Identity Construction of Malala Yousafzai in the Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Editorials in Two Pakistani English Newspapers

Abstract

This study compares the media constructions of Malala Yousafzai in two Pakistani English newspapers, The News International and Daily Times vis-à-vis the events that occurred during three stages of her life. The study identifies these as “Malala the Taliban’s target and Nobel laureate”, and “Malala the United Nations Messenger of Peace”. Employing Fairclough’s CDA, it probes the ideological representations of these events in these newspapers’ editorials. The findings suggest that both newspapers constructed Malala’s positive identity during all three stages. However, in so doing, the use of a particular clause structure and lexis employed in these editorials helped one newspaper avoid naming the Taliban in a determinate term. Hence, this served to mitigate the Taliban’s “agency” as perpetrators. The other newspaper, by availing the same method of representation, pushed its political agendas and appeared to toe a similar line as some Western newspapers do on certain burning issues of international significance.