Syntactic Structures used in the Discursive Construction of Covid-19 Pandemic in Kenya’s Newspaper Headlines

Abstract

Media scholars have noted that texts are loaded with ideologies and are therefore never neutral. Yet, the way media texts were used to communicate COVID-19 information in Kenya has been given little attention. Thus, this study examines how syntactic structures in The Standard and the Daily Nation newspapers were used to discursively construct the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya. Using Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study reveals the syntactic structures employed by the newspapers serve important discursive functions. The grammatical processes used in the headlines largely seem to give agency to COVID-19, while Kenyans are presented as grammatical patients. Giving COVID-19 agency, is a way of warning Kenyans against taking the pandemic lightly. The article also shows structures like modality construct the newspapers as having overwhelming authority over readers. Through these syntactic choices, the media wields immense power, and may influence the way people think and act concerning the pandemic.