Evaluation, Semiotic mediations and ideological positioning in primetime Tv news presentations in Ghana

Abstract

Since the 20th Century, language use in the media has received unparalleled attention among scholars, especially, linguists. Though scholars have established outstanding evidence for possibilities of the media universally, there is still the need to account for spoken major news presentation, which has been partially described for comprehensive descriptions of the language of television (TV). It is against this background that the present study presents an account of news presentations in Ghana. The general objective is to describe resources that construe evaluation, semiotic mediations in the news and ideological meanings at word, clause, and sentence levels. The account is based on primetime news presentations from four most influential TV stations in Ghana – TV3, Joy TV, GTV and Citi TV. The analysis and descriptive interpretation of the language is guided by the Appraisal Theory proposed by Martin and White (2005) and developed out of the broader theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). The study shows that evaluative resources are employed in primetime TV news to construe authorial Attitude, Engagement and Graduation. It again became clear that semiotic mediations enrich meaning of news stories. Finally, it was observed that linguistic resources (evaluative, semiotics, pronouns, and interpersonal expressions), enacted ideological positioning for subjects of primetime TV news presentations. The study will contribute to Appraisal analysis of media language and discourse analysis for specific purpose and African linguistics