TRANSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF PRESS RELEASES OF THE 5 TOP-RANKED PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES OF PUNJAB

Abstract

This study aims to identify how language is strategically employed in Higher Education Public Relations in Pakistan. This study analyzes digital press releases published by the public sector universities in Pakistan. Based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework, Ideational Metafunction, this study examines the construction of experiential reality in language, agency in language, and the naturalization of institutional power dynamics. The official media portals of the top 5 universities of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), which ranked public universities of Punjab, were used to compile a purposive corpus of 50 English-language press releases published during the 2025 academic cycle. The analytical approach used was a mixed-methods approach, which involved using quantitative statistical frequencies of process distributions alongside a qualitative critical discourse analysis. The quantitative results show that the distribution of grammatical structures in the corpus is highly asymmetrical. Qualitative results show that there is a strong bureaucratic monopoly on the active positions of the actors and the speakers in the executive administration. The Vice Chancellor, it is revealed that the University Press Release of Punjab is not a neutral and transparent medium for the dissemination of public information. Instead, they are extremely sophisticated tools for academic capitalism and corporate public relations.