Ninth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This paper employs discourse analysis to examine a series of newspaper headlines surrounding Philippine Vice President Duterte’s handling of confidential funds. Historically, the use of confidential funds in the country is parallel to the increase in monetary and fiscal issues and concerns leading to poverty, corruption and misuse of resources. Significant interpretations from six (6) newspaper headlines were induced to uncover the underlying narratives, ideologies, and power dynamics shaping public perception through textual analysis of statements from various political figures and news headlines of Manila Bulletin. Structural linguistic analysis using lexical, syntactic, semantic levels, and framing and narrative analyses were incorporated to understand how different actors construct their versions of truth and legitimacy in a politically charged environment.