CROSS-GENDER VICTIMS’ NAMING IN SEXUAL VIOLENCE NEWS IN PAKISTANI NEWSPAPERS: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The present study attempts to unravel social actors’ naming (male and female) used by means of language. It explores and compares opposite genders as a victim in sexual offence news from Pakistani English newspapers. Accordingly, this research is qualitative in its nature. To achieve the set objectives, total 16 news samples are taken from four English newspapers i.e. The Express-Tribune, Dawn, Daily Times and Daily Pakistan. The textual data are retrieved from January 20, 2018 to September 09, 2022. The male and female’s data are categorized according to the legal terms as incest, sodomy and rape. For this purpose, Theo Van Leeuwen’s inclusion strategy in social actor network (2008) is used to investigate gender stereotypes via Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This research draws conclusion that cross-gender victims are foregrounded and placed on active position in distal relations but are on passive in proximal relations. Furthermore, male victims are described with relational, national, age classifications and through appraisal while female victims’ names are labelled with physical identity, age and gender classifications.