A Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation and Ideological Differences in Media Discourse in NigeriaInnocent Chiluwa, Department of English & Literary Studies, Covenant University, Ota.

AbstractQuite a number of studies on media discourse in Nigeria, have dwelt on issues relating to textuality and meaning of news reports. Very few of these works show the ideological role of language in media discourse. This paper strongly demonstrates that news discourse is a product of social processes and that a strong connection exists between language and ideology. The Guardian and The Punch - two Nigerian newspapers – are chosen for this study. Data comprise news headlines, from these papers, reported during the first quarter of 2004, a period when some major social crises erupted in some parts of the country. Analysis of data is based on the combination of Halliday’s systemic model and critical discourse analysis which view language as social semiotic and social practice. The study shows that linguistic variation in the headline of the newspapers under study is not just a function of choice of syntactic forms but also that they represent the paper’s perception of events that has some ideological imprints, especially in the Nigerian crisis situations.

IntroductionCritical Discourse Analysis upon which this work is based is a type of Analysis of Discourse which contributes to social and cultural research by examining how language functions in specific social contexts. Attention is paid to language behaviours by examining discourse texts that have actually occurred in specific contexts and identifying how language use in any text is reflective of social identities, social relations and systems of culture and beliefs. Fairclough (1989) argues that language is a social practice and a part of social processes and as such the ideological nature of language should be one of the major concerns of social or linguistic analysis.

In his paper, “What the papers say: Linguistic Variation and Ideological Differences”, Tony Trew (1979) demonstrates that people and institutions and especially the mass media perceive social realities differently and this clearly finds expression in language use. According to him, when people talk of “not speaking the same language” even when they are speaking the same English or French, the “difference” in question is about

Innocent Chiluwa

differences in thought, perception or ideology, which manifest in a systematic and often peculiar configuration of linguistic items. He argues “when social norms are infringed or the legitimacy of the institutions of control is challenged, there is commonly a response in the media that tends to show most visibly the existence and effects of specific – and often different ways of perceiving things.” Fowler (1979:118). Freeman et. al (1986) showed that the vocabulary and grammar of news headlines and news reports combine to reveal a distinctive point of view, which implies at least some selective perception or bias.

The two studies above are among the few on news headlines (See also Meecheroen et.al, 1998) carried out on foreign newspapers at different times. The present study applies both the Systemic Functional approach and Critical Discourse Analysis to study:

(i) How ideology is reflected in the language use of the Nigerian mass media and

(ii) How such a study gives some specific insights to the ideological nature and social functions of language, especially in the Nigerian crisis situations.

The study examines specifically, news headlines and their overlines of two popular Nigerian newspapers namely The Guardian and The Punch.

Media Discourse, Ideology and Critical LinguisticsMedia discourse in this study refers to language use in the

mass media. It mainly concerns the interactive process that goes on between journalists and the general public. Like any other form of language use, media discourse is a social practice and this study argues that journalists and the readers are the main actors in news discourse and not a social interaction among journalists (Scollon, 1998). Media discourse takes advantage of the socio-cultural and historical relationship that exists between people and society and the role of language in constructing this relationship in ensuring a constant social interaction. In other words, news discourse mediates social interaction and readers are participants in this practice.

My use of ‘media discourse’ in this paper specifically refers to new headlines (and their overlines) of some selected publications of The Guardian and The Punch newspapers during the first quarter of 2004. This period is important to this study because of the number of social crises around the country at

88

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

this time. The headlines in the data are those that actually reflect ‘crisis situations.’ A news headline is a title of a news story that encapsulates the entire contents of the news, while the overline is a brief explanatory note that usually goes with the headline, e.g.

NLC RULES OUT FRESH TALKS (the headline)Government moves to stop Strike (the overline).

A number of researches has been carried out on media language, most which examine the general structures and stylistic features of newspaper language (See Crystal and Davy, 1969; Bell, 1991). Fowler (1991) notes that news is both a product of some institutional processes as well as ideology of the newspaper which reflect on the language use. Hartley (1992) and Caldas-Coulthard (1996) examine the social functions of the news. Osisanwo (2001) concentrates on the structural patterns of texts in newspaper editorials, while Taiwo (2001) studies the functionality of language in newspapers. None of these works dwells on the ideological nature of language as reflected on news headlines. Studies on news headlines such as Meecheroen et al. (1998) and Taiwo (2004) are a survey of public understanding and preference for news headlines. Taiwo’s work is mainly a study of speech variations in news headlines. None of these studies paid attention to language variation and ideological differences in the news, which this paper is concerned with.

A work of this nature naturally finds in Critical Discourse Analysis, a theoretical base which explains the relationship between language as a social process and ideology which is mediated by language. Critical discourse analysis shows how language is used to affect people and confine them in some social and economic conditions as the society deems fit (Fowler, 1979, Fairclough, 1989). People tend to fit into some specific patterns of behaviour as part of the socialization process, and language has a way of reflecting this. According to Fowler and Kress (1979:185), “world view comes to language users from their relation to the institutions and the socio-economic structure of their society. It is facilitated and confirmed for them by a language use which has society’s ideological impress.” Social groupings and relationships therefore influence linguistic behaviour of speakers and writers as well as their non-

89

Innocent Chiluwa

linguistic cognitive behaviour in a way they are hardly aware of. Since meaning in language is so inseparable from ideology and both are determined by social structure, Fowler and Kress argue that linguistics should be a useful tool for the study of ideological processes.

By ideology is meant the belief, socio-political and cultural philosophy or convention upon which peoples’ actions or communicative activities are based (Polynton, 1985; Fairclough, 1989). According to Fairclough (1989), ideology is institutionalized and used as tools in the hands of some people to suppress and dominate others. Fairclough further argues that ideologies are propagated through “common sense assumptions” and individuals simply accept them unquestionably because their society imposes these ideologies on them. For instance, power and class relations are sustained in social practice and people are made to accept them as social conventions and common sense. “The individual is able to act only so far as there are social conventions to act within” (Fairclough, 1989:23). These social conventions or ideologies are most effective when they are least visible because they are embedded in common sense assumptions, expectations and conventional practices. Conventional practices affect the means of linguistic expressions; hence any linguistic text carries with it certain ‘implicit assumptions’ about social practices and much of interpretation of meaning and the supply of some ‘missing link’ of information is done by means of inferencing since the conventions which the text reflects are taken for granted.

The critical language study also includes the investigation of some pragmatic criteria like illocutionary acts and discourse implicatures of utterance. It studies the details of linguistic structure in the light of the social and historical situation of the text to display the patterns of belief and values which are encoded in the language (Fowler 1979).

Theory/MethodologyThe Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) - a function-based approach to language study, views language as a social behaviour or “semiotic”. Analysis of linguistic data is based on utterances that have actually occurred in real social situations. Such a study is to show the purposes language performs in different social contexts and how meaning, social processes and attitudes are constructed in a variety of ways.

90

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

In characterizing the functional components of grammar, Halliday (1978) identifies three “meta-functions” namely: the experiential component – which is the part of grammar concerned with the expression of experience (ideational function); the grammar of personal participation i.e. establishing and sustaining relationships and social roles (interpersonal function) and the creation of text (textual function).

In the clause the experiential component is represented by the participants, process (verbal elements) and circumstances of transitivity (circumstances). The grammar of transitivity shows events, states, processes and their related entities. The Interpersonal function is the grammar of “personal participation” (Fairclough 1992a), which is represented by mood and modality. These components cover utterances or linguistic constructs that express the speakers’ attitude towards one another, their social and economic relationships, their social roles, their attitude towards their interlocutors and their social actions The textual function is the construction of texts – verbal, written or attitudinal. Texts are seen as sets of options – a set of options from a system of option from among language forms – lexical, grammatical, phonological, etc. (Fairclough 1995).

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) adopts a more socio-political attitude to show how language, through its discursive elements, is central to the formation of subjectivity and structures of inequality. Fairclough (1995) adopts Halliday’s metafunctions but adds “identity function”, i.e. construction of identity and relations as part of the interpersonal function of language. Both Systemic Functional Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis view language as social constructs showing how society influences language use. They also share a common view that discursive events influence the context in which they occur and the context in turn influences the discursive events. Both approaches emphasise the cultural and historical dimension of meaning (Graham 2004).

In the analysis of data, the functions of the grammar of transitivity (part of the ideational function) of some selected headlines and some parts of the news reports will be investigated. Grammar of transitivity reveals how the clause is used to represent actions, events and entities. Other analytical tools in systemic linguistics that will be applied in the analysis are the grammar of modality (the interpersonal relations of speaker and hearer); the manipulation of linguistic materials; transformations; linguistic ordering; the grammar of

91

Innocent Chiluwa

classification and coherence: order and unity of discourse (1979). This will help the analyst show how ideology influences linguistic structures which reflect the society in which they operate.

Corpus The corpus comprises three pairs of news headlines and

their overlines, which have been purposively selected for this study. Where necessary some parts of the news report have been referred to for clarity. The selection of data is also based on the significance of the period the news in question covered, i.e. first quarter of 2004 - a time of socio-political tension occasioned by industrial action and political assassinations in Nigeria. The data reflect social processes and events which language is part of. The data are as follows:

(i) NLC RULES OUT FRESH TALKGovernment moves to stop strike (The Punch)

Labour Declares Total Strike, Plans Protests in Phases

Police seek dialogue for violence free rallies (The Guardian) (January 19, 2004)

(ii) Gunmen Kill Kogi State Electoral Chief, Police Arrest PDP Leader (The Guardian)

KOGI STATE ELECTORAL BOSS KILLED - PDP Chief, two others Arrested- Obasanjo meets Police Chiefs (The Punch)(March 8, 2004)

(iii) Politicians Spend N1bn on Bulletproof Cars (The Punch) (Main headline)

Politicians, Businessmen Scramble for Bulletproof Vehicles

…To train drivers abroad (The Guardian) (March 15, 2004)

At the breakdown of talk between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Federal government on the price of fuel in the country, Labour declared a nation wide strike with effect from Wednesday 21st January 2004. Labour was protesting the

92

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

deregulation of the down stream oil sector and the N1.50 fuel tax. Appearing as the The Guardian’s and The Punch’s main headlines on Monday 19th January 2004:

(i) NLC RULES OUT FRESH TALK- Government moves to stop strike (Punch)

(ii) LABOUR DECLARES TOTAL STRIKE, PLANS PROSTEST IN PHASES

- Police seek dialogue for violence free rallies (The Guardian)

The first striking difference between the two reports is the focus of each report. The Punch (hence forth Punch) reports that agreement with labour was unlikely, even though there was the possibility to restrain them, as “government moves to stop strike”. The finite verb or process “moves” indicates that government is an entity (or agent) that moves as a united force against labour. The Guardian (hence forth Guardian) says that talk had broken down, that strike was already declared and that the police was seeking non-violent rallies. Both headlines are simple clauses, reported in the active voice. Punch is silent on the activity of the police. Depending on their points of view, Punch takes sides with the government. From the report, the government anticipates a probable truce with a recalcitrant Labour.

Government moving to stop strike through some legal means suggests a position akin to being defensive. Government is portrayed as a persecuted agency that moves to prevent an ill-conceived action likely to cause disaffection and breach of public peace. That Labour “rules out fresh talk” projects it in the light of a tendency parallel to belligerence, intransigence and lawlessness. The phrasal verb “rules out” presupposes the tendency not to listen to legitimate counsel and, where restraint is not possible, the patient government is compelled to seek redress at the Appeal court. Further reports by Punch are all about government activities and the efforts of the government to stop the NLC.

The Federal Government could pull a last minute joker to checkmate the strike by the Nigeria labour Congress scheduled to start midnight on Tuesday…Government’s

93

Innocent Chiluwa

desperate moves to stop the strike came as labour declares on Sunday in Lagos that it was unlikely that the dispute would be resolved by any fresh talks.

Labour is portrayed as the aggressor and the government, a victim.

Guardian reports the activities of the NLC, and goes further to report NLC’s explanation for its decision as people oriented. It quotes the Labour president as saying: “we have to determine when to stop and refuel and when to continue the struggle until we get our government to listen to the plights of Nigerians…a democratic project will collapse, if Nigerians fail to rise up to collectively say to President Obasanjo ‘enough is enough’. Further reports were on the planned phases of the strike and the activities of the police to ensure violence free actions. Labour is portrayed as a victim, the government as an oppressor and the planned strike as a last resort to achieve social equity.

An ideology that equates the master-servant relationship with that of the ruler and the ruled in a democratic state has the tendency to attribute illegal power to the government. Government is perceived as the ultimate power and any legitimate resistance is viewed as confrontation. The Punch is sympathetic to the government’s position and expects an unconditional cooperation from the NLC in the circumstance. And where this is not the case, the government has the right to apply both legal and unconstitutional means of crushing the resistance. Notice the phrasal verb “rules out”; NLC rules out (rather peremptorily) and government “moves to stop”. “Rules out” implies obstinacy, stubbornness and intransigence, therefore justifying government’s moves to stop it. There is the air of stalemate – a struggle between two opposing forces. The government, portrayed as being in a rather weaker position, is justified to crush the rebellion. The implication of this ideological conviction is that the government has the right to stop oppositions, which is actually the people’s collective yearning for good governance. Again this implies that the government doesn’t seem to see the NLC as fairly representing the Nigerian worker, which legitimizes government’s intervention.

The Guardian’s report that Labour “declares”, “plans” protest in phases implies that the protest involves the general

94

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

public; it is people oriented. To “declare” means, “to say something officially or publicly” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). It presupposes that the NLC addresses the Nigerian worker. “Plans” is a mental process which in this context also involves people. Here The Guardian projects the NLC as a people oriented institution, capable of planned actions for a just course. Also, it implies that Labour has the right to question unpopular government policy as well as resist forces of oppression. To Punch, the idea is that NLC and the planned strike are aberrations to the socio-economic policy of government, and government should resist any form of intimidation. Government is perceived as the master. The Guardian presents the NLC as the people’s spokesman and strike is the only available option to correct social aberrations.

Let’s look at the second headline:

GUNMEN KILL KOGI STATE ELECTORAL CHIEF, POLICE ARREST PDP LEADER (Guardian)

KOGI STATE ELCTORAL BOSS KILLED- PDP Chief, two other arrested- Obasanjo meets Police Chief (The Punch)

Guardian reports in the active voice in the two parts of the headline. Thus, the agent (gunmen) performs the action or process (kill) on the affected participant (Kogi state electoral chief). On the second part of the headline, the active voice puts the “police” (agent) in the focal position. It performs an action “arrest” on the “PDP leader” (affected participant). The Punch reports in the passive form. Significantly, the agent of the killing is deleted and the affected participant is brought to a focal point. The idea that he was killed is placed in a subordinate position. The linguistic structure of the headline presupposes that the attention of the reader is focused on “Kogi state electoral boss”. Other information on the headline is contained in the overline “PDP chief, two others arrested” – still in the passive structure; the agent “police” is dropped. “Obasanjo meets police chiefs” – the active form places “Obasanjo” in the public view. Guardian identifies the killers as “gunmen.” It reports:

Another high profile assassination was yesterday recorded in the country with the killing of the chairman of the Kogi

95

Innocent Chiluwa

state Independent Electoral Commission, Chief Philip Olorunnipa. He was shot dead, at about 3 a.m. at his residence in Aduno Kabba area of the state by suspected assassins.

The action of “kill” in the first part of the headline legitimizes the “arrest” in the second part. Thus, “police arrest” is sequel to “gunmen kill”. In each part of the headline, Guardian follows the same linguistic sequence of ordering of the events – a syntactic agent (gunmen/police) + a transitive verb representing a transactive process (kill/arrest) and an affected participant (Kogi state electoral chief/PDP leader). In the first part of the headline, “gunmen” implies the instrument of the process i.e. gun, since “kill” is a function of the gunmen. An ideological characterization of the instrument of political killings is mediated, that is, most political killings are assassinations by gun shooting. Social events that re-echo and confirm what people feel and experience mould people’s perception. The Nigerian socio-political climate consistently favours this perception that politicians are usually murdered by gun trotting men and we can see that media reports systematically represent this ideological perception.

Punch deletes the agent of “killed,” presupposing that the Kogi state electoral chief could have been killed by any other means other than shooting. The headline writer probably considers the caliber of the victim more important than the fact that he was killed; hence, the prominent position the electoral boss occupies on the headline. It follows the same sequence in the remaining parts of the headline: (i) “PDP chief, two others arrested” (ii) “Obasanjo meets police chiefs”. (i) follows the passive structure, where “PDP chief” is placed at the focal position. (ii) is written in the active form, but again “Obasanjo” occupies a central position. This systematic ordering of social processes is anchored to how Punch perceives social events and what linguistic items they choose to represent the ideology of the newspaper.

Another high profile assassination was yesterday recorded in the country with the killing of the chairman of the Kogi state INEC chairman…he was shot dead

Although the first line of the report says “shot dead” it concludes the sentence with “list of those killed in recent

96

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

times”. Notice that “those” comes before “killed”. It is safe to conclude therefore that Punch values people’s statuses and social roles more than what affects them as individuals, following the perception that people should be treated on the basis of their socio-economic roles and statuses. Comparing Guardian and Punch on account of abstract linguistic changes and choices of sequence of events we see the following:

Agent Process Affected Circumstance

Guardian Gunmen Kill (active) Kogi State electoral chief shooting

Police arrest (active) PDP leader -

Punch - killed (passive) Kogi state electoral boss -

- arrested (passive) PDP chief, two other -

Obasanjo meets (active) Police chiefs -

The Punch highlights affected participants rather than actors (agents) and the process is in passive form. The Guardian reports agents as performers of action and instruments of the processes and the affected participants. It is also deducible that Guardian favours the ideology of personal responsibility to actions. Individuals are morally responsible to their actions; hence, Guardian highlights who does what and the circumstances in which actions are performed.

The last headline is about the Nigerian politician’s penchant for bulletproof cars, widely publicized by the local newspapers on the 15th of March 2004:

Politicians, Businessmen Scramble for Bullet-proof Cars - To train drivers abroad (The Guardian)

POLITICIANS SPEND N1BN ON BULLETPROOF CARS (The Punch)

This story forms Punch’s main headline, while the Guardian makes it a second headline with the lettering less bold than the main one. Guardian’s headline is a clause, with double agents:

97

Innocent Chiluwa

“politicians”, “businessmen”; “and” is dropped. The verb phrase is made up of a process “scramble” and a prepositional phrase “for bulletproof vehicles” (goal). Additional information on the headline says, “to train drivers abroad.” The Punch’s headline has one agent (politicians), a process (spend), a participant (N1bn) and a prepositional phrase “on bulletproof cars” (purpose). Both headlines are reported in the active form. But notice the difference:

Agent Process Participant Purpose/Circumstance

Guardian Politicians, Businessmen scramble - for bulletproof vehicles

Punch Politicians spend N1bn on bulletproof cars

Guardian includes “businessmen” as a syntactic agent and “scramble” as process. The use of “scramble” i.e. scamper, struggle or compete with others instead of just “spend” is to mediate the usual competitive attitude of politicians and to represent the particular mode of behaviour characteristic of a people, i.e. Nigerian politicians. “Scramble” as a psychological attribute of politicians is however an assumed one, but it does mediate the social perception of politics and politicians as they are linked ideologically with this kind of subjective social tendency. One can assume that Nigerian politicians are generally associated with opulence, flamboyance, dissipation and disorder. Notice that “businessmen” is not included in the headline of Punch, which seems to lessen the impact of this attribute of politicians. This is in order to push the ideological perception to where it really belongs. With this social perception, it is not surprising that politicians spend N1billion on cars. In Nigeria, politics is viewed simply as money, contracts, lootings, etc; hence, politicians are unsafe, they outdo each other, and assassinate each other; it is logical therefore that they scramble for bulletproof cars. This type of reporting is constantly maintained in order to sustain this ideology. Punch gives the exact sum of money spent on cars alone, while Guardian retains the tempo of the Nigerian mentality and idealism. It says “vehicles”, Punch says “cars”. A vehicle is anything from cars to buses or trucks or lorries. So, the use of

98

Critical Linguistic Study of Language Variation

“vehicles” instead of “cars” is significant in order to assert the ideological perception of opulence and dissipation. Then, it adds “to train drivers abroad” as a continuation of the process which begins with scrambling and spending. It is clear therefore that language choice in news discourse follows a systematic selecting and sorting of linguistic items, which have the ideological imprints of the newspaper or of the society.

ConclusionThis paper has demonstrated that news discourse is a product of social processes. Social events are reported and mediated by the linguistic resources available to a news reporter, so that linguistic choices are determined not only by the events but also by the ideology of the newspaper. The Guardian and The Punch are two widely read Nigerian newspapers and my choice of their headlines, as data is purely on the basis of their social relevance. Analysis of data has shown that linguistic variation in news discourse is not just a function of choice of syntactic forms but that of the fact that they represent the paper’s perception of events and social attitude. This is to enable us see that linguistic and ideological differences are part of social processes and that linguistic structure is not only influenced by social structure but is also actually, part of social structure. In other words, language mediates social experiences, events and ideologies and that the patterns of social structures and ideologies are visible in language use.

99

Innocent Chiluwa

Works CitedAsein, S.O. & Adesanoye F.A. ed. (1994) Language and Polity: Essays

on Language & Society in Africa. Ibadan: Sam Bookman Educational & Comm. Services

Babatunde, S.T. & Adeyanju, D.S. ed. (2002) Language, Meaning and Society. Ilorin: Haytee Press & Publishing Co.

Bell, A. (1991) The Language of the News Media. Oxford: BlackwellCaldas-Couthard, C.R. (1996) “Man in the News: the Misrepresentation

of Women Speaking in News-as-narrative Discourse” in Mills (e.d.) Language and Gender: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Essex: Longman

Fairclough, N. (1989) Language and Power. London: LongmanFairclough, N. (1995) Media Discourse. London: ArnoldFowler, R. (1991) Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the

Press. London: RoutledgeFowler, R. (1979) Language and Control. London: RoutledgeFowler, R. & Kress, G. (1979) “Critical Linguistics” in Fowler R. ed.

Language and Control. London: Routledge & Kegan PaulHalliday, M.A.K. (1978) Language as Social Semiotic. London: Edward

Arnold.Hartley, J. (1982) Understanding News. London: MethuenMeecharoen, F. et al. (1998) “Survey of Public Understanding and

Preferences of Newspaper Headline Language” Journal of Language and Linguistics 6(2)

Osisanwo, W. (2001) “Texuality and Nigerian Newspaper Editorials: The Example of The Guardian” in Ife Studies in English Language, Vol. 5

Poyton, C. (1985) Language and Gender: Making a Difference. Oxford: OUP

Scollon, R. (1998) Mediated Discourse as Social Interaction: A Study of News Discourse. London: Longman

Taiwo, R. (2001) “Thematic Structure of English-Medium Nigerian Newspaper Reports” Ife Studies in English Language. 5: 58-69.

Taiwo, R. (2004) “Speech as Headline in Nigerian Newspapers” in The Domestication of English in Nigeria. Awonusi, S. & Babalola, E. (eds) Lagos: Unilag Press, pp. 323-335

Trew, T. (1979) “What the Papers Say: Linguistic Variation and Ideological Differences” in Fowler, R. (ed.) Language and Control. London: Routledge, 117-156.

Reah, D. (1998) The Language of Newspapers. London: Routledge.

100