Identifying Power Relations and Ideological Construction in Gender’s Language: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Pakistani Talk Shows

Abstract

With the proliferation of mass media culture in Pakistan, an extensive interest in talk shows can be witnessed with an increasing number of tv channels that are attaining a massive audience. These shows are most spectacular to epitomize the thoughts, ideologies and power relations of speakers. They not only shape the beliefs and perceptions of the common masses but also mold their pre-existing notions. Thus, this research endeavors to study the language sexism, gender stereotypes, power relations, and ideological construction in both men’s and women’s language in spoken discourse using Fairclough’s Three-dimensional model (1995, 2001), and Van Dijk’s Politics, Discourse and Ideology (2006). The data has been collected from three selected Pakistani Political talk shows by purposive sampling and analyzed qualitatively by using discourse analysis. The analysis unravels that both male and female politicians create negative ideologies by portraying negative-other-presentation with their lexical or syntactic choices and use informal language regardless of their age, gender and stature. Moreover, the findings disclose that women are audacious, assertive, and thunderous in exhibiting their opinions but men through their advising nature, elongated sentences and strategic dialogues strive to overpower the conversation. This research is significant as it creates awareness of lexical and syntactic choices made by both genders and divulges the constructed ideologies made through language. Future researchers can conduct comparative research on Pakistani and foreign talk shows to trace the power relation and ideological construction with the use of language. This study suggests that politicians and media houses must promote positive ideology and political awareness through their content.