An analysis of arabic media discourse in algeria

Abstract

It wouldn’t be new to affirm that a newspaper as an official document is assigned, among other things, a role of implementing the national and official language as stipulated in the constitution. However, a considerable number of sources conclude that the informative function of such a document necessitates displaying clarity in its language writing in order to facilitate the comprehension of the messages intended to mass public consumption. Thus, a language in newspaper has to be used in a way to appeal to the common sense of the readers addressed to. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that relying on the everyday spoken varieties of the society is instrumental in achieving that end. In this regard, the study under review is premised on the assumption that the recognition of the sociolinguistic reality of Algerian society in one of its public institution, namely national daily newspapers can serve as a model which is relevant to the promotion of the national official language-Standard Arabic- despite some major breach when considering the Arabisation policy. It is from this view of things that the present work attempts to preach the virtues of considering the existing local varieties of Algerian society though its recognition occurs in tandem with the appropriate newspaper’s writing strategies. With this end in view, this project is primarily based on the analysis of language newspaper discourse as it is produced in a sample of Algerian national dailies edited in Arabic. It also relies on relevant available statistical data. T he study starts by exhibiting some theoretical aspects about discourse and news discourse in particular. This is followed by shedding some light on a repertoire of newspaper discourse strategies, clarifying its type and function. The aim is to argue that these language devices are linguistic (formal links) and extra-linguistic techniques. Both types are used to assure cohesion and coherence in newspaper discourse language. At the same time, it is important to mention that the nonlinguistic tactics derive their meanings from the society. This implies that this sort of language devices does not operate in a social or cultural void. Instead, it is rather part of the general socio-cultural structure of the society from which it derives its meaning. Such alignment between the society and the language undoubtedly led us to explore the effects of the sociopolitical changes on Algerian newspapers especially on their language use from the colonial era till the present time. With the aim to focus on the quantitative aspect of these papers edited both in Arabic and French languages. This in turn is compared to the results study of the international body ‘Immar Maghreb’s survey conducted on Algerian media landscape