In Between Grammar and Pragmatics

In the article, the author tries to show the relationships between grammar and pragmatics from the point of view of language use in the media. Many sentences that the grammar of natural language is able to generate, will never be used in the texts. On the other hand, many sentences that are generated by the grammar of the natural language, are used in very different situations. These facts must be taken into account both in linguistic research and media studies.


 

Multimodal Discourse – a new category of research?

The semantic category of multimodality grew out of a belief in the possibility of rejecting the language as their primary means of communication or at least reduce its participation in the processes of communication and the creation and transfer of meanings in favor of other sign systems. Multimodality and analysis of multi-modal, understood as a description and interpretation of socially situated sign systems, have become recently popular topics of current scientific debates according to a global proposition Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen of multimodality any text – “all texts are multimodal”. The postulate the elimination of linguistic code of any communication processes, is related to the gradual dissipation of the concept of natural language multimodal communications, which can be explained by the increasing use of semiotic phenomena and their meta-language to describe the new spheres of reality. Born – as claimed by the enthusiasts of visuality and multimodality – real “civilization of the image” or linguistics of the image and rammar of the image.
 

Rumour communication, although always present in different areas of mass media in the Republic of Macedonia, has not yet been researched. Topics devoted to various rumours, unverified information spread, “gossiping” circulation of information of specific purpose were particularly popular in 2015 through a part of this kind of information transmitted in the mass media as information “bomb”. The scientific approach to define such information was especially present in the yellow press and in researches related to “hate speech” as an opportunity for mass dissemination of specific information of specific purpose. Here is an overview and analysis of rumour communication and the ways it is expressed in the mass media in Republic of Macedonia. Special emphasis is given to the linguistic devices used in the dissemination of such kind of information.
 

The decline of traditional newspaper journalism and a new logic of media

The article is dedicated to the decline of traditional newspaper journalism analyzed from the perspective of media management and economics of the media. Journalism done in media organizations safely seated behind the entry barriers (to the individual media sectors). Journalism practiced in the context of stable jobs in the traditional paper media. The author presents the declining value of the work done by journalists in such organizations as well as internal and external factors of change, presented from the perspective of a new logic embedded in neoinstitutional media theory. Generalizations about the end of journalism “as we know it” are identified as the decline of existing business models of publications, the crisis of profitability of the traditional media organization, whereas technological development in the media, especially the one concerning distribution, is recognized as a new perspective and a chance for better and more independent journalism.
 

How to Evaluate the Press Photography?

The press photography is a work consisting of many signs affecting the recipient. The press photography is a source of information about the present and the past, which may be – due to the richness of the included signs and codes – re-constructed in a recipient’s mind.
The value of photojournalism is determined by the information content and the aesthetic feature. The process of evaluation and recognition of this type of photography should include some important indicators such as the definition of sub-genre (e.g. press photography, photo reportage, photo essay); the veracity of photography (image compatibility with actuality); the degree of information (the extent to which the image enriches the recipient’s knowledge); iconicity (conceptual association between an image and the established symbols); the image composition (the ability to connect individual elements of the photograph into coherent unity); the degree of positive or negative emotions (what impression a photography exerts on a recipient).
The evaluation criteria presented in this article converge together and give an idea of the truthful imitation of reality, because the aim of the photojournalism is not only the mimetic likeness of objects, but, above all, the remembrance of what a photojournalist has seen.
 

The media journalism credibility as a result of a cooperation between professionals and amateurs

The cases chosen from the last 18 years demonstrate that the amateur internet publications became salient when supported by professional journalists. The synergy effect was in these cases evident. One should ask who were the partners of professional journalists, how their cooperation progressed and if any tendencies or borderline cases could be revealed?
The article begins with listing of dominant features of traditional journalist messages. Than the changes in journalism caused by disseminating of digital messages were shortly presented. Five cases of significant internet and traditional publications were analyzed. It was revealed when the traditional gate-keeping function of a professional journalist disappeared and how radical the time for verification shortens.
 

Public perception of the professional status of journalists before and after 1989. Comparative analyzes

Changes which began in Poland after 1989, radically changed the situation of the media. Media, which previously served as a service to authority regained independence, themselves becoming the “fourth power”. Action in terms of freedom of expression on the one hand gave various social groups the opportunity to articulate their arguments, on the other hand imposed on journalists a special responsibility. The aim of this paper is a comparative analysis of public perception of the professional status of journalists before and after 1989, in the light of public opinion polls conducted by the Center for Public Opinion Research and Public Opinion Research Centre in the years 1985–2014. It is an attempt to answer the following research problems:
– Is a journalist is seen just as many, or as a specific profession?
– Is Journalism is a form of social service or business?
– What is a group portrait of the journalist works in the public consciousness?
In the process of research we assumed the following thesis: In the last 30 years the public perception of the status of professional journalist has not changed.
However, we refuted the thesis which we formulated in the beginning of the article. In the last 30 years some unfavorable changes have occurred in the perception of the work of journalists. Has increased the belief that they seek sensationalism by all means and do not strive to reveal the truth. Their honesty and credibility weakened. More often they are perceived as biased.
In developing the research material we used the following methodology: comparative ana-
lysis, secondary quantitative content analysis, qualitative content analysis and analytical and descriptive method.
 

Values and professional standards of journalism

Most of the media occupations are characterized by low professionalism, i.e. lack of clearly defined qualifications and rules of actions appointing standards of professionalism, which in connection with cult of individualism and talent, favours development of different ideologies.
Every journalist works in different fields of expectations, has different criteria of valuation their work and must make a choice. In large media institutions basic contradiction can be seen between: impartiality, criticism with creativity requirements and specialization and routine at work, owners interests and citizens right freedom of speech, salary for effectiveness of work or product and for labor time. All those contradictions are in publishing activity itself. Politicization and commercialization phenomenon and economic conditions in which those processes are done effect on deterioration of journalism in Poland. Not sufficient enough activity of creative societies causes this situation. Journalistic associations are weak and divided. They aren’t able to represent matters of journalistic environments in parliament efficiently.
 

Professional values and attitudes of the Polish working and aspiring journalists

The aim of this paper is to present the conclusions drawn from a meta-analysis of the findings collected with surveys that have been conducted among Polish journalists since the 1970s. The paper focuses on the trends and shifts in the journalitists’ motivations and roles perception that have been occurring in the last four decades. The findings show that since the transformation period in the late 1989s and early 1990s, Polish journalists seem to be more individualistic and professional-oriented than social and altruist-oriented. The contemporary model of the Polish journalism built upon journalists’ declarations on the media roles is a combination of the news-provider and a forum of a broad spectrum of the political opinion presentation – oriented model, with a watchdog – style journalism. Traditional roles of the Polish journalists, such as education and motivation of the citizens, seem to be of the secondary importance for the media people today.
 

Change in press financing model

According to “World Press Trends” report, in 2014 income from sales of content to readers was higher in global press than income from sales of advertisements. The symptoms of a change in the model of financing press publishers’ activity were noticeable for a long time and indicated transformations in the system of social communication. Before that a reversal of proportions of television financing took place, as income acquired from paid television subscribers has outrun advertisement income. This article aims to answer the question of reasons for the change in press financing model and to analyze that phenomenon in Polish press market. For unlike television, change in printed media financing does not result from the increase in income collected from the audience but from a continuous decrease in press advertisement expenditures.
 

Woman’s magazines in the new media expansion era

Women’s magazines are still very attractive for the media market sector publishers. Despite the development and the expansion of the new media, women’s magazines bring profit to their publishers, who have found a way of their in the media market which has been continuously changing by the new media. The development in the number of women’s magazines is manifested by the new magazines debuting in the newspaper market every year. The result of the extension of this newspaper sector is the process of subsegmentation which has been observed for 15 years now. The publishers create smaller, usually topic-specific segments of the press. In these smaller subsegments the competition for the reader and advertising revenue is present.
This article attempts to look critically at the women press segment. The study include the titles which operated on the Polish press market in the years 1990–2015. It seems that this time perspective will enable the examination of: the involvement of the publishers in this segment of the press, the condition of the most important titles, the subsegmentation processes and the situation of women press in the context of the expansion of the new media.
 

German press publishers and the challenges of digitalization

The process of digitalization of mass communication fosters development of electronic media and complicates functioning of the traditional press. Decreasing circulation and incomings from advertising force press publishers to change their development strategy. In Germany big press publishing houses that reign in the market of press, newspapers and popular magazines, are in the forefront of these modifications. Main directions of this strategic reorientation are: changing the publishing houses into multimedia concerns, reducing the costs of editing and printing press as well as building a new offer on the Internet. Some of the German press publishers also increase their investments abroad.
 

Polish emigré magazines on the British Web after 2004

The article raises the issue of Polish Web portals in the years 2001–2010, i.e. with reference to: Expatpol.com, Goniec.com, Gazeta.ie, Dublin24.net, Londynek.net, Emito.net, Szkocjanet.pl, as well as making available by them, such e-weeklies and also coming out in the traditional version in Great Britain, as Cooltura, Goniec Polski – The Polish Times, Polish Express and Nowy Czas. The New Time, and on the Green Island – Polska Gazeta. The mission of their founders was to inform about events in the country and the world but above all creating atmosphere as togetherness of the Polish society in Great Britain and Ireland. Bearing in mind the multiplicity of publication initiatives the author. Focuses her attention only on the most popular four weeklies. It has been shown that the Internet is a continuous technology from Internet published newspapers to information Web portals and not a technology disrupting the development process of the traditional press.
 

Can the content of the print press be moved to the web in relation 1:1? Case study based on Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and portal Dziennik.pl

Intensive Internet development forced print media publishers to create portals associated with their titles. This situation applied to newspapers as well as magazines. When this process began, decision makers assumed that a large part of the printed content will be transferred to the Internet in 1:1 relation. For this reason editorial team comprised people whose task was only to publish content on the web. At that time both: printed editions and their electronic versions have separate teams and there was only loose cooperation between them. In recent years this situation has changed. The relationship between those teams have altered. It affects the content of publications. What are the challenges and difficulties facing these journalists? How do they perceive themselves in the journalist community and beyond? The answers for these and other questions are provided by the analysis of Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, portal Dziennik.pl and the authors’ journalist experience.
 

Journalism research methodologies and sources of information for journalists in the light of media tests

The presented paper deals with the issue of communication activities related to the creation of media messages, with particular attention paid to the processes of searching for information by journalists. Ascribing to journalistic research the fundamental role in media communication activities, the author turned his attention to an area less intensively studied in terms of factual material and methodology. Thanks to a new approach, the author was able to make certain contribution to knowledge on contemporary media messages. According to one of the adopted hypotheses, the lowering level of the media discourse is caused by methodological deficiencies and negligence in searching for and acquiring information. The correctness of the hypothesis was proved by collecting precise data documenting a decrease in the amount of time dedicated to research.