Historical news discourse as source of fake news and representations
The proseminar aims to develop an understanding of discourse structures and language devices used in the processes of opinion making (e.g. presentation of fake news) that characterise both historical and contemporary media. This involves issues of reliability of contents and representations created by periodical press from the 18th century onwards. The course introduces (socio)pragmatic approaches to historical news discourse, focusing on social identities, gender, culture, distribution of power, marginalised groups, etc. Specific genres of news to be covered include, among others, classified and commercial advertising, letters to the editor, crime reports. A transnational perspective on news circulation is adopted allowing for comparisons across Polish and English historical news.
Students will be responsible for the reading assigned for a given class and will be evaluated on the basis of oral and online written assignments. Following the introductory part of the course, the students will be asked to prepare individual (or group) presentations on a selected topic.
- Nauczyciel: Matylda Włodarczyk