This study investigated the use of discursive devices in political news leads from three major Philippine broadsheets and determined how it shaped the meaning of news situations as purposive linguistic choices. Employing Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the research examined the nature, patterns, and variations of devices such as evaluative language, intensification, references to emotion, elite individuals, role labels, agency, nominalization, orthographic techniques, type of verb, and voice of verb. The research involved 93 political news leads, with 31 news leads from each major broadsheet to form the corpus. Analysis revealed that news discourse strategically utilizes discursive devices to shape narratives, with frequent references to elite individuals, role labels, and agency, alongside a preference for active voice and transitive verbs, suggesting an action-oriented approach. Evaluative language and references to emotion were less common, potentially reflecting a deliberate effort to maintain objectivity, while intensification and quantification, nominalization, and orthographic techniques played a moderate role in shaping the news leads. Together with the workbook as the study’s output, these results serve as inputs for innovations in journalism education, particularly in fostering critical news literacy among younger audiences. These offers perspectives on the use of discursive devices in political news reporting, where careful and appropriate use of language is key to shaping narratives and engaging readers in an ever-evolving media landscape.