Imran Khan Behind Bars: A Comparative Mood Analysis of Objective and Subjective Slang in Al Jazeera, BBC, and New York Times Reports

Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan’s detention in May 2023 has ignited international media’s interests and protests. This research compares how three different newspapers i.e. The New York Times (NYT), Al Jazeera, and BBC have covered the said event using mood analysis based on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). By studying 20 examples from each newspaper, this research has compared the employment of declarative, imperative and interrogative moods with emphasis on Subject + Finite (Mood) and Residue constructions. All three newspapers have used declarative mood mainly but Al Jazeera has exclusively combined it with quoted imperatives to enhance emotional involvement. The NYT has exhibited mild subjectivity with cognitive processes and evaluative words; BBC has demonstrated limited use of subjectivity and shows direct quotes and light metaphors. It shows how mood contributes in highlighting function of linguistic forms in news which can be of great importance for critical media literacy and discourse analysis.