The Importance Of Media Discourse

I. Theoretical Background

1- Scope of the Study:

Language has many functions in our lives; it is not only a mean of communication, but it is also a mean of giving and getting information. According to James Paul Gee (2005), "language has a magical property: when we speak or write, we design what we have to say to fit the situation in which we are communicating" (P. 10). Discourse can be defined as a continuous piece of language of several sentences which are related to each other in some way to form coherent meaningful unit. It can be either written or spoken. The analysis of discourse is, necessarily, the analysis of language in use. As the discourse analyst is committed to an investigation of what that language is used for (Brown and Yule,

As the application is to focus on written media discourse which has a great interest as Peter Garett and Allan Bell (1998) explained that "the media have long been a focus amongst those working with language and communication, as well as others working within the broader field of media studies. Bell (1995a:23) gives four main reasons for this. Firstly, media are a rich source of readily accessible data for research and teaching Secondly, media usage influences and represents people's use of and attitudes towards language in a speech community. Thirdly, media use can tell us a great deal about social meanings and stereotypes projected through language and communication. Fourthly, the media reflect and influence the formation and expression of culture, politics and social life"(P. 3,4). They conclude the relationship between media, language and world can be thought along the axis of power/knowledge and that of understanding/ truth. Language and media can be thought in various ways, but to think them truly will be to return them to common world that each and both, in their different ways, reveal as the world that we and they (language and media) are in (P.

Personal reference is reference by means of function in the speech situation, through the category of person. Demonstrative reference is reference by means of location on a scale of proximity. Comparative reference is indirect reference by means of identity or similarity. Grammatically, all reference items except the demonstrative adverbs, and some comparative adverbs, function within the nominal group (noun phrase)" (P. 37). Moreover, there are two different ways in which reference items can function within a text: exophoric reference; refers to information from the context of situation or the shared knowledge between the writer and reader or speaker and hearer, and endophoric reference; refers to information within the text (Mccarthy, 1991, P. 35-41). Endophoric reference can function in an anaphoric way. Or they can function in a cataphoric way. The subsequent items can only be interpreted with reference to the initial phrase of the first sentence. This type of device is known as anaphoric reference. Anaphoric reference points the reader or listener 'backward' to a previously mentioned entity, process or state of affairs. Cataphoric reference points the reader or listener forward- it draws us further into the text in order to identify the elements to which the reference items refer (Nunan, 1993, P.