Exploring The Language Of Evaluation In The Disaster Stories Of Some Ghanaian Newspapers

Abstract

The Ghanaian press reach and influence a section of Ghanaian readers with their messages. Readers, therefore, need to have adequate knowledge of the language use in the media not only for constructing the intended meaning in the news but also for decoding other texts. This study investigates the use of the language of evaluation in the front pages and the editorials of state and private newspapers namely; The Daily Graphic and The Chronicle respectively. The theoretical framework used in this study is Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory. Qualitative content analysis and case study approaches were used to collect data about attitude (affect, judgment and appreciation) markers in both papers. The study revealed that the front page news exposed mainly the cause and effect of the disaster, made emotional appeals to readers, and assessed facilities to combat the disaster through emotive language and judgment resources whilst the editorials, through the abundant use of appreciation and judgment resources, mainly distanced themselves from government, and ascribed the cause of the disaster solely to careless and wanton human activities. These findings will be applied in researching similar texts.