Pen Name as a Form of a Journalist’s Self-Presentation in the Late 19th — Early 20th Centuries Russian Regional Press

Abstract

The article investigates into the role of pen-names in the self-presentation of a regional newspaper’s journalist, the pen name being analyzed as a kind of micro-text that models the reporter’s image according to their position within the edition’s information field, its stylistic and generic strategies of presenting information. From the onomasiological point of view, the authors distinguish between four types of journalistic pseudonyms: 1) pen names intended to present the author as an unspecified individual; 2) pseudonyms patterned after speaking names whose internal form stresses the characteristics of the journalist’s image; 3) pen names based on the culturally specific associative meaning of the motivating name — such names impose cultural and historical presuppositions governing the perception of the journalist’s image; 4) pen names with various role specializations that manifest the journalist’s inclination to ludic self-presentation. Each type corresponds to several ways of name creation. The latter include abbreviation, onymization of common nouns, different techniques of language game. The authors also establish the generalized strategies of communicational interaction between journalists and their readers: strategy of distancing, strategy of adhesion, and strategy of game interaction. The paper argues that there is correlation between the choice of an interaction strategy and the journalist’s image reflected in their pen name.

Keywords

• pen name
• pseudonym
• onomastic self-presentation
• motivation
• naming
• regional newspaper