Discursive Construction of Covid-19 Pandemic in Kenya's Newspaper Headlines

Abstract

This thesis explores the discursive construction of the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's newspaper headlines. This study was guided by the following objectives: to examine how metaphors were used to discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's newspaper headlines; to analyze syntactic structures that were used to discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's newspaper headlines and to examine themes covered to discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya's newspaper headlines. A total of 101 newspaper headlines from The Standard and the Daily Nation, published between March, 2020 to December, 2020 were purposefully sampled using The Top-Down Approach. The Daily Nation contributed 52 headlines and The Standard 49 headlines. The study focused on these two newspapers because they have the widest readership in Kenya. Data analysis was done using CDA which is both a theory and a method. This study adopted three theoretical perspectives; Van Dijk’s Socio-cognitive Model, Fairclough’s CDA approach and Lakoff and Johnson’s CMT. Van Dijk's approach involves analyzing texts at the micro and macro levels, where the micro level focuses on linguistic items such as metaphors and the macro levels deal with themes. Fairclough's CDA approach was employed because it explicitly demonstrates how syntactic structures are utilized in media discourse to shape and frame social issues. CMT was used since it shows how media texts affect the reader’s cognition. Together, these three theories combine to reveal the media’s role in shaping public perception. Additionally, this theoretical triangulation highlights and exposes ideologies embedded in media discourse. The findings reveal that COVID-19 is discursively constructed using metaphors of war, bondage and death. It is clear from these metaphors that the print media tended to concentrate on the danger posed by the virus heightening the sense of urgency and crisis. Moreover, the newspapers discursively constructed COVID-19 using the following syntactic structures: grammatical process and participant types, nominalization, modes of sentences and modality. These syntactic structures reveal the same discursive trend where, for example, COVID-19 is constructed as an agent capable of creating crises, disrupting lives and even causing death. A few of the syntactic structures, however, give people agency and discursively construct pandemic as conquerable. The themes captured in the headlines logically arise from the linguistic choices made at the syntactic and lexical levels, and therefore, fall within the same frame of constructing the pandemic as a formidable enemy. The study argues that this largely negative discursive construction of COVID-19 has a dual purpose; while it serves as a warning to the populace to take protective measures, it may also lead to pessimism and despondency. This study holds great importance, specifically because it combines perspectives from CDA and CMT. This merging of theories unveils how media language exposes our thinking patterns and beliefs. Moreover, it is hoped this research will contribute to the fields of discourse, communication, and media studies. Furthermore, this analysis has implications for the medical field, as it demonstrates the impact of media discourse on our understanding of diseases and our actions in response to them.