CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF POLITICAL NEWS DISCOURSE IN PAKISTANI MEDIA: A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO HEGEMONY AND POLARIZATION

Abstract

It is a radical shift in the media dynamics in Pakistan, from a monopoly of the state towards hyper polarization of the media landscape, where news discourse is one of the main avenues to contest ideology. This article aims to do a comprehensive Critical Discourse Analysis of political news discourse in the Pakistani media with a particular focus on the transformative years 2018 to 2025. The study, which draws on the three-dimensional framework of textual analysis, discursive practice, and sociocultural practice framework proposed by Norman Fairclough, examines the language mechanisms used by radio, television, and digital news media to construct public perceptions and reinforce partisanship in the news. Mixed methods are applied, which includes qualitative approach (textual deconstruction) and quantitative approach (content analysis) from top news channels like Geo News and ARY News. The results show that there is a dramatic shift towards “post-truth” politics: 41.25% of political communication consists of adversarial attacks, and objective facts only account for 2.38% of the political discourse (Haider et al., 2024). In addition, statistical analysis reveals a significant positive correlation () between the audiences' political affiliation and their trust in the media, which indicates that the audiences' media usage is mainly reinforcing their pre-existing partisanship. Furthermore, the study helps clarify the mechanisms that keep an ideology of hegemony alive by systematically excluding voices from the margins and favoring voices from the elites (Alvares et al., 2022; Aranda et al., 2021). Finally, the article puts forth suggestions for how media literacy and deliberative journalistic processes can help counter the "pernicious polarization" that threatens the stability of the nation (Sabahat et al., 2025; Somer et al., 2021). This study aims to examine the ideological framework in political news from Pakistani media and its impacts on affective polarization using the critical discourse analysis (CDA) structure suggested by Fairclough.The aim of this study is to investigate the ideology and affective polarization of Pakistani media political news by applying critical discourse analysis (CDA) model by Fairclough.