MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF SARA DUTERTE DURING HER OVP BUDGET HEARING: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE STUDY

Jezliah N. Cortez, Clexi Reka S. Dumapias, Christian P. Momo, Christian Jay O. Syting

Abstract


The ideological implications of linguistic choices in news discourse have long been a concern in news outlets, particularly in representing political actors. Despite claims of objectivity, news articles continue to exhibit subtle biases that reveal ideological stances. This study investigated the media representation of Sara Duterte during her OVP Budget Hearing across four major news outlets in the Philippines: GMA, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Philippine Daily Inquirer. Using Halliday’s Transitivity Analysis and Van Dijk’s Ideological Square, the study employed critical discourse analysis on 30 news articles that were analyzed according to the ascribed process types —material, mental, verbal, relational, existential, and behavioral — and how group dynamics, which were constructed through positive self-presentation and negative other-presentation. The findings revealed that linguistic choices are strategically chosen to exercise power and maintain control over political discourse. Representations are varied: GMA maintains neutrality, ABS-CBN and Rappler employ a critical stance, and the Philippine Daily Inquirer adopts a balanced approach. Duterte strategically used strategies —positive self-presentation, victimization, and populism — reinforced a dichotomy of favoring us and marginalizing them. These findings reveal linguistic choices as a medium of power in news discourse and highlight the necessity for media literacy to critically assess news representations.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


education, media representation, transitivity analysis, ideological square, OVP budget hearings, Philippines

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abdullai, A. (2025). Manipulative strategies in political discourse: A critical discourse analysis of Mahamudu Bawumia’s speech in Ghana. Professional Discourse & Communication, 6(4), 10–33. https://doi.org/10.24833/2687-0126-2024-6-4-10-33

Aguilar, B., Alfonso, B., Belano, G., Panganiban, I., Peña, P., G., Saliguba, A., &Sionil, A., P. (2021). Culture of populism in the Philippines: The Duterte presidency. Academia. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/download/68971558/Culture_of_Populism_in_the_Philippines_The_Duterte_Presidency_.pdf

Aithor. (2024). The impact of language, media, and culture (LMC) on Society. Aithor.com. Retrieved from https://aithor.com/essay-examples/the-impact-of-language-media-and-culture-lmc-on-society

Alaa, R., & Hamdan, J. (2019). A contrastive critical discourse analysis of Netanyahu’s and Abbas’s speeches on the Gaza war. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330341850

Ashraf, F., Tariq, S., Farooqi, R., & Kashif, F. (2022). A transitivity analysis of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s third presidential debate. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9479016/?

Bakuuro, J., & Diedong, A. L. (2020). A critical discourse analysis of language in Ghanaian newspaper editorials. ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347411533

Carter, R. (2023). What is journalism, and why does it matter in today’s world? Today digital. Retrieved from https://todaydigital.com/blog/what-is-journalism-and-why-does-it-matter-in-todays-world

Darmastuti, S. M., Putri, N., & Puspita, O. (2019). Transitivity analysis on the headline news about the COVID-19 outbreak in the Jakarta Post and channel news Asia. Retrieved from https://wej.unwir.ac.id/index.php/wej/article/view/127

Das, A., & Alok, K. (2023). Lexical choice and critical discourse analysis of language bias in media. ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371165207

Dvir-Gvirsman, S., Tsuriel, K., Sheafer, T., Shenhav, S., Zoizner, A., Lavi, L., Shamir, M., & Waismel-Manor, I. (2022). Mediated representation in the age of social media: How connection with politicians contributes to citizens’ feelings of representation. Political Communication, 39(6), 779–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2022.2124335

Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power (Chapter 1, pp. 1-35). Longman. Retrieved from https://www.okehamptoncollege.devon.sch.uk/uploads/6/1/4/4/61443371/ebooksclub.org__language_and_power__language_in_social_life_.pdf

Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and power (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Language-and-Power/Fairclough/p/book/9781138790971

Ghassemi, R., & Hemmatgosha, Z. (2019). Language in media: A tool for expressing political views. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1249000

Gochuico, J. (2020). Critical lens on the isolated clauses and clauses in context in select newspaper headlines about President Duterte. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367250271

Halliday, M. A. K. (1973). Explorations in the functions of language. London: Edward Arnold. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-linguistics-revue-canadienne-de-linguistique/article/explorations-in-the-functions-of-language-by-m-a-k-halliday-explorations-in-language-study-2-london-edward-arnold-macmillan-of-canada-1973-pp-140-3-tables/A5B505E5CE9C4B6B99483B8FA7A37496

Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold. Retrieved from https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=1970947

Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2014). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). London: Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Hallidays-Introduction-to-Functional-Grammar/Halliday-Matthiessen/p/book/9781444146608?

Imperial, D. (2021). Delivering ideologies, revealing realities: A transitivity-system analysis of Duterte’s state-of-the-nation address. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 1. 1-20. 10.26634/jhss.1.4.17374. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349312400_Delivering_Ideologies_Revealing_Realities_A_Transitivity_System_Analysis_of_Duterte's_State-of-The-Nation_Address/citation/download

Kauthsar, A. A., & Hamzah, H. (2024). An analysis of ideological square on Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin speech related to Russia-Ukraine war. Kauthsar | English Language and Literature. Retrieved from https://ejournal.unp.ac.id/index.php/ell/article/view/124857/109302

Makarova, V., & Shakoury, K. (2024). Critical discourse analysis of micro and macro structures in talks by two Iranian presidents at the United Nations General Assembly: A socio-cognitive perspective. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380209620

McNulty, N. (2024). Importance of media literacy: Navigating the digital information landscape. Niall McNulty. Retrieved from https://www.niallmcnulty.com/2021/06/why-is-media-literacy-important/

Pablo, A. M., Corpuz, J. L., Deypalan, P., Musa, H., & Asoy, V. (2022). 21st-century watchdogs: The credibility of news media outlets in the Philippines. ASEAN Journal of Community Science and Education. Retrieved from https://ejournal.bumipublikasinusantara.id/index.php/ajcse/article/download/142/138

Piamonte, A. R. (2023). Marcos, Jr., and Robredo in Philippine media: A transitivity analysis. AIDE Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 5(1), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.56648/aide-irj.v5i1.90

Qaiwer, S. N. (2020). Power abuse in political discourse; A critical discourse analysis of Trump’s discourse. Journal of Arts Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, 52, 326–347. https://doi.org/10.33193/jalhss.52.2020.93

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (2024). Digital news report 2024: Philippines. University of Oxford. Retrieved from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2024/philippines

Robiego, J. A. M., & Talde, D. K. J. C. (2024). Examining biases in ABS-CBN online news: A framing analysis of reporting about President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, 18(1), 17-35. https://doi.org/10.19105/ojbs.v18i1.10719

Salvaleon, R. G. (2019). A Promise of Change: A transitivity analysis of Rodrigo Duterte’s state of the nation addresses. Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Journal (APHERJ), 6(2). https://doi.org/10.56278/apherj.v6i2.1395

Sambuno. (2023). How social media influences public opinion and society. SAMBUNO. Retrieved from https://www.sambuno.com/how-social-media-influences-public-opinion-and-society/

Santoso, W. (2018). Examining a news discourse of a female politician in Indonesia: Fairclough’s model of critical discourse analysis and its implication in English language teaching. Santoso | Journal of English Language and Culture. Retrieved from https://journal.ubm.ac.id/index.php/english-language-culture/article/view/1453/1249

Sering, S. H. (2021). A comparative study of lexical choices and syntactic structures in the editorials of the news and dawn. ResearchGate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355927995

Shah, A. I., Asif, M., & Siraj, S. M. S. (2022). Identity formation through mass communication: A critical discourse analysis of news articles from CNN and TRT world news. Pakistan Journal of International Affairs. Retrieved from https://pjia.com.pk/index.php/pjia/article/download/536/396

Shamboul, H. (2022). The importance of critical thinking on teaching learning process. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10(01), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2022.101003

Spinde, T., Rudnitckaia, L., Mitrović, J., Hamborg, F., Granitzer, M., Gipp, B., & Donnay, K. (2021). Automated identification of bias inducing words in news articles using linguistic and context-oriented features. Science Direct, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2021.102505

Suparto, A. D. (2018). Analisisketransitifandalam framing pada artikelberita online. Ranah: Jurnal Kajian Bahasa, 7(1), 16–32. Retrieved from https://ojs.badanbahasa.kemdikbud.go.id/jurnal/index.php/jurnal_ranah/article/view/586

Van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Ideology: A multidisciplinary approach. SAGE Publications. Retrieved from https://discourses.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teun-A.-van-Dijk-1998-Ideology.-A-Multidisciplinary-Approach.pdf

Van Dijk, T. A. (2005). War rhetoric of a little ally: Political implicatures and Aznar’s legitimatization of the war in Iraq. Journal of Language and Politics, 4(1), 65–91. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233598590

Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society, 17(3), 359–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506060250

Van Dijk, T. A. (2011). Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446289068

Verma, A., & Jhunjhunwala, T. (2024). The role of media in shaping public perception of political issues. Google Scholar. Retrieved from https://irjhis.com/paper/IRJHIS2403019.pdf

Villaruel, J. E. (2024). Sara Duterte no show at house OVP budget hearing. ABS-CBN News. Retrieved from https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/9/10/vp-duterte-no-show-at-house-ovp-budget-hearing-103




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v8i4.660

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2018-2026. European Journal of Applied Linguistics Studies (ISSN 2602 - 0254 / ISSN-L 2602 - 0254). All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.