Ideological Construction Of An Indigenous Community: The Orang Asli As Portrayed In The Star Newspaper

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Date
2016-06
Authors
Jamal, Marlina
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Abstract
This study examines the portrayal of the Orang Asli in The Star newspaper from a critical discourse analysis perspective. It mainly utilises van Dijk’s Theory of Semantic Macrostructure, van Dijk’s Theory of Ideology and Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics. The projection of the community is inspected through the analysis of macro (thematic structure), micro elements (lexical, syntactic and rhetorical structures) and transitivity structures. Findings revealed that there is a misalignment of the polarization of ‘self’ versus ‘other’ whereby the overall depiction tended to construct the ‘self’ positively, while the ‘other’ had its image and perspective being projected in an unfavourable manner. Several themes were identified in the analysis such as the portrayal of the Orang Asli community as being dependent, under-developed and traditional. Negative lexical items were tactically used to describe the community and syntactic structures, such as declarative sentences were aptly inserted to validate negative notions reported about the community. Several ideas glorifying the ‘self’ group members and degrading the ‘other’ were done by using rhetorical elements such as hyperboles and lexical repetitions. The analysis of transitivity structures brought to surface the fact that the community was not given voice in articulating their opinions and needs. These structures helped to reinforce the disapproving ideology practiced by The Star in reporting issues about the community. The ‘self’ group members such as governmental organizations and political leaders on the other hand, were depicted in an accentuated position whereby multiple positive actions taken by them were highlighted in the news reports analysed. In a nutshell, the negative projection of the Orang Asli community is revealed through the inspection of macro and micro elements of the chosen news reports.
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Orang Asli in The Star newspaper , Orang Asli in The Star newspaper from a critical discourse analysis perspective.
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