IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE OF THE PHILIPPINE ANTI-ILLEGAL DRUGS CAMPAIGN IN ONLINE NEWS MEDIA

This study investigates the use of linguistic structures to propagate particular ideologies through which discourses of Philippine-based online news media construct ideological representations of the political events and situations in the country and its government's drive against illegal drugs to the readers. Critical linguistic analysis framed from Fairclough's (2003) model, Halliday's (2004) Systemic Functional Linguistics, Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal Theory, and van Dijk's (2001) socio-cognitive approach, and is used to examine the news coverage of anti-illegal drugs campaign. the analysis contributes to the understanding of the ideological role of language within news discourse in constructing representations of the social world. Analyzing 91, 684-word corpus, it is revealed that the Philippine anti-illegal drugs campaign is represented by online news writers as an active process that is subject to public discourse and a means of the government to eradicate drug-related crimes. The news writers also tend to depict the campaign as an object of reader's negative stance. However, the media strives to maintain its objectivity in tackling the issue by writing in topical thematization. In investigating the political discourse communicated by online news media, the prominent macropropositions derived from news headlines are the government's move to strengthen the campaign and the casualties vis-a-vis drug war. Circumlocution is also used by media to euphemize the campaign itself and President Dutertewhile they simply attribute to the reported statements of personalities to amplify their stance on the issue. The research has significant implications for critical reading pedagogy and awareness of the functional and constructive nature of language in general, and news discourse in particular.