Colloquiality and stylistics of online alternative news media

Abstract

Abstract The main line of the study is bound to the conditions, demonstrations and effects of colloquiality (colloquialization) parameter that has been applied in the current electronic media communication sphere. Colloquiality as a non-verbal, structural and compositional attribute of a piece of communication is primarily present in the open, semi- and non-official communication contacts with direct, immediate involvement of their participants. In traditional print journalism built on the verified principles of printedness/ writtenness, colloquiality occurs as a secondary, accompanying attribute of the media communication pieces. Regardless of the genre affiliation of the newspaper products, it helps perform their, e.g., documentary, persuasive, captivating, characterizing, relieving or aesthetic functions. Apart from the parameter of printedness, both mainstream and alternative (complementary) online media generally calculate upon the advanced options of the visual code systems. Thus, language-based online newspapers are easily supplemented with simultaneous, additional, or substitutional means and procedures of cinematographic origin, e.g., a surprising choice, dynamic edition, purpose-made superposition of the text, audio and video sequences being applied through hyperlinking, audiovisual effects, etc. Besides, accompanying dialogization and consequent de-officialization of online newspapers are changing conventional characteristics of the journalistic style. The expanding zone of colloquiality loosens the standards of codified language in written/printed communication. Boundaries between the varieties in the framework of language stratification are already easily penetrable. The material base and argument platform of the study consist of author texts published in the Slovak online alternative news media.