Language of Calamity: Ideological Construction of Lindol' in Online Reports

LANGUAGE OF CALAMITY: IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF
‘LINDOL’ IN ONLINE REPORTS
Amiel Jansen Demetrial
Southern Luzon State University

College of Arts and Sciences
May 2019
LANGUAGE OF CALAMITY: Ideological… | 1
Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
The Philippines is an archipelagic country at the edge of the Pacific Rim. Because
the country is situated in a “vast expanse of warm water” on the western rim of the Pacific
Ocean, the Philippines is the most exposed country to tropical cyclones in the whole world
(Brown, 2013). Aside from the detrimental effects the topographic location of the country
poses, the Philippines is also located inside the Pacific Ring of Fire which makes the
country vulnerable to earthquakes because of the seismic activity of volcanoes under the
Pacific Ocean. Moreover, Sabillo (2015) stated that:
“The Philippine archipelago is sandwiched in between two opposite

subduction zones — that of the Eurasian Plate (South China Plate) which
subducts (is forced under) Luzon along the Manila Trench and that of the
Philippine Sea Plate that subducts toward the west along the East Luzon
Trench. These zones explain high seismic activity in Luzon.”
These illustrate the importance of accurate, responsible, and sensitive science
writing standards in the reportage of calamities in the country in order to prevent sparking
unnecessary panic in the people receiving news. According to Demetrial (2016), language
plays a central role in the construction of ideologies about issues. This is especially true in
the reception of news articles and especially important to consider in the reportage of
natural and anthropogenic calamities.
Since people are immersed in the online media, language as it is used in the online
media plays a vital role in the construction of various realities in the social world. This
creates the problem of distortion as whatever the media construct to be the reality could be
taken as the only reality available about a particular issue. In this sense, if the media
produce a scientifically inaccurate report about a calamity, this could have detrimental
effects on the mental and emotional well-being of the people consuming news.
This prompted the researcher to study the language of calamity used by the online
media in the ideological construction of the Magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga
and affected neighboring provinces, including the National Capital Region, on the 22 nd of
April 2019.
Background of the Study
At 5:11 p.m. on the 22nd of April 2019, a magnitude 6.1 earthquake rocked parts of
Luzon (Rappler, 2019). The official death toll since has reportedly risen to 9 people dead
in the province of Pampanga (Rappler, 2019) from the initial report of 5 (Gutierrez &
Ramzy, 2019). At the wake of the event, online news sites reported on the event which left
many people in Manila and the National Capital Region (NCR) panicked, thinking that
they have been hit by the feared ‘Big One’.
A few years before, the ‘Big One’ became a legitimate reason for fear after the
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcS) released a more detailed
map of the Valley Fault System that ran more or less 100 kilometers from Bulacan to Cavite
(Rappler, 2015a). The new map was released after Nepal was rocked by a devastating
Magnitude 7.8 earthquake which claimed the lives of 8,000 people (Rappler, 2015b).
According to Sabillo (2015), the West Valley Fault has caused four major
earthquakes in Luzon in the span of 1,400 years, the last one of which happened in 1658.
She further stated that even though it is hard to predict the recurrence of another earthquake
originating from the fault, it is possible. For the West Valley Fault, the recurrence interval
is estimated to be 400 to 500 years. This means that the next major earthquake originating
from the fault could be happening any time soon.
The mass media is a powerful tool in legitimizing beliefs and ideas (Guinto, 2013).
As asserted earlier, language plays a vital part in the construction of ideologies and realities
about certain people, events, and issues, among others. However, ideologies and realities
are not readily accessible in hindsight. They may be enacted subliminally through the
linguistic choices of editors and writers alike.
Molina (2009) stated that the opacity of language in the contents of the media (e.g.
news stories) makes the study of language use in the media setting a necessity. The opacity
of language could be overcome by examining the elements of the extra-linguistic world
(Bauman, 2002 as cited by Molina, 2009). These elements include social structures and
relations, context, taboos, interpretations, and prior knowledge of an issue, among others.
Fairclough (1995) also stated that the mass media has the power to sustain realities
through their “privileged access to information.” Because the mass media is a primary
source of information, it is important to keep them in check, especially concerning their
editorial policies on the reportage of calamities in order to prevent unnecessary panic that
could lead to disastrous situations.
In order to determine whether the Philippine media is producing sensitive,
responsible, and accurate science writing on calamities, this research aim to start with the
linguistic level as it may serve as a window to the editorial policies of the news sites.
Furthermore, very little research seem to exist on the connection of language and
calamity in the sociolinguistic and semantic tradition. This is despite the existence of
tropical studies which delve into the representation of tropical weather in tropical
literatures. Research on the language of calamity seem to be a vastly unexplored field in
linguistics. In this regard, this study aims not only to respond to the objectives as they are
mentioned in the succeeding part of this study but also to establish a clear cut way of
examining how we encode realities about calamities in media text.
Objectives of the Study
This study aims to find how the online media ideologically construct ‘earthquake’
and/or ‘lindol’ in the online reports of the top 3 most visited news sites on the Magnitude
6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20, 2019.
Specifically, this study aims to do the following:
1. To find out how the media portrayed ‘earthquake’ and/or ‘lindol’ in the news
articles released about the Magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20,
2019 through the analysis of:
1.1. The ideological concepts attached to the lexical choices in the body of the news
articles; and
1.2. The manner of construction of the headlines of the news stories.
2. To identify the common themes collectively adapted by the online media to
represent ‘earthquakes’ and/or ‘lindol’.
3. To find out what ideologies about ‘earthquake’ and ‘lindol’ seem to underlie the
discursive representation of the media of the issue discussed in their news articles.
Significance of the Study
This study will be significant to the following people.
Online News Readers. Since the aim of this study is to examine the accuracy of
the scientific concepts in the news articles, this study could affect online news readers in
that they would be able to read better written articles that look at calamities as sensitive as
possible.
Journalists. This study could help them realize the power of the words they choose
to represent calamities in their articles and the possible repercussion of such choices. This
study could serve as a guide on the reportage of calamities.
The editors and administrators of online news sites. This study could help them
formulate policies connected to the reportage of calamities. The editors could reevaluate
their news discourse practice and revise them towards a more accurate, sensitive, and
responsible reportage of calamities.
Media Studies and Communication Majors. This study could help them identify
areas of improvement in science writing. They can use the results of this study in creating
better outputs in Environmental Communication. Furthermore, this study could serve as a
guide in the conduct of mixed-method researches and as a model of a critical study on the
media and its social actors’ discursive practices.
Master of Arts in Linguistics Students. This study could serve as a guide in the
conduct of future studies related to the language of calamity and Systemic Functional
Grammar. This study could also serve as a guide in their pursuit of critical studies on the
language of the media and sociolinguistics.

Scope and Limitation
This study focused on the construction of ideology of the online media about the
magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga. This study is a descriptive, mixed-method
research.
The units of analysis were selected based on the result of the search term “lindol”
and “earthquake” in the archival search engine of the top 3 online news sites in the
Philippines. The articles came from inquirer.net, philstar.com, and rappler.com. These
were the online news sites with the most traffic in 2019 according to Alexa.com, a
California-based web information company. Originally, abs-cbnnews.com topped the list
followed by inquirer.net, philstar.com, and rappler.com respectively, but since the study
focused on the textual news contents, the researcher excluded abs-cbnnews.com from the
sites where news articles were gathered.
Each news article underwent analysis of lexicalization to reveal the ideological
concepts embedded in the lexical choices of media practitioners in each article. In the same
manner, the headline and the body of the news article underwent analysis of transitivity.
On the other hand, the headline and the lead of each news article underwent analysis of
thematization to uncover the themes media associated with ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’.
Furthermore, the researcher also looked into how the agents ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’ were
used in each of the news articles to identify whether they are presented as doers of action
(subject) or receivers of action (object). The result of this study is open for other
interpretations as may be provided by other people or researchers as the terms the
researcher provided to represent each ideological concepts may not fit what others think
about the presented lexical choices. The terms describing the themes present in the news
headlines and leads are also provided by the researcher and is open for other interpretations.
In order to support the claims of the study, the researcher triangulated the data
yielded from the analysis of the news articles through the comment sections of the three
online news agencies.
Definition of Terms
In order to facilitate better understanding of the study, the following terms were
defined conceptually and/or operationally.
Agency (Linguistics) refers to the linguistic representation of characters in a text. Simply,
it refers to the doer and the receiver of an action and how this action relates to the
positioning of the said doer or receiver. In this study, agency refers to search term
‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’.
Big One refers to a massive and devastating earthquake resulting from a movement in the
West Valley Fault.
Discursive practice refers to the usage of language of the media that allows the
legitimization and construction of ideologies. In this study, discursive practice
refers to the collective practice of language use of news agencies in their news
write-ups.
Ideological Construction refers to the process of creation of ideologies about certain
issues through the use of language. In this study, ideological construction refers to
the process of creation of certain concepts about the agents in this study through
lexical choices, transitivity system, and themes adopted.
Language of Calamity refers to the language and linguistic choices apparent in the news
articles about the magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga.
Lexicalization is concerned with the expressive value of words that allow the creation of
an overall ideology to present a certain issue or group (Van Dijk, 2000 as cited by
Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012).
Online Media refers to a form of media accessed through a computer with the help of an
internet connection.
Thematization “focuses on the organization of information in a clause” (Jahedi & Abdulla,
2012). The thematic systems are defined as “systems of the clause, and represent
the speaker’s organization of the clause as a message” (Halliday, 2002a as cited by
Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012). This system of clause is realized as Theme/Rheme in
which the theme becomes the first element in the clause and the rheme follows.
According to Fairclough (1993 as cited by Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012), the theme is
“a textual dimension of the grammar of the clause concerned with the ways in
which clause elements are positioned according to their informational prominence”.

Chapter II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the related literature and studies
related to the studies at hand. Information in this chapter were sourced from books, the
internet, online journals, and other references. The review was done in order to support any
claim the researcher may make in the analysis of the news articles resulting from the
archival search engine of the top 3 online news sites in the Philippines.
This study aims to find how the online media ideologically construct ‘earthquake’
and/or ‘lindol’ in the online reports of the top 3 most visited news sites on the Magnitude
6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20, 2019.
Specifically, this study aims to do the following:
1. To find out how the media portrayed ‘earthquake’ and/or ‘lindol’ in the news
articles released about the Magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20,
2019 through the analysis of:
1.1. The ideological concepts attached to the lexical choices in the body of the news
articles; and
1.2. The manner of construction of the headlines of the news stories.
2. To identify the common themes collectively adapted by the online media to
represent ‘earthquakes’ and/or ‘lindol’.
3. To find out what ideologies about ‘earthquake’ and ‘lindol’ seem to underlie the
discursive representation of the media of the issue discussed in their news articles.
The Magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga
At 5:11 p.m. on the 22nd of April 2019, a massive earthquake rocked the province
of Pampanga, leaving 9 dead (Rappler, 2019) from an initial report of 5 (Gutierrez &
Ramzy, 2019). Initially, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcS)
pegged the strength of the earthquake at magnitude 5.7 but later revised it to magnitude 6.1
(Rappler, 2019).
The earthquake has reportedly caused damages to buildings not only in Pampanga
but also in the capital city of the Philippines, Manila. Gutierrez & Ramzy (2019) stated that
a day after the tremors, rescuers were still doing search and retrieval operations in a
collapsed supermarket. Reportedly, there were five people who died in the establishment.
Aside from structural damages on buildings, there were also power outages in the
province of Pampanga in order to avoid fires. Classes, railway operations, and flights at
the Clark International Airport were also suspended after the earthquake in order to prevent
even more casualties in case of a strong aftershock (Rappler, 2019).
The said earthquake created massive and nationwide panic as netizens not only on
Facebook but also on Twitter took it to themselves to attach the Big One to the earthquake.
The ‘Big One’, which experts from PhiVolcS say might happen in our lifetime, or if not,
in our children’s lifetime, is a massive and devastating earthquake originating from a
movement in the West Valley Fault (Rappler, 2015a).
A few years before, the ‘Big One’ became a legitimate reason for fear after the
Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcS) released a more detailed
map of the Valley Fault System that ran more or less 100 kilometers from Bulacan to Cavite
(Rappler, 2015a). The new map was released after Nepal was rocked by a devastating
Magnitude 7.8 earthquake which claimed the lives of 8,000 people (Rappler, 2015b).
According to Sabillo (2015), the West Valley Fault has caused four major
earthquakes in Luzon in the span of 1,400 years, the last one of which happened in 1658.
She further stated that even though it is hard to predict the recurrence of another earthquake
originating from the fault, it is possible. For the West Valley Fault, the recurrence interval
is estimated to be 400 to 500 years.
The ‘Big One’ is feared by many as people say it will claim an estimated 34,000
lives when it arrives (Sabillo, 2015). This estimate does not take into account other
disasters that might happen at the wake of the earthquake.
According to the Metropolitan Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study
(MMEIRS as cited by Sabillo, 2015), a magnitude 7.2 earthquake will claim 34,000 lives,
collapse 170,000 residential houses, partially damage 340,000 houses, and injure another
114,000 individuals. Aside from this, public infrastructures will also affected. An estimated
7 bridges could fall down during the quake. Further:
“The 4,615 kilometers of water distribution pipes will suffer 4,000 points of
breakage. Thirty kilometers' worth of electric cables will be cut and 95
kilometers of communication cables will be disconnected. Cellular phone
service will be congested and out of use.”
Of the 34,000 lives that will be claimed by the ‘Big One’, about 90 percent will die
because of the pressure of the debris. Some of them may survive if they are rescued
immediately. However, ambulances and other rescue vehicles may not be able to get
through streets because of the damage it has sustained from the deadly quake (Sabillo,
2015).
Moreover, about 20,000 people who will be trapped in buildings will burn to death
because of fires triggered by short circuits and gas leakage. Sabillo (2015) stated, citing the
study:
“Several fires will originate from factories, hospitals and kitchens. The
scenario, which is assumed to occur at nighttime, predicts the fires will burn
1,710 hectares of land, claiming 18,000 lives.”
The destruction painted by the study will constitute a national crisis.
Science Writing and Science Knowledge
Science writers play an important role in engaging the public with science, bringing
the works of scientists from the laboratory to the public spotlight (Biochemical Society,
2019). Science writing, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, n.d.),
is writing about the many branches of science such as medicine, mathematics, engineering,
or technology for the purpose of making scientific information understandable to a
heterogeneous set of readers. Further, “science writing makes highly technical research
about anything from genetic engineering to artificial intelligence to quasars understandable
to readers who do not have a scientific background.”
According to Middlebury (2019), there are three important aspects to remember in
science writing: (1) the primary audience of science writing are scientists, (2) the write-up
must be concise and precise, and (3) the information it disseminate must be set within the
context of other published works.

Aside from these guideline, the National Association of Science Writers, Inc.
(NASWI, 2014), which was established in 1994, formulated several ethical standards
Science Writers must follow.
Science writers must aim to be accurate and objective or sensitive in the conduct of
their professional roles. They must verify the accuracy of the information they disseminate,
check the credibility of their sources, and check for any conflicts of interest (NASW, 2014).
NASW (2014) also stated that writers should try to be sensitive to the sensibilities
of different race, religion, age, gender, ethnicity, disability or sexual orientation and must
not perpetrate discrimination in writing.
Plagiarism is also an issue in science writing. Science writers and their write-ups
must be their own (NASW, 2014). NASW (2014) added:
“Science writers should support the healthy exchange of views and opinions
in science, but also realize when scientific principles are no longer
questioned by the majority of reputable scientists involved.”
Furthermore, science writers should “attempt to avoid any potential conflict of
interest with an assignment, financial or otherwise. Conflicts that are unavoidable should
be disclosed” (NASW, 2014).
NASW (2014) also stated that science writers must be able to admit mistakes and
publicly announce them in order to ensure that information is accurate once it reaches its
audience.
Media Power
The media’s power is rooted to its privilege to access information that others cannot
or would not access (e.g. the general public).
Guinto (2013) stated that the mass media are one of the most important institutions
that validate or legitimize certain beliefs that members of the society holds. This is because
the mass media are one of the most important information source the public has. As already
mentioned in the introduction of this study, the mass media have been an essential part of
the learning experience of every human being. The majority of the information human
beings have are product of their interaction with many forms of mass media. For example,
a child learns from reading printed books, a form of mass media.
Because human beings learn from their interaction with mass media, it is not
impossible that they’ve also built their understanding of certain things through the
information that is made available by the media they are using. One good example of this
is Castillo’s (2014) study “Ginisang Baboy sa Utak ng Pinoy: Isang Kritikal na Pag-aaral
sa Kung Papaano Hinubog ng Online Media ang Posisyon ni Juan sa Pork Barrel Scam
2013.” Castillo’s study is a critical study on the perception the Filipino people on the
Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Scam concerning high-ranking
government officials in 2013. It gave insights as to how people understood and perceived
a certain issue through the help of the mass online media.
In the same vein, Van Dijk’s (2001) claims that media ideologically sustains and
reproduces public opinion through privileged access to information is given vindication by
Castillo’s (2014) study, among many others. Moreover, it also makes similar studies valid
in the sense that the practice of mass media in producing news really do affect public
opinion.
In addition, Fairclough (1995) stated that mass media and how the media identify
its content is crucial in the shaping of people’s views on a particular event or issue to the
extent that they “do not just reflect or represent social entities and relations, [but] they also
construct and constitute them” (p.3). This is also because the media is considered as a
“fountainhead” of information by many of its audiences.
Media and Language
The study of linguistics, especially the expressive value of words, and media does
not go far from each other. Language is involved in the creation of news, whether reported
orally in the television or written for publication. As asserted in the first parts of this study,
language is central in creating meaning and understanding the society.
Molina (2009) stated that the opacity of language in the contents of the media (e.g.
news stories) makes the study of language use in the media setting a necessity. This certain
opacity may be overcome through “elements of the extra-linguistic world” such as social
structures and relations, context, taboos, interpretations, prior knowledge of an issue, etc.
that intends to link language with the outside (Bauman, 2002 as cited by Molina, 2009).
These “elements of the extra-linguistic world” are all in the macro-level of analysis.
In order to bridge the gap between the micro-level, the media content itself, and the macro-
level, a mesolevel of analysis must be given attention. This mesolevel involves the
interpretation of the relationship between the text and interactions. To do this, certain
methods of analysis must be employed. In this study, the researcher used four methods to
bridge the microlevel and macrolevel of the study, these are:
1. Analysis of Transitivity;
2. Analysis of Lexicalization;
3. Analysis of Agency; and
4. Analysis of Thematization.
Analysis of transitivity refers to the analysis of a linguistic framework to see “how
linguistic analysis relates to categories of social analysis” (Fairclough, 2001b as cited by
Jahedi and Abdulla, 2012). Analysis of transitivity is a resource for the interpretation of
experience of the world in that it shows how speakers show a mental picture of their
experience through language. It is concerned with how verb is used in a sentence because
the experience is seen in the verbs used by speakers. Halliday (1994) identified five process
types in which verbs used by the speaker can be categorized into, these are: material, mental,
behavioral, verbal, and relational.
Material processes describes “the process of doing, usually concrete, tangible
actions” (Guinto, 2013). The basic idea of the material process is that a social actor does
something or undertakes an action (Eggins, 2004). The mental process describes the
“process of thinking or feeling” (Guinto, 2013). Emotionally-charged words are therefore
central to the establishment of the mental process in a certain text. Further, mental
processes are concerned more on the thoughts, feelings and perceptions of the social actor.
Verbal processes describes the process of saying or “verbal actions” made by the social
actor as it is expressed in text.

On the one hand, behavioral processes serves as “a borderline between material and
mental processes” (Guinto, 2013). “Behaviorals are typically processes of physiological
and psychological behavior” (Eggins, 2004). Relational processes “assigns attributes or
identities to ‘being’ positing that there was or is something (i.e. existential process types)
and those they are seated to exist with other things (i.e. relational process types)” (Guinto,
2013).
Another method of analysis is the analysis of lexicalization. Analysis of
lexicalization is concerned with the expressive value of words that allows the creation of
an overall ideology to present a certain issue or group (Van Dijk, 2000 as cited by Jahedi
and Abdulla, 2012). It involves labeling what kind of ideology is presented by a certain
collection of words that are gathered by the researcher with one word.
On the other hand, analysis of thematization “focuses on the organization of
information in a clause” (Jahedi and Abdulla, 2012). The thematic systems are defined as
“systems of the clause, and represent the speaker’s organization of the clause as a message”
(Halliday, 2002a as cited by Jahedi and Abdulla, 2012).
This system of clause is realized as Theme/Rheme in which the theme becomes the
first element in the clause and the rheme follows. According to Fairclough (1993 as cited
by Jahedi and Abdulla, 2012), the theme is “a textual dimension of the grammar of the
clause concerned with the ways in which clause elements are positioned according to their
informational prominence”.
Lastly, analysis of the agency refers to the linguistic representation of characters in
a text. Simply, it refers to the doer and the receiver of an action and how this action relates
to the positioning of the said doer or receiver. Out of this, several arguments about the
representation of the Muslim/Moro agent may be asserted according to the position they
are assigned to in the news articles.
Critical Discourse Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a discourse analytic method which aims “to
systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between
(a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures,
relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and
are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore
how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor
securing power and hegemony” (Fairclough, 1993 as cited by Sheyholislami, 2001).
During the 1980s, a critical turn in the study of language took place when Ruth
Wodak, Norman Fairclough, Teun Van Dijk, among other discourse studies experts led the
development of European discourse studies which eventually resulted in the establishment
of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) which works as both a “theory and method”
(Flowerdew, 2008 as cited by Guinto, 2015).
Breeze (2011 as cited by Guinto, 2015) approximated that the intellectual
forerunner of CDA are the philosophical traditions of Marxists and Neo-Marxists,
specifically the Frankfurt school. The basic dogma of the Frankfurt school criticized the
notion of Karl Marx’s economic determinism for the inapplicability of its teachings during
the time the school of thought was established. Instead, the Frankfurt school believes that
changes in capitalism led to the “perpetuation of oppressive structures by ideological
means” (Breeze, 2011 as cited by Guinto, 2015).
On the one hand, the specific agenda of CDA is to advocate social change
(Flowerdew, 2008 as cited by Guinto, 2015) through a closer scrutiny of “social power
abuse, dominance, and inequality [that are] enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and
talk in the social and political context” (van Dijk, 2001) with a promise to bring about
positive emancipatory effects for certain out-groups in the society.
On the other, Fairclough (1995 as cited by Guinto, 2015) acknowledges the certain
“limitation” of CDA that the “criticism” of language use in society carried out by analysts
mostly operate on the impulses of the analysts rather than scholarly principles by arguing
that analysts often interpret media texts without reference to the views of its general
audiences.
In response to this specific “limitation,” Lee (2008 as cited by Guinto, 2015)
proposes the so-called “corpus-based critical discourse analysis” to incorporate
quantitative data into the use of CDA as methodology in discourse studies. A corpus-based
discourse analysis refers to the analysis of large quantities of data through corpus analysis
software such as Wordsmith Tools and Lawrence Anthony’s AntConc (Larsen-Freeman,
2000 as cited by Guinto, 2015). According to Lee (2008 as cited by Guinto, 2015)
following this “methodological innovation,” an interplay of new media and traditional
analysis, in the study of language could address the lack of empirical support to the claims
of analysts utilizing CDA.
Following the global trend in the study of language use in the society, in the
Philippine setting language studies utilizing the qualitative-quantitative approach of CDA

has long ago thrived. Although it focuses only on the area of pedagogical critical discourse
analysis, Tupas’ (1996 as cited by Guinto, 2015) study entitled “The Sinclair and Coulthard
Initiation-Response-Feedback Structure: A Critical Discourse Analysis Applied to Two UP
Pilot Classes in Developmental English” that focused on the apparent power play between
teacher and students in two UP pilot classes taking up Developmental English is considered
a pioneering effort in revolutionizing the current trend then, the descriptive approach, into
a more critical and grounded research framework.
Tupas’ study reveals that the students in the two UP pilot classes are given less
chance to initiate discussion or give feedback. In line with the Hegelian approach of CDA
in criticism. Tupas, in his study, suggests that students in the two pilot classes be given the
freedom to initiate discussion or give feedback through the relinquishing of some of the
power of the teachers to the students.
In terms of the study of media texts, one example could be Deabanico’s (2003 as
cited by Guinto, 2015) study entitled “Representation of Women in Selected Magazines:
A Critical Discourse-Feminist Analysis.” Deabanico’s study reveals that women in the
advertisements analyzed in the study are still portrayed in the lens of the patriarchal
ideologies relating to women in the Philippine society through the use of Feminist Analysis
and CDA. Further, it is found out that the magazines analyzed—in pursuit of greater
audience reach, sustenance of the status quo, and the gain of greater profit—all work
together to maintain existing stigmas about women in the Philippine society. Such
revelation of the discourse practice of magazines in the Philippines in presenting women
could spark cries for the reformation of ad formats concerning women and thus the
liberation of women from “medieval” typecasts.

One good example of this is Castillo’s (2014) study “Ginisang Baboy sa Utak ng
Pinoy: Isang Kritikal na Pag-aaral sa Kung Papaano Hinubog ng Online Media ang
Posisyon ni Juan sa Pork Barrel Scam 2013.” Castillo’s (2014) study is a critical study on
the perception the Filipino people on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF)
Scam concerning high-ranking government officials in 2013. It gave insights as to how
people understood and perceived a certain issue through the help of the mass online media.
In the same vein, Van Dijk’s (2001) claims that media ideologically sustains and
reproduces public opinion through privileged access to information is given vindication by
Castillo’s (2014) study, among many others. Moreover, it also makes similar studies valid
in the sense that the practice of mass media in producing news really do affect public
opinion.
Synthesis
The literature cited in this study has mapped out and discussed relevant topics that
could be helpful in the development of this study. The survey of literatures presented in the
discussions given above entails different realities such as:
1. News about the magnitude 6.1 earthquake as well as the ‘Big One’ involves
painting a picture of what might happen to the Philippines if a powerful
earthquake hits it. However, very little information seem to be given on
properly surviving the earthquake.

2. Science writers seem to be held at the same standards other journalists are held
to. Science writing, in a sense, save lives and therefore must be held at a much
more rigid standard.
3. Media and language is closely related in that language is central in creating
meaning and understanding society. Language is primal in the creation of
media content whether in audio-visual presentation or publication. As such, it
is assumed that whatever ideology is embedded in the language of a certain
media content could be enacted in the society through mass dissemination.
4. There is a need for more “corpus-based critical discourse analysis” studies that
could contribute in the existing body of knowledge in the field of language and
media studies. This need is rooted in the perceived weakness of CDA as being
less empirically-grounded.
5. There is a need for more “corpus-based critical discourse analysis” studies that
could contribute in the existing body of knowledge in the field of language and
media studies. This need is rooted in the perceived weakness of CDA as being
less empirically-grounded.
Theoretical Framework
This study used the Social Construction of Reality Theory of the Media as
theoretical anchor to its assumptions and claims, and adapting CDA as its analytical
framework.
The basic premise of the Social Construction of Reality Theory of the Media is to
explain how and why individuals see reality in a certain manner and what role the media
plays in legitimizing these views (Pollock, 1996). In this manner, the theory accepts the
subjectivity of the socially-constructed reality in line with the experiences of audiences
“via media coverage or media dictation” (Pollock, 1996). This certain premise of the theory
is in line with the subjectivity of CDA to an extent as a method.
The concept of Social Construction of Reality targets one of the most dramatic and
fundamental possible effect of the mass media to its viewers which suggests that the media
represents the public’s knowledge of a certain event (Pollock, 1996). In the same vein,
through the media’s content, certain systems of beliefs are established which inevitably
creates cultures (i.e. the pop culture or mass culture) “which contains the tastes of majority
of the public” (Pollock, 1996).
“The difference in today’s society is that the mass media can perform the
function of bringing different individuals’ meanings into agreement. In a
very simplistic and powerful approach to the social construction of reality,
one can posit that individuals know reality as that which the media both
show and tell them (Pollock, 1996).”
In this study, the researcher approximates the power of the media to construct
meaning through the ideological images they make through their discursive practices. In
the theory of social construction of reality of the media, as it is already said above posits
that people perceive reality—and all meanings attached to it, such as group identity,
information about events, etc.—as it is served by mainstream media.
McQuail & Windahl (1993 as cited by Pollock, 1996) referred to today’s society as
an “information society,” a term which points to the distinctive upward slope of the supply
and consumption of information. This certain characteristic of today’s society makes it

possible for the media to construct the reality of individuals. There is a certain requirement
in order for the media to construct the reality of the public; the media must have something
that the public need, this requirement is met with information. Because media has
“privileged access to information,” the media has the power to supply the said commodity
to the public which the public responds to depending on their interests. This notion of the
“information society” coupled with social construction leads to a conclusion that if one
attain media information, he/she knows reality.
Moreover, it is one of the basic principles of the theory that in order for people to
construct reality, there is a need to socialize. According to DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach (1989
as cited by Pollock, 1996), socialization is defined as:
“A complex, long-term, and multidimensional set of communicative changes

between individuals and various agents of society that results in the
individual’s preparation for life and brings all members of a society into
sufficient conformity so that social order, predictability, and continuity can
be maintained.”
Having said this definition, the theory weighs media as one of the various agents of
society that can control and “maintain” reality.
“The media can act as a socializing agent by constructing reality and then
disseminating this reality to the mass public” (Pollock, 1996). This is saying that
“socialization” in this manner can happen if upon receiving the media’s version of “reality”
through the information they give, a vast majority of its audience accept it with minimal
contentions. More than the media “constructing” reality, this fact entails a new view of
“social agreement of reality.”
Most of the researches utilizing the social construction of reality theory of the media
focus on the underlying concern that individuals accept “reality” as it is depicted by the
media. The major premise is that the more media exposure that one issue is given by the
media, the wider acceptance it gets (Pollock, 1996).
In the same manner, this study drew on CDA as a method that examines language
as discourse which is tied to the view that language is an element of social process
“dialectically interconnected with others” (Fairclough & Graham, 2002 as cited by Jahedi
& Abdulla, 2012). Fairclough’s (1989, 1995, 2001a as cited by Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012)
framework of discourse analysis underscores three levels of meaning: spoken or written
text, an instance of interaction using discourse, and social practice (social context). As
already discussed in the previous section of this chapter, there are three corresponding
stages of CDA: description of text, interpretation of the relationship between text and
interaction, and explanation of the relationship between interaction and social context.
Fairclough (2001 cited in Jahedi and Abdulla, 2012) identifies three corresponding
stages of critical discourse analysis: description of text, interpretation of the relationship,
and explanation of the relationship between interaction and social context.
Conceptual Framework
This study employed Social Construction of Reality of the Media as theoretical
anchor and CDA as a framework. This study will serve as an evaluation of the discursive
practice of online media in their news articles which construct certain ideologies about
‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’. Specifically, this study is an evaluation of the discursive
practice of the three most-visited online news portals in the Philippines.

There are three corresponding stages of CDA in Fairclough’s framework:
description of text, interpretation of the relationship between text and interaction, and
explanation of the relationship between interaction and social context. The researcher,
adopting Fairclough’s method of Critical Discourse Analysis, adopted his paradigm in this
study.
•Selection of words
Stage of and phrases to be
included in the
Description analysis
•Analysis of
Lexicalization,
Stage of Analysis of
Transitivity, Analysis
Interpretation of Thematization,
and Agency Analysis
•Based on the
interpretation that
Stage of were made by the
researcher as a
Explanation result of the four
methods of analyses
Figure 1. Fairclough’s (1989) Model of Critical Discourse Analysis
Figure 1 demonstrates the modified framework of procedures in the CDA, as
informed by Fairclough, employed by Jahedi and Abdulla (2012) in relation to this study.
The first procedure as already discussed in the previous sections of this study is the
description of the text. The description of the text refers to the determination of the formal
and linguistic properties of the text. In this level, the analysis of transitivity involves the
determination of the process types of the words used by online news media to project
ideologies on ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ in the headlines of the news. As regards the
analysis of lexicalization, this level involves the determination and grouping of words that
hold similar ideological meanings involving ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’. On the one hand,
on the analysis of thematization, in this level of analysis, the theme and rheme of the lead
and the headlines of the news stories about ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ produced by the
news portals were identified.
The second procedure is the interpretation of the relationship between text and
social interaction. This level of analysis involves the interpretation of the dominant process
types used by the news organization in writing their news in relation to the media’s version
of ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’. The groups of words in lexicalization were given a general
term that summed up the ideological meanings attached to ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’.
The dominant theme that is foregrounded in the leads and headlines of the news used to
express thoughts in the news reports were also identified in relation to ideologies about
‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’.
The third procedure is the explanation of relationship between the production of the
text, interpretation of the same, and social context (Fairclough, 2001a as cited by Jahedi&
Abdulla, 2012). In this level, the interpretations yielded from the analysis of transitivity,
lexicalization, and thematization about ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ were related with the
social context.
The basic premise of the Social Construction of Reality Theory of the Media is to
explain how and why individuals see reality in a certain manner and what role the media
plays in legitimizing these views (Pollock, 1996). In this manner, the theory accepts the
subjectivity of the socially-constructed reality in line with the experiences of audiences
“via media coverage or media dictation” (Pollock, 1996). In this study, the experiences of
the audience could be interpreted as the exposure of the audience to the content of media
being scrutinized in the study, specifically, the online media about ‘lindol’ and/or
‘earthquakes’.
The so-called media dictation is interpreted in this study as the power of the media
to construct ideologies in people who are active consumers of information offered by the
online media through the use of language and embedded meanings. As Tichenor, Donohue,
& Olien (1970) stated:
“Data from four types of research news diffusion studies, time trends, a
newspaper strike, and a field experiment—are consistent with the general
hypothesis that increasing the flow of news on a topic leads to greater
acquisition of knowledge about that topic among the more highly educated
segments of society.”
The “dictation” may be realized in the repetitive encounter of the audiences to the
information offered by the online media.
On the other hand, the term “construction” raises questions as to whether the media
is “making-up” or “creating” reality through the information they give to the public. The
main principle is that the media has the power to “construct” a general view of reality
through the information they give and omit from their reports. Further, the media’s usage
of language is also central in the creation of meaning of the public. This is the main concern
of this study, the power of the media to “construct” ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ through
their use of language in their news reports.
Moreover, one of the basic principles of the theory is that in order for people to
construct reality, there is a need to socialize. According to DeFleur & Ball-Rokeach (1989
as cited by Pollock, 1996), socialization is defined as:
“A complex, long-term, and multidimensional set of communicative changes

between individuals and various agents of society that results in the
individual’s preparation for life and brings all members of a society into
sufficient conformity so that social order, predictability, and continuity can

be maintained.”
In this manner, the online media acts as the socializing agent that could maintain
certain versions of reality about ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ through its collective
discourse practice. Which is to say that the media, as a socializing agent, has the ability to
create a unified reality across people of different geographical locations through its content.
In this perspective, it is fair to assume that the media has the ability to create ideologies
about ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ that may be collectively viewed as “truth” by people
across different geographical settings.
According to Pollock (1996), the media can disseminate reality to the mass public.
The online media, as it is, has at most 40 percent of the Filipino people under its influence.
The reality constructed by the online media about ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquakes’ can be
accessed by almost half of the Filipino people. Such statistic suggests that a significant
number of people is affected by the views legitimized by the online media.
As a young and rising media platform, it is important to study the effects of online
media in the construction of reality of the general public. Specifically, because of the
penetration of news media in the online platform, it is important to study the legitimizing
effects of the said media in the reality perceived by the general public.
Chapter III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the research locale, research design, instrumentation, units of
analysis, and data gathering procedure of the study.
Research Locale
This study will be conducted in Southern Luzon State University in Lucban,
Quezon.
Research Design
This descriptive, mixed-method study employed corpus-based CDA as informed
by Fairclough to analyze the texts of the news stories published in the three most-visited
online news portals in the Philippines. Corpus-based discourse analysis is a
“methodological innovation” (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, cited by Guinto, 2015) which
involves the analysis of large quantities of data with the help of corpus analysis software
such as the one used in this study, AntConc. This method brings quantitative data into the
CDA picture to address the perceived weakness of CDA studies which is the lack of
empirical support for its claims.
Three methods of textual analysis were utilized by the researcher in the examination
of the texts of the news articles, these are: analysis of lexicalization to analyze the choice
of words in the news article, analysis of thematization to analyze the themes associated to
‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquake’ in the text, and analysis of transitivity to analyze how words
are used in the news articles.
Instrumentation
After the collection of news articles from the three most-visited online news portals
in the country, the researcher proceeded to the analysis of the text. This was done with the
aid of AntConc, a software that can be used in the analysis of large quantities of text.
AntConc made it easy for the researcher to locate the keywords that were used in
the analysis. Also, as regards the first sub-objective of the first objective of this study,
common lexical choices associated with ‘lindol’ and/or ‘earthquake’ were easily identified
through collocation. The software also made it easy to identify the common verbs used by
the news agencies in writing their news articles which was used by the researcher to analyze
the transitivity system in the news articles.
Units of Analysis
The news articles that resulted from the search phrases ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’
comprised the corpus of this study. Originally, Abs-cbnnews.com topped the list of most-
visited online news portals in the country but since the site dominantly featured videos and
news program clips, it was not included by the researcher since this study focused on
textual and structured news articles.

Data Gathering Procedures
The researcher analyzed all the news articles that resulted from the search phrases
‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’ which comprised the corpus of the study.
To obtain the news articles, the study used the search engines of the online news
portals to search the phrases ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’. All the news articles were copied
from the internet and pasted to a Notepad and saved. The notepad file was then loaded to
a software named Antconc which helped the researcher identify the words that underwent
analyses.
The study employed textual analysis and CDA consistent to Fairclough’s view of
language as a social process connected to other social processes to analyze the texts of the
news stories published in the three most-visited online news portals in the Philippines.
Three methods of textual analysis were utilized by the researcher in the examination of the
texts of the news articles, these are: analysis of lexicalization to analyze the choice of words
in the news article and the news headline, analysis of thematization to analyze the themes
associated to ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’, and analysis of transitivity to analyze how words
are used in the news headlines.
The result of this study is open for other interpretation as may be provided by other
people as the terms that the researcher gave to represent each ideological concept in the
analysis of lexicalization may not fit what others think about the lexical choices presented.
Moreover, the terms describing the themes present in the news headlines and leads are also
given provided by the researcher and is open for interpretation.

The researcher used ideological concepts derived from all the phases of analysis to
find out how the discursive practice of online media constructed ‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’
in the news articles released about the Mamasapano clash and Bangsamoro Basic Law.
In order to support the claims of the study, the researcher triangulated the data
yielded from the analysis of the news articles through the comment sections of the two
online news agencies.
On the other hand, below is a table showing the summary of the methodologies that
utilized by the researcher in the study:
Objective Methodology
1. To find out how the media portrayed ‘earthquake’ and/or ‘lindol’
in the news articles released about the Magnitude 6.1 earthquake
that hit Pampanga in April 20, 2019 through the analysis of:
Analysis of
1.1. The ideological concepts attached to the lexical choices in Lexicalization
the body of the news articles; and and Analysis of
Transitivity
1.2. The manner of construction of the headlines of the news
stories.
2. To identify the common themes collectively adapted by the

Analysis of
online media to represent ‘earthquakes’ and/or ‘lindol’. Thematization
3. To find out what ideologies about ‘earthquake’ and ‘lindol’ seem From the results
of objectives 1
to underlie the discursive representation of the media of the issue and 2, Critical
discussed in their news articles. Discourse

Analysis
The above table presents the summary of methodologies used by the researcher in
studying the discursive practice of the three most-visited online news portal in the
Philippines according to Alexa.

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LANGUAGE OF CALAMITY: IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF

‘LINDOL’ IN ONLINE REPORTS

Amiel Jansen Demetrial

Southern Luzon State University

Pacific Ocean. Moreover, Sabillo (2015) stated that:

“The Philippine archipelago is sandwiched in between two opposite

These illustrate the importance of accurate, responsible, and sensitive science

natural and anthropogenic calamities.

Background of the Study

they have been hit by the feared ‘Big One’.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcS) released a more detailed

from the fault could be happening any time soon.

linguistic choices of editors and writers alike.

of language could be overcome by examining the elements of the extra-linguistic world

source of information, it is important to keep them in check, especially concerning their

could lead to disastrous situations.

In order to determine whether the Philippine media is producing sensitive,

literatures. Research on the language of calamity seem to be a vastly unexplored field in

examining how we encode realities about calamities in media text.

Objectives of the Study

6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20, 2019.

Specifically, this study aims to do the following:

2019 through the analysis of:

1.2. The manner of construction of the headlines of the news stories.

2. To identify the common themes collectively adapted by the online media to

represent ‘earthquakes’ and/or ‘lindol’.

Significance of the Study

This study will be significant to the following people.

study could serve as a guide on the reportage of calamities.

responsible reportage of calamities.

better outputs in Environmental Communication. Furthermore, this study could serve as a

media and its social actors’ discursive practices.

language of the media and sociolinguistics.

Scope and Limitation

California-based web information company. Originally, abs-cbnnews.com topped the list

sites where news articles were gathered.

Each news article underwent analysis of lexicalization to reveal the ideological

interpretations as may be provided by other people or researchers as the terms the

online news agencies.

defined conceptually and/or operationally.

Agency (Linguistics) refers to the linguistic representation of characters in a text. Simply,

‘lindol’ and ‘earthquake’.

West Valley Fault.

legitimization and construction of ideologies. In this study, discursive practice

Ideological Construction refers to the process of creation of ideologies about certain

lexical choices, transitivity system, and themes adopted.

articles about the magnitude 6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga.

Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012).

Thematization “focuses on the organization of information in a clause” (Jahedi & Abdulla,

the speaker’s organization of the clause as a message” (Halliday, 2002a as cited by

Jahedi & Abdulla, 2012). This system of clause is realized as Theme/Rheme in

which clause elements are positioned according to their informational prominence”.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

6.1 earthquake that hit Pampanga in April 20, 2019.

Specifically, this study aims to do the following:

2019 through the analysis of:

1.2. The manner of construction of the headlines of the news stories.