A CRITICAL DISCOURSE OF ‘CHESTFEEDING’
LANGUAGE, IDEOLOGY, AND IDENTITY IN NYPOST, DAILYMAIL, AND PIKIRAN RAKYAT
Abstract
This study investigates how the newly coined term ‘chest feeding’ — introduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in its guidance for transgender and non-binary individuals — is linguistically framed across three online news media: NYPost.com (USA), DailyMail.co.uk (UK), and Pikiran-Rakyat.com (Indonesia). Employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as the primary theoretical framework, supplemented by Fairclough’s three-dimensional model and Entman’s concept of framing as a linguistic packaging device, this study examines the lexical choices, metaphorical constructions, semantic prosody, and ideological positioning embedded in the news texts. The analysis reveals that each media outlet constructs the term ‘chest feeding’ differently through deliberate linguistic strategies: NYPost.com employs cautious, institutionally-distanced language that reflects political alignment; DailyMail.co.uk deploys emotive, morally-charged lexis and hyperbole to construct a discourse of danger and institutional betrayal; while Pikiran-Rakyat.com utilizes a politico-religious discourse framework that recontextualizes the term within Indonesian socio-cultural and ideological norms. The study demonstrates that the contested term ‘chest feeding’ functions not merely as a neologism, but as a site of ideological struggle where language actively constructs social identity, moral order, and political power.
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