A Critical Discourse Analysis of Malaysian News Headlines on Social Media Licensing

Abstract

News headlines are powerful discursive sites where ideologies and power relations are constructed. As Malaysia became one of the first countries to implement a social media licensing policy in 2025, it is crucial to understand how the media frames the policy and represents the power relations it entails. While CDA studies have examined headlines in various domains in relation to politics, ethnicity, and conflict, little attention has been given to how headlines represent government regulations, particularly in the context of digital governance. This study investigates how Malaysian news headlines represent social media licensing policy and the power dynamics embedded in these representations. 27 news headlines published between July 2024 and March 2025 were selected from a diverse range of Government-linked and Independent Malaysian media outlets, namely The Star Online, New Straits Times, Malay Mail, Free Malaysia Today, Malaysiakini, and The Business Times. The headlines were analysed using a combination of Fairclough’s (1992) Three-Dimensional Framework and van Dijk’s (1998) Socio-Cognitive Approach. The analysis reveals six systematic linguistic strategies employed in the headlines, including the representation of actors, evaluative language, quantification and immediacy, reference to emotion, metaphor, and predication. These strategies emphasise three main power dynamics: dominant, narrative-based, and time-related, which strengthen government authority and marginalise corporate voices. The findings suggest that news headlines serve not only as discursive means to represent the issue but also as powerful tools that portray government authority and shape the public's perception of social media licensing policy. This research contributes to Critical Discourse Analysis by illustrating how headlines function as sites where language, power, and ideology intersect, shaping public perceptions of digital governance.