CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE STRAITS TIMES NEWS REPORTS: A CASE OF THE GAZA BORDER PROTESTS IN 2018

Abstract

Conflict between Israel and Palestine has become the major concern over the world. Since the very existence of the media, this conflict has been covered and spotlight whenever it takes place. This study aimed at exploring the way in which The Straits Times (TST) constructed the discursive event of Gaza border protests in 2018. In order to achieve this aim, critical discourse analysis is employed as the research approach. This study found that news values have a great impact that can shape event into news stories in which the utilization of news values resulted in having ideological implication. TST foregrounded news values of negativity, timeliness, and eliteness as the most used to make the event newsworthy. As the result, there are two discourses that can be revealed, firstly, Palestinian has been marginalized; secondly, Israeli has been victimized and sided by the construction of TST. This imbalance coverage is influenced by the power of government institution of Singapore that cannot be denied since the media professionals in Singapore have a confine freedom and their role must submit to the need of selected government. Consequently, a dominant ideology which is the pro-Israeli government of Singapore is implicated through discourse. The ideology affected the practice of pro-Israel journalism to support and serve Singapore political purposes.