cameroon government, and pushes readers to see the government as deliberately refusing to show great attention to the crisis, and unable to protect its citizens. On the other hand, Cameroon Tribune hedge information on the crisis, swallows tension and advocates national unity. The state owned newspaper presents the Anglophone contestants in the crisis as perpetrators or terrorists who are frustrating children’s future. Therefore, the newspaper publishers exercise power through language to influence the thought and opinion of Cameroonians on the Anglophone crisis.
Keywords: Anglophone Crisis, Ideology, Newspaper Headlines, critical discourse analysis