Ideological Perspectives in Editorial: A Critical Study of Hallmark Editorial

Abstract

When news and events unfold, people turn to media for information, interpretation and, ultimately, analysis. Newspaper as a print organ of journalism becomes a point of reference especially for the elites. Interestingly, most readers dogmatically agree with newspapers’ views than other media’s because they are largely perceived to be neutral; little do they realise that these newspapers are also ideologically-driven. This paper examines an editorial of Hallmark newspaper using a multi-disciplinary approach of Critical Discourse Analysis as an analytical tool. The analysis established, among others, that editorial as an opinion-cum-identity discourse creates a distinctive “social identity” by positively evaluating the actions and behaviours of the in-group as against the negative evaluation of the out-group.  The paper concludes that newspaper editorials are neither neutral nor objective. They are influenced by relation of power, and ideologically inclined..