<![CDATA[This study aims to analyze critical discourse in mass media news texts using Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis model. The study focuses on three dimensions of analysis, namely text, discursive practice, and sociocultural practice. This research employed a qualitative approach with a descriptive method. The data source consisted of five news articles published by SerambiNews.com between May and June 2026, covering topics related to weather, crime, humanitarian issues, and workplace accidents. Data were collected through documentation, observation, and note-taking techniques. Data analysis was conducted by examining linguistic features, text production and consumption processes, as well as the sociocultural context underlying the news reports based on Fairclough’s framework.The findings reveal that, at the textual level, the media employs diction, sentence structures, and actor representations to construct particular images of individuals and institutions. Crime-related news tends to portray the police as authoritative and effective actors in maintaining public security, while offenders are represented negatively through criminally connotative vocabulary. In humanitarian news, the media constructs a positive image of individuals who demonstrate empathy and social solidarity. At the level of discursive practice, the production of news is dominated by official sources such as law enforcement agencies and government institutions, thereby providing legitimacy to the information presented. At the sociocultural level, the news texts reflect the social realities of Acehnese society, including issues of security, occupational safety, social concern, and the relationship between citizens and state institutions. The study concludes that news texts are not neutral representations of reality but rather social constructions shaped by language use, source selection, and the sociocultural contexts surrounding the reported events.]]>
