Types and Lingostylistic features of media texts

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Types articles headlines grammar introgative imperative

The second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the
21st century is characterized by the rapid growth of mass communication
and new information technologies. The dynamic development of
traditional media and the spreading influence of the Internet have
contributed to the formation of a single information environment, woven
from a combination of many media streams. The Internet and related
technologies are acquiring the status of a leading means of mass
communication, an important information resource that ensures the
functioning and distribution of large information arrays. Therefore, the
geometric growth of mass communication could not but affect the features
of word diffusion and the nature of linguistic change.
Among the current areas of research in modern linguistics, media
linguistics undoubtedly occupies one of the first places in its prospects and
relevance. The active development of this scientific trend is due to the fact
that it is the language of the media that reflects all the changes taking place
in society, since it is oriented to spontaneous speech, is not bound by
censorship restrictions and strives to present reality as it is.
In this respect, the study of media language and media broadcasting is
of particular importance not only linguistically, but also socially, and
involves the use of new tools for linguists of the allied humanities.
Interdisciplinary analysis is being undertaken. Due to the complex
systemic approach, the researchers focus on such issues as the definition
of the functional and stylistic status of media broadcasting, the influence
of socio-cultural factors on the choice of language means, linguistic and
media technologies of influence, etc.
One of the key provisions of media linguistics is the relationship
between the concepts of “media discourse” and “media text”. We consider
it reasonable to examine the existing approaches to the definition of the
concepts “media discourse” and “media text”, as well as to establish their
interdependence and describe their essential characteristics. The
understanding of the urgency of these problems and, at the same time, the
insufficient development of a complex set of searching questions in
medialinguistics became the motivation for writing this part of the
collective monograph.

Rapid development of mass media and new communication technologies for the past
thirty years has had a great impact on language functioning. Intensive growth of
traditional media — press, radio and especially television, emergence and avalanche-like
spread of the Internet resulted in significant changes in contemporary language situation.
A huge part of everyday language functioning — speech and text production is now
taking place in the media. Twenty four hours news channels, numerous TV programmes
and online editions, unceasing verbal interaction in social networks — all this has
presented a new challenge for language scholars, setting new goals, the achievement of
which requires innovative research formats.
No wonder that dramatic growth of speech and text production in the sphere of mass
communication in the second half of the XX and the beginning of the XXI centuries was
accompanied by an ever increasing amount of academic research dealing with various
aspects of language functioning in the media — from special characteristics of the news
texts to particulars of language usage in Internet blogs and social networks. This new
dynamically developing research area attracted representatives of practically all branches
of linguistics: social linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, specialists in
discourse analysis etc. However around the year 2000 the overall situation in media
language studies created all necessary preconditions for the emergence of a new full-
fledged branch of linguistics, i. e. media linguistics, which incorporated all previous
achievements in the field.

As it proceeds from the term itself, based on the combination of two key
components “media” and “linguistics”, the subject of this new discipline is the study of
language functioning in the sphere of mass communication. In other words, media
linguistics deals with overall complex research of a particular social field of language
usage — the production of speech in mass media. The emergence of media linguistics as
a new branch of language studies is fully justified, taking into consideration a crucial role
that mass media have been playing in society for the past 30 years. Rapid development of
the print and the electronic media, quick growth of virtual communications and the
Internet have enormously changed people’s lives, giving stimuli for the development of
the whole range of information society theories. Nowadays the biggest part of everyday
speech practices is implemented in the sphere of mass communication — in newspapers,
radio, television and Internet. Continuous development of information communication
technologies (ICT) results in rapid growth of the total volume of texts transmitted by
media channels in different national languages in the world information space. It should
also be noted that media linguistics is not the only discipline that was singled out as the
study of a particular area of language usage, the same principle was used to form one
more new direction of linguistic research — political linguistics, focusing on the study of
speech production in political communications [Чудинов 2006].

Let’s discuss some of them in order to understand what we mean by

saying individual manner of language usage. Linguist M. Murry defined style
as "a quality of language which communicates precisely emotions or
thoughts, or a system of emotions or thoughts, peculiar to the author" (Murry
1961:71). Nevertheless, the most frequent definition of style expressed by
linguist Seymour Chatman. He defined style as "a product of individual
choices and patterns of choices (emphasis added) among linguistic
possibilities" (Galperin 1981:8).
According to the Czech and Soviet linguists, linguistic styles are the
object of stylistics. Although the formation of the stylistics is dating back to
the ancient times, that is about 300 years later (MIŠŠÍKOVÁ 2003:9) as a
separate linguistic discipline it has began to develop only in the 20-30s of
the 20th century ( Zhukovska 2010:11). First it is Charles Bally who
thoroughly presented the subject of stylistics and stressed the emotive-
expressive evaluative side of speech (Bally 1961:394). Through the time
other linguists also defined the subject matter of stlystics. Speaking about
Stylistics, linguist Rosental mentioned that it is a science about language
styles. (Розенталь 1967:9)
The goal of stylistics is not simply to characterize the formal features of
texts for their own sake, but to display their functional significance for the
interpretation of the text. Sometimes, a question arises, why should people
examine stylistics? To examine stylistics means to explore language, and,
specifically, to study creativity in language use. Exploring stylistics thereby
fertilizes our ways of thinking about language and, as remarked, exploring
language offers a essential purchase on our understanding of texts (Simpson
2004:4).
It is worth mentioning, that there are 2 basic objects of stylistics:
stylistic devices/figures of speech and functional styles
(pereklad.nmu.org.ua).
Stylistic devices are typical language mechanisms which authors use
to create text that is clear, juicy, and unforgettable. Examples of stylistic
devices are alliteration, allusion, climax, hyperbole, irony, metaphor and so
on.
Functional stylistics deals with all subdivisions of the language which
are newspaper, colloquial style and so on.
Functional styles compile complete system. They are in the process of
continuous improvement and enrichment. Some scholars enlarge the scopes
of functional styles while others specify them.
If we generalize all the issues raised in the resent studies carried out in
the Media language sphere, we can say, that newspaper language study is
motivated by the normative -stylistic and functional-stylistic exploration
views. If in the first case it is important to reveal the peculiarities of literary
language in newspapers, to show literary norm deviations, then in the
second case newspaper language and style are seen as an expression of
publisictic newspaper style as a type and component of functional style
and/or just publisictic newspaper style (Кожин 1982:223 ).
So, some linguists, especially I. Galperin, di fferentiate publisticic and
newspaper styles (Galperin 1997:332 ). Galperin deploys magazine articles,
rhetoric and essay genres in the scopes of newspaper style in his famous
book, called “ Stylistics” , and informational articles, reportages, genres of
advertisements and announcements he deploys in the scopes of newspaper
style. The vast majority of the linguists speak about one general style, which
is publisictic newspaper style.
Russian linguist Margarita Kojina divides functional styles into 5
groups, which are colloquial-domestic, literary, publisictic , scientific and
legal . Saying publicistic style she understands not only oration but also
newspaper style with all its di fferent manifestations (Кожина 1968:175 ). A .
Gvozdev thinks in the same way . The latter divides functional styles into four
groups: functional, literary, publicistic and scientific (Гвоздев 1952: 335 ).
Another linguist Arnold di fferenciates these types of functional style:
rhetoric, colloquial, poetic, publisictic newspaper, scientific and business (
Арнольд 1981). Linguist A. Vasileva, speaking about communicational and
writing styles, also di fferentiates publicistic-newspaper style ( Васильева
1987).
In this case we are interested in the fact, that these authors consider
newspaper style and language as an expression of publicistic style or
publicistic-newspaper style. This is not accidental, because “oration is typical
for fiction and journalism, therefore it is also typical for television, radio and
cinematography’’ (ՀՍՀ 6-րդ հատոր: 621) .
In the way of its development, oration has shaped its genres, which
have its aims, problems and contextual features. “These genres are note-
writings, reportages, reports, interviews, messages, articles, theories,
reviews and letters. Literary-publicistic styles are widely used, such as
allusion, feuilleton, pamphlet” ( Черепахов 1971).
It is clear, that in contemporary English media, next to the
informational articles there are a lot of publications, where informative
articles are merged with publicistic styles. In the same periodic we can see
various types of both informative and publicistic styles. But except all these
diversities, newspaper style has its lexical, phraseological, stylistic and
structural features.
In the middle of 18 th century the publicistic style became a separate
style (moluch.ru).
Publicistic style is characterized by coherent and logical syntactical
structure, with an expanded system of connectives and careful
paragraphing. The individual element is not very obvious. Publicistic style is
also characterized by the shortness of expression, sometimes it becomes a
principal feature.
Speaking about newspaper style we should hasten to mention that not
all the printed materials found in newspapers come under newspaper
style. The materials which perform function of informing the reader and
provide him with an evaluation of information can be regarded as belongings
to newspaper style. There can be a lot of materials, among them essays,
scientific reviews, which does not provide any information. When linguists
mention “newspaper style”, they mean informative materials which are
typical for only newspapers and not found in other publi cations
(studentguide.ru ).
English newspaper style is defined as a system of lexical and
grammatical means which are perceived by the community as a separate
linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the
reader. There are four mediums by which newspapers provide information:
1) brief news items;
2) press reports;
3) articles purely informational in character;
4) advertisements and announcements (www.slideshare.net).
Newspaper style has its specific features which distinguish it from other
styles. And that is why newspaper style is studied as a separated type of
functional style in English stylistics.
It is important to note that newspaper style is one of those in
functional style, which allows various infiltration of styles ( Առաքելյան
1979:243 ).
Newspaper and magazine language is directly related to the
newspaper publicistic style, more correctly, it is one of the ways expressing
publicistic style. This style generally has regulated nature and all its
vocabulary, grammatical rules come from literary language area. By the
help of newspaper style, we cover phenomena which are massive and
comprehensive.
It is clear that this style has very broad coverage and its axis is the press
which covers all the aspects of social life.
Speaking about the press, we should hasten to add that they have
their peculiarities and characteristics. The most important phenomenon of
the newspaper language is its communicative nature. The language of the
media should be understandable for the masses. Next important peculiarity
is the homogeneity of the newspaper language. Generally it is a process of
expressing, describing or analyzing di fferent phenomena, where language
avoids from stylistic extremes, because communicative role of the language,
which is very important in journalism, in this case makes secondary all the
ways of all the expressive forms of stylistics. This creates linguistic layer
devoid of stylistic methods where standard expressions play an important
role (Շալունց 1987:52 ).
Newspaper style does not accept extremes. You can’t use expressions,
idioms, grammar and formative stylistic manifestations in o fficial-business
style. In this case speech becomes more excessive unnatural and
unconvincing. Newspaper style does not like bookish character of recital. In
this case, when the message is burdened with technical and professional
terms, complications arise which are simply against to the accepted norms.
First of all it becomes unavailable for an ordinary reader. Here the main
layers of vocabulary should be generally used words. These words are those
which apply great frequency and which are used in various styles. Besides all
these, such kinds of recitals might be excluded not only for the
incomprehensible content but also for the fact that such kinds of publications
are not appropriate for newspaper style. Hence, bookish style is
unacceptable in newspaper language ( Բարսեղյան 2010:16).
It is logical that journalists are the ones who create news language in
newspapers. But according to A. Bell, they are not the only ones who
generate news copy but also there are editors, who cut and modify
newspaper language to the standards of their newspaper style. So we can
conclude that the creation of the newspaper language is very multilayer and
complex process in which more than two people are involved in (Bell
1991:7).

Certainly, media texts encompass a wide range of formats and genres, each tailored to specific
communication objectives, audience demographics, and socio-cultural contexts. Here are several
types of media texts across various mediums:
1. News Articles: Found in newspapers, online news portals, and broadcast media,
news articles report on current events, providing factual information, analysis,
and contextualization of news stories. They typically adhere to journalistic
standards of objectivity, accuracy, and impartiality.
2. Opinion Pieces: Opinion pieces, including editorials, columns, and opinion
essays, offer subjective commentary, analysis, or critique on topical issues,
political events, or cultural phenomena. They reflect the viewpoints and
perspectives of the author or publication and may incorporate persuasive
language and rhetorical devices to sway reader opinion.
3. Feature Articles: Feature articles delve into in-depth coverage of specific topics,
trends, or human interest stories. They often employ narrative techniques,
interviews, and descriptive language to engage readers and provide nuanced
insights beyond the scope of traditional news reporting.
4. Advertisements: Advertisements are persuasive media texts designed to
promote products, services, or ideas to a target audience. They employ various
rhetorical strategies, visual elements, and appeals to emotion, desire, or social
status to persuade consumers and drive sales or support for a particular cause.
5. Social Media Posts: Social media platforms host diverse forms of media texts,
including status updates, tweets, Instagram posts, and TikTok videos. These texts
are characterized by brevity, interactivity, and informal language, often serving as
channels for personal expression, social interaction, and viral dissemination of
information.
6. Broadcast News Reports: Broadcast news reports, aired on television or radio,
deliver information through spoken language, visuals, and audio cues. They
typically follow a structured format, incorporating headlines, interviews, live
reporting, and multimedia elements to engage viewers and convey news stories
with immediacy and impact.
7. Documentaries: Documentaries are non-fictional media texts that explore real-
world subjects, issues, or events through visual storytelling, interviews, archival
footage, and voiceover narration. They offer in-depth exploration and analysis of
diverse topics, ranging from nature and science to history, politics, and culture.
8. Entertainment Programs: Entertainment media texts encompass a broad
spectrum of content, including television shows, films, music videos, and online
streaming platforms. They serve to entertain, engage, and captivate audiences
through narrative storytelling, performances, visual effects, and thematic
exploration.
9. Educational Materials: Educational media texts, such as textbooks, educational
videos, and online tutorials, aim to impart knowledge, skills, and understanding
on academic subjects, vocational training, or personal development. They employ
pedagogical techniques, visual aids, and interactive elements to facilitate learning
and comprehension.
10. Public Service Announcements (PSAs): PSAs are short-form media texts
designed to raise awareness, promote social causes, or encourage behavior
change on issues such as health, safety, environmental conservation, or civic
engagement. They often utilize emotive language, testimonials, and appeals to
civic duty to mobilize public support and action.