Abstract
The study investigates the phenomenon of stance-taking and the language of evaluation in the feminist media discourse of a famous Arab writer, Lamya Swaylam. This research is situated within the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) introduced by Halliday (1978). The study adopts Martin & White’s (2005) model of evaluation analysis.
Data consists of three articles written by Swaylam in a famous electronic newspaper (Al Majalla).
The study reveals that media discourse is more subjective than objective. Media language is attitudinal, ideologically over-loaded, stance-saturated, and over-charged. Negativity is a significant feature in heated media discourse. Media language is a language of inciting, contraction, imposition, and up-grading. Language is used strategically in order to achieve ideological aims and targets in media discourse.