Sustainability Concerns and Government Stance: A Corpus-Based Genre Analysis of the Selected Three Pakistani Newspapers’ Articles

Abstract

Media discourse has become a major source of influencing and reinforcing opinionsof public as readers. One of its key pillars is the news articles which attempt to present, highlight, and manipulate news and information. This study attempts to examine the narrative built around government stance on air pollution and smog in Lahore city. To gain comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon, a mixed-method approach was employed. It integrates both qualitative and quantitative methods. Data was collected from the three renowned English newspapers i.e., Dawn, The Nation, and The News International ranging from January to March 2023. Adopting a qualitative approach, the moves and strategies employed by the reporters in the selected textual corpus were focused. More specifically, the study follows Bhatia (1993) model to explore the process through which the case in subject is stepwise identified, elaborated through relating background events and leading to the statement of thesis in the text. The findings provide nuanced understanding of recurrent pattern, moves, and language used as an institutionalized genre guided by controlled conventions specific to the news genre, highlighting proactive voice of government regarding smog in Lahore, Pakistan. This study contributes to understanding the journalist language which shall be of significant help to learners of English for Specific Purposes (ESP).