The use of critical discourse analysis has led to the development of a different approach to the understanding of media messages. This study focusses on the deployment of lexical items by the broadcast media to portray the political actors in Osun State, South-western Nigeria. The data for the study centred on politics and are derived from selected radio news of Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, Nigeria. The selection of data was done by purposive sampling and cover the period from 2007 to 2010. This period of time was very significant because of the political activities as a result of the elections in Osun State, Nigeria. A content analysis of the data was carried out at the surface and deep levels using the linguistic approach and critical discourse analysis to bring out the ideologies and the underlying meanings embedded in the texts. The analysis reveals that the news items feature lexical choices projecting positive self-presentation of the ruling political party and negative other-presentation of the opponent.
Keywords: : lexical choices, Ideology, Politics, broadcast media
