A CDA Based Study of Religious Contends of Pakistani Print Media Discourses

Abstract

Print media discourses serve as a prism or a distorting prism to construct and represent a desired version of reality to a particular group during a particular period. Representation of religion through media discourses has never been ideology free. The study at hand attempts to decode the discourse of articles of Pakistani print media (Dawn daily) about representation of religious matters. The data was collected from the articles of the mentioned English newspaper. The delimitation of the study in terms of time span is that the article about representation of religious matters from 1st Feb 2023 to 30th April 2023 have been considered only for analysis. In order to analyse the data the present research employs Van Dijk’s (2006) research model for critical Discourse Analysis. The analytical categories of the model include representation, actor description, metaphor, polarization, number game, authority, lexicalization, topos, comparison, distancing and consensus. The data has been analysed at the level of word, sentence and discourse. The findings of the study highlight that the important themes that emerged include appointment of Imams, concept of Hala and Haram in Islam, extremism and role of religious bodies and how to curb extremism from religion. The study contends that government and concerned religious persons should work in collaboration to bring peace and harmony in religion. Besides, it recommends that interfaith harmony should be preached from all corners.