Representational Discourse in TV News Preludes in Kenya

Abstract

Apart from introducing the main news items, news preludes are also commentaries of media houses, aimed at guiding the interpretation of news towards preferred ideological perspectives. For this reason, the language used in news preludes may explicitly show bias of the media house on issues covered in the news items. This paper attempts to unearth some ideological nuances represented by the language used by two major TV channels in Kenya (Nation Television, NTV and Kenya Television News, KTN). Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this paper analyses the language used in the preludes to represent characters and social issues of public interest to show how the media manipulates its viewers to see things from a determined angle and thereby playing a hegemonic role in shaping social life. Corruption in Kenya has been a big issue for a long time with scandals being unearthed every now and then. The government is blamed for not dealing with corruption decisively. Through use of particular lexicon, structural foregrounding devices, quoting authority, and other devices, the news writers perspectivize issues of corruption thereby creating a framework of interpretation for their viewers.