Comparative Characteristics Of Information Sources In English And German Arctic Media Discourse

Abstract

Problems of the Arctic region are often covered in the media of different countries of the world. The article focuses on comparative characteristics of references to information sources in English and German arctic media discourse. The markers of categories “evidentiality” and “quotation” provide references to information sources and increase the credibility of media texts. The purpose of this research is to reveal differences in the way of introducing information sources and in their semantics. Arctic media texts devoted to the environmental issues of the Arctic region served as the material for this study. The media texts were taken from online versions of English and German newspapers. The continuous sampling method, the statistical method, the semantic and comparative analyses were used. The study results show that evidential meaning “quotative” most often occurs in German arctic media discourse, whereas full quotation prevails in English arctic media discourse. The examples of direct evidentiality, hearsay and fragmentary quotation are scarcely represented in both languages. Particular researchers and experts are the most frequent information source in arctic media texts in both languages. There are also references to generalized designation of researchers and experts, specialists, documents, results of research and media in English and German arctic media discourse.