Public Information Messages
A contrastive genre analysis of state-citizen communication
Author
Public information messages are an important means of state-citizen communication in today’s societies. Using this genre, citizens are directed to “never ever drink and drive”, to “slow down” and to “learn to say no”. Yet, this book presents the first in-depth analysis of public information messages from a linguistic perspective, and indeed also from a cross-cultural perspective. Specifically, the study, adopting genre analysis, contrasts a corpus of state-run national public information campaigns in Germany and Ireland. A taxonomy of moves is developed inductively and the interactional features of the genre are analysed and related to the context of use. The comprehensive discussion of theoretical and methodological issues, the in-depth analysis and the extensive bibliography make this book of interest to researchers and students in (contrastive) discourse analysis, (cross-cultural) pragmatics, contrastive rhetoric, advertising, social psychology, mass communication and media studies. Copy-writers will also profit from the insights gained, particularly within the context of an increase in Europe-wide public information campaigns.
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 222] 2012. xix, 340 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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List of figures | p. ix
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List of tables | pp. xi–xiv
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List of transcripts | p. xv
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List of abbreviations | p. xvii
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Acknowledgements | p. xix
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1. Introduction | pp. 1–5
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2. Genre analysis | pp. 7–45
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3. A genre perspective on public information messages | pp. 47–81
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4. Methodology | pp. 83–108
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5. Move structure and move register | pp. 109–170
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6. Personalising the impersonal: A micro-textual analysis | pp. 171–248
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7. Public information messages: A contrastive focus | pp. 249–279
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8. Conclusion | pp. 281–288
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Appendix | pp. 319–329
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Index
“This is an exemplary cross-cultural genre study. It is thorough, both theoretically and methodologically, and the analysis of the data is both finely-grained and extensive. Anne Barron’s book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in this kind of study.”
Brian Paltridge, University of Sydney
“This study represents a very innovative discourse/genre analytic approach to the study of public information messages from a cross-cultural perspective. The study is likely to be of value to researchers, students and professionals in a range of fields concerned with communication, broadly defined. It is to be highly recommended.”
John Flowerdew, City University of Hong Kong
“From a linguistic point of view little is known about the conventions of public information messages. Adopting applied genre analysis as the theoretical framework, the present study takes the lead in the investigation of this research area. The volume clearly analyses public information messages developed by or supported by government ministries or agencies in Germany and Ireland with the purpose of establishing the norms of language use employed. Moreover, by exploring cross-cultural differences, this well-composed study offers new perspectives on contrastive genre analysis.”
Maurizio Gotti, Università di Bergamo, Italy
“This monograph is a valuable resource for students, researchers, and professionals in fields concerned with discourse analysis, pragmatics, contrastive rhetoric, mass communication, and media studies. A total of 86 well-designed tables provide readers wth excellent clarification of the textual content.”
Guofeng Wang, Zhejiang University, Language in Society (2012)
“This is thoughtful and exemplary post-doctoral work on cross-cultural genre study and a timely contribution to the growing literature on genre and discourse studies. With its comprehensive discussion of issues in applied genre analysis, this book should be of interest to postgraduate students, researchers and professionals in the fields of (contrastive) discourse analysis, (cross-cultural) pragmatics and mass media studies.”
Jixian Pang, Zhejiang University, in Discourse Studies Vol. 17:1 (2015)
Cited by
Cited by 13 other publications
Barron, Anne
2014. Variational Pragmatics. In The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, ► pp. 1 ff. 
Barron, Anne
2021. Synchronic and Diachronic Pragmatic Variability. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 182 ff.
Barron, Anne & Irina Pandarova
2016. The Sociolinguistics of Language Use in Ireland. In Sociolinguistics in Ireland, ► pp. 107 ff.
Biber, Douglas & Susan Conrad
2019. Register, Genre, and Style,
Pennock-Speck, Barry & Miguel Fuster-Márquez
2014. Imperatives in voice-overs in British TV commercials: ‘Get this, buy that, taste the other’. Discourse & Communication 8:4 ► pp. 411 ff.
Renkema, Jan & Christoph Schubert
Schubert, Christoph
2021. Rhetorical moves in political discourse: closing statements by presidential candidates in US primary election debates. Text & Talk 41:3 ► pp. 369 ff.
Tragel, Ilona & Aimi Pikksaar
2023. Authority and solidarity on the Estonian COVID-19 signs: In line with the government's guidelines, we ask you to wear a mask. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence 5
Verschueren, Jef
Verschueren, Jef
Yu, Danni
2023. A Cross-Cultural Genre Analysis of Leadership Statements in Italian and American University Sustainability Reports. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 66:1 ► pp. 26 ff.
[no author supplied]
2013. Publications Received. Language in Society 42:2 ► pp. 237 ff.
[no author supplied]
2021. Fundamentals of Sociopragmatics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics, ► pp. 13 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 september 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
Subjects
Communication Studies
Main BIC Subject
CFG: Semantics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General