ARREST NAPOLES!
: CDA and PEDAGOGY 1
ARREST NAPOLES!: AN ATTEMPT AT LOCATING CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF
NEWSPAPER HEADLINES IN THE CLASSROOM
Through researches and feedback from classroom practitioners, it is now well established that
the use of authentic materials in the language classroom is beneficial for students (Kilickaya,
2004). One of the key ideas for use of authentic materials in the classroom is the exposure of
the learners to “real” language as much as possible. Authentic or real language is language that
students see functioning within the social context they are in. Bringing this kind of language in
the classroom will privilege the learner with interaction to what counts as legitimate because of
its use. As regards written language, one area where real language is depicted is the newspaper.
Newspapers are spaces in the society where language is used to convey information. Their
prominence and influence in the lives of people make them objects of study. Newspapers are
studied for their specific elements: content, structure, language style, linguistic choices, and
persuasive discourses.
On August 15, 2013, Philippine newspapers reported that an order was issued by the Manila
Trial Court to arrest Janet Napoles. A month before that, the alleged misuse of public funds
(PDAF1) had caught nation-wide interest. Benhur Luy, the whistle blower, pointed at a Janet
Napoles’2 as a key player in the scam. It does not come as a surprise then that her ordered
arrest excited media attention. On that day, three main broadsheets bannered their headlines
of the same event—but the banner headlines for each paper were structured differently.
1
The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the official name of the congressional pork barrel, is a lump sum appropriation
in the national budget. For the year 2013, it has a funding of nearly P25 billion. It allocates P200 million a year for each senator and
P70 million for each member of the House of Representatives. The process of releasing PDAF allocations starts with a senator or
congressman making a request for the release of his or her allocation. A project list accompanies the request. Projects are drawn
from a menu specified in the annual budget law. The request is sent to the Senate finance committee, in the case of a senator, or
the House appropriations committee, in the case of a House member. The committee chairman endorses it to the Senate president
or the Speaker, who then forwards it to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).The DBM makes sure that the project
list conforms to the menu in the budget law. It then releases the funds to the implementing agency identified by the lawmaker, who
is furnished a copy of the release document known as special allotment release order (SARO). (Verbatim from Philstar, August 17,
2013). Since spending the funds was discretionary on priority developments projects (mostly) on the local level was discretionary,
some of those involved allegedly misused it. Since it had been exposed, the scam investigation has gone a long way and has dragged
other government officials along.
2
Janet “Jenny” Luy Lim-Napoles is a Filipina businesswoman who is allegedly the mastermind of the PDAF scam.
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 2
My interest in this topic was prompted by the question How do different newspapers report the
same event? In this, I would like to discover the factors that affect the differences in the
headlines. This will entail investigation of devices used in foregrounding the issue and the
presumed ideology or stance of newspapers. But more importantly, I would like to explore their
potential for pedagogy. Through critical discourse analysis, I will try compare the broadsheets’
treatment of the issue at hand. Then from the results, pedagogical implications will be drawn.
Specifically, I would like to answer these questions:
1. What are the linguistic choices used to describe the same news event?
2. How are the headlines framed and graphically represented in the broadsheets?
3. What do these framings say about the newspaper's ideology on an issue?
This study is significant to me because it will allow me to personally explore the area of written
discourse making an avenue for the application of discourse theory into praxis. Moreover, it is
important because it will potentially enrich pedagogy in my classroom. It may also be significant
to the news reader as it may “make strange” the otherwise “common” leading the reader into
the idea that there is more to the textual forms and visuals in newspaper front pages.
REVIEW OF RELATED THEORIES
THE NATURE OF HEADLINES
Headlines are traditionally believed to be summaries of news stories. In Van Dijk’s words,“ [The]
first important feature of newspaper discourse [is that] topics may be expressed and signaled by
headlines, which apparently act as summaries of the news text” (Van Dijk, 1988, pp. 35-36).
This feature of the headline essentially fits its function of giving information. Reah (2002)
observes that headlines deliver some detail about an event: who is involved, where the event
happens, and what circumstances motivated the event—these inform the traditional conception
of what-where-who-how headlines. However, headlines most of the times shift from its
traditional role to function an “opinion manipulators”. As agents of persuasion, headline
writers give premium on catching the attention of readers, thereby drawing them to read the
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 3
rest of the news story. For this, headlines are written capitalizing on the creative use of
rhetorical and sometimes graphological devices. Reah (2002) outlines some guidelines on the
linguistic choices of headlines:
First, headline writers have a “range of linguistic devices available to create headlines that will
attract the reader’s interest”. On account of (1) words and meaning, some words “play on the
potential for ambiguity that can exist in the relationship between word and meaning” using
homophones, homonyms, metaphorical associations, and even polysemes. Moreover, headlines
may exploit (2) intertextuality as there is a variety of “familiar phrases and sayings” unique to
every existing culture—and these may come from cultural practices, songs, books, films, and
other cultural artifacts. Also, although headlines are meant to be read rather than spoken,
headline writers often utilize the (3) reader’s awareness of sounds to create phonological
effects that make headlines easy to remember. Finally, (4) loaded words or those that connote
“strong particular emotions” are employed to carry “an emotional loading beyond their literal
meaning”.
Second, headline writers follow the conventions of the discourse genre. Headlines need to be
given form through facts. Given the space limit in newspapers, headline writers acknowledge
that content words (words that directly signal meaning such as nouns, main verbs, adjectives,
adverbs) are given more premium over grammatical words (words that signal grammatical
relationships as determiners, auxiliary verbs, etc) in headline writing. It comes as no surprise,
then, that functional words are omitted in headlines. This, however, results in ambiguity. Aside
from preference for content words, headline writers also “play about with the standard order of
words and phrases” in line with the principle of economy. For example, the prevalent use of
noun phrases in headlines is anchored on the fact that noun phrases can be attributed with a
number of modifiers—and thus loaded with various kinds of information. The structuring of the
headline (what comes first) also provides what is foregrounded and what is relegated in the
background (Halliday, 1994) and often helps reveal the ideological positions of the newspaper.
One important genre convention of newspaper headlines is the use of subheads. The traditional
news story nucleus contains the following structure: headline, subheadline, lead, and wrap up
(Unica, n.d.). If the headline announces the news event, it is the subheadline that qualifies that
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 4
claim or “lures the readers into the article” (Bedrichova, 2006). Nonetheless, the subheadline,
like the tip of an iceberg, shows what else the reader can expect from the news story. Not all
headlines have subheadlines, however. According to Bauer, Griner, and Guan (2006), “the
subheadline is an optional element of the news article; if the writers think that the headline is
descriptive enough they may omit the sub-headline. The reader will only expect a subheadline if
the title is vague or says something that needs elaborating.”
Third, headline writers utilize graphological devices to capture the reader’s eyes. Particular
genres are not only identifiable through their contents, but on the way the genre content is
packaged using graphological features. For example, print news genre are recognized through
headlines printed in large fonts and the body-of-the-news text in smaller fonts which follow the
justified column fashion (Fulton, Huisman, Murphet, & Dunn, 2005 ). It is a fact that humans
notice deviations from the norm. This principle explains how news headlines are printed in bold
and laid out to contrast with the normal font size. Fulton, et. al (2005) continues
our attention is drawn to particularly significant news items by variations in the
standard graphology, such as banner-sized headlines or breakout boxes
containing quotes or background information, or graphics such as maps and
diagram…and [more importantly], graphology serves an ideological function in
presenting information multimodally, through both text and image, and an
interpersonal function by ‘speaking’ to us loudly or softly (through larger or
smaller fonts) or positioning us to respond emotively to an accompanying
photographic image or boxed quotation (p. 259)
In much the same way, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) also espoused that the positioning of
visuals show ideological positions. They propose that the emphasis invested in an element of
the image or a page reveals a message, often stronger than “a thousand words”.
CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
CDA as a “network of scholars” had its roots in a small meeting among Teun van Dijk, Norman
Fairclough, Gunther Kress, Theo Van Leeuwen, and Ruth Wodak, in January 1991 at Amsterdam.
The purpose of the forum was to discuss theories and methods of Discourse Analysis—and
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 5
specifically Critical Discourse Analysis. Since then, CDA evolved as innovations were integrated
into the discipline (Wodak & Meyer, 2009). Meanwhile, some of the scholars who used to be
aligned with CDA had chosen to pursue different theoretical frameworks (e.g. Gunther Kress).
Interestingly, there is no one approach to CDA. Utilizing its principles, researchers attempt to
“make their own positions and interests while retaining their respective scientific
methodologies…or while remaining self-reflective of their own research processes” (Wodak &
Meyer, 2009). For example, Van Dijk has developed the socio-cognitive model for critical
discourse; Wodak utilizes the discourse historical method in sociolinguistic discourse while
Fairclough uses a three-dimensional framework for the analysis of a communicative event.
In his book Critical Discourse analysis, Fairclough (1993) defines CDA as
“discourse analysis… aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of
causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b)
wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such
practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of
power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships
between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony” (p. 135).
This definition outlines Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework which is underlined by the
belief that language use is a social practice. This implies that, first, it is a mode of action;
second, that it is a “socially and historically situated mode of action”, and consequently in a
dialectical relationship with other facets of the social sphere. Thus, language use, or a text
constitutes three things: social identities, social relations, and systems of knowledge and beliefs
(Fairclough, 1995b). An analysis of a communicative event is the analysis of three dimensions of
any communicative event: the text, the discourse practice and the socio-cultural practice.
Texts, may be oral (spoken over the radio or the television) and written (as in newspaper and
print magazines). Specifically, the analysis of text would involve investigation of both their
meanings and forms. Texts are seen as multifunctional—in that they underlie a system of choice
that often reveal the producers biases and preferences. The analysis also considers not only
what is written but also the unwritten. Finally, texts are to be analyzed considering principles of
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 6
semiosis: the analysis of accompanying photographs, lay out, and overall visual organization of
the space where the text is located (Fairclough, 1995b).
As regards discourse practices, the processes of text production and text consumption are
investigated as well. In print news media, for example, this includes the genre conventions of
headline or the news story, as well as the institutional routines in producing the text. As
regards consumption, this involves the readership and their practices, or I may say, preferences.
Finally, the socio-cultural practices refer to the economic, political, and cultural contexts of the
text. Specifically, this may involve the
“immediate situational context, [sometimes] the wider context of institutional
practices the event is embedded within, or yet the wider frame of the society of
society and the culture. All of these layers may be relevant to understanding
the particular event—and indeed particular events cumulatively constitute and
reconstitute social and cultural practice at all levels” (Fairclough, 1995b, p. 62).
To nuance the first facet of Fairclough’s discourse analysis model, I decided to include the
framework on headline analysis by Reah (2002). Here, the linguistic analysis of the text will
include a close investigation of the linguistic choices of the headline writers focusing on the
lexical devices on the lexicon level and secondly, on the arrangement of these linguistic choices
in the structural level. In addition to this, the graphological devices used in the text
presentation will also be considered. Further, since this is primarily a linguistic rather than a
sociological study, a selected component of socio-cultural practice (in this case sociopolitical
context) is probed on the basis of its relevance to the text.
METHODOLOGY
Three headlines depicting the same news event in three Philippine broadsheets were analyzed
in this study. The choice of the newspapers were based on their selling rates as revealed in an
informal interview with a newspaper man in a Shopping Center news stand in this university.
He disclosed that among the broadsheets, the most frequently bought were Philippine Star,
Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Bulletin. The headline of the three broadsheets dated
August 15, 2013 was chosen for the following reasons: (a) all three broadsheets bannered the
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 7
same news event, (b) the headlines used the same key words, (c) the headlines were structured
differently. Using the framework based on Fairclough (1995a, 1995b) and Reah (2002), the
headlines were subjected to textual analysis. For a more meaningful analysis of the texts,
Halliday’s Theme-Rheme was considered investigating the foregrounded structural elements
and Kress & Van Leeuwen’s social semiotic approach was used in determining value of
information and salience of visuals related to the headline.
The following terms which recur in the as it paper and are deemed necessary to be operationally
defined.
1. Headline. Headlines, here, refer to the banner headlines, the frontpage title of a
newspaper article deemed as the most important story of the day. It is usually set
off from the rest of the titles because of the size and bold imprint of its typeface.
2. Frame. The packaging or presentation of news through linguistic choices which is
directed at swaying readers in the formation of their opinions.
3. Broadsheet. Refers to any of the three papers (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily
Inquirer, Philippine Star) referred to in this study.
4. Graphological devices. These are devices and visuals used to highlight a feature in
the layout of the front page.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As already mentioned, this inquiry is grounded on the desire to discover the similarities or
differences of headlines referring to the same event. However, to contextualize the crafting of
headlines, it is important to understand the sociopolitical context that informs their production.
Here, a brief background is provided.
SOCIO-POLITIAL BACKGROUND
Corruption is rampant in the Philippines. Because of this, many studies about the nature of
corruption, the Filipino psyche, and more importantly how to combat it (Moratalla, 2000;
Bhargava, 2000) have been done. However, corruption still exists and has become even more
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 8
common. Filipinos are aware that some government officials are actively using taxpayers’
money for personal interests—but this seems to be the norm. Filipinos can only surmise on the
extent, gravity, and the processes corruption entails. For the first time, however, a mastermind
for a scam involving people’s money is pinpointed—and along with her, at least five senators
and 23 congressmen.
In July 12-14, 2013, the alleged 10 billion scam is exposed by the Philippine Inquirer. The central
figure is whistleblower Benhur Luy who named Janet Napoles and a number of senators and
congressmen as using millions of Philippine pesos for ghost projects. On July 16, Ombudsman
Morales assigned a team of six persons to conduct parallel investigations with NBI regarding the
issue. A day after that, Janet Napoles denied her involvement in the PDAF misuse and the next
day, Benhur Luy was placed under the Witness Protection Program. Rappler, on July 25, 26, and
31 released photos of Napoles partying with Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla’s families—
suggesting of their acquaintance and also of Napoles’ family’s extravagant lifestyle. On August
5, in a unanimous decision, the Senate declared they would not probe into the scam at least “for
now”. But on the same day, Minority Leader and San Juan City representative Ronaldo Zamora
filed a resolution to probe into the alleged misuse of pork barrel funds (Romulo, 2013).
Headline banners from PDI followed the pork issue: two more witnesses were willing to testify
against Janet (August 10), 97 mayors’ signatures were found to be fake (August 11), Justice
Secretary De Lima invited the 97 mayors with faked signatures (August 13). On August 13,
former marine colonel Querubin revealed one of Napoles’ scams which led to his wife’s
depression. On August 14, Makati Regional Trial Court ordered the arrest of Napoles and her
brother Jojo Lim for illegal detention of Benhur Luy. The next day, August 15, the three
broadsheets bannered the ordered arrest on their headlines. They are summarized below:
Event Philippine Daily Philippine Star Manila Bulletin
Inquirer (PDI) (PhilStar) (MB)
Arrest of Napoles arrest ordered Napoles ordered arrested Court Orders Napoles Arrest
Janet NBI looking for alleged No bail for detention of DOJ Files Serious Illegal
Napoles brains in 10B scam witness Detention Raps, Solons Face
Tax Probe Over Pork Scam
Table 1. Comparison of the headlines among the three broadsheets
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 9
As the Napoles case is progressing, Labuyo, a typhoon that as of August 12, 2013 was the
strongest storm to have ravaged the Northern part of the Philippines, specifically the
mountainous Aurora province also is being reported. A TV report declared that at least 1,895
people from three regions had to be evacuated to shelters and 673 houses were damaged. This
is the immediate context where the headline is situated.
LEXICAL ANALYSIS: KEY WORDS
Based on their headlines from August-December 2013, the three newspapers seldom report
the same event at the same time. And when they do, it is infrequent that their lexical choices
are similar. In August 15, 2013, the three broadsheets (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer,
and Philippine Star) reported the same event and their banner headlines contained the same
key words: NAPOLES, ARREST, ORDER3. While the headlines have the same words, their
subheads differed markedly. To lend structure to the examination, analysis of keywords will be
presented first here, then an exploration of individual the broadsheets’ subheadlines, structural
framing, and graphological devices (lay-out and visuals) will follow.
As already mentioned, the key terms that appeared in the banner headlines were: Napoles,
Arrest, and Order. The first term Napoles refers to Janet Napoles. The second term ‘arrest’
literally means seizing (someone) by legal authority and taking into custody. Arrest is the
umbrella term for capture, seizure, and even detention. ‘Order’, the third term, means
“direction issued by a court or a judge requiring a person to do or not do something”. In the
Philippines in particular, the choice whether to call someone by the given name or the first
name is governed by conventions. Calling someone by the given name implies affinity, while
doing so by the first name connotes distance or unattachment and formality. Given this cultural
tradition, the lexical choice Napoles suggests distance from the writer and consequently, allows
for more objectivity in the description. Arrest on the other hand alludes to the consequence for
law breaking, while order brings to mind authority over the ordered. Arrest and order by way of
denotation and connotation signify breaking of the law and submission to authority. The
3
All definitions for lexical terms related to the headlines and subheads are taken from Merriam Webster
Online.
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 10
significations of the two verbs may still be emphasized through phonosemantics whose
principles are used by headline writers to create a desired effect.
Headline writers know that the masterful play of words evoke the reader’s awareness of sounds.
This sound awareness and its connotations (based on onomatopoeic experience) may explain
why some words impact more than others. Sometimes, too, the sounds help define the meaning
of the word. This works with the words arrest and order found in the headlines on study.
Americans pronounce arrest and order with the soft /r/. In phonosemantics, the soft /r/
sounded in the initial position gives the word a feeling of motion, or in Magnus’ (2001) terms, a
of “general departure”. Thus, the headline containing the lexicon arrest and order may give the
reader a feeling that the person modifying the noun is attributed some action. However,
because the Filipino /r/ is rolled, some Filipinos still sound arrest and order with a trill—
although, of course, the trill sounding may range from soft to aggressive and differs among
individuals. The trilled /r/ connotes action and sometimes roughness (Magnus, 2001). This may
somehow define the kind of action accorded the person associated with the arrest.
TEXTUAL AND GRAPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
In this section, the headline, subhead, and graphological devices and strategies used to situate
the headlines in the front pages are investigated to understand the ideological positions of the
broadsheets.
A. Philippine Daily Inquirer: Napoles arrest ordered
NBI looking for alleged brains in 10B scam
The PDI’s three-word headline foregrounds the arrest of Napoles. This is based on account
Halliday’s theme-rheme notion. The act order is presented without any mention of agency—
which suggests that in this conception, agency is unimportant. The prominence accorded to
arrest can be explained linguistically. The word arrest is given premium as PDI presents it in the
subject position and in its nominalized form. Arrest is primarily a verb and secondarily a noun.
As a verb, it signifies an action, and is therefore a process in Halliday’s (1994) terms. When a
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 11
process is nominalized4 or “thingi-fied”, two things happen: first, it becomes concretized giving
it a non-negotiable quality and second, it increases its meaning potential (Halliday &
Matthiesen, 1994). Being concrete detaches it from any movement and makes it non-
negotiable. This non-negotiability makes the noun arrest powerful (Thompson, 1994) and
consequently turns it into an “authoritative representation of the way the world is”. Aside from
its power as a word, arrest can now also be classified, described, quantified and “specified
further and further” (Butt et al,, 2000 in Faharani & Hadidi, 2012). It is for this reason that the
nominalized arrest may now be modified by Napoles—the “alleged doer of the crime.” The
location of Napoles preceding the event signifies her involvement in the crime; and finally, the
event order is mentioned. Thus, though capitalizing on the main event which is order, the
“arrest of Napoles” is foregrounded.
While the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s headline presents the relevant part of the news, the
subhead NBI looking for alleged brains in 10B scam directs the reader into the reason for arrest.
The lexical choices “NBI”, “brains”, “10B” “scam” are investigated here for denotation and
connotation to arrive at a more defined meaning. In the Philippines, the NBI (National Bureau of
Investigation)5 is the agency that investigates crimes and other offenses against the laws of the
Philippines, both on its own initiative and as public interest may require”. NBI connotes secrecy
and credibility in investigation and enforcement of whatever the law requires; thus, when an
offender is under NBI surveillance, he or she must take utmost precaution. Moreover, here, NBI
is represented as an active entity which is in search of a lawbreaker. The verb “looking for’ is
expressed in the progressive aspect suggesting an going action and therefore constructs NBI as
working towards the resolution of the case. The lexical choice “brain” has both synechdocheic
and metonymic functions: first, it is a body part signifying a person’s involvement in the scam;
second, it is associated with the planning, thinking, rationalizing part of the human body which
alludes to the role of person in question in the scam. The use of the modifier “10 billion” aims at
objective reporting—and is an “interesting detail” so that invites the curiosity of the reader. But
4
Nominalization is the transformation of an adjective, verb, preposition/prepositional phrase or even a conjunction
into a noun (Halliday & Matthiesen, 1999) with or without morphological transformations.
5
The NBI is a government entity that is civilian in character, and national in scope which is under the Department of Justice… The
main objective of the National Bureau of Investigation is the establishment and maintenance of a modern, effective and efficient
investigative service and research agency for the purpose of implementing fully principal functions provided under Republic Act No.
157, as amended (NBI, n.d.)
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 12
that it modifies “scam” (a dishonest scheme; a fraud), lends support to the importance of the
ordered arrest. That Napoles is to be arrested, and NBI is looking for the “alleged” brains of the
scam—implicate that Napoles is a major participant in the scam.
If the structure highlights the arrest, where would the graphological features focus?
Figure 1. Front page of PDI (August 15, 2013)
The emblematic PDI front page consists of a picture (usually a third of the whole page and
located at the top) imprinted with the two-line masthead with the headline placed just below
the picture. This August 15 2013 front page is atypical in that the first half of the page has a
three-part vertical structure: the smaller and equal first and third parts are stories about the
center picture, which makes up the second part. The parts are divided by white lines. The
headline, runs across the front page of the broadsheet in large black bold typeface identical
(belonging to the same family) to the subheadline’s. These elements are important indicators of
foregrounded information in the headline.
Putting elements together in a visual space is not done at random. In the newspaper, layout
“serve[s] to integrate the various elements of the page, bringing them together into a coherent
and meaningful whole”(Coelho, 2008). Kress and Van Leuween’s (1996) social semiotic
approach will be used to further analyze the composition of the front page particularly those of
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 13
information value and salience. The headline strung across the top of the page serves as the top
of the rectangle that frame Napoles’ picture. The two stories on each side serve as borders of
the frame while the 4-column story below the picture forms a horizontal band that closes the
frame. The picture is strategically placed in the center because it signals connectedness among
the other elements. Each story draws on Janet Napoles—her personal life or the public fund she
allegedly managed to acquire. The main headline on top which serves as a horizontal band
enclosing rectangular space is made more salient because of its size and bold print. Similarly,
the top left subheadline is more salient than the other story headlines. The two-line masthead
in white letters bridges the left headline to the right headline. This visual strategy creates a
“discrete thematic continuity” because it draws the attention first to the more salient and
spreads it across the less salient in tonal contrast. Although the most salient element by way of
size, contrast, and sharpness of focus is Napoles’ picture, it can be observed that it is placed
slightly to the left to achieve movement and lead the eye across. A closer investigation at the
picture and its placement will yield the following: (1) the picture is still one third of the whole
page in terms of length, (2) when folded crosswise (as the norm is), the center of the page is
Napoles’ upper nose bridge area; when the whole page is spread, the center becomes her
fingers assumed blurred because they were moving when the picture was taken. Thus,
placement-wise, she is the most valuable information. This is reason enough to make her
picture salient in the visual space.
Napoles picture is shot from a low-angle and gives prominence to her open mouth (as in
speaking), the eyes cast at something, the semi-creased brow, the hand movement seem to
indicate that the person is in distress and is verbally defending herself. This suggests her
disapproval to the ordered arrest. The picture may not be taken when she was ordered to be
arrested. However, it was chosen to draw attention to Napoles’ emotional reaction.
The syntactic structure of the PDI headline highlighted arrest. On the other hand, the
graphological features gave salience to Napoles. Combining these pieces of information would
yield that the textual and visual elements give prominence to the arrest of Napoles. Moreover,
when the headline and its subheadline are juxtaposed, one would get the implied message that
Napoles may even be the mastermind of the scam. This framing of the text then just suggests
that act of arresting is already anticipated, and the ordering of the arrest is just the
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 14
implementation of the expected action. Thus, the Inquirer believes that Napoles and the
officials allegedly involved are guilty. To stress this point, PDI News Editor A. Engracia (personal
communication, March 14, 2014) narrates
Napoles was the Inquirer story from the very start. Early on, we had seen the
extent of the corruption—and the impunity with which how corruption was
committed involving so many billions of pesos in tax payers money—so you
wonder why no rural roads are constructed…. and just surmise that the money
is corrupted by politicians. So in that respect, we published the story. And this
is the first time that we [Filipinos] realize the extent of the corruption
committed by these government officials.
B. The Philippine Star: Napoles ordered arrested
No bail for detention of witness
The fact that this headline is devoid of agency tells two things: (1) the headline writer assumes
the readers’ knowledge of arrests (the agency or person responsible for issuing orders, and
those who carry the orders) and (2) the perpetrator is less important than Napoles. Napoles is
topicalized in this headline, it is the theme is Halliday’s terms. This shows how the structure
highlights the “involved” in the case or the alleged doer of the crime. Interestingly, the word
ordered precedes arrested which illustrates the premium also given to the act. This shows how
the broadsheet aims at objective reporting. However, the subheadline also implies judgment.
Napoles is arrested because of the “alleged” detention of Luy—which at the time of writing
would still be proven in court—but the finality of the statement seems to suggest that indeed,
Napoles is already guilty.
In the Philstar headline, the subhead reads No bail for detention of witness. The prominence of
the modifier “no” immediately following the headline Napoles ordered arrested indicates
negative definiteness toward the word it describes which is bail. Bail literally means “the
temporary release of an accused person awaiting trial, sometimes on condition that a sum of
money is lodged to guarantee the person’s appearance in court”. The expression No bail
suggests the gravity of Napoles’s infraction against the law. The next lexical choice detention
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 15
means being kept in official custody as a prisoner. This indicates not only isolation of the
detained from loved ones, but also suggests the reason for the confinement, which in this case
is grave law-breaking. Finally, the word witness refers to a person who has seen the accident or
crime and which, here, modifies “detention”. Witness may not evoke any meaning to the
person not following Philstar’s episodic reporting of the PDAF scam. The witness in the
subheadline serves as a deictic term for Benhur Luy, Janet Napoles’ nephew who turned witness
against her. The subheadline states the information that Napoles is arrested because of the
“alleged” detention of Luy.
Concerns on how the elements (stories, headlines, pictures) are put together to visually grab the
readers’ attention and “hang on to it” ground the final lay-out of the paper. It is established
that pictures and their strategic locations on a page are crucial in drawing attention.
Researchers found that “headlines near photographs are read more than those placed further
away…[also] people reading a paper look at most of the photographs…and headlines” (Esseen,
Phillips, & Riley, 2004). Photographs and headlines have a unique relationship in that they
reinforce each other. The photograph may reinforce the headline, or depending on the photo’s
salience and strategic placement, the headlines may act as its labeling device. There are also
instances when the news headline is not related to the photo. In this case, the photo, often
accompanied by a caption, is a news story in itself. This is case of the Philstar front page below.
Figure 2. Philstar frontpage, August 15, 2013
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 16
The banner headline spreads across the page screaming that Napoles is ordered to be arrested.
And directly under the headline a colored picture that spans across 5/6 of the page shows the
catastrophic result of a typhoon. As it is placed down the headline, the picture may give the
impression that is related to the ordered arrest. And when the reader’s eyes moves to the left,
he or she may read the banner headline’s story. In terms of text-salience, the banner headline
is most observable as it is presented in large bold typeface. But, based on terms of space
allotment, contrast and sharpness of focus, the most salient and the most valuable feature of
the page, is the picture. The disjointedness of two texts (linguistic and visual) may mislead the
reader. In reference to the headlines from July 12-August 15, it is only on August 15, 2013 that
Philstar bannered a PDAF-scam headline, although PDAF-scam-themed stories made it to the
front page since July 12. Although it had placed the ordered arrest of Napoles in the banner, the
salience it afforded the typhoon picture relegated it as secondary in importance.
This suggests that although linguistically and structurally Philstar seems to push the idea that
Napoles is guilty, for this issue it also tries to temper this claim by providing more salience to the
picture. Philstar’s stance is further confirmed in the investigation of the headline and the
graphological features that feature Napoles on the succeeding issues (i.e. August 29; September
13 & 17, 2013) may say otherwise.
The less emphatic salience of the August 15 headline may be attributable to other factors, one
of which may be news source accessibility. Because of its access to news source, PDI had
published a three-part expose of Napoles and the 10B scam in July 12-14, 2013 and since then
had consistently reported on the scam. But this cannot be said of Philippine Star. As the
months progressed, however, more sources for news had been available, and more facets of the
issue opened for probing. This may explain why on the subsequent issues, the Philippine Star’s
stance has been more pronounced.
.
C. Manila Bulletin: Court Orders Napoles Arrest
DOJ Files Serious Illegal Detention Raps, Solons Face Tax Probe
Over Pork Scam
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 17
In this headline, premium is placed on the agency court as issuing the order for the arrest of
Napoles. This is the usual traditional headline taught in schools where there is an agent (actor),
performing an act (process) toward a goal (where the process is directed to). Here, that the
agency is given premium consigns the responsibility and probable corresponding consequence
to the “court”—and the reader will just have to wait for the updates on the issue. In this
headline, the authority of the court is also acknowledged—even if it is only the Makati Regional
Trial Court, and not the Supreme Court that issued the order. Moreover, the word arrest is
preceded by the noun modifier. This implies that Napoles is singled out (from among those
possibly guilty) as the person acted upon.
The longest subheadline among the three broadsheets belongs to the Manila Bulletin. Unlike
the two other subheads, this headline is void of suggestions because it tells all information. Its
lexical choices, though, still have strong suggestions. The use of DOJ (Department of Justice) in
this subhead indicates the use of the acronym, a genre lingo. File literally means the submission
of a charge against someone which connotes an event involving legality. Serious describes the
weight of the offense and gives modification to illegal detention. Illegal is a negated word
meaning against the law and further modify detention (meaning same as PhilStar’s). The phrase
illegal detention implies that one has taken the law in her or his hands—as detention is only
served by the proper authority after following a protocol of sorts—and is therefore guilty. Rap
is a multi-meaning word, but in the context of the law, it is the slang term for a legal charge. Its
being slang gives rap a rowdy feel suggesting physical motion. The next clause is a shift of focus
which suggests another development in the series of event actions connected to the 10B scam.
This time, though, the immediate alleged actors are the solons or statesmen who will face tax
probe suggesting their being implication in the case. Probe is synonymous to examination but
also connotes thoroughness. This indicates that even if the people in question are officers of
the state, they will still be subjected into the same process of scrutiny.
Both headline and subhead aimed at objective reporting—all information that the reader needs
to understand one the issue are bannered in the headline and crammed in the subheadline.
Since no information is withheld, no suggestions are implied. Unlike the other two broadsheets,
the function of this broadsheet’s specific headline and subhead primarily seem to only give
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 18
information. However, how the banner is physically positioned in the front page may either
confirm or negate this assumption.
Graphologically, the headline is spanned across five columns and given the topmost position
which foregrounds its informational value. Following the conventional principle of eye
movement in reading, the subhead is placed right underneath—and poses no difficulty for the
reader because it is also spread across the page. To contrast with the headline, the subhead is
presented inside a dark blue frame in white letters. An attempt to give it salience is observable
in the large bold typeface which makes it the most prominent of all the other headlines. The
news story related to the court order is placed on the lower right of the subhead. This allocation
of space just confirms value given the news.
Figure 3. Front page of PDI (August 15, 2013)
However, although it is considered the most valuable information given its location, it is not the
most salient feature in the page. Beneath the masthead is a colored picture which
approximately takes a third of the page. In terms of space allotment, focus, and color, the
picture is more salient than the headline. Moreover, the picture has a headline of its own and
therefore is separate news. Interestingly, too, when focusing on the picture, the eye is drawn
into the intersection outlined by the slant of an electric post and the roofs of houses. The visual
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 19
space created by traversing lines was utilized to situate the news story—giving it an identity of
its own.
This seems to suggest that for this front page, two specific stories are emphasized: the first is
underscored through its informational value, and the second is highlighted through salience.
This observation is further affirmed when one folds the newspaper cross-wise as both stories
are found on the upper part of the front page.
Thus, the structure and subhead of the headline shows the neutral stance of the paper on the
issue; this is also confirmed in the graphological devices used to lay the information out on the
front page.
HEADLINE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND CLASSROOM ROOM PRACTICE
The critical discourse analysis framework by Fairclough (1995a) shows that sociological texts do
not just suddenly emerge to function as they are intended. The theory foregrounds that the
text-maker’s choice is anchored on certain ideologies and manifests in her or his language
(lexicon and structure) and creative outputs (design) and which are influenced by specific
context. Texts, then, ‘are’ because of interrelated factors. Understanding this truth is important
because this is a principle that transcends textual analysis; this principle applies to practical life
and shed implications to the development of critical thinking. Thus, the macro and micro skills
that critical discourse analysis demands of the analyst are skills that should also be introduced to
the learner in the classroom. And as headlines are sociological texts, they can be appropriate
avenues for the teaching of these skills.
Guided by my personal experience in doing critical discourse analysis for this class project and
my reflections about previous teaching practices, I attempt to locate a critical discourse
perspective in the teaching of headlines. My imagined learners are junior or senior high school
students who I presume already have developed certain skills for inferencing. Here, I propose
that the teaching of headlines should have two phases: (1) the understanding and appreciation
of headlines and (2) the practical writing part. The focus of these suggestions is only the first
part.
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 20
The four suggestions outlined below are based on the micro skills used the analysis of data.
While learning of these skills are facilitated in the classroom, it is important that the teacher
must constantly remind herself or himself of the main goal which is to tell the ideology of the
text-maker as regards the issue. The teacher must remember that the learner should know…
Point 1. Know where the headline is coming from. The headlines and their functions are best
understood and appreciated within their contexts. Often, students are shown a list of headline
examples and asked to identify them (straight, question, quotation, feature). However,
disregarding contexts will give the students a feel of disjointedness or routine. In real life,
people understand things better when these are situated in a context. The consideration of
contexts is primary in the interpretation and analysis of events, in inference and presuppositions
about issues, and especially in making purposeful judgments. Here, the consideration of the
sociopolitical contexts is important. Thus, the teacher can ask about (a) big event that
contextualizes the particular story (b) the specific event reported (c) other related questions.
Here is a sample of contextualization for a headline:
Basic Information Main Event Specific Event Manila Bulletin
(MB)
Broadsheet: MB PDAF Scam Order to Arrest Napoles Court Orders Napoles Arrest
Date: August 15, DOJ Files Serious Illegal
2013 Detention Raps, Solons Face
Tax Probe Over Pork Scam
Given this template, the learners may be led to see that headlines are parts of a bigger
sociopolitical context. They may also even discover for themselves that one event can be
reported in different ways; thereby giving them an idea of preferences of text-makers make.
Point 2. Know that words have shades of meaning. Denotation and connotation lessons are
plenty in high school textbooks. But this headline lesson will show students how word choice
plays an important role in specifying an event. More importantly, students will see how
language meaning concepts such as denotation and connotation are used in practical ways—for
example, headlines of newspapers. One activity that the teacher can do here is to treat the
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 21
words individually—giving their dictionary and suggestive meanings. Here is a sample
template:
Term Dictionary Meaning Suggestive Meaning Synonym/s
Detention act of isolating someone seriousness of offense imprisonment, confinement,
from the public and incarceration
This template will help the learner see how words have nuances. More importantly, in a
practical setting, the learner will understand that the choice of a word is deliberate in that each
word is suggesting a different shade of meaning (synonym column). More importantly, this will
introduce the student to the preference of specific words within a genre.
Point 3. Know that the arrangement of words and the graphological features used reflect a
position. In headline writing the foregrounding of one element over another tell of the text-
maker’s preference. Referring to text-making as involving many choices, the learner is made
aware that in headline writing, highlighting a feature actually means suggesting one’s bias—or
putting forward a preconceived notion. This is illustrated by Halliday’s Theme and Rheme:
Broadsheet Theme Rheme
PDI Napoles arrest ordered
PhilStar Napoles ordered arrest
MB Court orders Napoles arrest
As regards graphological features or lay-out, the teacher can ask the students what is the most
emphasized text and/or picture through typefaces, font size, spatial positioning, color in the
front page. This will yield into discovery of the most salient feature. Then the teacher can ask
what captures the eye first when the whole front page is displayed—and this will yield the
element with the most valuable information. A practical way of doing this is to locate the
“center” of the paper by crossing imaginary lines from upper left to lower right and lower left to
upper right in the front page.
Point 4. Know the conventions of the genre. Each written genre is unique in that it has specific
characteristics. These characteristics manifest in style, vocabulary, and even structure. The
characteristics are often constrained by factors directly related to use of the genre. For
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 22
example, headlines are limited by space—thus, they have to be kept short. But headlines also
function to give information—thus, subheads are invented to “pack the intended emphasis” in
smaller fonts which consequently suggests more words. Headlines also function to attract—
thus, they need to be attributed salience.
It is also important to aware the learners that each broadsheet has a distinctive style. For
example, PDI and Philstar’s banner headlines are written in sentence case (with proper nouns
still retaining capitalization of first letter); however, Manila Bulletin capitalizes every starting
letter of the word.
Once all of these elements are considered, the teacher can now direct the learner into
discovering the stance of the newspaper on the issue. The points when undertaken (not
necessarily in order) can now become basis for the decision of the student/teacher.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Examination of the broadsheets’ linguistic choices, structure, and lay-out yielded that among
PDI, The Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin, Manila Bulletin’s stance is the most neutral. This
was shown in the amount and structuring of the information presented by both the headline
and its subhead. The Philippine Star’s stance is biased toward Napoles’ being guilty shown by
the suggestiveness of its subhead and the foregrounding of the accused. However, this bias was
tempered by salience accorded a picture of a town in Aurora ravaged by the tropical storm
Labuyo. The most biased toward Napoles’ guilt is the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This stance is
confirmed by its implication that the Napoles plays a major role in the PDAF scam through the
linguistic features and structuring of the headline text. This ideology is further confirmed by
spatially situating Napoles’ picture at the center of the page, suggesting that she is the most
valuable information and by the salience given to the arrest of Napoles.
Through the critical discourse analysis of this text (newspaper headlines), implications for the
classroom were drawn. CDA’s principles are overarching and general enough to be considered
interdisciplinary. The highlighted principle in this attempt to bring CDA into the classroom is
that language is not a neutral phenomenon—it is concerned with developing consciousness
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 23
about an issue (Fairclough, 1995a). Particularly, the principles utilized in the analysis may be
adapted to the classroom. Specific strategies were drawn to point to the principles and specific
features of the analysis.
The most important realization I had while doing the class project is the necessity that every
language teacher should be equipped with knowledge and skills in discourse analysis.
Knowledge of language and strategies for language teaching are important ingredients for
successful pedagogic practice. But adding to them discourse analysis as a tool in the discovery
and understanding of how language is used in the society may inform decisions about classroom
practices which may benefit the reader even more.
ARREST NAPOLES!: CDA and PEDAGOGY 24
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