Tweeting the news : a contrastive study of English and German newspaper tweets

Twitter belongs to one of the most popular news-disseminating microblogging platforms, used by mainstream-journalism media outlets, broadcast media and newspapers in particular. The following analysis focuses on linguistic properties of newspaper tweets. It is the purpose of the study to identify the structural, discursive and rhetorical goals of newspaper tweets. The analysis comprises Twitter profiles of selected English and German daily newspapers. The study has shown that a variety of discursive strategies are employed in the composition of tweets. Among the most conspicuous properties of newspaper tweets emphasis on newsworthiness, interactivity and conversationalization has been identified. The study has also shown a highly promotional and presentational role of newspaper tweets

Lead, headline, news abstract? : genre conventions of news sections on newspaper websites

Increasing popularity and dynamic expansion of online newspapers creates a need for an in-depth analysis of online press, genre and discourse properties of online news in particular. The aim of the following analysis is to investigate genre characteristics of a newly developed news structure – a news abstract. The analysis examines the basic conventions concerning the purpose, form and content of these text types. The study encompasses news abstracts published on the websites of leading British, German and Polish newspapers. The inclusion of websites of culturally distinct newspapers was designed to evaluate the degree of universality and internationalization of the structure

Headlines in British and German online newspapers

Dynamic development of online press has been accompanied by various transformations in journalistic genres and news discourse. The following study focuses on headlines in online newspapers. The aim of the analysis was to investigate whether the online headlines conform to the conventions traditionally associated with the shape of the newspaper headlines. The analysis covered headlines of news stories from selected British and German online newspapers, both hard and soft news headlines. The study involved the examination of the discourse, syntactic and lexical properties of the titles. The analysis investigated as well the relation between the homepage headline and the story headline in online newspapers. The analysis showed that online headlines follow selected conventions of traditional print headlines, but that they have also developed features of their own. The article discusses certain differences between the newspapers covered in the analysis as well

The genre of e-zines : in the search for conventions

The aim of this article is to determine the basic genre conventions of electronic magazines, i.e. e-zines. The analysis illustrates the main characteristic features of e-zines, involving their function, format, content and functionality. The results of the analysis show that e-zines represent a group of heterogeneous forms, exploiting the conventions of other electronic genres, and thus creating hybrid constructions. The article presents a preliminary categorization of electronic magazines, carried out on the basis of the differences in content and in formatting techniques of these websites. The study illustrates as well the most recent trends in the form and content of electronic magazines

Rhetorical strategies on www.iReport.com

The study concentrates on the phenomenon of user-generated content on the internet. The article presents an introductory analysis of various rhetorical strategies used by the authors of commentaries on one of the popular user-contributory sites, i.e. www.iReport.com. The analysis of this site shows that there exists a range of diverse means of expression used by the enthusiasts of broadcasting online, involving the submission of written articles, live video commentaries, audio files and cartoons. The study shows that users shape the features of the content in different manners and resort to the use of a variety of rhetorical devices. To the main properties of discourse belong personalization, interactivity, use of figurative and vivid language

The language of English and Polish corporate tweets : a corpus analysis

The following analysis investigates selected properties of the language of the tweets used in the interaction with consumers on English and Polish brand profiles. The analysis examines the structure of tweets, word frequency, as well as the frequency of informal and non-standard language items, language mistakes, the use of emoticons and hashtags. The study contrasts the language used by English and Polish representatives and reveals a number of similarities and differences between the corpora. What the corpora share is a high frequency of conventional politeness acts and language structures reflecting a customer-oriented tone of the interaction. Differences are observed in the frequency and use of informal and non-standard structures, emoticons and hashtags, as well as in the structure and complexity of the tweets. The study indicates a lower formulaicity and a greater individualization of the interaction on the Polish profiles.Niniejsza analiza jest poświęcona cechom językowym tweetów występujących w interakcji z klientami na profilach angielskich oraz polskich firm. Analiza obejmuje badanie struktury tweetów, frekwencji słów, występowania elementów nieformalnych i niestandardowych, błędów językowych, użycia emotikonów oraz hashtagów. Badanie porównuje język stosowany przez reprezentantów firm angielskich oraz polskich i wyszczególnia szereg podobieństw oraz różnic pomiędzy analizowanymi korpusami. Cechą wspólną dla tweetów angielskich i polskich jest wysoka frekwencja aktów grzecznościowych oraz struktur odzwierciedlających nakierowanie na klienta w dyskursie. Różnice dotyczą frekwencji występowania i użycia języka nieformalnego, struktur niestandardowych, emotikonów oraz hashtagów, jak również struktury i złożoności tweetów. Badanie wskazuje na niższy poziom formuliczności i większą indywidualizację interakcji na polskich profilac

"I’m not sure what that means yet, but we’ll soon find out” : the discourse of newspaper live blogs

The following paper focuses on newspaper live blogs. The aim of the analysis is to investigate the structure and discourse properties of this news format. The analysis examines the basic conventions concerning the form and content of these text types, including structural components of live blogs, multimedia, quoting and linking patterns, as well as discourse strategies used to underline “liveness”, interactivity and evaluation. The analysis proves that the discourse of live blogs constitutes an example of open structure news discourse, and reflects a blending of discourse properties typical of blogs as well as of broadcast and newspaper reporting