Evaluative aspects of print media texts

Abstract

This paper revisits the concept of macrostructure, i.e. the thematic and organizational structure of texts, in this case that of the news discourse and its link with Critical Discourse analysis (CDA). Special focus is put on the Evaluation as a part of the news story macrostructure. The paper presents the author’s model of news structure in print media, based on the models of van Dijk (1988a, 1988b) and Bell (1994). The following parts of the macrostructure are identified: (1) Headline, (2) Lead, (3) Main Event(s), (4) Background of the Event, (5) Verbal Comment(s), (6) Evaluation, and (7) Results of the Event. The author also points out that pure linguistic analysis itself cannot lead to proper interpretation of news discourse. Based on these two aspects, the paper specifically focuses on Evaluation as a part of the macro structure and its linguistic exponents on the microstructure level. Evaluation includes attitudes, opinions or the evaluation of the event by the journalist or the newspaper he/she writes for. It is the Evaluation that gives sense or meaning to the text. Evaluation will be discussed in terms of its explicit presence in the text, as a distinctive unit in the schematic structure of news, but also in its implicit form, very often hidden behind other parts of macrostructure such as Headline, Lead, Main Event or Verbal Comments. The examples of Evaluation will be taken from a corpus comprising examples from three British and three Montenegrin dailies reporting on the NATO airstrikes against former Yugoslavia.