The Construal of Political Perspectives in News Reporting: A Critical Discourse Analysis of CNN and Al-Jazeera

Abstract

News reporting is a source of presenting the legitimacy and credibility of facts with a sense of liveliness and immediacy. The present study aims to explore the Construal of Political Perspectives through News Reporting in electronic media with the assumption that how lexical choices are made to portray a particular ideology by a particular group. Articles which highlight the shaping of updates by channels like CNN, BBC and Al-Jazeera have been analyzed for the foundation of the current study. In the present study, twenty news headlines of electronic media including CNN and Al-Jazeera have been selected from the period of October to December 2023. The headlines are analyzed by applying Tuen A. van Dijk’s Social Cognition Model under the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. It has been observed in the news that Construal of Political Perspectives is being made through biased news reporting. The research study culminates that use of specific adjectives for one state and not for the other at war delivers partial update, creating a bias in not only the attitudes of the states but also of the audience. The adjectives and particular lexical choices made by the news channels is what is keeping the discursive discourse alive, controlling the biased responses of the audience. It is concluded that media is playing a pivotal role in construing the Political Perspectives via reporting biased news and lexical choices. The results of the present research are a hallmark in comprehending the idea of language exploitation.