Critical discourse analysis (CDA) has analyzed journalistic discourse in terms of power and ideology, and it has shown how dominance relations are maintained in society. This research investigates power and ideology expressed in the use of cwuntong(hata) ‘stirring, commotion in secret’ from the perspective of CDA. It first presents a brief overview of CDA to explore the possibility of applying CDA to text analysis. This study investigates cwuntong(hata) in media discourse, showing the contexts where the word is used. Examination shows that there is always a distinction between the self and the other (party) when cwuntong(hata) is used. Based on such an ideological dichotomy, writers evaluate the other party's actions/events in terms of their own value systems. Such a distinction is shown in the following categories: (i) leftist and rightest powers in Korean society, (ii) South and North Korean politics and policies toward each other, (iii) Islam rebels and international terrorism, (iv) speculation powers in economy and stock markets, (v) Paduk games, among others. Finally, this research suggests that investigation of ideologically oriented words or phrases is useful in characterizing the nature of a given text, and that CDA is a useful tool for analyzing media discourse texts.