Abstract
Discourse analysis and the theories of war and peace journalism are used to investigate the newspaper coverage of the Pulwama attack of 2019, a recent development in the Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan that brought the nuclear-armed Asian neighbours on the brink of a war. To identify the journalistic discourses of the Pulwama attack, 686 headlines of news articles published in six popular newspapers on the attack and its aftermath during February 15-25, 2019, are analysed. Three levels of discourse analysis are employed: Lexical, social and ideological stratifications. Under lexical stratification, the news headlines are analysed to identify their lexical choices, syntactics and utterance-type semantics, while under social stratification, the samples are analysed to identify their utterance-token semantics, prosodic structures and social language. In the final ideological stratification, the headlines are analysed to identify the figured worlds, embedded ideologies and intentions. Three distinct discourses—War, News and Peace—are thus identified and characterised. Finally, the study findings are used to theorise and comment on conflict and peace journalism.
Author Bio(s)
Showkat Ahmad Jan
Research Scholar, Department of Media and Communication, School of Communication, Central University of Tamilnadu, Thiruvarur, India. Assistant Professor Jorunalism and Mass Communication Kalinga University, New Raipur Chhattisgrah India. showkataj19@students.cutn.ac.in; +91 8491023121
&
Dr. Francis P. Barclay (Corresponding author) Assistant Professor, Department of Media Communication, School of communication, Central University of Tamilnadu, Thiruvarur, India. francis@cutn.ac.in; +91 7904213765
Showkat Ahmad Jan is is a doctoral research scholar in the Department of media and Communication, School of Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur, India, Assiatant Professor Kalinga University New Raipur Chhattisgrah India. (ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6738-5142). His research area includes media, peace and conflict, political communication, discourse analysis, critical theories to media discourses, contemporary journalism, new and social media.
Francis Philip Barclay is a faculty member in the Department of Media and Communication, School of Communication, Central University of Tamil Nadu, India. With a background in journalism, news art and political cartooning, Dr Barclay is also an accomplished media researcher, psephologist and writer. He is the founder-editor of the Journal of Media and Communication (UGC-CARE listed). Dr Barclay has published several books and contributed chapters to many others, in addition to research articles in reputable journals. His research areas include media, politics and regulation, discourse analysis, gender studies, contemporary journalism, new and social media, media usage and effects, media psychology, research methodology and immersive technologies. Dr Barclay has also served several English newspapers in India. Some of his works are available for reading on his personal website, www.francisbarclay.com. (Orcid ID: 0000-0002-7361-9651)
Recommended Citation
Jan, Showkat Ahmad Mr and Barclay, Francis Philip Dr
(2023)
"War or Peace Discourse? Analysis of News Headlines on Pulwama Attack,"
Peace and Conflict Studies: Vol. 30:
No.
1, Article 4.
Available at:
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol30/iss1/4
