A Critical Discourse Analysis of Tweets by Pakistani Politician’s During 2018 General Election

Abstract

In the field of Political discourse analysis, numerous researchers from various disciplines have shown significant interest in studying political communication. Previous studies have focused on political discourses in diverse contexts. Therefore, this study aims to examine how Pakistani political leaders use language in their tweets to influence and address the Pakistani public, particularly during 2018 general election. The analysis includes tweets from the official twitter accounts of the heads of PTI and PML-N, specifically; Imran Khan and Shahbaz Sharif. This research employs a Mixed-Method Research; including qualitative (descriptive) and quantitative approach, focusing on content analysis of tweets to uncover the discursive strategies utilized by theses leaders. Emphasizing Van Dijk Socio Cognitive Model, the study seeks to understand the significance of these strategies in political discourse. The findings reveal that the tweets related to the election employed a variety of rhetorical, discursive, and lexical devices, such as personal anecdotes, statistical data, emotional appeals, and logical argument. The results indicate that both political leaders employed similar discursive strategies in their tweets, and although three were notable differences in theior approaches. Shahbaz Sharif focused on infrastructure and developmental works, while Imran Khan focused on corruption and on the basic system of Pakistan and wanted to bring change in the country. Twitter has become a perception in the political discourse in recent times. It has become a source of controversies regarding misinformation. This study conducts a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of tweets by Pakistani politicians during the 2018 general elections, (PTI head) and (PML-N head). The researcher has observed to identify the significance of using Twitter by Pakistani politicians to propagate their manifesto during 2018 general election and to know the strategies used by Pakistani politicians on Twitter to spread their political narratives. By applying Teun A. van Dijk's socio-cognitive model. Finally, this study suggests that future research should explore other tweets by Shahbaz Sharif and Imran Khan in different political context to further understand the political discursive strategies and practices.

Keyword: Pakistani Politics, Role of Hashtags. Digital World, Twitter Trends, Van Dijk, Socio-cognitive mode.