Newspaper editorials and Malta鈥檚 general election : a sociological analysis of political discourse

Abstract

This sociological study focuses on politics, with an emphasis on media and newspapers. This work mainly analyses the editorials of two independent newspapers; Malta Today and Malta Independent. It follows an analysis of pluralistic theory and a discourse analysis of the editorials. The scope of this study is to discover whether the editorials newspapers are truly pluralistic or else inclined to one political party. This study is an examination of the editorials published during the general election that took place on the 3rd of June 2017. The period analyzed was from April until July 2017. The editorials were themed according to the most common issues discussed. The main themes cover the governance issues, transport issues, environmental issues and social issues. Additionally, the editorials were analyzed in greater detail with the use of discourse analysis. I have focused on finding any patterns, statements and writing styles that were used to convey ideas and messages to the public. These were illustrated better by providing images, charts and lists that explains clearly the findings. Such data was produced by various tests provided by the qualitative computer software called NVivo The main findings of this study show that both independent newspapers have different agendas and that their ideas and messages during the period studied correspond to a respective political party.