Pragmatic analysis of CNN Headlines on US Pakistan Relations

Abstract

Current study investigates the pragmatic devices used in CNN headlines on US Pakistan relations. The study argues that in addition to the news coverage, headlines also have pragmatically encoded meanings. The research is quite significant as the representation of US Pak relations in media has rarely been studied. Moreover, the selected period ranging from January 2010 to May 2011 covers a series of important on diplomatic ties with the United States of America. All these events were subject to constant media debate, especially on CNN, a news channel available to two billion people worldwide. Quantitative as well as qualitative descriptive methods were applied to analyze and discuss the news headlines. The results indicate that Osama Bin Laden, militancy in Pakistan and US Pak diplomatic ties were commonly found topics in the headlines. The results also indicate that the representatives are the most frequently found illocutionary acts in the data as compared with the expressives, directives and commissives. The study finds that the headlines have variety of other illocutionary functions closely related to these acts.