WA - 2MA Eng Phil (2024/25)

Fake news then and today: Historical news discourse 

The supplementary seminar focuses on the developing discourse and conventions of the printed media since the beginnings of periodical press in the 17^th century. News production and dissemination is viewed in a transnational perspective, while the approaches discussed include historical (socio)pragmatics, (corpus-assisted) discourse analysis, content analysis and stylistics. The data to be analysed in the seminar covers a broad array of themes, including political, cultural, social, foreign affairs and conflicts, health and medicine, law, fashion, leisure, advertising and sports. Historical news discourse is presented through the lense of language and discourse devices designed to create trustworthiness that is often achieved through manipulation, distortion of facts, misinformation and fakes. Moreover, the seminar aims to develop an understanding of the impact of technologies of communication on discourse domains.

Students will be responsible for the reading assigned for classes and will be evaluated on the basis of in-class activities, as well as oral and written assignments. Following the introductory part of the course, the students will be asked to prepare individual (or group) presentations on a selected topic in the field.

15-DA-11