Narratives of Covid-19 in Pakistani English Newspapers: An Ecolinguistic Appraisal

This research aims to explore the role of print media in spreading information about pandemics and environmental changes during pandemics of Covid-19. As environmental issues, climate change and such pandemics are common problems of the planet and connected to the health of ecosystem. Therefore, media, especially print media, is central in disseminating information regarding such disasters. Therefore, this research seeks to explore the strategies utilized in the development of four narratives: erasure, salience, conviction, and evaluation, as presented in articles from English newspapers. It emphasizes the role of various linguistic features in rendering the text both natural and persuasive. The researcher has selected thirty articles from three English newspapers, namely Dawn, The Express Tribune, and The News. Authors frequently utilize these techniques to eliminate or highlight significant elements. Stibbe (2015) serves as the theoretical framework for examining the strategies involved in the creation of erasure, salience, evaluation, and conviction in articles related to Covid-19 in newspapers. The findings of the research suggest that a range of strategies is employed in the development of these four narratives within environmental discourses. These strategies encompass appraisal patterns, modality, facticity patterns, euphemism, foregrounding, activation, personification, metaphors, co-hyponymy, passive constructions, nominalization, abstraction, and hyponymy, among others. Additionally, the study concludes that emphasis has been placed on the enhanced environment during the pandemic, yet selfish humans are held responsible for generating the conditions for COVID-19 through environmental destruction. By examining these narratives, the researcher explores the link between the environment and covid-19. The research highlights the need to promote positive narratives and counteract negative ones by raising public awareness about the detrimental effects of harmful stories.