3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies – Vol 19(2): 111 – 123 111 Discourse Strategies and Ideology in Selected Radio Lead News of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria MOSES ALO Department of English University of Ibadan Nigeria CHRISTIANA OLUREMI AJEWOLE-ORIMOGUNJE Department of General Studies The Federal Polytechnic Ede Nigeria remaje2005@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This study investigates discourse strategies and ideology employed in selected radio lead news of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC), Osogbo, Nigeria. The analysis is done within the framework of critical discourse analysis which uncovers implicit ideology and exposes ideological bias and the exercise of power in text; and Halliday’s systemic functional grammar which emphasises the form/function relationship of language use in context. The data cover selected radio lead news purposively sampled based on the content from the period of January 2006 to December 2008.The analysis shows that journalists employ a variety of strategies to influence the way people understand issues or situations for the purpose of changing their actions and expectations in ways that are desirable to the political actors. The analysis reveals that media messages contain a lot of discourse strategies such as blame transfer, source avoidance, positive-self presentation and negative- other presentation, authoritarianism as a source of news making, foregrounding and informativeness, use of figures and statistics and metaphorisation. This study reveals that broadcast news contains hidden and subjective meanings displayed by a variety of strategies that highlight pro-government activities. It reveals that critical discourse analysis is relevant in interpreting and analyzing news discourse to discover hidden meanings, elicit meaning from news reports and to uncover ideological assumptions that are embedded in news texts. Keywords: news; politics; discourse strategies; ideology; critical discourse analysis INTRODUCTION The language of news as a particular style of discourse is a complex combination of national, social, economic, religious, cultural and linguistic traditions associated with the expectations of the audience. Language is used in the media to attract attention, express emotion, communicate information and to alter people’s way of thinking. News has become indispensable to human beings as it promotes social cohesion and helps to reinforce good conduct. News has the performative force to persuade or manipulate the public to take a particular line of action. News guides, influences and reinforces the perception of people as regards what is true and untrue, right and wrong; it is an important device for conveying or exchanging information among the people. The attitudes and expectations from the audience who listen to the news may vary and may create a situation in which misinterpretations and misunderstanding may occur depending on the audience’s values, taste, beliefs, religion, culture etc. Therefore, a critical