Abstract
In the field of mass communication and media, the use of language has become so versatile that it can help to improve relationship between peoples, but it can somehow have a negative effect on the mutual understanding. Rhetoric makes it clear and persuasive to communicate to make language work for their purposes. Sociolinguistics in the contrastive analysis deals with speech communities and the language use in particular contexts such as dialects or bilingualism in society and language variation and change over time, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. This chapter presents Kenneth Burke's rhetorical theory and William Labov's sociolinguistic method, analyzing genres and registers in the systemic functional linguistics perspective to derive a conceptual framework for the study of news report. The resulting framework provides for the identification of news writing style in mass media and other social networks and its performance in language use regarding the power of words to avoid the ambiguity in situational contexts and to better interpersonal and intercultural communication.
TopIntroduction
This chapter focuses on the rhetoric of mass communication and media in the contrastive sociolinguistics through the linguistic use in research activities, along with attendant considerations such as the origin of news texts and the status of native and non-native writers of English. As it has turned out, these aspects have become increasingly complex issues. The reason for this comes not only from the trends of mass media, but also from the difficulty in reading the research available on the topic. While the linguistic use has rapidly expanded in mass communication and media over the last decade, more studies are needed to reflect the epistemologies and methodologies of many different disciplines presented in the rhetoric of mass communication and media. Finally, the issue of the role of the rhetoric of mass communication and media in research is still politically and ideologically contested, and this further complicates the picture.
With the objectives of analyzing the role of the rhetoric of mass communication and media in the contrastive sociolinguistics and its effects on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Sustainability, and ICTs in the Post-COVID-19 Era, this chapter represents the background of mass communication and media and language use, and the rhetoric of mass communication and media, scrutinizing the contrastive analysis of sociolinguistics, the recital of the rhetorical theory of Kenneth Burke and the sociolinguistic method of William Labov, and the analysis of genres and registers in the perspective of the systemic functional linguistics theory. The main focus of the chapter is on the conceptual framework for the rhetorical performance in the media, analyzing the genres and the registers in the perspective of the systemic functional linguistics theory, leading to the conceptual framework to identify news writing style and its rhetorical performance in language use. The chapter provides solutions and recommendations, highlighting the relationship between rhetoric and sociolinguistics with human life and activities in the society through the media language and its effect on the cultural bonds in the interpersonal and intercultural communication. Then, the important solution and recommendation that the chapter brings about are the realization of the language use in the mass media’s bias in the coverage of facts and events. The chapter also suggests future research directions regarding the media framing and coverage and the effect of globalization on media products. Finally, the conclusion summarizes all the main points of the chapter.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Discourse Analysis: The study of written or spoken language in relation to its social context.
Contrastive Sociolinguistics: A branch of linguistics concerned with showing the differences and similarities in the structure of at least two languages or dialects under the influences of social factors.
Rhetoric: The effective or persuasive language use in speaking or writing in language acquisition.
Systemic Functional Linguistics: An approach to linguistics devised by Michael Halliday in the 1960s. This approach considers language as a social semiotic system.
Conceptual Framework: The framework comes from one or more theoretical backgrounds as well as other concepts and empirical findings from the literature, showing the relationships among these ideas and the research study, and becomes the basis for research questions or hypotheses of the research study.
Mass Communication and Media: Mass communication is the information that is exchanged via mass media (internet, books, magazines, television, radio, and so on).