Abstract
This study mainly focused on the use of language and pictures
in website homepages and strategies employed by the
universities to manipulate and influence their visitors. Three
private universities were selected for the study by using simple
random sampling technique. From the website homepages of
each of these universities 20 screenshots were taken by using
snipping tool. From these 20 screenshots, 3 screenshots per
university were selected by using simple random sampling
technique. Fairclough’s three-dimensional model was used for
the analysis of these screenshots. The study showed that the
private universities use different discursive techniques and
strategies to manipulate and impress students and thereby
influence them to give preference to these universities over
other universities for taking admission. The analysis revealed
that these universities rely on pictures of young beautiful
females, majestic buildings, and ideologically loaded language
for attracting students to take admission in them. The websites
of private universities make a calculated choice of pictures,
vocabulary and grammar for loading them with their implicit
ideologies, which are taken for granted by prospective students
as common sense assumptions. In this way, they or their
parents, unaware of the power exercised over them, are
influenced and deceived by the persuasive language, without
taking notice of the hidden ideologies of these universities
Dr. Syed Shujaat Ali, Muhammad Shahid, Tariq Amin . (2020) Website Homepages of Private Universities of Pakistan Serving as Bait for Prospective Students: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Pakistan Social Sciences Review, Volume 4, Issue 3.
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