Phatic Uses of Language in Print Media Discourse: Designing a New Model for Reader Engagement Cover Image

Phatic Uses of Language in Print Media Discourse: Designing a New Model for Reader Engagement
Phatic Uses of Language in Print Media Discourse: Designing a New Model for Reader Engagement

Author(s): Marius - Adrian Hazaparu
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Editura Universității Aurel Vlaicu
Keywords: print journalism; language functions; phatic; contact; model

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses the question of contact and its importance in journalistic communication from a pragmatic and linguistic perspective. Thus, the key concepts of this theoretical approach are the phatic function of language and phaticity, defined here as a property of language-in-use that allows individuals to establish, develop and maintain relationships through communication. The overall aims are to design a new research line in print journalism discourse analysis, and also to provide a discursive model based on the phatic dimension of language. In the light of the constant decline of print media audiences and of the rapid growth of online media audiences, this model could serve as a tool for print outlets to keep its readership close by strategically engage with it, using the discursive apparatus developed here. The main conclusion of this proposal refers to the necessary discursive turn in print journalism from referentiality (a context-centred approach) to phaticity (a contact-centred approach), a turn already embraced by other mass communication channels like radio, television and Internet. In other words, this study is an invitation for print media to lay more stress on how facts are expressed, along with what is communicated.

  • Issue Year: 6/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 77-91
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: English