Representations of Naya Pakistan: A corpus-based study of Pakistani media discourses

Abstract

The study investigates how Pakistani media discourses represented the populist political rhetoric of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) between 2016 and 2018. Applying the theoretical lens of corpus-based critical discourse analysis to a specially constructed corpus, the study examines how PTI's populist political rhetoric was co-opted by the media to garner public support for it prior to the 2018 elections and then to criticize its performance following electoral victory. The selected corpus comprised news, articles, and headlines published in English newspapers between 2016 and 2018. Based on the analysis, the study identifies linguistic devices and strategies in the media discourses covering PTI's run-up to the elections and ascent to power. It also sheds light on the types of populism exercised by the media in depicting political messages to move from promotion of PTI's vision and rhetoric to critique of its perceived post-election failure to fulfil its promises. Concordance lines and collocation analysis furnish evidence of a shift in the media discourses from pre-election optimism and ideological valorization of the PTI agenda to failure and loss of hope in the PTI government following its assumption of leadership.

Corpus-based analysis of shifts in China’s diplomatic stance across seven decades (1949–2018)

“…In addition, the corpus approach is a more effective research method than other methods, and its results can be verified ( Leech, 1993 ). As it is based on the linguistic data that people use, it is not subject to interference from the researcher’s personal intuition or judgment, ensuring that the research results are more realistic, reliable, and objective ( Hu, 2011 ; Afzaal et al, 2022a , b ). The procedure comprises three major steps.…”

“…To better disseminate its ideas to the international community, China must construct a diplomatic discourse system characterized by Chinese characteristics as well as a shared future for humankind ( Sun, 2017 , Lu, 2018 , Ma and Ma, 2018 ). Studies ( Xu, 2017 ; Liu, 2018 ; Afzaal et al, 2019 , 2022a , b ) show that differences in US and Chinese diplomatic press conferences reflect their different national interests, ideologies, and cultural traditions, and the increased use of competitive and antagonistic lexical items in China and India’s diplomatic discourse indicates the pluralism and instability between these two countries.…”

Mourning the lost: A social actor analysis of gender representation in the @FacesofCovid’s tweets

“…The affiliation between corpus linguistics and discourse studies has strengthened since the emergence of automatic language processing within the last century, and the bond between these fields continues to grow as more published research advocates such an affiliation ( Liu and Afzaal, 2021 ; Afzaal et al, 2022 ; Du et al, 2022 ). Indeed, the utilization of corpus tools along with other linguistic frameworks for discourse studies has helped overcome certain subjectivity issues that are often brought up when only alternative approaches, such as content analysis, are implemented ( Baker and Levon, 2015 ).…”

A Corpus-Based Study of English Learners' Reading Strategies

“…Educators are encouraged to utilize the findings to develop more dynamic, responsive teaching approaches, potentially incorporating corpus-based materials to mirror authentic language use. This study advocates for a more holistic approach to reading instruction, one that not only teaches discrete skills but also fosters a deeper, more engaged interaction with texts, ultimately enhancing the overall proficiency and literacy of English language learners [14][15][16].…”