Background of the Study
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meaning, and Textual meaning. However, Interpersonal and Textual meanings are not discussed in this thesis since the focus of the research is on the Ideational meaning
which is realised in the system of Transitivity. In the system of Transitivity, there are three semantic categories which explain
in a general way how phenomena of the real world are represented as linguistic structures. They are ‘Processes’ which are verbs, ‘Participants’ which are nouns and
‘Circumstances’ which are prepositional phrase. The focus of the research will be on the Process and Participant types. They are Material, Mental, Behavioural, Verbal,
Relational, Existential, and Meteorological processes, along with the participant roles. The analysis of transitivity can be conducted on text which is the realisation of
discourse. Discourse is the use of language in the society. Here, the researcher uses the
definition of discourse from Norman Fairclough’s perspective. He states that discourse is use of language seen as a form of social practice 1995:7. In a simple
way, it can be said that text is the product of interaction, whereas discourse is the process of interaction in society.
This process of interaction in society is studied through discourse analysis. Pertinent to the previous definition of discourse by Fairclough, discourse analysis is
the study of how the product of language text works within sociocultural practice. This view of discourse as language use as a form of social practice is emphasized in
Critical Discourse Analysis.
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In Critical Discourse Analysis CDA, language has contribution to the production of social reality. Van Dijk 1993:249 states that CDA focuses on
relations between discourse, power, dominance and social inequality and how discourse produces and maintains these relations of dominance and inequality. CDA
also has the ability to expose hidden ideologies which are reflected in everyday discourse through dominance and power. The dominance and power are always used
by the ruling groups. The ruling groups are often seen in political texts. For example, it could be a speech by a president since everyone knows that president is the head of
a country, or in the articles in newspapers when laws are made by the house of representatives.
Those political texts start from social issues and problems, problems which face people in their social lives, issues which are taken up within sociology, political
science andor cultural studies Fairclough, 2001:26. Therefore, the researcher will use the framework for CDA by Norman Fairclough in this thesis because the
researcher thinks that this framework is the appropriate one in conducting the experiential values analysis on types of process and participant on texts’ clauses
since the analysed texts are political ones. Political texts can be found in public media, such as newspapers. Therefore, the
researcher conducted a comparative study on two political editorials on two American newspapers, which contain different opinions about the immigration reform. The first
is taken from the New York Times, which is known as one of the left-leaning newspapers, or simply said, it is one of liberal newspapers in the United States. The
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second is taken from the Washington Times, which is known as one of the right- leaning newspapers or simply said, it is one of conservative newspapers in the United
States. The researcher sees that both of these newspapers delivers news about illegal
immigrants in different ways. The New York Times delivers news about illegal immigrants in a positive way, in which the immigrants are shown as good assets for
the country in having part of boosting the U.S. economy. This newspaper also positions undocumented immigrants as victims or Goal, in Hallidayan term in their
news reports, thus citizens of the U.S. are expected to be sympathetic to undocumented immigrants. Whereas, it goes very different for The Washington
Times where the news about illegal immigrants are delivered in a negative way. In delivering news, undocumented immigrants are positioned as the actors who do
negative things to the country, such as causing chaos, committing crimes, running across the U.S. border, and so on.
Therefore, the researcher is interested in conducting the transitivity analysis, especially the identification of Process and Participant types in order to find and
compare the hidden ideologies in both editorials of the New York Times and the Washington Times, using the first stage of Fairclough’s framework for CDA, known
as Description of the text. From this first stage, the researcher will conduct the ideology analysis on text’s Experiential values on types of process and participant
since it is based on the transitivity system which realizes the Experiential or Ideational meaning.
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Later on, it is hoped that the findings will be able to prove that linguistic choices in Process and Participant types of transitivity have an important role in
building up the ideologies of the New York Times and the Washington Times. Therefore, the researcher decided to choose the title: Transitivity Analysis in the
Construction of Newspaper Ideology: A Comparative Study on the New York Times and the Washington Times’ Editorials.