Language Under Pressure: Alina Ali Durrani on Discourse, Power, and the Global South

How does political language change when it moves from newspapers to social media? PhD candidate Alina Ali Durrani joins us to trace how meaning, ambiguity, and power shift across media ecosystems in Pakistan. Her dissertation analyzes Urdu-language op-eds and viral Twitter posts, unpacking how discourse travels - and distorts - between platforms. From TikTok virality to the algorithmic amplification of ideology, this episode maps the messy, multilingual terrain of political communication in the Global South.