The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis

The pandemic has intensified issues faced by the journalism community in Malaysia. This study is an attempt to help the media industries upskill themselves in terms of the written discourse. This study describes the rhetorical structures in Malaysian newspaper reports, namely The Star, in terms of t...

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Main Authors: Hafizah Hajimia, Nur Rasyidah Mohd Nordin, Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh, Philip Golingai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia 2022-05-01
Series:Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/46433
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author Hafizah Hajimia
Nur Rasyidah Mohd Nordin
Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh
Philip Golingai
author_facet Hafizah Hajimia
Nur Rasyidah Mohd Nordin
Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh
Philip Golingai
author_sort Hafizah Hajimia
collection DOAJ
description The pandemic has intensified issues faced by the journalism community in Malaysia. This study is an attempt to help the media industries upskill themselves in terms of the written discourse. This study describes the rhetorical structures in Malaysian newspaper reports, namely The Star, in terms of the rhetorical moves and steps by using the genre theory, corpus-based discourse analysis and corpus analysis. MyCORONAS (Malaysian Corpus of Online Newspaper Articles) corpus of 90 selected news reports consisting of crime news (TSC), environmental news (TSE) and political news (TSP) was compiled and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to identify the frequency, functions, and patterns of rhetorical moves. The findings identified a nine-move structure for the newspaper reports. The nine-move structure consists of five optional moves and four obligatory moves. Variations in the use of the steps were observed within the sub-genres. Additionally, based on the functions of the moves, it was found that the newspaper report is a hybrid genre with various communicative functions. Based on the patterns of move distribution, the dispersion value shows that the moves are tightly clustered. To conclude, the findings of this study will heighten the awareness of ESP learners on the importance of using appropriate rhetorical moves to write a newspaper report which will help the journalism industries reform themselves during the pandemic.
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spelling doaj-art-07fee0725fa942899dc5155a598411e62025-08-20T02:55:49ZengUniversitas Pendidikan IndonesiaIndonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics2301-94682502-67472022-05-01121869910.17509/ijal.v12i1.4643318880The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysisHafizah Hajimia0Nur Rasyidah Mohd Nordin1Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh2Philip Golingai3Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Arau, Perlis, MalaysiaSchool of Languages, Civilisation and Philosophy, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, MalaysiaSchool of Languages, Civilisation and Philosophy, Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok, Kedah, MalaysiaStar Media Group Berhad, Menara Star, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, MalaysiaThe pandemic has intensified issues faced by the journalism community in Malaysia. This study is an attempt to help the media industries upskill themselves in terms of the written discourse. This study describes the rhetorical structures in Malaysian newspaper reports, namely The Star, in terms of the rhetorical moves and steps by using the genre theory, corpus-based discourse analysis and corpus analysis. MyCORONAS (Malaysian Corpus of Online Newspaper Articles) corpus of 90 selected news reports consisting of crime news (TSC), environmental news (TSE) and political news (TSP) was compiled and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively to identify the frequency, functions, and patterns of rhetorical moves. The findings identified a nine-move structure for the newspaper reports. The nine-move structure consists of five optional moves and four obligatory moves. Variations in the use of the steps were observed within the sub-genres. Additionally, based on the functions of the moves, it was found that the newspaper report is a hybrid genre with various communicative functions. Based on the patterns of move distribution, the dispersion value shows that the moves are tightly clustered. To conclude, the findings of this study will heighten the awareness of ESP learners on the importance of using appropriate rhetorical moves to write a newspaper report which will help the journalism industries reform themselves during the pandemic.https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/46433corpus-baseddiscourse analysisjournalismnewspaper reportrhetorical structure
spellingShingle Hafizah Hajimia
Nur Rasyidah Mohd Nordin
Manvender Kaur Sarjit Singh
Philip Golingai
The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics
corpus-based
discourse analysis
journalism
newspaper report
rhetorical structure
title The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
title_full The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
title_fullStr The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
title_full_unstemmed The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
title_short The rhetorical structure of newspaper reports: A synergy between corpus, genre and discourse analysis
title_sort rhetorical structure of newspaper reports a synergy between corpus genre and discourse analysis
topic corpus-based
discourse analysis
journalism
newspaper report
rhetorical structure
url https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/46433
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