Language and ideology in newspaper headlines on Iran’s nuclear program

This study is a critical discourse analysis of some western and Iranian newspaper headlines related to Iran’s nuclear program. Newspaper headlines serve as precursors to news reports and reveal the social, cultural, and political representations disseminated in a community at any time. Thus, comparing newspaper headlines in two societies will bring into light interests and ideological intentions of the producers of those headlines. In this study 930 headlines, 460 headlines from two Iranian newspapers (Tehran Times and Iran Daily) and 470 headlines from three western newspapers (Washington Post, Fox News, and Haaretz), were analyzed for their vocabulary, topics, and referential devices. These features clearly indicated the hidden agenda or the ideological dimension underlying the construction of these headlines