Communicative and Cognitive Dimensions of Discourse on Science in the French Mass Media

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5966414
AutoresSophie Moirand (0000-0002-8651-3629, cediscor-syled, université paris 3-sorbonne nouvelle, autor correspondente)
Ano2003
Volume5
Fascículo2
Páginas175-206
Data de publicação2003-05-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDiscourse Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-4456 • E-ISSN: 1461-7080
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1461445603005002003
OpenAlexW2013196978
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas28
Referências citadas13

The emergence of a `new' discourse on science in connection with events to do with the environment, food safety or public health (e.g. the BSE crisis, genetically modified organisms, dioxins in chickens) has caused questions to be raised concerning the suitability of the triangular communication model generally applied to scientific popularization, i.e. in which there is an `intermediary' discourse plying between science and the general public. This `traditional' discourse would appear, then, to co-exist alongside the new discourse. The pragmatic functions of these two separate discourses on science are compared here by looking at the linguistic and discursive variations which characterize their communicative and cognitive dimensions. In the new discourse on science, which has come to light over the past few years, the strict task of `popularizing' (i.e. explaining science) appears to have been dropped in favour of explaining the social stakes of the issues in question: thus the typically didactic and scientific nature of the cognitivo-discursive category, explanation (as demonstrated in a previous research project concerning media discourse on astronomy) can be seen to make way for a different type of explanation, which uses an interdiscursive memory bank built upon the productions of the mass media destined for the general public

Civil discourse · Cognition · Discourse analysis · Epistemology · Linguistics · Mass media · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Public awareness of science · Public discourse · Science communication · Science education · Sociology · Cultural Insights and Digital Impacts · Diverse multidisciplinary academic research · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology