Preformulating the news [electronic resource] : an analysis of the metapragmatics of press releases / Geert Jacobs.

ISBN:

9789027283870

Title:

Author:

Jacobs, Geert.

Personal Author:

Jacobs, Geert.

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 426 pages).

Series:

Pragmatics & beyond, new ser. 60

Contents:

A Pragmatic Perspective on Press Releases -- Institutional discourse, professional discourse, organizational discourse -- Towards a research method -- The activity of issuing press releases -- The language of press releases -- Newsmaking and news management -- Projected Discourse -- Models of receiver roles -- Functional analysis of receiver roles in press releases -- Projected discourse -- Self-Reference in Press Releases -- The institutional voice -- Data analysis -- Meeting the formal requirements of news reporting (preformulation[subscript i]) -- Content 'in sync' (preformulation[subscript ii]) -- Displaced discourse -- Co-operation and beyond -- Self-Quotation in Press Releases -- Quotations in press releases -- Self-quotation -- Constructed quotations -- (P)reformulation -- The view from Bakhtin -- The Functions of Self-Quotation in Press Releases -- Point of view operation -- The dramatic function -- The distancing function -- The reliability function -- The attitude function -- Explicit Semi-Performatives in Press Releases -- Explicit semi-performatives in press releases -- Preformulation[subscript i] -- Preformulation[subscript ii] -- Self-quotes and performatives -- A Case Study of the Valdez Corpus -- Exxon's Valdez news -- General structure -- Presupposition manipulations -- Self-reference -- Self-quotation -- Explicit semi-performatives -- Perspective: asymmetries in the news -- Interpretation and pre-interpretation.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Press releases.

Metalanguage.

Pragmatics.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

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Publication Date:

1999

Publication Information:

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Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
659.2 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Preformulating the News is a study of press releases and of how they anticipate the requirements of journalistic writing. Drawing from a large corpus (Dutch and English), it is argued that the genre's peculiar audience-directedness can be related to a number of metapragmatic textual features and that this sheds light on the asymmetries of what can be termed the 'newsmaking' and 'news management' processes.

In the first chapter the study of press releases is put in the context of institutional discourse and the details of a linguistic pragmatic research method are proposed. Chapter 2 looks at the complex receiver roles in press releases, which are characterized as indirectly targeted, i.e. 'projected', discourse. In chapters 3 to 6 a data analysis of the metapragmatics of press releases is presented: in particular, it is shown that self-reference, pseudo-quotation and explicit semi-performative play a 'preformulating' role in press releases. Chapter 7 offers a case study of the press releases that the American multinational Exxon issued in the wake of the 1989 Alaska oil spill. In the eighth and final chapter it is suggested that the study's findings support a hegemonic view of the media.

In analysing the much neglected genre of press releases, the book aims to contribute to the study of the language of the news. At the same time, it explores more general issues of participation and footing as well as reflexive language, including deixis, reported speech and performativity.

1 Preface	p. ix
2 A\Pragmatic Perspective on Press Releases
3 Projected Discourse
4 Self-Reference in Press Releases
5 Self-Quotation in Press Releases
6 The\Functions of self-Quotation in Press Releases
7 Explicit semi-Performatives in Press Releases
8 A\Case Study of the Valdez Corpus
9 Conclusions and Perspective
10 Appendix	p. 315
11 Notes	p. 359
12 References	p. 388
13 Author Index	p. 418
14 Subject Index	p. 424

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