36 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 ABSTRACT Tone, a divergent feature of the text, sets the readers’ mood in which writers confide their writing styles and convey copious of the cultural background of the community to which they belong. Even in the world’s preceding advancement, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, empirical analysis of tone in written texts has limited literature in the field; hence the motivation of the researcher to look at the tone of the press release as it is the new face of public relations. The nature of the study is Intercultural Rhetoric (IR)/Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), the study of written discourse between and among individuals with different cultural backgrounds. The study used quantitative and qualitative approaches as they complement the richness of the study. The gathered press release headlines of UNICEF written by authors from varied discourse communities, namely the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America, had gone through content analysis and discovered the ingenuity and inspiration in their word selection in writing headlines, hence the tone. The headlines of the Philippines Vol. 50 · October 2022 DOI: https://doi.org/10.7719/jpair.v50i1.429 Print ISSN 2012-3981 Online ISSN 2244-0445 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Tone in UNICEF Press Releases in the Global Settings: A Contrastive Analysis NIKKO J. DOMINGO https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5640-0159 domingonikko985@gmail.com Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology Cabanatuan City Nueva Ecija, Philippines Originality: 100% • Grammarly: 100% • Plagiarism: 0% http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ mailto:domingonikko985@gmail.com 37 International Peer Reviewed Journal were analyzed for having a committed tone and logical and analytical attitude. Interestingly, the headlines of Thailand have a committed tone as well. On the other hand, headlines in the USA have a neutral tone. Keywords — Intercultural Rhetoric, Tone, Content Analysis, World Englishes, Press release, Philippines INTRODUCTION Intercultural Rhetoric studies play an important role in helping students, teachers, and scholars understand and navigate the complexities of writing in different languages and cultures, which provides an opportunity to provide frameworks for written text assessments, especially in the emergence of modern language tools such as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) through its subfield, Natural Language Processing (NLP). The field examines the differences in rhetorical conventions, cultural values, and writing processes across languages and cultures. By comparing and contrasting writing practices in different contexts, IR studies help writers understand how to communicate effectively with audiences from different cultures. Coined after Robert Kaplan, he argued that writing in a second language involves more than just mastering grammar and vocabulary; it also requires understanding cultural differences in rhetorical conventions and discourse patterns. As an evolving field that continues to grow and develop in response to changing social, political, and technological contexts, some of the recent developments in the field focus on digital communication. As more communication takes place online and through digital media, it is a generous avenue of text resources for the exploration of variation and similarities. According to Scolloon (2000), a recurrent problem in contrastive studies of texts is determining how much variation between one text and another is sufficient to determine that the two are different texts. This paper is the analysis of the tone in press release headlines; tone can be subjective and influenced by the cultural context in which the language is used. The tone is an important aspect of the communication process, as it can influence how readers perceive and interpret the information presented. Tone refers to the emotional or attitudinal aspect of language use (Patterson, 2014) and can be conveyed through word choice, sentence structure, and other linguistic features. Determining the tone of written text from different cultures can be challenging, as the cultural context and linguistic nuances may be distinct. It includes the genre and context of the writing, the uniqueness of linguistic features, and the cultural context. 38 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 Online press release, like traditional ones, is the new face of public relations. In any institution, press releases are very essential as they continuously boost the reputation and digital assets, big and small, private or government, and even non-profit organizations. They remain visible permanently on search engines and websites. It also affects brand value by reaching out to consumers and target groups across all search engines. Having its importance in the business industries worldwide, the Reuters Journalism Research Institute of Oxford University found out that online publications rank first with 87% among the most preferred media as a news source by the internet user in Turkey. The online press release is a site with vast and varied scopes of social, institutional, and cultural discourse communities whose writing panaches can be experienced and utilized for contrastive studies. The online press release has emerged as part of the rise of new news stories on the World Wide Web in the rise of the new industrial revolution. A press release published online helps institutions and organizations reach their target audiences at the right time and place and offer themselves among researchers for possible opulent constructive rhetoric studies. A limited number of research uses online press releases as corpus. The American Sociological Association (ASA) defines a Press release as a short article written in style similar to a news story. News stories have been used in contrastive discourse studies like the study of Scollon (2000), who conducted a contrastive discourse study of five days’ newspapers and Genre(less) and purpose(less) and the online news galleries by Caple. In addition, news stories also bring about compelling academic articles and reports in different fields, such as the business industries. UNICEF, also known as the United Nations Children’s Fund, was established on December 11, 1946, and it is tasked with assisting children all over the world with humanitarian and developmental needs. With a presence in 192 nations and territories, the organization is one of the world’s most well-known and well- recognized social welfare organizations, but the U.N. The main Press Center is located in New York City, where the headquarters are. The activities of UNICEF include administering immunizations and disease prevention, treating mothers and children who have HIV, enhancing maternal and childhood nutrition, enhancing sanitation, promoting education, and offering emergency relief in disasters. UNICEF is a non-profit organization that has subsidiaries in each country. The UNICEF Press Centre in each subsidiary has the latest press releases, official statements, expert sources, and the like. These press releases are written by local authors whose target readers are natives from the same country. Using online corpora such as the UNICEF online press release in contrastive rhetoric 39 International Peer Reviewed Journal studies allows researchers to examine language use in a more authentic and relevant context and can provide important insights into how culture, language, and communication practices intersect the digital age. FRAMEWORK Scollon (2000) strongly emphasized on the use of professional communication between members of various groups, particularly but not limited to face-to-face during speech events like meetings, conversations, or interviews, or in other words, when people are interacting socially with one another. Their main objective is to build the vocabulary and concepts required for an easy- to-understand analysis of intercultural communication. Tone is paramount in the oral discourse, as many researches posit that the meaning of a message is perceived by tone. In the foregoing advancement of the world, the tone in a text has limited literature in the field. Tone sets the readers› mood in which the writers confide their styles in writing and tell much of their cultural background where they belong. Scollon (2000) describes the tone, as in the headlines, ranging from neutral to committed, from condemnatory to very upbeat. In some cases, it might be called “human interest’’ because the story seeks to convey the emotional impact of events upon the newsmakers or the readers. Moreover, the tone is one of the significant variations Scollon (2000) analyzed in his study. Analyzing the tone of the text can cause some gradation among these categories. For example, the matter of tone is most often conveyed through the choice of words, but it is quite likely that using different textual frames would produce a rather different tone in a news story. Scollon’s (2000) study aimed to analyze these variables, which aimed to isolate the features that might be useful in making generic categorizations of news stories. Press releases differ in a number of ways that almost certainly reflect the writers’, sub-editors, or editors’ intention to say something different to their presumed target audiences. The tone is one of them. The contrastive analysis concentrated on the written texts’ tones, such as those in the headlines, which could range from neutral to committed, from condemnatory to extremely upbeat Scollon (2007). The story attempts to convey the emotional impact of events upon the newsmakers or the readers, which is why it may be referred to as “human interest” in some cases. 40 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The empirical systematic inquiry of Intercultural Rhetoric through the lenses of discourse analysis is concerned primarily with interpretations based on both the details of the message itself and contextual knowledge. Specifically, the study sought to the following objectives (1) determine the tone of the press release headlines from different linguistic communities, namely (a) the Philippines, (b) Thailand, and c) the United States of America, (2) determine how the tone analyzed from this press release headlines serves as variation among these press release headlines, and (3) determine how does the cultural context of the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America influence the tone and language used in press release headlines. METHODOLOGY Research Design The nature of the study is on Intercultural Rhetoric (IR) or Contrastive Rhetoric (CR), the study of written discourse between and among individuals with different cultural backgrounds. It used both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Conrad (2002) further elaborates on the combination of both techniques as they complement the richness of the study. A quantitative study allows the researcher to recognize patterns of language use, whether a phenomenon is common or unusual, and qualitative techniques as tied to functional interpretations of language patterns to have deepened understanding of the language phenomena. The paper used content analysis as a method that focuses on the systematic analysis of the content of the communication. It involves identifying and categorizing specific elements of communication, such as words, phrases, or themes, to draw inferences about the meaning or significance of the communication but not deviant from the theoretical theme utilized. Content analysis is often used to analyze large amounts of text, such as newspaper articles or social media posts. The researcher used Research and Method Triangulation techniques to verify and cross-check the findings and enhance the validity and reliability of the analysis of the study. A colleague was asked to verify the findings of the analysis and an Artificial Intelligence tool that detects tone in the text. 41 International Peer Reviewed Journal Corpus of the Study A total 60 latest press releases were sourced from the Press center of UNICEF from November 2019 to October 2020. Twenty press releases were taken from each country, Philippines, Thailand, and USA: English written text written by three different linguistic profiles writing for specific audiences. It is believed that stories such as these appear to provide an ideal site in which to study audience design (Bell, 1984) or what Duranti and Goodwin (1992) have called recipient design. That is to say since the stories derive from the same news organization and may be presumed to have clear and unified informational goals (Wang, 1993). It might be presumed that the differences in these stories will reflect the news organization’s intentions. For this study, the tone of the written text is assumed to reach significantly different audiences, UNICEF Filipino readers, UNICEF Thai readers, and UNICEF American readers.  The sources of corpora belonged to different linguistic environments. The spread of the English language, whether that was caused by the promotional efforts of the United States and Britain or bottom-up factors, in particular, the demand for English arising from individual perceptions that its acquisition would be economically and educationally advantageous, had caused different impacts to certain countries. The English language has a long and complex history in the Philippines. It was first spoken in the country in 1901. Since then, it has been adopted as a language of instruction in schools. It ingrained itself firmly into Philippine culture. Language proficiency is another of the nation’s assets that has boosted economic growth and made the Philippines the world’s top location for voice outsourcing, surpassing India in 2012 (Cabigon, 2015). Over the years, despite the numerous shifts in the educational policies of the government, the role of English within the local educational system has remained largely constant. Since the 1935 constitution, English has been designated the official language of the islands and has been used as a medium of instruction across all levels. Such a divide in the allocation of subject areas for both English and Filipino effectively splits the functions of the two languages into two – the former for more global purposes and the latter for more local ones (Mahboob & Cruz, 2013). To this day, English is the language used in boardrooms and courthouses, in mass media, and institutions of higher learning. Despite being a former colony of the United States, the Philippines has retained a unique version of English that is heavily influenced by local languages, such as Tagalog, and the country’s culture and customs. This has led to the development of a distinct variety of English, known as Philippine English, which has its grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. 42 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 On one hand, the English language has become increasingly important in Thailand in recent years as the country seeks to modernize its economy and increase its competitiveness in the global marketplace. English is now taught in schools across the country, and there is a growing demand for English language instruction in both the private and public sectors. However, Thailand’s history with the English language has been somewhat complicated. The country was never colonized by a Western power, and so the adoption of English was largely voluntary. The first English language schools were established in the late 19th century, but it wasn’t until the 1980s that English became a required subject in schools. Finally, English is the official language of the United States and the country’s most widely spoken language. Since its founding, it has been the dominant language in the US and is the primary language of government, business, and education. With the strong status of the language in the country, it has evolved, influenced by the many different cultures and languages that have shaped the country’s history. American English has its unique vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, distinct from other varieties of English spoken around the world. The USA is the third nation from which the corpus was taken. It is a part of the Inner Circle where English is used as a first language (also known as L1 or “mother tongue”). Australia and the United States are two examples of inner-circle nations. These countries are also “norm” providers in speaking the English language; however, varieties of English are also observed from one state to another. These corpora, which came from three different discourse communities, are presupposed to qualify the contrastive study criteria. Intercultural communication and contrastive discourse studies are based on finding and analyzing cases of the same textual genre that differ only in certain features (Scollon, 1997). The study will analyze English written texts that came from three different linguistic communities, and the point of categorization was based on the model of Kachru in 1988. Data Analysis To determine the tone in a written text is to analyze the authors’ words and language. This language style reflects the culture governing the writers and their orientation. 43 International Peer Reviewed Journal Table 1. Tone as presented by Scollon (2000) Tone Description Committed A writer’s reasoning and analytical attitude about things. More likely to be perceived as intellectual, rational, systematic, emotionless, or impersonal. Condemnatory Expressing strong disapproval Neutral A neutral tone might refer to something unbiased and without a particular point of view (this, at least, is the writer’s claim). Very Upbeat Passive, Exhilarated, Exuberant, Conciliatory The sixty (60) press releases from three distinct communities were analyzed based on the framework of Scollon, where he investigated the tone of the English and Chinese news headlines using the following categorizations: committed, condemnatory, neutral, and very upbeat. A limited amount of literature determines the tone of written texts. Hence the tone categories are defined as (a) committed tone shows writers’ reasoning and analytical attitude about things and is more likely to be perceived as intellectual, rational, systematic, emotionless, or impersonal; (b) condemnatory tone shows the expression of strong disapproval; (c) neutral tone shows unbiased without a particular point of view; and (d) very upbeat shows passiveness, exhilaration, exuberant, and conciliatory. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The analysis of the data yielded several key findings, which are presented and discussed in this section. Table 2. Press releases coming from the Press Centre of the Philippines, Thailand, and the USA Philippine Headlines Tone Thailand Headlines Tone USA Headlines Tone 1. Press release UNICEF Needs Your Help for Every Filipino Child’s Future Gary V and Ryan Cayabyab Col- laborate for Basket of Hope 11 December 2020 Neutral 1. Thailand’s national survey shows drop in adolescent birth rate, but worrying trend in child nutrition and secondary school drop-out 20 October 2020 Neutral 1. Almost 2 billion people depend on health care facilities without basic water services – WHO, UNICEF 14 December 2020 Very Upbeat https://www.yourdictionary.com/exhilarated https://www.yourdictionary.com/exuberant https://www.yourdictionary.com/conciliatory 44 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 Philippine Headlines Tone Thailand Headlines Tone USA Headlines Tone 2. UNICEF supplies reach typhoon- affected children; PHP135m still needed to cover chil- dren’s needs 27 November 2020 Com- mitted 2. UNICEF calls for the protection of children and young people amid protests in Thailand 18 August 2020 Com- mitted 2. Statement by UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Marie-Pierre Poirier on school attack in north-western Ni- geria 13 December 2020 Neutral 3. Listen to children’s experiences of CO- VID-19 - UNICEF World Children’s Day on November 20 19 November 2020 Very Upbeat 3. UNICEF, Depart- ment of Mental Health, JOOX launch ‘The Sound of Hap- piness’ to promote mental health among adoles- cents in Thailand 16 July 2020 Very Upbeat 3. Update on UNI- CEF’s response for Ethiopian refugees in Sudan and host communities 11 December 2020 Com- mitted 4. Sanitation targets are off-track: DOH, WHO and UNICEF ask local govern- ments to invest in sanitation 19 November 2020 Com- mitted 4. Thailand takes another leap towards a universal Child Sup- port Grant Statement attributable to Thomas Davin, UNICEF Representa- tive for Thailand 07 July 2020 Com- mitted 4. Child poverty will remain above pre- COVID levels for at least five years in high-income coun- tries – UNICEF 11 December 2020 Neutral 5. UNICEF concerned about situation of children affected by typhoons in the Philippines 12 November 2020 Very Upbeat: Nega- tive 5. With a school-year like no other set to start, UNICEF ramps up support to keep children safe during school reopening 30 June 2020 Com- mitted 5. Life a ‘waking nightmare’ for 12 million children in Yemen 10 December 2020 Neutral 6. Resuming vac- cination campaigns a win for children -UNICEF On the occasion of World Polio Day 24 October 2020 Very Upbeat: Positive 6. A UN report high- lights the disruption from the pandemic on Thailand’s progress in reaching the Sus- tainable Development Goals Success will depend on the policies imple- mented now - during the crisis 26 June 2020 Neutral 6. COVID-19: UNICEF warns of continued damage to learning and well- being as number of children affected by school closures soars again 07 December 2020 Neutral 45 International Peer Reviewed Journal Philippine Headlines Tone Thailand Headlines Tone USA Headlines Tone 7.. DepEd, DOH and UNICEF unite to bring Clean Hands for All this October 15 15 October 2020 Very Upbeat 7. COVID-19: United States and UNICEF Join Forces to Protect the Most Vulnerable including Migrants in Thailand 05 June 2020 Com- mitted 7. Norway com- mits more than $163 million to UNICEF education, health and inclusiv- ity programmes for children Neutral 8. ING and UNI- CEF launch ‘Fintech for Impact’ initiative to support fintech start-ups in Philip- pines 14 October 2020 Com- mitted 8. UNICEF Thailand to launch its first virtual concert #Love- DeliveryFest to mobilize support for children and families affected by COVID-19 20 May 2020 Com- mitted 8. Norway com- mits more than $163 million to UNICEF education, health and inclusiv- ity programmes for children Neutral 9. UK Government grant to benefit 3M Bangsamoros The Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mind- anao (BARMM) Government, the UK Government and UNICEF partner to respond to immedi- ate needs in CO- VID-19 response 14 October 2020 Com- mitted 9. Mukdahan case – a painful reminder It is time to strength- en child protection in schools 13 May 2020 Com- mitted 9. Two thirds of the world’s school-age children have no internet access at home, new UNI- CEF-ITU report says 30 November 2020 Neutral 10. Learning should reach the most vul- nerable, UNICEF says As classes resume on 5 October, UNI- CEF emphasizes the important role that education plays in shaping children’s futures, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 30 September 2020 Com- mitted 10. COVID-19: UNICEF Thailand launches urgent ap- peal to the public to help millions of children in need of critical hygiene and other supplies 12 May 2020 Neutral 10. Threat of further escalation in Me- kelle, Ethiopia, puts children’s lives at risk 25 November 2020 Very Upbeat 46 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 Philippine Headlines Tone Thailand Headlines Tone USA Headlines Tone 11. For the Future of Every Filipino Child UNICEF Launches Basket of Hope 2020 Fundraising Cam- paign 30 September 2020 Com- mitted 11. Greta Thunberg and NGO Human Act launch a child rights driven coronavirus campaign for UNICEF Climate activist calls on young people, other supporters, to encour- age everyone to support UNICEF’s vital work to save children’s lives 01 May 2020 Com- mitted 11. 320,000 children and adolescents newly infected with HIV in 2019, 1 every 100 seconds – UNICEF 25 No- vember 2020 Neutral 12. 150 million ad- ditional children plunged into poverty due to COVID-19, UNICEF, Save the Children say 18 September 2020 Com- mitted 12. COVID-19: We must do more and act faster to reach all children and families in need Statement attributable to Thomas Davin, UNICEF Representa- tive for Thailand Neutral 12. UNICEF Execu- tive Director Hen- rietta Fore’s remarks at the 2020 Afghani- stan Conference 24 November 2020 Neutral 13. DOH, WHO, UNICEF to conduct nationwide measles campaign starting October 26 17 September 2020 Com- mitted 13. COVID-19: UNICEF and part- ners distribute critical supplies to children and families in need in Thailand 28 April 2020 Neutral 13. COVAX Update: UNICEF working with global airlines and freight providers to plan delivery of COVID-19 vaccines 23 November 2020 Neutral 14. UNICEF state- ment on the approval of bill increasing the age for statutory rape 11 September 2020 Com- mitted 14. UNICEF provides COVID-19 testing reagents to support national pandemic response in Thailand 23 April 2020 Com- mitted 14. UNICEF ap- peals for US$42.6 million to deliver humanitarian assis- tance in hurricane- struck Central America 19 November 2020 Neutral 15. ANZCHAM and SaferKidsPH join forces against Online Sexual Abuse and Ex- ploitation of Filipino Children 10 September 2020 Com- mitted 15. 8 in 10 youth worried about their family income due to COVID-19 First survey of its kind in Thailand finds 14 April 2020 Com- mitted 15. UNICEF calls for averting a lost generation as CO- VID-19 threatens to cause irreversible harm to children’s education, nutrition and well-being 18 November 2020 Very Upbeat 47 International Peer Reviewed Journal Philippine Headlines Tone Thailand Headlines Tone USA Headlines Tone 16. UNICEF to lead procurement and supply of CO- VID-19 vaccines in world’s largest and fastest ever operation of its kind 04 September 2020 Com- mitted 16. 6 ways parents can support their kids through the corona- virus disease (CO- VID-19) outbreak 09 April 2020 Neutral 16. UNICEF wel- comes end of Ebola outbreak in the Equateur Province of the DRC Very Upbeat 17. Leave no one be- hind: UN-BARMM program launched to help build resilience of the Bangsamoro people 16 August 2020 Com- mitted 17. Despite chal- lenges, UNICEF continues to ship vital supplies to affected countries amid soar- ing number of CO- VID-19 cases 03 April 2020 Very Upbeat 17. Children and young people join UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Ish- mael Beah, David Beckham, Orlando Bloom, Millie Bobby Brown and Priyanka Chopra Jonas in conversations for World Children’s Day 13 November 2020 Very Upbeat 18. Breastfeed- ing must continue amidst COVID-19 06 August 2020 Neutral 18. Unilever Thailand and UNICEF join hands to fight CO- VID-19 30 March 2020 Neutral 18. Worldwide measles deaths climb 50% from 2016 to 2019 claiming over 207,500 lives in 2019 12 November 2020 Very Upbeat 19. Addressing stunt- ing and malnutrition should go beyond Nutrition Month celebration 03 August 2020 Neutral 19. UNICEF scales up support in 145 countries to keep children learning, as COVID-19 forces majority of schools worldwide to close 27 March 2020 Com- mitted 19. UNICEF expresses concern about situation of children affected by typhoons in the Philippines 12 November 2020 Com- mitted 20. DOH, WHO, and UNICEF re- sume polio campaign 20 July 2020 Neutral 20. Globally, UNI- CEF is appealing for $651.6 million to fight COVID-19 26 March 2020 Neutral 20. Severe pneumo- nia leaves 4.2 million children desperate for oxygen each year 12 November 2020 Very Upbeat 48 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 Table 2 shows the twenty 60 Press Release headlines with their analyzed tones from three different countries: the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America. The gathered headlines were from March 26, 2020, until the most recent, December 14, 2020. Figure 1. Presentation of the Tone Figure 1 presents the tone of the headlines of the press release from three different countries: the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America. Tone in Philippine Headlines Out of the 20 press releases coming from UNICEF Philippines, twelve (12) headlines are presented with a Committed tone, four (4) Neutral, four (4) Very upbeat, and zero (0) Condemnatory. A committed tone is very evident in the headlines of the Philippine Press release. Writers from the Philippines have a reasonable and analytical attitude in presenting their headlines. It can be analyzed in the presentation of the headlines that the writers are steadfast with the “standards” based on the news writing and what the organization aims to convey, which is likely to be perceived as intellectual, rational, systematic, emotionless, or impersonal. Philippine writings often emphasize community and interpersonal relationships, which can be reflected in the tone of the writing. According to Scroope (2017), Filipinos will try to express their opinions and ideas diplomatically and with humility to avoid appearing arrogant, and the tone varies widely by language, dialect, and region. Despite being a former colony of the United States, the Philippines has retained a unique version of English, hence the Philippine English (PE), which is heavily influenced by local languages, such as Tagalog, and the country’s culture and customs. 49 International Peer Reviewed Journal Tone in Thai Headlines Thailand press release headlines, like the headlines from the Philippines, have Committed as the majority tone with ten (10) counts, followed by eight (8) for both neutral, two (2) very upbeat, and zero (0) condemnatory tones. Like the Philippines, headlines from Thailand are steadfast with the “standards” based on the news writing and what the organization aims to convey, which is likely to be perceived as intellectual, rational, systematic, emotionless, or impersonal. In journalistic writing, the tone can be more straightforward, but there is still an emphasis on politeness and respect. Writers often use language accessible to a broad audience, and there is a focus on presenting information in a balanced and unbiased way. English in Thailand and the Philippines has a different history despite sharing the same region, South East Asia. English in Thailand has developed more slowly than varieties of English in post-British colonial countries, sometimes referred to as non-native varieties of English, according to Bennui and Hashim (2014). Thailand lacks colonial and postcolonial English history to compare to the Philippines. Nevertheless, due to globalization, the country’s educational system is improving its learners in the English language by hiring English teachers abroad. Tone in American Headlines The headlines of the press release from the United States of America were found to have eleven (11) neutral tones, followed by very upbeat (7), two (2) committed tones, and zero (0) condemnatory tones. In these headlines, the tone is often more informal and engaging, emphasizing storytelling and capturing the reader’s attention. Writers of the headlines from the USA use language accessible to a broad audience and strive to present information in a balanced and unbiased way. Hence, the writers aim to present their headlines with a neutral tone (11), using a voice or voices to present these in unbiased ways and writing without a particular point of view. Followed by seven (7) very upbeat, these headlines suggest passive, exhilarated, and exuberant attitudes. Unlike the first two countries, headlines from the USA have only two (2) committed tones and condemnatory has a zero count. It can be analyzed that among the three countries, the condemnatory tone has zero counts. None of these varied writers aims at presenting their headlines with an expression of strong disapproval. 50 JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research Volume 48 • March 2022 CONCLUSION   For contrastive analysis, online press centers like UNICEF, which have affiliates in every nation, are a good source of corpora. With 60 online press release headlines, twenty (20) press release headlines with their tones analyzed came from three different nations: the Philippines, Thailand, and the United States of America. The most recent headlines, from December 14, 2020, were collected from March 26, 2020. These English-language texts, which take the form of press release headlines, will reveal information about the creativity and motivation of the authors in their choice of words when writing headlines, thereby bringing about a cultural pattern in writing. The authors of these texts come from various discourse communities and write for a specific audience. The headlines from the Philippines are analyzed for having a committed tone. Authors from this country present their headlines to their readers with a reasonable and analytical attitude. It can be concluded in the presentation of the headlines that the writers are steadfast with the “standards” based on the news writing and what the organization aims to convey, which is likely to be perceived as intellectual, rational, systematic, emotionless, or impersonal. Like the headlines from the Philippines, Thailand press release headlines have committed as the majority tone. On the other hand, USA press releases have a neutral tone as the majority tone. The authors of the headlines from this country aim to present their headlines in a neutral tone, that is, to use a voice or voices and present these in unbiased ways and write without a particular point of view. Among the three countries, the  condemnatory  tone has zero counts. Therefore, none of these varied aims to present their headlines with an expression of strong disapproval and further suggests that these press releases express democratically. TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH The findings of this study can help linguists and publishers make more informed and humanized decisions about how to analyze culturally-specific words and expressions, hence the tone, in literary texts to maximize their reception in different target cultures, especially in the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). The study also highlights the need for further research in this area to better understand the impact of contrastive strategies on the reception of literary texts and other genres in different target cultures in identifying the tone of a text. Moreover, the results of this study could provide insights into how cultural context influences language use in 51 International Peer Reviewed Journal press release headlines. These findings could have implications for cross-cultural communication and the development of effective communication strategies in different cultural contexts. LITERATURE CITED Bell, A. (1984). Language style as audience design.  Language in society,  13(2), 145-204. Bennui, P., & Hashim, A. (2014). English in Thailand: Development of English in a non-postcolonial context. Asian Englishes, 16(3), 209-228. Cabigon, M. (2015). State of English in the Philippines: Should We Be Concerned? https://bit.ly/3ZgUdsq Conrad, S. (2002). 4. Corpus linguistic approaches for discourse analysis. Annual review of applied linguistics, 22, 75. Duranti, A., & Goodwin, C. (Eds.). (1992). Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon (No. 11). Cambridge University Press. Kachru, B. B. (1988). 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