Power Distance and Collectivism in Political News Discourse: A Qualitative Analysis of Malaysian Newspapers through Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension

Abstract

This study explores how Hofstede’s two cultural dimensions of Power Distance and Collectivism are represented through linguistic features and framing devices used in political news articles in Malaysian English-language newspapers. The study is informed by Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory and Fairclough’s Three-Dimensional Framework for Analysing Discourses. The specific research aims are to examine the linguistic features that represent Power Distance and Collectivism values and to explore how framing devices are used to represent these two cultural dimensions in Malaysian English-language political news articles. A qualitative research design was used to obtain the required data through the process of purposive sampling of five political news articles published in the Malaysian English newspapers between January 2024 and June 2025. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was employed as the method of content analysis. The CDA was based on two theoretical notions: linguistic features and framing practices. Linguistic features include honorifics, modality, pronouns, and the passive voice. While framing practices include headlines, themes, sources, and perspectives. A theoretical coding system was used to organise and analyse the data. The results are expected to contribute to a better understanding of how culture influences media discourse in Malaysia and contribute to a better understanding of cultural linguistics in media communication. This study is important to media studies, sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, and journalists who want to incorporate culture into their work.