A CRITICAL PRAGMATIC REPRESENTATION OF ECONOMY-BASED NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL REPORTS

This study investigates the critical pragmatic representation of economy-based newspaper editorial reports in Nigeria, with emphasis on how linguistic and pragmatic resources construct economic realities and shape public perception. Adopting a qualitative research design, the study analyses selected editorials published between 2024 and 2026 in leading Nigerian newspapers, including The Punch, The Guardian, Daily Trust, Vanguard, The Nation and NewsDay. The analytical framework integrates Critical Discourse Analysis, Pragmatics and Media Framing Theory to examine the interaction of ideology, context and language use. Data were purposively selected based on their relevance to key economic issues such as inflation, fuel subsidy removal, unemployment, currency instability and fiscal policy. The study finds that editorial writers employ assertive, directive and expressive speech acts, alongside presupposition, implicature, evaluative lexis, deictic expressions, modality and politeness strategies, to construct persuasive and ideologically driven interpretations of economic events. These pragmatic devices enable newspapers to criticize government policies, assign responsibility, and influence public opinion while maintaining institutional credibility and journalistic restraint. The study further demonstrates that framing strategies consistently organise economic discourse around narratives of crisis, governance failure, reform and accountability. It concludes that Nigerian economy-based editorials are not merely vehicles for reporting economic developments but powerful discursive instruments that negotiate ideology, shape public understanding and reinforce particular socio-political perspectives on national economic governance. Keywords: Critical Pragmatics, Newspaper Editorials, Economic Discourse, Critical Discourse Analysis, Media Framing, Nigeria.