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Title
LINGUISTIC IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION OF PERPETRATORS AND VICTIMS: A CRITICAL STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF CRIME REPORTING
Author(s)
Sundas Nayab
Abstract
Crime reporting, as a journalistic genre, refers to the representation of criminal incidents through factual, concise, and socially impactful news narratives. The study explores the linguistic identity construction of criminals and perpetrators in the two prominent English newspapers of Pakistan. It is a common observation that news reports not only deliver information but shape the identity construction of the entities involved in it. The research is qualitative, and the sample consisted of twenty-six crime news reports from two famous English newspapers of Pakistan, i.e., The NEWS International and DAWN. The researcher collected data in the form of crime news excluding rape and terrorism news. By using Jeffries’s (2010) model of Critical Stylistics as the theoretical framework, the researcher analyzed the data using qualitative techniques. The findings of the study revealed that the identities of the perpetrators were constructed in such a way that they were depicted as active agents of actions and were foregrounded in the news reports. On the other hand, victims were presented as passive agents using lexical choices and their identities were backgrounded in the news reports. Moreover, the news reports also reinforced cultural stereotypes in several news reports. These findings suggest that media discourse reinforces cultural stereotypes and influences public perceptions of victims and perpetrators in ways that may affect societal attitudes toward justice. Future research may be conducted on exploring the other aspects of crime news reporting regarding perpetrators and victims.
Type
Thesis/Dissertation
Faculty
Languages
Department
English
Language
English
Publication Date
2025-08-05
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19083d63d4.pdf
2025-11-26 16:08:22
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