Discourse & Communication current issue

Focus on form: foregrounding devices in football reporting

Chovanec, J. — 2008-07-29

This article documents some foregrounding devices that the media use to attract readers' attention to linguistic forms, all identified in sports reports relating to the Euro 2004 Football Championship published in various British newspapers. A functional explanation is offered in terms of the poetic and interactive character of such devices and their role in simulating friendship and encouraging `bonding' between the writers and readers (phaticity). Their omnipresence in the British media is linked with structural characteristics of the English language, the readiness of the British to tolerate manipulation of linguistic forms, and the general trend towards `infotainment' in the media.

Examples as persuasive argument in popular management literature

Lischinsky, A. — 2008-07-29

In this article we take the use of examples as a means to explore the processes of persuasion and consensus-construction involved in the legitimation of popular management knowledge. Examples, as concrete instances or events used to substantiate a wider argument, have been variedly regarded in different research traditions. Classical logic and rhetoric have considered them an inferior form of argument, useful for pedagogic or public debate but inadequate for higher forms of thought. This spirit still permeates much psychological research on communication, where the great persuasive import of examples has been contrasted with more scientific and formal resources for argumentation. Considered in this light, the contingent and episodic nature of examples seems to make them cognitively inferior to explicit statements of general rules. However, various strands of research on the nature of scientific knowledge have shown that implicit forms of knowledge are an integral part of scientific expertise. Examples may thus be more central to disciplinary thought than the conventional normative view seems to allow. In this spirit, we explore the use of examples in a hotly contested field, that of popular discourse on business and management. The profusion of examples in this kind of writing has been often noted, and almost as often criticized. We seek to explore more fully how these examples are deployed, examining the discursive devices that mark examples within the development of the text, their function as rhetorical moves, and their role in presenting arguments that are never otherwise made explicit.

Emergency communication: the discursive challenges facing emergency clinicians and patients in hospital emergency departments

2008-07-29

Effective communication and interpersonal skills have long been recognized as fundamental to the delivery of quality health care. However, there is mounting evidence that the pressures of communication in high stress work areas such as hospital emergency departments (EDs) present particular challenges to the delivery of quality care. A recent report on incident management in the Australian health care system (NSW Health, 2005a) cites the main cause of critical incidents (that is, adverse events such as an incorrect procedure leading to patient harm), as being poor and inadequate communication between clinicians and patients. This article presents research that describes and analyses spoken interactions between health care practitioners and patients in one ED of a large, public teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia. The research aimed to address the challenges and critical incidents caused by breakdowns in communication that occur between health practitioners and patients and by refining and extending knowledge of discourse structures, to identify ways in which health care practitioners can enhance their communicative practices thereby improving the quality of the patient journey through the ED. The research used a qualitative ethnographic approach combined with discourse analysis of audio-recorded interactions. Some key findings from the analysis of data are outlined including how the absence of information about processes, the pressure of time within the ED, divergent goals of clinicians and patients, the delivery of diagnoses and professional roles impact on patient experiences. Finally, the article presents an in-depth linguistic analysis on interpersonal and experiential patterns in the discursive practices of patients, nurses and doctors.

Organizational discourse and communication: the progeny of Proteus

Guowei Jian, , Schmisseur, A. M., Fairhurst, G. T. — 2008-07-29

As Van Dijk (2007) proposed in the first issue of Discourse and Communication , the main purpose of this journal is to bridge the two cross-disciplines of communication and discourse studies. Given this goal, this article sought to help clear the ground for such interdisciplinary development by investigating how organizational researchers use the terms `discourse' and `communication' and cast discourse—communication relationships. By reviewing 112 organizational discourse studies from major journals in communication, organizational studies, and interdisciplinary journals published between 1981 and 2006, this study identified diverse conceptualizations of these basic concepts. The findings help dispel some of the misunderstandings that scholars from one research field may possess toward the other and sort through some, if not all, the confusions regarding the terms `discourse', `communication', and their relationships.

The communicative constitution of what? A response to Jian et al.

Karreman, D., Alvesson, M. — 2008-07-29

Discourse and/or communication: living with ambiguity

Bargiela-Chiappini, F. — 2008-07-29

Directions for thought leadership in discourse and communication: a commentary on Jian et al.

Barker, J. R. — 2008-07-29

Images of the communication-- discourse relationship

Putnam, L. L. — 2008-07-29

Communication and discourse: is the bridge language? Response to Jian et al.

Taylor, J. R. — 2008-07-29

The debate about organizational discourse and communication: a rejoinder

Guowei Jian, , Schmisseur, A. M., Fairhurst, G. T. — 2008-07-29

Book review: NANCY AALTO and EWALD REUTER, Aspects of Intercultural Dialogue. Theory. Research. Applications. Cologne: SAXA, 2006, 337 pp

Benchiba, N. — 2008-07-29

Book review: EMANUEL A. SCHEGLOFF, Sequence Organization in Interaction: A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. xvi + 300 pp

Perakyla, A. — 2008-07-29

Book review: CHRIS BRAECKE, GEERT JACOBS, KATJA PELSMAEKERS and TOM VAN HOUT, Lodz Papers in Pragmatics. Special Issue on Discourse in Organizations. Lodz: Lodz University Press, 2006. 219pp. 25 (pbk)

Schnurr, S. — 2008-07-29

Book review: ROSALIND GILL, Gender and the Media. Cambridge: Polity, 2007. vi + 291 pp

Talbot, M. — 2008-07-29