Critique Discourses and Ideology in Newspaper Reports: A Discourse Analysis of the South African Press Reports on the 1998 SADC's Military Intervention in Lesotho

The present study examines the coverage of the Southern Africa Development Community's (SADC) military intervention in Lesotho by the South African newspapers - how the newspapers articulate conflicting ideological positions in their reportage of the intervention. Working within the ideological framework of news production and reception, the article examines the issue of critique (with emphasis on blame) in these newspapers. Dividing the news texts into supportive and protest categories (the PINA and AINA, respectively), the study investigates different perceptions (opinions, feelings, attitudes, etc.) about South Africa's involvement in the conflict, and how such perceptions were encoded in the ideologically based discursive patterns (lexical, metaphorical and intertextual choices). The differences between the newspaper reports are also seen as establishing two rival social group identities, expressed through the ideological us versus them binary opposition.