SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES USED IN THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN KENYA’S NEWSPAPER HEADLINES
- Brian Munyao Mulonzi
- Mugambi Cyrus Ngumo
- Lillian Kemunto Omoke
- ( paper pages. 139 - 160 )
Abstract
Media scholars have
noted that texts are loaded with ideologies and are therefore never neutral. Yet,
the way media texts were used to communicate COVID-19 information in Kenya has
been given little attention. Thus, this study examines how syntactic structures
in The Standard and the Daily Nation newspapers were used to
discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya. Using Fairclough’s Critical
Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study reveals the syntactic structures employed
by the newspapers serve important discursive functions. The grammatical
processes used in the headlines largely seem to give agency to COVID-19, while
Kenyans are presented as grammatical patients. Giving COVID-19 agency, is a way
of warning Kenyans against taking the pandemic lightly. The article also shows
structures like modality construct the newspapers as having overwhelming authority
over readers. Through these syntactic choices, the media wields immense power,
and may influence the way people think and act concerning the pandemic.
Citation
Brian Munyao Mulonzi, Mugambi Cyrus Ngumo, Lillian Kemunto Omoke.
2024.
"SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES USED IN THE DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTION OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN KENYA’S NEWSPAPER HEADLINES"
The Nigerian Journal of Economic and Social Studies,
66 (1): 139 - 160.
JEL Classification
I1, Y2
