Center for Languages and Translational Studies PAKISTAN JOURNAL OF LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION STUDIES TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Media as a Distorting Prism: A critical discourse analysis of newspapers’ front page titles of Peshawar Masscare ........................................................................................... 1 2. Designing a Question Paper: A critique of essay type questions constructed to assess written discourse of English language students ........................................................... 24 3. Strategies of Domestication and Foreignization in Howell and Caroe’s English translation of Khushhal Khan Khatak’s Diwan ............................................................ 40 4. Exploring the Differences of Motivational Factors among Undergraduate English as a Second Language Students in Pakistan: A descriptive study ....................................... 60 5. Relationship between Academic Procrastination and Stress: Mediating role of mindfulness among university students ....................................................................... 74 6. Translation and Colonial Discourse: Analyzing the Urdu translation of English novel “First Love and Last Love” by ‘James Grant’ ............................................................. 87 7. Translating to Refute: George Sale’s strategies in the Quran translation ................... 104 8. Anglo-American Literary Tradition: A humanist perspective ................................... 115 9. Morphological and Syntactic Case Constructions of Sindhi: A comparison with Urdu, Punjabi and Saraiki .................................................................................................... 126 Center for Languages and Translational Studies INTRODUCTION TO AUTHORS Dr Raja Naseem Akhtar Dean Social Sciences, Foundation University, Rawalpindi. Dr Muhammad Asif Assosiate Professor, Department of English Literature, Government College University, Faisalabad Dr. Mazhar Hayat Chairman, Department of English Literature, Government College University, Faisalabad Dr. Kanwal Zahra, Assistant Professor, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Dr Mutee ur Rehman, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Isra University, Hadrabad, Dr Umer Shoaib, Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science, University of Gujrat, Gujrat. Dr Ahmad Nadeem, Assistant Professor, GAM College Sargodha. Dr Raja Naseem Akhtar, Dean Social Sciences, Foundation University, Rawalpindi. Dr Azhar Pervaiz, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Sargodha Sargodha, Pakistan Dr Ghulam Ali, Assistant Professor, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Dr Muhammad Akbar Sajid, Assistant Professor, Department of English NUML, Multan Dr Behzad Anwer, Assistant Professor, Department of English, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Dr Hazrat Umar, Assistant Professor, Department of English, NUML, Islamabad Nasir Mehmood, Lecturer, Department of English, NUML, Islamabad Khurram Shahzad, Assistant Professor, Department of English Studies NUML, Islamabad Muhammad Kamran, MPhil Scholar (Computational Linguistics), NCBA & E, Gujrat Campus Saima Riaz. PhD (Scholar) Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Faria Shaheen, Associate Lecturer, Centre for Languages and Translation Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Amna Anwar, Lecturer, Post Graduate College for Women, Rawalpindi Ayesha Saif, MPhil Scholar, Department of Psychology, University of Gujrat, Gujrat Naima Batool, M.Phil Scholar, Department of English, University of Sargodha, Sargodha Center for Languages and Translational Studies Media as a Distorting Prism: A critical discourse analysis of newspapers’ front page titles of Peshawar Masscare Muhammad Akbar Sajid and Behzad Anwer Abstract This paper critically analyzes the newspapers’ post titles to explore how different linguistic devices have been employed to disseminate different ideologies about 16th December 2014 Peshawar School Massacre. It attempts to locate the role of linguistic spin in the propagation of desired ideologies to the target readership. In this regard fourteen different newspapers, nine of them Pakistani (Dawn, Daily Times, Pakistan Observer, e-dawn, Jang, Daily Express, The News, The Nation, Ausaf, three Indian (The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Express) and two European (Tribune, The Washington Post) have randomly been selected to show how an event is discursively represented by different national and international newspapers through their headlines. It employs triangular model for the analysis at different levels. Fairclough (1993) emphases the social aspects, Van Dijk (2004) deals with the cognitive perspectives whereas, Wodak (2001) focuses on language use in historical perspective. The rationale behind this tri-angulation is that existing data carries social, cognitive and historical perspectives. The findings of the research highlight that religious, socio-political conditions and the historical perspectives are politicized through the loaded discourse(s) of print media to represent the same event differently by employing insidious weapon of language. This is how print media serves as a distorting prism to reflect the mirror image to the masses. Keywords: CDA, Headlines/Post Titles, Ideologies, Representation. 1 Center for Languages and Translational Studies Introduction Print media has become a significant social agent for the investment and propagation of different ideologies. It plays a significant role in highlighting the dominant social and discursive practices around us. Moreover, it serves as an ideological tool in the representation of a same or different event in accordance with its target readership. Newspapers are the oldest form of media and were considered the sole source of information before the advent of electronic media. Therefore, the importance of newspapers as a powerful source of information is still very much there. The Newspapers report an event is mostly politicized and the process of media representation of same event varies from country to country depending upon their cultural, political, economic, contextual and ideological backgrounds. Newspapers can influence people's perception in a desired manner. Ideologies are formulated in a society as a result of a long process which takes hundreds of years to develop. Discursive practices, institutions of the state, the vested interests of the powerful groups of the society and the religious beliefs all contribute to shape ideologies of the people. Discourse, being the battle ground where the struggle for power takes place as a result of its manipulation by the ruling group of the society has the most important role to play in the context. Newspapers' discourse has very effective role to play especially in the under developed countries of the third world. Discoursal practices of the newspapers are the result of long held cultural backgrounds and the traditions of any society. Hence, the discourse of newspapers not only reflects the ideologies of the particular social group but also has the power to shape, reshape or distort the perception of reality of its individuals. Post Titles of Newspapers The post titles are a very important type of text. It has a vast range of functions which dictates its context, shape and structure. It encapsulates the story in minimum number of words and also attracts the readers to the story. It is considered to be the gist of the most important part of the newspaper. A reader can skim the headlines and have an outline of the news of the day and some idea of its relative impact and importance (Reah, 2001) Lexical words are more useful in headlines than grammatical words which may cause ambiguity in some cases. Yet, they serve three functions. Firstly, they provide a brief summary of the main news, secondly, they attract the attention and thirdly, they often provide an initial indicator in its content and style. These are an important part of presenting the news in a way in which the newspaper appeals its readers. Hence, Newspapers are a source of exercising power and headlines as the source of forming ideologies as Sheyholislami (2001) says that themes and topics are realized in 2 Center for Languages and Translational Studies headlines and lead paragraph. Dijk (1998) argues that headlines depict the unity of discourse and are a source of information which is easily memorized by the reader. He claims that the readers having their own beliefs and ideas generally “adopt these subjective media definitions of what is important information about an event” (p.248). Post titles are the most important form of genre. They serve as the mini- advertisement of the work. Headline is the “Text” indicating the nature of the article below it. Its purpose is to quickly and briefly draw attention to the story. The most important story on the front page usually possesses larger headline if the story is of usual significance. Language is no longer seen as merely reflecting out reality, but as central to creating reality (Taiwo 2004). Abastado (1980, p.49) argues “headlines encapsulate not only the content but the orientation, the perspective that the readers should bring to their understanding of the article.” Headlines are a particularly rich source of information about the field of cultural references. This is because titles can “stand alone”. They tell the story in fewest possible words following the policy of telling and selling the newspapers. Critical Discourse