Critiquing Bangladeshi Newspapers’ Editorials: A CDA Perspective

Abstract

Newspaper-editorials manufacture consent of influential groups of people (scholars, intellectuals, policy makers, politicians and administrators) in a particular country (Rahman and Akhter, 2002). Though a newspaper’s uniqueness and stance is determined by its editorial in the market and society, the language composed here indirectly disseminates its ideology to its target readers (Van Dijk, 1996). This qualitative research elucidates some scarcely explored concerns of the editorial section of a newspaper; such as - semantic structure of the designed language, exercise of implicit power behind the language ( see Fairclough, 2001), holistic dimension of editors’ ideologies, validation of the title, techniques of presenting proposals, implications of key terminologies and justification of editors’ presupposition (Van Dijk,1998). These issues will help to find where editorials’ language is creating hegemony; while building peoples’ values, norms, beliefs, and practices in a state. This research analyzes 48 pieces of editorials from four newspapers (with the names) in Bangladesh. The study employs principles of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (see Fairclough and Wodak, 1997: 271-80), Van Dijk’s (1998) “Socio Cognitive Approach” and model of linguistic analysis of newspapers’ editorials by Fowler (1991). This study has also shown some basic ideas of various western schools of philosophies which exist in the themes of Bangladeshi newspapers’ editorials. This interdisciplinary research will benefit the people related to the field of English, Mass Communication and Journalism, Bangla, Psychology, Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Social Science too. The findings indicate newspapers’ editorials have still remained an unenthusiastic segment for most of the readers who regularly read newspaper. Editorials’ language is diplomatically composed to satisfy every party for commercial success. In Bangladesh, mainstream readers of newspapers somehow keep overlooking this segment whereas year after year writers of editorials are claiming their superior status.