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SUSTAINABILITY DISCOURSE: FRAMING AND DISCURSIVE ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ON THE ORANGE LINE PROJECT, LAHORE This research study has attempted to analyse the media discourse having aspects of sustainability about the Orange Line project, Lahore, Pakistan in the news articles of two influential newspapers, Dawn and The News. I have used Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis for thematisation and lexicalisation, and framing for exploring the frames, themes, and lexical items and related ideologies in media discourse of 67 articles- 36 of Dawn and 31 of The News. The study reveals the dominant use of essentially negative frames of blame, controversy, and litigation for covering the sustainability aspects. Dawn employs these frames to a greater extent as compared to The News. The analysis of thematic progression and lexicalisation also highlights the greater use of negative theme rheme structures and lexical items respectively in Dawn. The study has determined that although both the newspapers attempt to support the aspects of sustainability discourse specifically related to sustainable transportation, Dawn sustains it more vigorously than The News.
Reflection of Pakistani Socio-political Events in Western Media- A Critical Discourse Analysis ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Reflection of Pakistani Socio-political Events in Western Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis The ideologies are expressed through discourse practices, from classrooms to corporate media, is hardly contested. Since the fateful events of September 11, 2001, Pakistan has been in the grip of a perpetual 9/11 scenario. As a result, it remains in the international media focus for all the negative reasons. Media discourse, as one of the most influential discourses, is opaque with ideologies, politics and overt and covert agendas worldwide. The present research aims to analyse this impactful medium of discourse and the embedded discursive practices of the Western media with special focus on one the most representative, widely followed and trusted media establishments, that is, the BBC, CNN and the Maxnews. The data is derived from the web pages in order to analyse the discursive and linguistic strategies employed in the news stories about Pakistan. Grounded in the theoretical frameworks developed by Van Dijk, that is, Ideological Square (1998c) in critical discourse analysis and the Socio-cognitive Model (2006c), the study analyses the selected media discourse qualitatively. The research calibrates the Western Media coverage of socio-political events, especially those surrounding the Global War on Terror (GWOT) in Pakistan during 2009 and 2010. The rationale for the selection of data from 2009 to 2010 is that it was during these years that Pakistan suffered a maximum number of terrorist attacks and civilian casualties. Pakistan suffered not only physically but also socially and ideologically as its image as the most dangerous region in the world was constantly portrayed and framed by the news media. The strategies and discursive structures used to depict Pakistan amount to a whole ideology that calls for careful and critical analysis.
THE CULT OF AUTHENTICITY AND THE EXOTIC EAST: A RE-ORIENTALIST READING OF JAMIL AHMAD’S THE WANDERING FALCON AND UZMA ASLAM KHAN’S TRESPASSING This study intends to find traces of Re-Orientalism in the present day Pakistani fiction in English and the marketability of such works in the global capitalist market. In contemporary times, under the garb of their putative postcolonial identity, Oriental writers of South Asian origin tend to commodify their native Oriental culture for the consumption of western readers. They practice what is now called Re-Orientalism. This project investigates the process and workings of this re-Orientalisation with a premise that there is a demand for exotically flavored fare due to which writers willingly pander to this demand and voluntarily self-other themselves and their culture to provide an unsustaining diet that leaves the consumer ever hungry. This research invokes Lisa Lau, Graham Huggan, and Meenakshi Mukherjee’s theoretical forays to read Jamil Ahmad’s The Wandering Falcon and Uzma Aslam Khan’s Trespassing. Lau professes that Orientalism is no longer propagated by Occidentals but, ironically enough, by Orientals. This process of Re- Orientalism distorts the representation of Orient to a great extent by seizing voice and platform and, once again, consigning the Oriental within the Orient to a position of the Other. I employ Graham Huggan’s theorizing in order to investigate whether such writing is the outcome of the lure of lucrative Western market and to examine if it may be sold as a cultural commodity in international cultural trade. Re-Orientalism takes into account the issue of representation and explores how far true or un-true that representation is. It also studies the means used by the writer to make his/her work look like anthropologically anchored, which in turn raises the problematic issues of “authenticity” discussed by Meenakshi Mukherjee in her essays. This study aims to critically analyze the problem of generalization, the processes instrumental in commodifying culture as an object of mostly metropolitan, global consumption, and insidious nature of “truth claims”. Since this research is likely to be exploratory and interpretive, this project will be qualitative in nature and, therefore, textual analysis will suit this investigation as research method.
A STUDY OF TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN THE POETRY OF RAHMAN BABA: POET OF THE PAKHTOONS BY ROBERT SAMPSON AND MOMIN KHAN This study attempts to analyse translation strategies used in the translation of 12 selected poems of Rahman Baba’s poetry translated from Pashto into English by Robert Sampson and Momin Khan. This study aims to investigate how far the spirit of source text has been reproduced in the target text. Two translators named Robert Sampson and Momin Khan translated 343 poems of Rahman Baba into English in 2005. I have randomly selected 12 translated poems from the Diwan of Rahman Baba for this research. This research is qualitative in nature and I have conducted textual analysis. I have analysed 12 translated poems in the light of Vinay and Darbelnet’s model. The model used in this study constitutes direct and indirect translation. Direct translation covers borrowing, calque, and literal translation whereas indirect translation covers transposition, modulation, equivalence and adaptation. This research has found that the main translation strategies used by the translators are literal translation and borrowing in their translation of Rahman Baba’s poetry into English. The study has established that literal translation used for the most part in the translation has produced either undertranslation or mistranslation. Translators have, on many occasions, reproduced the same metaphor used literally in the source language which baffles English readers as culture-specific metaphors are either hard to follow or they do not exist in the target language. This translation by Robert Sampson and Momin Khan has retained many of the elements of the source text which make the readers move towards the writer. All in all, the meaning intended by the poet in source text is wholly or partially lost in the translation due to its overreliance on literal translation strategy employed by the translators. Translation of poetry through faithful translation strategy is a better approach.
CDA of Political Discourse on Social Media. ABSTRACT Title of Thesis: Critical Discourse Analysis of Political Discourse on Social Media This study aims for a comprehensive analysis of political text and context to highlight the mechanism of political identity (re)construction and (re)presentation. Interactive digital media is used to share information, experiences, opinions, ideas, beliefs, ideologies. Social media platforms, such as Twitter (microblogging), are used by political actors for self-legitimization and for representation of political identities. It is acknowledged in this study that political identity is not a static construct rather it is a fluid entity as it is demonstrated in different forms by the political actors. A comprehensive theoretical framework that includes of political discourse analysis, socio-cognitive model of van Dijk, (van Dijk, 1989; 2006), social identity theory (Tajfel, 1979), clusivity theory (Wieczorek, 2009; 2013) and social media theory (Zappavigna, 2012) is used for this study. The data is in the form of tweets, which are downloaded from the functional verified Twitter accounts of Pakistani political parties. The Findings of this study suggest that political actors manipulate contemporary means of digital communication (interactive digital media), that is Twitter, for positive-representation of in-group members and negative-representation of others. These contemporary means of communication offer new platforms for political communication but shift in the paradigm of political campaigns and political communication (from conventional media to contemporary interactive digital media) does not demonstrate a change in the themes of political discourse practices as legitimizations of identities and ideologies remained central to discourse practices.
POWER RELATIONS AND HEGEMONY IN GLOBAL POLITICS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Power Relations and Hegemony in Global Politics: A Critical Discourse Analysis This qualitative study explores the power relations and hegemony in the global political discourse by utilizing the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis. The study is backgrounded in the situation created after the YouTube release of the movie trailer The Innocence of Muslims in September 2012. The video of the trailer containing blasphemous content against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (SAWW), received protests by Muslims throughout the world culminating in destructions and deaths. The main concern of the study was to explore the construction and reconstruction of power relations through discursive practices of the world political actors in a particular context. I chose 67th United Nations General Assembly Meeting 2012 as setting of the study. I selected six speeches which were delivered in the meeting as data for this research. The data has been analyzed utilizing Fairclough’s (1992a) framework of intertextuality and hegemony. The analysis is based on the study of various intertextual references present in the selected speeches. The detailed analysis of the data shows that power relations are exposed in discursive practices of the world political actors. The study concludes that the discursive strategies of the political actors disclose the construction, sustenance and fracture of the power/hegemonic relations in the context of global politics. The dominant political actors use different discursive strategies to construct powerful self-image and intensify the negative aspects of the subordinate group. The subordinate political actors struggle to construct positive self-image and assist the dominant group in constructing and sustaining the power relations and hegemony. However, their economic status and political situation lead them to assist or resist the dominant ideologies. The study adds to the field of knowledge by highlighting important issue of the present time i.e. the divide between the issue of blasphemy and freedom of expression.
BLENDED LEARNING FOR THE TEACHING OF STORY WRITING: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY Blended learning is immensely used in higher education for the last few decades. The study investigates the effectiveness of using blended learning and online collaborative learning tools for the teaching of story writing. The objectives of the study are; to find the effectiveness of blended learning for the teaching of story writing ,the experience and response of the learners who were taught through blended learning and the ways in which collaborative blended learning environment is helpful in teaching story writing skills. An experimental study was conducted on 50 undergraduate learners distributed into control and experimental group; 25 participants in each group. Experimental group was taught through blended learning and control group was taught through face to face teaching methods. The treatment to the experimental group was given in the form of both face to face classroom sessions and online sessions. Online sessions included the use of Wattpad, Wikispacesclassroom, Story bird and Penzu. The findings of the study revealed that the experimental group showed significant difference in the scores (α = 0.05) of Pre-Test and Post-Test and also in the scores compared to the Post-Test scores of control group. Test scores, classroom observations and interviews revealed the effectiveness of collaborative blended learning environment for the teaching of story writing. The findings of the study revealed that interactivity, variety in the ways of teaching, collaboration among students for writing stories, exposure and interaction with the communities of practice, feedback of instructor and peers were the factors responsible for the high scores and performance of learners in experimental group. Therefore based on the findings the study recommends the use of blended learning approach for the teaching of story writing skill.
A STUDY OF LEXICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN THROUGH CARTOONS Use of technology for pedagogical purposes is now becoming necessary for enhancing the learning abilities of young children. Initial years of a child holds significance in language learning process. The study under consideration investigates the role of cartoons as a pedagogical tool for lexical development of pre-school children between the ages of three and five. The objectives of the study were to observe how cartoons can be used as a useful teaching tool to make children learn vocabulary in an effective way. The researcher used the theory of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) by Vygotsky and the concept of Scaffolding as her main theoretical framework. A hybrid design was formulated for conducting the study, consisting of 20 case studies between the ages of three and five years. In order to further investigate the aspect of lexical development of pre- school children through cartoons along with the classroom observations, interviews of the teachers were conducted and questionnaires of the parents were analyzed. Data collected through classroom observations, interviews and questionnaires revealed the effectiveness of the process of Scaffolding young children through cartoons. The findings of the study suggested that the use of cartoons proved to be significant in teaching young children vocabulary. Moreover, the active role of the teacher, blend of modern technological tools and selection of age-appropriate educational content proved helpful in lexical development. The results of the study show that the use of constructivist approach of teaching and learning and communicative language teaching approach is an effective method to scaffold young learners by using cartoons. In order to enhance the language learning abilities of the learners, it is recommended that age-appropriate cartoons may be included for pedagogical purposes to enhance learning skills.
Tarantino's People: Deconstructions in Postmodernism. ABSTRACT Thesis Title: Tarantino’s People: Deconstructions in Postmodernism The present study analyzes Quentin Tarantino’s characters in three of his films in the light of Fredric Jameson’s theorization of postmodernism to show that Tarantino’s characters are postmodern. The study looks at the characters in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Inglourious Basterds, and contends that they illustrate the death of the subject through their lack of uniqueness and depthlessness. The subjects that Tarantino creates are ordinary, if not less than ordinary, individuals who strive to raise themselves above the ordinary. They may pick up fights or pretend to be somebodies but they fail to make any impression on the world around them. Tarantino’s characters lack depth and hide the lack of depth by putting on elaborate masquerades. Despite the power of the simulacra they create and are surrounded by— strong enough to make the characters believe it to be real—the reality remains that there is no reality to the subjects and thereby shows the waning of affect. The characters are also products of pastiche whereby they are modelled after images of the past and their meaning is actually a carryover from the meanings of the relatively original creations. The characters occupy hyperspaces that turn them into consumers of not just appliances but also the media, information, and knowledge.
POLITICS OF EXCLUSION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE WAR OF THE WORLDS AND SIYARON KI JANG This research work is based on the comparative analysis of The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells and Siyaron ki Jang by Rasheed Ahmed. It aimed at identifying the politics of exclusion practiced in the target text and the way these exclusions affected the final product, Siyaron ki Jang. The current research is qualitative in nature. Its research design is comparative and explanatory. The data has been collected through careful and critical comparative analysis of both the texts. While, identifying and classifying the exclusions on micro level, the researcher has applied the Andere Lefevere’s model of manipulation (2004). The data has been categorized under all the four categories i.e. omission, addition, explanatory notes, and rewriting. Having conducted the detailed analysis, the researcher has come up with multiple instances of manipulation on all the levels. Moving on to the macro level the researcher has undertaken the analysis of the data by applying the Andere Lefevere’s manipulation theory (1990). The researcher has critically analyzed and interpreted the data under the broader socio-cultural elements of the manipulation theory (2004) i.e. ideology, patronage, poetics and universe of discourse. It has been demonstrated that these factors exert their power during the process of inter-cultural translations and they play a significant role in shaping the final product. The researcher has found that massive exclusions have been made while translating The War of the Worlds on almost all the levels of the text and the translated version, Siyaron ki Jang clearly exhibits these exclusions and transformation which occurred as a result of such manipulative activities. Moreover, it has been found that the source text has been domesticated into target society by the translator. While excluding the foreign elements, he has taken the translated text quite away from the original version of it. The translators should not distort the real soul of the text in order to adjust it to the target culture. Finally it has been suggested that the element of translator’ subjectivity must be kept under a check. Keywords: Target Text (TT), Source Text (ST), Machine Translation (MT), Source Language (SL), Target Language (TL).
POLITICIZING CARTOONS, CARTOONIZING POLITICS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN MEDIA POLITICAL CARTOONS ON ISLAM Language can serve multiple purposes while acting as a mode of routine communication, an element of customary socialization and a tool for ideological propagation. In the contemporary era, language use in media, known as media discourse, has been revolutionized due to its availability in various forms. In its every form, media discourse has the power to influence ideology formation and alteration practices. In this regard, American newspapers with their famous political cartoons are read globally. People have easy online access to social, religious and political contents of these cartoons, which contributes in shaping their ideologies. In the scenario of 9/11 attack, this study attempts to explore the image of Islam as portrayed by the American media. In this regard, the study aims to analyse selected American media cartoons related with Islam, to disclose what kind of ideologies they promote with respect to this religion, particularly about its followers. This research is contributing in the field of semiotics while dealing with the identification of denotation and connotation of Islamophic signs. For the purpose of extracting meaning from these cartoons, semiotic model of Roland Barthes has been used. The findings reveal that American media has depicted Islam in the negative way, while making a connotative link between Muslims and terrorist activities. This attitude is not naturally built but has been promoted by highlighting the extremist activities of those who have taken the outlook of Muslims in the name of different Islamic activities especially Jihad. At the end, researcher has made reference towards the UN charter of human rights and how America is negating its articles of religious and individual freedom. Few recommendations regarding the change of set myth about Islam have also been provided in the last section of this research. Key Words: Language; power; media discourse; ideology/myth; religion; Islam; America; political cartoons; semiotic model; UN charter
EXPLORING THE EFFICACY: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN REFLECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH The study aims to determine the effectiveness of reflective teaching strategies used by the English teachers teaching English as a subject at graduate level in Pakistan. This is a correlational study in which researcher investigated the relationship between reflective teaching practices and students’ results. The researcher used mixed-method approach in this study. The sample of the research contains 30 English teachers, teaching English as a subject to graduate students (linguistics, literature, ELT), and 600 students of the participating teachers. The universities are selected through convenient sampling technique whereas the respondents are selected by using convenient sampling technique. The research tools include close-ended questionnaires (for English teachers and students), and semi-structured interview of the English teachers. Six English teachers are interviewed to have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon. The quantitative data are analyzed by applying statistical measures through SPSS (v.20). The qualitative data are analysed using thematic analysis technique. The analysis of the quantitative data demonstrates that there is a strong relationship between reflective teaching and students’ results. Bivariate correlation test value of .804 shows that there is strong correlation between the two variables viz. reflective teaching practices of English teachers and exam results of graduate students. The researcher found that 90 percent of the sampled English teachers use reflective approaches in their teaching. Among reflective English teachers, 13 percent (4 out of 30) teachers are highly reflective and 77 % teachers are moderately reflective. Qualitative data analysis provides a view of strategies used by the English teachers in order to improve the content teaching and development of the learners’ communication skills.
Breaking Gender Stereotypes: A Multimodal Analysis of Selected Pakistani Electronic Media Advertisement Nowadays, media is playing an optimistic role in portraying a positive image of women in the TV advertisement which might help in breaking all types of socio-cultural stereotypes. The present study investigates the role of media in breaking gender stereotypes. This study particularly applied the multimodal analysis to investigate the relationship of media and women, and its role in creating a new and more refined mindset to embrace gender equality. In addition, the functional theory of multimodality, color symbolism and liberal feminism are applied to uncover the hidden narrative of media advertisements where women are in the limelight. The study is conducted in two phases: the first one focuses on the analysis of five Pakistani TV advertisements that are helping in breaking gender stereotypes by displaying women performing masculine activities. The second phase deals with the analysis of responses of Pakistani students regarding steps of media to elevate the status of women in Pakistan. The finding of the study shows that the Pakistani media is taking initiatives in breaking gender stereotypes against women by portraying them capable to perform all tasks that are traditionally associated with men.
GENDER POSITIONING IN ACADEMIC SETTING IN PASHTUN SOCIETY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE PERSPECTIVE In this research study, it has been examined that gender discourses highlight gender positioning in the social settings. This study attempted to utilize the concept of Muted Group Theory, and Van Dijk’s Model (2007) was used as a framework of Critical Discourse Analysis in order to examine the gender positioning especially in the academic setting in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This theory helps in unfolding interactions between different people and person to person interactions. Gender critical discourse analysis assists us in analyzing the gender inconsistencies and inequalities found between the males and females particularly through the use of language and the power relations which are constructed through the use of language. The discourses collected through the interviews and observations are qualitatively analyzed. It was observed that culture and religious beliefs have a very serious effect on the gender positioning, and in many of the circumstances it promotes the stereotypical ideas regarding women which leads to gender discrimination. In addition, it is expected that academic workplace in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa gives a lot of respect to their females, but on the other hand, females are sometimes marginalized or silenced. The results of this study revealed that different discursive strategies used by male and female genders are described negatively and as well as positively by each other in order to support their own point of view about each other. Keywords: Gender positioning, Van Dijk’s Model of Self and Others, Critical Discourse Analysis, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Academic Setting, Discursive practices, and discourses.