Pragmaticdiscursive proposal to analyse newspaper editorials: model and strategies

Abstract

This paper presents a general discursive and pragmatic procedure for analyzing editorials. This proposal is based on the editorials’ classification according to its argumentative modes and its expressive forms as well as Discourse Analysis and Framing Theory. This method allows one to enquire how media’s ideology determines the way of framing the events and how the expert knowledge is appropriated by newspapers in order to defend (or attack) certain sociopolitical claims. In this way, the discursive strategies in play to frame the issues in a specific way are unfolded. The latter part of the paper is focused on a detailed analysis of one editorial, in order to provide examples the virtues of the model.