Investigating Discursive Gender Representation in Pakistani English Newspaper ‘The Express Tribune’s Headlines: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Researchers have spent a lot of time analysing how western media discursively represent gender roles in their audiences. The purpose of this research is to provide some insight on the current state of affairs regarding the portrayal of women in Pakistani entertainment print media. It seeks to explore the discursive methods for the formation of gender discourse, to analyse the language devices used for maintaining gender inequality, and to determine the socio-cultural consequences of gender discourse in the headlines of Pakistani English newspapers. These goals will be accomplished by looking at the headlines of Pakistani English newspapers. The approach taken in this investigation was qualitative. The information was gathered from the headlines of "The Express Tribune," a newspaper published in English in Pakistan. Applying Van Dijk's CDA model of media text to the analysis of the data that was obtained was done. After analysis, it was found that gendered discourse was constructed by employing discursive strategies like semantic macro structure, local meaning and coherence, global superstructure, social cognition and relation between discourse and society. The findings of analysis also revealed that words were manipulated to create negative image of women in society. The discourse also attempted to propagate feelings of insecurity and gender inequality. The socio-cultural implications of gender inequality may be resulted in economic insecurity, domestic disturbance and imbalance in society. This study may be very helpful for the newspaper readers to understand implications of gender discourse in national English newspapers. It may also motivate future researchers to employ the framework of CDA to explore gender representation in news discourses of distinct socio-cultural significance.