Digital resistance and language ideologies in Pakistani newspapers: A multimodal discourse analysis of “Israeli Products” Boycott

Abstract

This study aims to examine how Pakistani newspapers present the boycott of Israeli products, identify the language ideologies in this coverage, and explore how text and visuals work together to construct meanings of digital resistance. This research uses a qualitative multimodal discourse analysis approach. It combines Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) with the visual analysis framework of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006). A selection of English-language Pakistani newspaper articles was analyzed. The study focuses on linguistic features such as transitivity, lexicalization, modality, and nominalization, along with visual elements like images, layout, and design. The findings show that newspapers present boycott through different perspectives, including economic, moral, religion and political viewpoints. Language is used to assign responsibility, express opinions, and influence readers understanding. At the same time, images support and strengthen these meanings by showing protests, products, and everyday consumer practices. The study also finds that different ideas such as moral responsibility, religion obligations and economic concerns exist together in the same discourse. The study concludes that Pakistani newspapers play an important role in shaping digital resistance by presenting boycott as a social, moral and political act. It also shows that meaning is created through the combination of language and visuals. This research contributes to the fields of discourse analysis and media studies by explaining how media influences public opinion and turns everyday consumer choices into forms of resistance.