Sarcouncil Journal of Arts and Literature Aims & Scope

Abstract: Ecological disasters are frequent occurrences that attract newsworthiness in many parts of the world. The way disasters affect communal life is at the centre of news framing, which serves as a call for intervention. This study examined the discourse strategies of the sociological effects of disasters in Four news reports purposively selected from four news reports from Cable News Network (CNN), Columbia Broadcasting system (CBS), Channels’ Television (TVC) and Television Continental (TVC) because of the status and significant presence of these media outlets on YouTube where the news reports were downloaded. The news reports were transcribed to texts, and qualitatively analysed, using Lesley Jeffries’ Critical Stylistics (CS) and Michael Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Media strategies for importuning government’s response to disasters include communal plighting, using intensifiers and exaggerations; representing sociological setbacks and devastations; and signifying disaster contiguity or concomitance, showing the connection between disasters and other forms of consequences. Media blends the conceptual functions of naming, describing, enumerating, exemplifying, prioritising and representing action, with transitivity and mood to mediate the need to response to disasters in communal spaces to enable sustainable development.