EXPLORING POWER AND IDEOLOGY IN MEDIA DISCOURSE:A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF PAKISTANI SELECTED MORNING SHOWS

Abstract

With Pakistan's mass media culture growing, there is a noticeable interest in morning shows, as seen by the growing number of television channels attracting large audiences. These performances best capture the ideas, beliefs, and power dynamics of the speakers. They not only influence the general public's views and ideas but also their preconceived conceptions. Therefore, this study uses Fairclough's Three-dimensional model (1995, 2001) to investigate linguistic sexism, gender stereotypes, power dynamics, and ideology formation in spoken discourse in men's and women's languages. Purposive sampling was used to gather data from two carefully chosen Pakistani morning shows, and discourse analysis was used for a qualitative study. Moreover, the findings indicate how power and ideology are formed, created, or fought through media discourse. This study is important because it reveals the constructed ideologies expressed through language and raises awareness of the lexical and syntactic choices made by both genders. Future scholars can compare Pakistani and foreign morning shows to trace the power dynamics and ideological construction through language. This study advances knowledge of how the media upholds social hierarchies and provides insights into the nuanced ways power functions in Pakistani media discourse daily.