Identifying Ideology Through Comparative Analysıs of Pakistani & Indian Newspaper Headlines

Abstract

Every country has their own political and military blueprint, followed by all the concerned parties to mould the sympathies of masses based on their agendas. This study aims to evaluate the reporting of major events in Pakistan and India in 2015 that carry implicit/explicit implications; in the newsapapers. Both countries have a history of political, social & military conflicts, and a struggle against terrorism at various levels. All these difference are presented in different shades in the media discourse based on the discursiveness of the readers. This technique is used to establish and maintain certain ideology; to develop power relations among and between social groups. To explore the underlying interpretation of media discourse, a corpus of headlines is collected from The Dawn, The News from Pakistan and The Times of India, The Hindu from India. Multi-modal Critical Discourse Analysis has helped in examining the headlines at textual and cognitive levels. The comparative analysis revealed that both sides adhere to their nationalistic and political ideology. The Indian media use very strong and emotive rhetoric which helps them in maintaining power relations. Semantic and visual analysis revealed the same ideology in operation, showing the diversity in media communication. 
 
Keywords: Comparative Analysis, Headlines, Qualitative, Newspapers, İdeologies.