ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF RHETORICAL DEVICES IN SHAPING DISCOURSE IN EDITORIALS OF PAKISTANI ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS

Abstract

Editorial discourse plays a central role in shaping how elections are understood, evaluated, and remembered by the public, particularly in politically contested environments like Pakistan. This study explores how rhetorical devices are used in Pakistani English newspaper editorials to construct political meaning during the 2024 General Election, with specific focus on Dawn and The Nation. Guided by Naomi’s (2016) rhetorical model and supported by Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study adopts a qualitative design to analyse a purposive sample of twenty-four election-related editorials including 12 from each newspaper. The analysis focuses on six key rhetorical devices specifically metaphor, analogy, hyperbole, paralipsis, sarcasm, and oxymoron and demonstrates that these devices function as important meaning-making tools rather than mere stylistic features. Findings show that Dawn generally employs rhetorical strategies to emphasise procedural fairness, democratic participation, and institutional accountability, framing elections as regulated processes where legitimacy depends on transparency and consistency. In contrast, The Nation tends to use rhetorical devices to stress stability, order, and institutional authority, often portraying protest, legal challenges, and dissent as potential threats to democratic continuity. Overall, the study shows that rhetorical devices actively shape how democracy, legitimacy, and political responsibility are discursively constructed in elite media. Future research may extend this work through comparative and multi-model approaches by applying Naomi’s rhetorical framework alongside other Critical Discourse Analysis models across a wider range of Pakistani and international media texts, in order to capture how rhetorical and ideological patterns vary across genres, and political contexts.