LANGUAGE IN THE NEWS : POWER AND DISCOURSE

Abstract

Power -- how and why it affects linguistic choices in newspaper writing -- is the central concern of this study. Using the framework adapted from Fairclough (1989), the study looks at Singapore's two English dailies, the sober "quality" Straits Times (ST) and the lighter "tabloid" New Paper (NP) in order to answer two central questions: • How can power be gained in discourse? • To what extent do differences in newspaper types allow for different power relations, resulting in different linguistic choices being made? The results of the study show that power may be implicitly gained through the different linguistic choices made in the production of a discourse. Different linguistic choices, in areas like mood, transitivity, and theme, lead to different power relations being set up between the writer and the reader. It was noted that the two newspapers set up different power relations between themselves and their readers. This was despite the fact that the two newspapers come under the same press company and, as such, share the same basic ideology of that company. ST, the "quality" paper, prefers to align itself with the establishment by both featuring contents which focus more on the actions of the establishment and generally showing the establishment up in good light. NP, the "tabloid" counterpart prefers to align itself with its reading public, the man in the street. It achieves this through focusing on human interest angles and giving the public more prominence in its columns. The results of this study have two main implications. They show, firstly, that power is intrinsically linked with language and secondly, that, while basic ideology may be the same, differences of type within the same discourse may result in the setting up of different power relations.