Revista de Investigaciones Universidad del Quindío,
34(1), 292-311; 2022.
ISSN: 1794-631X e-ISSN: 2500-5782
Esta obra está bajo una licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacional.
Cómo citar:
Asad, Saira. (2022). The genre contrastive analysis of the first 14 weeks of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in government: a study on two online newspapers under attitude analysis. Revista de Investigaciones Universidad del Quindío, 34(1), 292-311. https://doi.org/10.33975/riuq.vol34n1.798
THE GENRE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST 14 WEEKS OF DR. MAHATHIR MOHAMAD IN GOVERNMENT: A STUDY ON TWO ONLINE NEWSPAPERS UNDER ATTITUDE ANALYSIS
EL ANÁLISIS CONTRASTIVO DE GÉNERO DE LAS PRIMERAS 14 SEMANAS DEL DR. MAHATHIR MOHAMAD EN EL GOBIERNO: UN ESTUDIO SOBRE DOS PERIÓDICOS EN LÍNEA BAJO ANÁLISIS DE ACTITUD
Saira Asad1*
1. Riphah International University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. saira.asad2011@gmail.com
*Corresponding author: Saira Asad. e-mail: saira.asad2011@gmail.com
Información del artículo:
Recibido: 25 septiembre 2021; Aceptado: 10 febrero 2022
ABSTRACT
The study aimed to identify the hidden meaning lying behind the text of two Malaysian Online newspapers i.e. ‘Malaysiakini’ (alternative newspaper) and ‘The New Straits Times’ (mainstream newspaper). The language of the newspaper always depicts its ideology through its stances. To discover the stances of newspapers, Martin and White (2005) ‘Appraisal Analysis’ framework was employed on 5 news reports (3,265 words) from ‘Malaysiakini’ and 3 news reports from ‘The New Straits Times’ (2,456 words) which were based on the performance of social actors during the 17th and 18th August 2018. It has been found that Pakatan Harapan (PH) government (Dr.Mahathir) was represented the most in both newspapers as compared to the Barisan Nasional (BN) as an opposition who lost the election in 2018, the very first time after independence. By ‘Appraisal Analysis’ it is found that both newspapers have represented Dr. Mahathir the most by positive attitudinal results in ‘Appreciation’ resource as ‘Malaysiakini’ has shown 37%, while; ‘NST’ given 56% positive attitudinal instances being a governmental influenced newspaper.
Keywords: Online Newspapers; Attitude Analysis; News Institution Ideology; Critical Discourse Analysis; Socio-Semiotic Resource.
RESUMEN
El estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar el significado oculto detrás del texto de dos periódicos en línea de Malasia, es decir, ‘Malaysiakini’ (periódico independiente) y ‘The New Straits Times’ (periódico convencional). El lenguaje del periódico siempre plasma su ideología a través de sus posturas. Para descubrir las posturas de los periódicos, Martin y White (2005) emplean el marco de ‘Análisis de evaluación’ en 5 informes de noticias (3265 palabras) de ‘Malaysiakini’ y 3 informes de noticias de ‘The New Straits Times’ (2456 palabras) que se basan sobre el desempeño de los actores sociales durante los días 17 y 18 de agosto de 2018. Se ha encontrado que el gobierno de Pakatan Harapan (PH) (Dr.Mahathir) es el más representado en ambos periódicos en comparación con el Barisan Nasional (BN) como una aposición que perdió las elecciones en 2018, la primera vez después de la independencia.
Palabras clave: Periódicos en línea; Análisis de tasación; Ideología de la Institución de Noticias; recursos actitudinales del orador/autor; Análisis crítico del discurso; Recurso socio-semiótico
INTRODUCTION
In the communication process, language is a medium for which designing is an approach to make understand the social world’s communication (Aakhus, 2007). In today’s politics, the effective communication approach is implemented and realized with the help of the media in the dissemination of information. The news media is considered as a political institution where politics is mediatized (Schudson, 2002). Effective communication in politics is dependent on language, which can be in the form of written or verbal for attracting the sender’s message. In this process, language acts as a medium and text lying behind this system of linguistics which gets its shape from its context (Halliday, 1999). Language comprises lexical and grammatical items having a relation with the context (Halliday, 1999). The text is the social life space of two processes, firstly representing the world in the cognition process and secondly with social interaction (Fairclough, 1995).
The newspapers’ text has a great influence on its readers which depicts news institutions’ ideology by reading the same news in different newspapers by different stances and expressions. That forces the reader to find the ideology lying at the back of the news, which transformed its shape into an existing condition. By observing this, the relation of power between the news institution, news, and journalists emerges. According to Michel Foucault, the construction of semantic reality from definite aspects is that serves the interests of specified historical or social context (van Leeuwen, 2008). The concept of Foucault is holding the relations’ effects of power on news reports of newspapers which is self-evident after reading the same news report in different newspapers but with distinct angles.
Schudson (2002) stated three approaches towards language i.e. social organizations’ performances, political economy, and traditional and cultural effects which show language is a creation of culture. It is seen in our surroundings that media organizations along with their employees make policies often by considering public opinion by keeping their interest first and showing favor to politicians. Adopting the mediatized political process of communication helps the legitimized deliberative process within society (Habermas, 2006). Today, media plays the role of ‘political actor (Page, 1996) and, politics and media are dependable on each other (Bagdikian, 2007). Politics recognize and give shape to language and decision is on us to figure out the hidden meaning of statements (Joseph, 2006). The hard news has characteristics that depict the ideology of news outlets by its portrayal which is non-opinionated, factual based, and characterized by neutrality, facticity, objectivity, and attribution (Sabao, 2016).
The article is seeking the process of representation in news discourses in Malaysian political culture which has brought an explanation of power distribution within the society. It is an attempt for exploring the news discourses and ideology behind the text. For achieving this aim, ‘Malaysiakini’ (alternative newspaper) and ‘The New Straits Times’’ (mainstream online newspaper) ‘hard news’ are selected for completion of the initial 14 weeks of Pakatan Harapan government (PH).
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The existing study is targeted to answer three research objectives (RO) i.e.
RO1: To find the online Malaysian newspapers representation of Dr.Mahathir government in first 14 weeks after winning election 2018 linguistically in existing media culture.
RO2: To ascertain the enhancing instances (terms) in the social actors’ portrayal as well as the news institution’s ideology through attitude analysis.
RO3: To differentiate and find the frequency and attitudinal stances of the writer in news reports
on the performance of Dr. Mahathir’s government in the first 14 weeks.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The background of the study is putting a glance at the Malaysian current political situation and hard news is selected to ascertain the inclination of newspapers.
Political scenario of Malaysia after 14General Elections 2018
Malaysia comprises of constitutional monarchy having a parliamentary government. After winning the 14th General Elections (GE) 2018 Pakatan Harapan (PH) government came into power and made a historic record by defeating Barisan Nasional (BN) political party under the leadership of Najib Razak who was in power since independence 1957. PH came into existence under the leadership of Dr.Mahathir Mohamad in 2015 with a coalition of People’s Justice Party (PKR), Democratic Action Party (DAP), Malaysian and National Trust Party (AMANAH), and Indigenous Party (Bersatu). The cause of PH establishment was the conflict between the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) on the implementation of ‘Sharia Law’ in the country. As a result, PAS decided to split from Pakatan Rakyat and it created a coalition named ‘Pakatan Harapan’. On 14 March 2017 Dr.Mahathir joined Pakatan Harapan who was the head of the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) at that time. He was appointed as Chairman of PH after his joining. GE14 results declared Dr.Mahathir as a winner and became Prime Minister of the country and Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had been given an appointed as a President of PH Party with the ideology of imparting social liberalism, democracy, reformism, and progressivism.
On the other hand, Barisan Nasional (BN) was under the shadow of the 1Malaysian Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal and as a result over a few past years received declining support (Parameswaran, 2018). In the 2008 elections BN also lost two-thirds majority vote and in the 2013 elections, lost also a popular vote. In 14GE2018, PH can achieve 121 seats from 222 seats by surpassing the required 112 seats to be in the parliament. In contrast; BN was able to have only 79 won seats in parliament (Parameswaran, 2018).
The press in Malaysia
The Malaysian press can’t be said to function in a democratic culture as Malaysia is known as a ‘quasi-democracy’. The journalists have a feeling of hesitance in covering sensitive issues that would offend the people in power (Ho K.C et al; 2003). Media on a larger extended hand is controlled by the government under various acts like ‘The Printing and Publication Act’, ‘The Official Secrets Act’, ‘Sedition Act’ and ‘Internet Security Act’. It is seen that the ruling government has influence directly or through connected social networks on all mainstream media outlets so, Malaysian media cannot be said as a fair portrayal medium (Ho K.C et al; 2003). Media also considers self-censorship to avoid any legal obstacle. In 1990-2000 the news media faced declined readership and for catering to the economic crises, many online newspapers were launched. Malaysia had a vision of economic development and for that internet was introduced in the country to reach prospective clients through the most convenient and efficient medium. Postill (2014) stated that ‘information Society’ is the inevitable and imminent and only choice for the developing countries to opt for the latest technology. For meeting this aim, Malaysia introduced the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in-country in 1996.
The declining readership of printed newspapers was a source of economic crisis within the media outlets. The Internet opened as an alternative source to cater to this issue. The very first online newspaper was introduced on 20th November 1999 i.e. ‘Malaysiakini’. ‘Malaysiakini’ emerged as an unbiased newspaper by opting for exclusives which normally mainstreams avoided (Ho K.C et al; 2003). ‘Malaysiakini’ is a dedicated political web portal and its importance came into light by the coverage of different events of the ‘Reformasi era 1998’, which was a struggle against the decision of then Prime Minister Dr.Mahathir Mohamad of sacking then Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in corruption cases. Secondly, the portrayal of Bersih rally for the demand of fair and free elections in 2007 and thirdly, the portrayal of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) rally in 2007 and freely represented the mishandling of protesters by government officials. For the first time in the history of Malaysia, any media outlet freely without any censorship portrayed the events in a controlled media culture. The portrayal of these initial events paved the route for ‘Malaysiakini’ of having a reputation as an alternative online media outlet (Postill, 2014). However, Chandran (2006) and Steele (2009) are quoted that ‘Malaysiakini’ is often acknowledged as a trendsetter with an agenda for other news media (Fong & Ishaq, 2015).
In contrast, the mainstream newspaper, ‘The New Straits Times’ (NST) is the oldest printed newspaper from Media Prima Company founded in 1845 and in 1974 re-established its presence. It comprises complex relations between the Malaysian corporate atmosphere, the government, ruling political party, and media (Abbott & Givens, 2015). ‘NST’ as a mainstream printed newspaper, its decline in readership was observed to 34%, and to cater the readership downfall, ‘NST’ had shown its presence online (Ho K.C et al; 2003). Media Prima Company owns three newspapers i.e. Harian Metro, Berita Harian, and NST. It is seen that the ruling government in Malaysia has a lot of shares in Media Prima Company and the government operates by the investment arm (Sankar, 2013). The company is not directly owned by the government but has linked with the ruling government by social connections and having shared ownership in many holding companies (Abbott & Givens, 2015). Like, the largest shareholding company is the Malaysian Employment Fund (EPF) in Media Prima with 18.4%, followed by the private company Kubungan Kasturi by 11.5% (Abbott & Givens, 2015). Generally, the media of Malaysia is biased in favor of the ruling political party and NST has always an inclination towards government as per its status and position.
In Malaysian, there are fifty online newspapers, and all reveal a different picture from print media (Abbott & Givens, 2015). Almost all have their websites to compete with the information dissemination race. In all online mediascapes, the top two are ‘Malaysiakini’ and ‘Malaysian Insider’ revealing a sizable readership. ‘‘Malaysiakini’ has an average of 9 million views each month (300,000 per day), whereas ‘Malaysia Insider’ also developed a readership exceeding 500,000 visitors per month (Abbott & Givens, 2015). The ‘Malaysiakini’ faced a lot of resistance from the government in denial of service attacks and several times denied official passes for coverage but with time, it came as a strong first alternative and the most popular online news media. In contrast; ‘NST’ is always seen towards government by its positive representation.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The influence of culture, ideology, and social stratum on the news reports makes them not to be reported as Tavassoli et al., (2018) assumed in their study. It is an important factor to be analyzed and for that, the recent research was studied (2015-2019). Through the study of research, it has been found that the internet is connected with the process of democratization in news production/development and distribution (Heer et al., 2019), which is seen in Malaysian political culture. On the other hand in Malaysia, online mediums have emerged from the loophole of the government’s policies in controlled media culture. For the uncontrollable medium of information dissemination, the government always tries to control policies and different acts. Jóhannsdóttir (2018) stated that online newspapers haven’t got their shape by the internet but they are molded by their norms of the institution. Over time it is seen that online newspapers have developed user-user interactivity which is a social interaction need (Ksiazek et al., 2016).
The generic and dialogic perspective in online ‘hard news’ is analyzed by ‘Attitude Analysis’ under ‘Appraisal Theory’ of Martin and White (2005) for determining the attitude of a writer/speaker. Norman Fairclough’s (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) theory defines the language as socially molded as per requirements. By employing CDA, one can explore the meanings, reasons, the relationships in the discourse production (Liu & Guo, 2016).
In the study of Noor (2015) on mainstream newspapers and government documents i.e. ‘The New Straits Times’ online newspaper ‘Malaysian Insider’ and, the government’s ‘Graduate Employability Blueprint’ have given more power to officials in the role of ‘Sayer and Appraiser’. A positive inclination towards the government is found in the study. The writer maintains the engagement as a resource with reader by maintaining his stance or attitude towards his viewpoint (Fouli & Hommerberg, 2015; Mugumya & Visser, 2015; Zhang & Liu, 2015; Zhang, 2015; Sabao & Visser, 2015; Huan, 2016; Jazaka & Visser, 2016 and Nádraská, 2017; Tavassoli et al., (2018) and Van Driel (2018). For maintaining the authorial voice, it is seen mostly news outlet uses rhetorical markers for winning the audience support (Sabao & Visser, 2015).
Fouli and Hommerberg’s (2015) study has found that text shows sympathetic wordings towards victims and is able to gather the confidence of victims’ families. The study of Zhang (2015) found that the earthquakes reporting in 2008 are more diversified as compared to 1998 in terms of increased ‘engagement’ and ‘attitudinal’ resources in Chinese newspapers. As per Fairclough (1995) that language is the creation of ‘social-ness’ which is revealing the realities and shows contribution in the production and reproduction process of language and an author/writer is responsible for maintaining the interest by the addition of rhetorical markers for engaging the reader with news story (Martin & White, 2005). Appraisal analysis is found adaptable with different forms of texts by the identification of news values and with discursive construction of values; the reader’s engagement is increased with the text (Van Driel, 2018). For filling the gap of linguistic stances’ comparison in Malaysian online newspapers, the existing study is an attempt to bridge the gap.
METHODOLOGY
The linguistic semantic representation in Malaysian alternative and mainstream online newspapers, Norman Fairclough’s (1995) theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is employed under the ‘Appraisal Analysis’ as an analytical tool of Martin and White (2005). As an extension of Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday’s (1985) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the text is analyzed by employing Martin and White’s (2005) framework. The social semiotic approach by van Leeuwen (2005) is employed for selecting news reports.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is an ideological social theory in which admirable contributions are recognized from Karl Marx, Louis Althusser, Antonio Gramsci, Michael Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, and Pierre Bourdieu in the examination of relations of power and ideologies which are involved in discourse. The study is on a similar path to Foucault’s (1980) notion of ideology in which it is stated that power is existing everywhere in society and a human is bound to be affected by this power relation in society (Daldal, 2014). Foss and Gill (2009) explained Foucault’s notion as a set of relations combined at one specific time and which develop systems and figures for defining that particular discourse.
CDA is considered as an exploration technique of finding the hidden ideologies lying behind texts which are dependent on the notion that in the discourse, language is the main part. Fairclough (1995) related texts as social spaces. In society, all social practices are related to historical contexts and social relations take different interests to serve. (Janks, 1997). Janks (1997) explained that the model of CDA by Fairclough (1989, 1995) comprises three processes that are interrelated to each other in textual analysis and which are associated with three dimensions of interrelated discourses. These dimensions are:
1. Object analysis;
2. The manufacturing and object receiving in processes;
3. The context and socio-historical conditions.
Fairclough explained three different analyses in-text analysis processes (Figure 1) i.e. 1) Text analysis (Description); 2) Processing of analysis (interpretation) and 3) Analyzing socially (Explanation). This is a dialectical relationship created between language and discourses. This approach to CDA connects language with the ideology and power that describes the relationship between an event and social structure (Wodak, 2006). It is suggested by the Critical Discourse Analysis theory that texts are inseparable from the analysis of discoursal and institutional practices. (Fairclough, 1995).
Figure 1. Methodological Framework by Fairclough (Janks, 1997 & Fairclough, 1997, pg. 59)
Representation of Social Actor by van Leeuwen
van Leeuwen’s (2005) framework of socio-semiotic is employed for the selection of social actors. Social actors are textual instantiations’ models for portraying oneself or others in the desired role. They are allowed to be included or excluded as per van Leeuwen’s model (Dawari & Moini, 2016). In the existing study, Dr.Mahathir Mohamad (former Prime Minister of Malaysia), Najib Razak (Former Prime Minister of Malaysia), Barisan Nasional (BN)-political party, and Pakatan Harapan (PH)-the political party were taken as social actors based on the categories of inclusion and exclusion.
Appraisal Theory
Appraisal analysis is an alternative approach to analyze linguistic discourse in ‘hard’ news of newspapers to find hidden ideology and objectivity (Sabao, 2016). It is an attributed evaluation of ‘hard’ news which serves as an ideological function and supports journalists for imprinting their voices (Sabao, 2016). Appraisal analysis by Martin and White (2005) is employed in the study to find the stances from a generic and dialogic perspective in online newspapers. James R. Martin introduced the Appraisal theory in the 1990s. His approach is based on Lemke’s (1998) semantic interpersonal aspects where interpersonal and ideational function (Transitivity-processes) of language is considered for stance creation. Martin and White (2005) have stressed Stubbs (1996) and Lemke’s (1989, 1992, 1998) deliberations in individual stances as whole in-text prosody.
White (2005) investigated the semantic pattern choices and text organization that influence the reader for social values enhancement, while Martin (2005) explained the stances’ construction and interpersonal relationship and positioning. Appraisal theory concerns how writers or speakers applaud or criticize, approve /disapprove, enthuse/abhor and how they position their readers (Martin & White, 2005). It is dealing with the development of shared feelings, tastes, emotions, normative and assessments, and how writers or speakers align /dis-align themselves with respondents by constructing authorial identities (Martin & White, 2005).
The Appraisal theory explains writer’s or speakers’ attitudinal stances towards the discourse content based on three semantic resources of discourse i.e. Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation), which are sub-divided into their different categories (Figure 2). The study is focusing on ‘Attitude’ analysis as the grammatical realization of attitude terms is adjectival and it is easier in establishing the frames grammatically in highlighting various kinds of attitudes in written text (Martin & White, 2005).
Figure 2. Overview of Appraisal Resources (Martin & White, 2005, pg. 38)
Attitude
‘Attitude’ concerns our emotions, feelings, and judgments of our behavior with the evaluation of things (Martin & White, 2005). Zhang (2015) stated that ‘Attitudes’ in news reports are the ideological element and it is not possible to stay away from its influence. Zhang (2015) quoted Yang (2003) that in news, the values include experience, perception, events, emotions, and communication of information. Zhang (2015) further quoted Yang (2003) that in the news text the emotionality in news text is in two forms, firstly the already news containing emotions as a social event by the interference of people’s emotions as a result of productivity and, secondly the role of a journalist comes who disseminate emotions through his description adhering design strategy of audience and by the direct speech which is rhetorically used for the communication of political and ideological orientation (Jakaza & Visser, 2016). Expressions are attitudinal which conveys positive/negative assessments and is known as ‘inscribed’ attitudes, while indirect attitudinal meanings are ‘invocations’ of attitudes (Tavassoli et al., 2018).
There are three sub-divisions of ‘Attitudes’ i.e. ‘Affect’, ‘Judgment’ and ‘Appreciation’. In a written text ‘Affect’ creates emotional reactions like worry, horror, anger, etc. It operates under four sub-resources i.e. ‘un/happiness’, ‘Security’, Satisfaction’ and ‘Dis/Inclination’ (Martin & White, 2005). In ‘Affect’ expressions may be negative or positive for conveying emotions like in the categories of happiness/unhappiness, inclination/disinclination, security/insecurity, and satisfaction/dissatisfaction.
In ‘Judgment’ the behavior is assessed as badly, miserly, minatory, etc., while ‘Appreciation’ concerns with the resources which create the value of things like very lively, destruction, as a bonus, etc. (Martin & White, 2005). ‘Judgment’ is divided into two types i.e. ‘social sanction’ and ‘social esteem’. ‘Social Sanctions’ evaluates the behavior imposed on people as a law or rule. It is further divided into two types, firstly ‘Veracity’ that deals with the truthfulness of a person and secondly, ‘‘Propriety’ is responsible to know how ethical a person is. Social ‘esteem’ is concerned with ‘normality’ (knowing about the unusualness of a person), ‘capacity’ (knowing a person’s capability), and ‘tenacity’ (knowing the truthfulness of a person).
‘Appreciation’ (impact and quality) evaluates the things by the actor’s performance. It is subdivided into three categories, firstly ‘reactions’ which are shown towards things secondly, ‘composition’ (complexity and balance), and lastly, the ‘valuation (how innovative, authentic, etc.) (Martin & White, 2005).
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The selection of news reports is based on social actors i.e.‘Dr. Mahathir’, ‘Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN). The news reports on specified dates of 17th and 18th August 2018 are eight - 8 (5721 words) in total. The five – 5 news reports (3,265 words) were selected from ‘Malaysiakini’ while from ‘The New Straits Times’ 3 (2456 words) were selected based on time frame. PH completed its first 14th week on 17th August 2018 in a government which is a general practice of considering worldwide a new government’s performance within 14 weeks. The news reports are selected as a day’s latest news and a follow on the second day on 18th August 2018. PH’s initial 14th-week performance gives a fair coverage idea in comparing the different instances of both online newspapers. All news reports were manually downloaded and pasted in word and then in the last stage pasted on ‘Excel’ spreadsheet software package in the form of clauses for ‘Appraisal Analysis’. The analysis of the text is based on the ‘Attitude analysis’ under the resources of ‘Affect’, ‘Judgment’ and ‘Appreciation’.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Hodge has quoted himself and Kress’s work (1988) that social semiotics has transformed the basic role and given a broader scope in a bounded group of practices (Hodge, 2012). The social actors’ selection was based on van Leeuwen (2005) in the categories of inclusion and exclusion.
Inclusion and exclusion
van Leeuwen (2005) stated that discourses can be excluded or included and are elements of social practice, for the representation of specific actors to suit the interest and purpose of an individual. Sometimes the exclusion occurs by the assumption that readers know so there is no requirement for inclusion or vice versa. Sometimes there is a need for deletion as considered as irrelevant to the required study and shows of portraying different ideologies on audience/readers.
Table 1. Social Actors in ‘Malaysiakini’ and ‘The New Straits Times’
|
Social Actors |
Malaysiakini |
The New Straits Times |
|
Dr. Mahathir Mohamad |
28 |
19 |
|
Pakatan Harapan |
61 |
75 |
|
Barisan Nasional |
10 |
17 |
Pakatan Harapan under the leadership of Dr. Mahathir has been found the most represented social actor in both newspapers in the selected period on the first 14 weeks of government.
Attitude Analysis
This section explains the analysis results of two online newspapers in Malaysia. The analysis of ‘Attitude’ includes emotional responses’ values known as ‘Affect’. The values which are socially assessed by the actor’s behavior are known as ‘Judgment’, and values addressing and explaining the qualities of entities, objects, and natural phenomena are known as ‘Appreciation’. ‘Attitude’ involves ‘Affect’, ‘Appreciation’ and ‘Judgment’ semantic regions, which is known as emotion, aesthetics, and ethics (Martin & White, 2005). Emotion is the core of the above regions as an expressive resource and plays the most crucial part in negotiating the stance/solidarity by conveying our attitude and getting back the response to our viewpoints in a social culture (Martin & White, 2005). The detailed distributions of attitudinal resources with the key used in the analysis are discussed below.
Table 2. Analysis Key to Attitudinal Resources
|
AFFECT-KEY |
Aff |
|
Un/Happiness |
Happ |
|
In/Security |
Sec |
|
Dis/Satisfaction |
Sat |
|
Dis/Inclination |
Inc |
|
APPRECIATION-KEY |
App |
|
Reaction |
Reac |
|
Composition |
Comp |
|
Valuation |
Val |
|
JUDGMENT-KEY |
Judg |
|
Tenacity |
Ten |
|
Normality |
Nor |
|
Capacity |
Cap |
|
Propriety |
prop |
|
INVOKED/INSCRIBED |
Invo/insc |
|
POSITIVE (+) / NEGATIVE (-) |
pos (+) / neg (-) |
Table 3. Distribution of Attitudinal Resources
|
Malaysiakini |
The New Straits Times |
||||
|
Feature |
Instances |
Percentage |
Feature |
Instances |
Percentage |
|
Affect |
1 |
0 |
Affect |
0 |
0 |
|
Judgment |
19 |
9% |
Judgment |
24 |
26% |
|
Appreciation |
203 |
91% |
Appreciation |
69 |
74% |
Table ‘2’ and ‘3’ is showing a comparison between the two online newspapers’ discourses. The rate of resources of attitude is seen almost equal (appraisal items are analyzed per 100 words) as ‘Malaysiakini’ showing its stances higher in ‘Appreciation’ resource by 91% with 203 instances, while 9% falls under ‘Judgment’ with 19 instances. On the other side in comparison, ‘The New Straits Times’ has also shown its stances of ‘Attitude’ higher in ‘Appreciation’ resource with 74% by 69 instances. By the figures, it shows that on the 14th-week completion of Dr.Mahathir in government in Malaysia, both online newspapers have represented him fairly in the ‘Appreciation’ resource.
Table 4. Summary of Attitudinal Choices in ‘Malaysiakini’
|
‘Malaysiakini’ Instances |
Instances |
Percentage |
|
AFFECT-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
1 |
0 |
|
Positive |
0 |
0 |
|
AFFECT-TYPE |
||
|
Satisfaction |
1 |
0 |
|
Dis/Inclination |
0 |
0 |
|
Security |
0 |
0 |
|
Un/Happiness |
0 |
0 |
|
APPRECIATION-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
41 |
4% |
|
Positive |
59 |
37% |
|
APPRECIATION-TYPE |
||
|
Reactions |
9 |
8% |
|
Composition |
52 |
46% |
|
Valuation |
42 |
37% |
|
JUDGMENT-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
6 |
5% |
|
Positive |
4 |
1% |
|
JUDGMENT-TYPE |
||
|
Tenacity |
1 |
1% |
|
Normality |
0 |
0 |
|
Capacity |
8 |
7% |
‘Affect’ concerns with the registering of positive/negative feelings e.g. happy, sad, bored, confidence, etc. are different resources in which stances are analyzed. The ‘Effect’ resource in ‘Malaysiakini’ is shown only with ‘1’ instance. It is seen that Dr. Mahathir’s addressed on the occasion of completion of the first 14th week in government is quoted as it is. By doing so, the journalist disowns himself and leaves the responsibility of statement to the speaker/sayer that reflects the incontrovertible reality/fact (Bell 1991). That resource is appraised by a selected social actor (Dr.Mahathir), who criticized the acts of accepting the corrupt money (appraised) belonging to Barisan Nasional (BN).
The most widely used resource ‘Appreciation’ is seen in ‘Malaysiakini’ in the ‘composition’ sub-category. Appreciation involves the semiotics and natural phenomena evaluations according to how they are valued in a specific field (Martin & White, 2005). Both newspapers have given Dr.Mahathir as a present ruling government a wide positive coverage and he is seen as an ‘Appraiser’ the most e.g.
- Malaysiakini 111 the damage done (App, neg -) by the previous BN government (appraised) was far worse than what had been anticipated (appraiser-Dr. Mahathir).
- Malaysiakini 125 Comprehensive studies have begun on mega projects (Appraised, App, pos (+) comp) awarded to other countries (Appraiser-Dr. Mahathir).
- NST 5 Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said he still required the council’s services and has yet to decide on the matter (Appraised-App, pos (+) comp (Appraiser-Dr. Mahathir)
Appreciation is sub-divided into three categories i.e. ‘reaction’ giving towards objects/things their ‘composition’, balance and complexity, and the ‘value’ of them showing as innovative/authentic, etc. Both newspapers have represented their stance through ‘composition’ resource the most. As the speaker is seen mostly speaking referring to the previous government’s performance and raising doubts and criticism. All stances are related to the context of culture according to Norman Fairclough’s theory (1995) of Critical Discourse Analysis, as all texts are social spaces and created by the interaction of social and cognition processes that occur simultaneously. The reaction is stated on the performance of BN with a comparison that how the PH government fulfilling the promises for the betterment of citizens at the top priority agenda by explaining the new developmental steps and their values with 42 instances (37%). It shows that PH government steps are well explained and valued.
The ‘Judgment’ resource has also opted as seen that the government is not able to accomplish its all promises at a moment in the 14th-week span but judged the situation and looking forward to good performance by his cabinet. The ‘Judgment’ involves the behavior of individual judged in a context in sub-divisions of ‘tenacity’ (where the individual is determined to accomplish his work), ‘normality’ (a normal condition in which individual is assessed), and ‘capacity’ involves the capability of an individual, e.g.
- Malaysiakini 177 As normal human beings we cannot avoid making mistakes (Appraised-Jud, neg (-) cap) (Appraiser-Dr. Mahathir)
- Malaysiakini 33 Mahathir said that through the «extremely strong spirit of the people», Najib’s”kleptocratic government” (Appraised-Jud, neg (-) cap) was defeated and the events of May 9 would go down in history (Appraiser-Dr. Mahathir).
- NST 19 “I cannot do that kind of work.” (Appraised-Jud, neg (-) cap) (Appraiser -Dr. Mahathir).
Table 5. Summary of Attitudinal Choices in ‘The New Straits Times’
|
‘The New Straits Times’ Instances |
Instances |
Percentage |
|
AFFECT-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
0 |
0 |
|
Positive |
0 |
0 |
|
AFFECT-TYPE |
||
|
Satisfaction |
0 |
0 |
|
Dis/Inclination |
0 |
0 |
|
Security |
0 |
0 |
|
Un/Happiness |
0 |
0 |
|
APPRECIATION-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
24 |
|
|
Positive |
60 |
56% |
|
APPRECIATION-TYPE |
22% |
|
|
Reactions |
7 |
6% |
|
Composition |
41 |
37% |
|
Valuation |
38 |
35% |
|
JUDGMENT-POLARITY |
||
|
Negative |
14 |
13% |
|
Positive |
10 |
9% |
|
JUDGMENT-TYPE |
||
|
Tenacity (social esteem) |
3 |
3% |
|
Normality (social esteem) |
1 |
1% |
|
Capacity (social esteem) |
16 |
14% |
|
Propriety (social sanction) |
4 |
4% |
‘The New Straits Times’ being a mainstream newspaper is seen taken most of its stance in ‘Appreciation’ resource (Table 4). The newspaper has seen quoted positive coverage of Dr.Mahathir’s address and party-related news. Like ‘Malaysiakini’, ‘NST’ also has given authorial stance through the speaker, and the journalist’s voice is not heard at front.
When seeing the analysis in SFL, NST has presented ‘Dr. Mahathir’ in ‘Verbiage’ role the most by 8 occurrences (42%) and as an in the role of ‘Sayer’ with 5 occurrences (27%). In the ‘Goal’ role 30% with 21 occurrences are given to PH. Both results are complementing each other as in both analyses, Dr.Mahathir is taken as ‘Appraiser’ the most and appraising the government by current initiatives/role/performances with 35% credit and pinpointing the BN performances of past. In ‘Judgment’ resource ‘capacity’, the individual is highlighted by his abilities with 16 instances with 14%.
The study analyzes the representation of four elected social actors in online newspaper ‘Malaysiakini’ (alternative) and ‘The New Straits Times’ (mainstream ) i.e. Dr.Mahathir, Najib Razak, Pakatan Harapan (PH), and Barisan Nasional (BN), those are selected as active ‘doers’. ‘Najib Razak’ is not seen in the doer’s role in any news report so; by the ‘exclusion’ role of social semiotics, he is excluded. ‘Dr. Mahathir’, ‘PH’ and ‘BN’ can be seen playing the role. The comparison data reveals that the news on the completion of the 14th week has some changes in mainstream newspaper coverage (Figure 1-12). Previously in the BN government, PH had always low representation in ‘NST’ being a government-influenced media. On winning election 2018, the inclination of ‘NST’ is seen by the coverage. Similar findings are seen in the study of Asad et al. (2019a) that ‘The News’ Pakistani newspaper has shown its inclination towards existing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI-political party) by taking a safe turn for its survival as previously it was aggressively portraying PTI negatively but the representation is portrayed in the present ruling government by the rhetorical markers (external sources) to support their viewpoint and ideology.
Similar findings are found in another study of Fong and Ishaq (2015) that in Malaysia, the political reason is the primary influencing external factor in the gatekeeping of newspapers in their coverage, and journalists/editors shape the reality that reflects the economic, political, and ideological boundaries. Another study (Abbott & Givens, 2015) shows that ownership explains the bias in the media of Malaysia, and media is seen as biased in favor of the ruling government. The inscription and invocation are associated with this study, where explicitly words and expressions showed the view of the reporter (Zaidi, 2016) (Figure 9-12).
Mostly the authorial endorsement is seen given to the speaker (Dr.Mahathir) by evidential standings in an existing study by referencing sources. They are quoted in positive and negative stances (Table 3 & 4). Appraisal analysis emphasizes the evaluation of lexical realizations not on a grammatical realization like SFL. The study leads to a subjective semantic analysis, where each researcher can take out his interpretation of evaluative instances (M. Driel, 2018). Scollon (1999) stated that spoken language is relying on social practices, history, and structures of linguistics.
The readers are given a comparison in positive and negative, inscribed and invoked stances’ presentation of PH, BN, Dr. Mahathir, and Najib Razak by newspapers. Analyzing the results of ‘Malaysiakini’ and ‘NST’ shows that both newspapers want to mould readers’ views as per their viewpoints and applied rhetorical markers by quoting mostly the social actors and attributed the news institutions’ ideology from an external source. Applying the CDA framework with ‘Appraisal Analysis’ gives the background information to a reader of their different stances on the change of government. Wodak and Meyer (2009) stated that CDA is a beneficial technique for the establishment and reproduction of relations of power in discourse. By adopting CDA with ‘Attitude Analysis’, the power relation of news institutions is found, which depicts the ideology of them by taking the help of rhetorical markers. The findings are assisting research objectives 1, 2, and 3 by the result in percentages.
It is a new framework of two online newspapers i.e. ‘NST’ (mainstream online media) and ‘Malaysiakini’ (alternative online newspaper) to study on ‘first 14th week of Dr.Mahathir’s government’ by ‘Appraisal Analysis’. ‘PH’ has been represented the most with 61 and 75 instances in ‘Malaysiakini’ and ‘The New Straits Times’ respectively. PH as a ruling government is seen occupying the prominent representation in both newspapers during the first 14 weeks of government. It shows that both newspapers have given prominent coverage on this particular 100-day completion of government. ‘PH’ as a political party has been analyzed the most by both newspapers as a whole instead of a single political leader in the specific period. Further studies can be organized by considering ‘CDA’ and ‘Appraisal Analysis’ on mainstream and alternative newspapers to analyze the different stances’ creation in the existing media culture of a country especially between the Western and Asian countries. Both newspapers in current study are found using rhetorical markers as an external supporting voice in winning the readership (Asad et al., 2021). Alternative and mainstream newspapers are found inclined towards existing government per their political and economic interests as well as considering the performance of new ruling government (Asad et al., 2019b).
CONCLUSION
The analysis by ‘Attitude’ resources on newspapers shows the stances of the newspaper. It is found that the mainstream media tends to give privilege to powerful authorities in Malaysia as given maximum representation to the current ruling government by avoiding BN coverage. The mainstream newspapers are instrumental in supporting the promotion of the hegemonic state’s influence in society (Fong & Ishaq, 2015), whereas; alternative media (Malaysiakini) maintains its position by portraying the event as current news.
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