Discourse and manipulation – the miscegenation of genres in written press

Abstract

This paper focuses on the appearance of certain instances of “intermediategenres” in written press derived from the miscegenation of press editorials and advertisements.It analyses the case of a specific advertisement and health editorial printed inVIP – a Portuguese social magazine – in April 2010. It appeals to a theoretical frameworkfrom Discourse Analysis in order to prove the miscegenation of genres betweenthe two chosen texts. Four aspects are developed: the context and co-text of the analyzeddiscourses; the genres involved; the language and paralanguage used; the pragmaticvalues activated – locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary.The study aims at proving that different genres combinations formed from advertisementsand other types of discourse, especially in media discourses, are a sign of thecolonization that advertising carries on other discourses financially dependent on it.

Keywords

• Discourse analysis
• miscegenation of genres
• manipulation
• advertisements
• press editorials