MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF SARA DUTERTE DURING HER OVP BUDGET HEARING: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE STUDY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v8i4.660Keywords:
education, media representation, transitivity analysis, ideological square, OVP budget hearings, PhilippinesAbstract
The ideological implications of linguistic choices in news discourse have long been a concern in news outlets, particularly in representing political actors. Despite claims of objectivity, news articles continue to exhibit subtle biases that reveal ideological stances. This study investigated the media representation of Sara Duterte during her OVP Budget Hearing across four major news outlets in the Philippines: GMA, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Philippine Daily Inquirer. Using Halliday’s Transitivity Analysis and Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, the study employed critical discourse analysis on 30 news articles that were analyzed according to the ascribed process types —material, mental, verbal, relational, existential, and behavioral — and how group dynamics, which were constructed through positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. The findings revealed that linguistic choices are strategically chosen to exercise power and maintain control over political discourse. Representations are varied: GMA maintains neutrality, ABS-CBN and Rappler employ a critical stance, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer adopts a balanced approach. Duterte strategically used strategies —positive self-presentation, victimization, and populism — reinforced a dichotomy of favoring us and marginalizing them. These findings reveal linguistic choices as a medium of power in news discourse and highlight the necessity for media literacy to critically assess news representations.
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