02 A Genre Based Study of Women Related Crime Reports in Pakistani English Newspapers

Abstract

The present study intended to explore the genre of crime reporting by situating it in the local Pakistani context with special reference to women related crimes. Genre studies have been popular in ESP and Applied Linguistics; hence this research contributes to genre studies by correlating genre of crime reports and sociolinguistics. This study used random sampling for data collection out of three most popular English newspapers in Pakistan i.e. Dawn, The News and Daily Times. The data was collected over a period of one month. Analysis of the data is carried out by using the techniques of critical discourse analysis as well as systemic functional linguistics. The major findings show that women related crime news reports are carefully crafted representation of typical patriarchal culture where they are embedded. The research contributes to Gender Studies as it highlights the marginalized representations of women in Pakistani English newspaper