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Our concern in this paper is to analyse public discourse from the point of view of "functional perspective" on speech in Eugenio Coseriu's sense, considering language as a phenomenon that must be explained in finalistic terms. With its distinction of three functional levels of language (universal, historical and individual) and departing from the knowledge of the speaker and the activity of speech, Coseriu's framework offers very adequate instruments for understanding what we can generally call public discourse (as well as other types of discourse). The aim of the present work is to show how we can describe the finality of a text taking into account different types of textual functions involved within discourse. We will focus on political and advertising discourses, two of the most dominant types within public discourse nowadays, and we will concentrate on examples from Romanian. ; Our concern in this paper is to analyse public discourse from the point of view of "functional perspective" on speech in Eugenio Coseriu's sense, considering language as a phenomenon that must be explained in finalistic terms. With its distinction of three functional levels of language (universal, historical and individual) and departing from the knowledge of the speaker and the activity of speech, Coseriu's framework offers very adequate instruments for understanding what we can generally call public discourse (as well as other types of discourse). The aim of the present work is to show how we can describe the finality of a text taking into account different types of textual functions involved within discourse. We will focus on political and advertising discourses, two of the most dominant types within public discourse nowadays, and we will concentrate on examples from Romanian. ; Our concern in this paper is to analyse public discourse from the point of view of "functional perspective" on speech in Eugenio Coseriu's sense, considering language as a phenomenon that must be explained in finalistic terms. With its distinction of three functional levels of language (universal, historical and individual) and departing from the knowledge of the speaker and the activity of speech, Coseriu's framework offers very adequate instruments for understanding what we can generally call public discourse (as well as other types of discourse). The aim of the present work is to show how we can describe the finality of a text taking into account different types of textual functions involved within discourse. We will focus on political and advertising discourses, two of the most dominant types within public discourse nowadays, and we will concentrate on examples from Romanian. ; Our concern in this paper is to analyse public discourse from the point of view of "functional perspective" on speech in Eugenio Coseriu's sense, considering language as a phenomenon that must be explained in finalistic terms. With its distinction of three functional levels of language (universal, historical and individual) and departing from the knowledge of the speaker and the activity of speech, Coseriu's framework offers very adequate instruments for understanding what we can generally call public discourse (as well as other types of discourse). The aim of the present work is to show how we can describe the finality of a text taking into account different types of textual functions involved within discourse. We will focus on political and advertising discourses, two of the most dominant types within public discourse nowadays, and we will concentrate on examples from Romanian. ; Our concern in this paper is to analyse public discourse from the point of view of "functional perspective" on speech in Eugenio Coseriu's sense, considering language as a phenomenon that must be explained in finalistic terms. With its distinction of three functional levels of language (universal, historical and individual) and departing from the knowledge of the speaker and the activity of speech, Coseriu's framework offers very adequate instruments for understanding what we can generally call public discourse (as well as other types of discourse). The aim of the present work is to show how we can describe the finality of a text taking into account different types of textual functions involved within discourse. We will focus on political and advertising discourses, two of the most dominant types within public discourse nowadays, and we will concentrate on examples from Romanian.

International audience ; European integration has raised hopes and concerns about its effect on the distribution of power among different actors, and in particular on the role of the civil society. Focusing on the Europeanization of public discourse in Italy as a case study, this article addresses the specific problem of the formation of supranational public spheres. On the basis of content analyses of daily press and interviews, we argue that various forms of Europeanization of the public discourse are indeed on the rise, with a growing presence not only of purely European actors but also of European targets and frames. Europeanization appears to have been traditionally a 'top-down' process: in fact the more Europeanized is a policy, actor, target or issue scope, the less civil society actors seem to have access to the public sphere. However, some changes across time emerge, with the development of (conflictual) forms of 'Europeanization from below'.

The concept of open development presupposes a greatly increased supply of information available to citizens on the issues, products, and services that shape their lives. It means that governments should make information on budgets accessible and intelligible, local authorities should provide access to information about the provision of services that citizens can expect, and donors should be transparent about what they are spending, specifying for what and why, and doing so in forms that beneficiaries can use.

This thesis analyzes the public discourse on foreigners and Muslims in Switzerland between 2000 and 2009. In Switzerland, as elsewhere in Europe, the debate on immigration, cultural identity and citizenship seems to focus more and more on the Muslim minority. While the Muslim population belonged to the generic group of foreigners in the public debate until recently, it seems that Muslims have become the main problem for integration in Switzerland. In the past decade, two direct democratic campaigns targeted Muslims, raising the question about the compatibility of Swiss and Muslim cultures. What makes Muslims a special group? How does the public discourse on Muslims differ from the portrayal of foreigners in general? Are Muslims perceived as the main threat to Swiss culture and gender equality? To answer these questions empirically, a quantitative content analysis of four major Swiss newspapers was conducted covering three direct democratic campaigns in the last decade. The aim of the analysis was to inductively grasp the discourse of institutional actors on Muslims and on foreigners in general and to discover the main similarities and differences between how these two categories are depicted. While the demographic composition of the Muslim minority has not changed much in the last decade, the way Muslims are perceived in public discourse did. While certain ethnic groups were still categorized as foreigners in 2000, they are more often assigned to the Muslim minority in 2009. The latter, even though of heterogeneous composition, is seen as a more and more homogeneous group causing problems in other fields than foreigners do. This change in discourse should lead to question the current academic and political debate on integration in Switzerland.

In public political discourse, figurative expressions used by one participant are often followed up and 'countered' by other participants through ironical and/or sarcastic allusions or quotations, which are aimed at denouncing the preceding version and/or deriving a new, contrarian conclusion from it. What is the relationship between the figurative template expression and its ironical or sarcastic variants? Using data from a corpus documenting 25 years of debate in Britain about the nation's place at the heart of Europe, this paper investigates the interplay of metaphor, irony and sarcasm in public discourse. We show that the 'discourse career' of this metaphorical slogan bifurcates into two strands, i.e. an affirmative, optimistic use vs deriding and ridiculing uses that depict the heart of Europe as diseased, dead, non-existent or rotten. It is argued that discourse participants need to retain the optimistic template version as a reference point in discourse memory to achieve the intended ironical and/or sarcastic effects, and that the latter are essential to keep the metaphoricity of the slogan 'alive'.

The topic of the thesis is the analysis of the use of concealing euphemisms (Luchtenberg 1985: 24) in English and Serbian public discourse. Concealing euphemisms reduce the negative expressive force of the utterance/sentence, avoid dispreferred and impose preferred constructions of reality. The thesis shows that it is possible to expose a concealing euphemism by identifying a non-euphemistic alternative that can be used in the same context. In relation to this, the main aim of thesis is to show that the recognition of concealing euphemisms includes both the structural (lexico-semantic) and the interpersonal (lexico-pragmatic, epistemic and discursive) levels of analysis. The theoretical background that unifies all the levels of analysis is relevance theory (Sperber and Wilson 1995 et al.). We use the corpus-assisted qualitative analysis; the corpus is based on American, British and Serbian concealing euphemisms taken from political speeches and newspaper articles. The analysis includes the lexicosemantic analysis, the lexico-pragmatic analysis and the analysis of discursive strategies. The results of the lexico-semantic analysis show that, in political speeches, rhetorical effects are preferred, and newspaper articles strive for more precision. The lexico-pragmatic analysis is based on the proposed pragmatic algorithm which shows that an epistemically vigilant hearer can identify a concealing euphemism by analyzing interpretive hypotheses in accordance with the information given in a specific context and type of discourse. Concealing euphemisms are also viewed as discursive strategies (Van Leeuwen 2008: 23–74). The examples of the analyzed strategies were found in all corpora; they show that the issue of responsibility and even the issue of morality of actions can be ignored. The thesis integrates cognitive, communicative, epistemic and social aspects of verbal manipulation, by means of which we provide an account of meaning construction that can be used in the interpretative stage of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough 1989 et al.), which studies representations of the world taken as common knowledge, which are actually socially instilled beliefs reproduced and perpetuated in language.

Purpose – the purpose of this article was to present the main features of classical rhetoric and to reveal their transformations, focusing, in particular, on Aristotle's theory of categories of persuasion, an important technique of rhetoric applied in modern public discourse. Design/methodology/approach – the paper is based on scientific literature analysis and comparative analysis of different types of public speeches from ancient times to the present day. Findings – the final thesis of this article states that, although the requirements for public speech have been modified throughout history, the ability to reach rhetorical persuasion depends on the capacity to speak under the canons of classical rhetoric. Moreover, the most effective communication strategy is based on the synthesis of logos, ethos and pathos categories and their application in modern public discourse. Practical implications – the paper reveals several practical implications important for leadership development. Ethical and effective eloquence is the key to leadership, encouraging young members of contemporary society to be equally responsible for preserving common values and overcoming global issues. The modern public discourse demonstrates an obvious tendency towards opposition in speaking and acting processes. This situation is conditioned by an obvious lack of synthesis of the logos, ethos and pathos categories in daily rhetoric activities. Although it is common to speak eloquently and convincingly, spoken words do not always match the actions taken, particularly in political discourse. Therefore, rhetoric values, such as res non verba taken from Antiquity, the cradle of European culture, ought to be included in the education and development system of future leaders. Research limitations/implications – the speakers selected for the scope of this review differ in terms of their intentions, purposes, and types of speeches, i.e. some are informative, while others are emotional or appealing. The difference in structure and type of public speeches limits the scope of the analysis. Moreover, an additional factor of distinct variables has to be taken in consideration analyzing modern public discourse, namely historical period, culture, age, religion, gender and occupation, and, last but not least, the circumstances of a public speech which can all have a negative impact on the evaluation of paper making the analysis superficial and incomplete. Originality/Value – within the great variety of rhetoric theories and conventions, some have been modified over time, although the fundamental ones remain unchanged to this day. This has not, however, reduced the significance of public speaking quite on the contrary public speaking has become a daily activity in everyone's life. Therefore, Aristotle's theory of rhetorical categories is an important approach to every public speaker and the most effective strategy leading to rhetorical persuasion. Moreover, the dissemination of rhetoric is promoted by a significant growth of communication throughout the world. Furthermore, stylistics, structural poetics, text linguistics, logic, advertising theory, pedagogy, psychology and other sciences are also based on the research of classical rhetorical traditions and transformations. By comparison, in the context of cultural integration, eloquence and the ability to communicate has become particularly important in social, political, educational or entrepreneurship activities.

Purpose – the purpose of this article was to present the main features of classical rhetoric and to reveal their transformations, focusing, in particular, on Aristotle's theory of categories of persuasion, an important technique of rhetoric applied in modern public discourse. Design/methodology/approach – the paper is based on scientific literature analysis and comparative analysis of different types of public speeches from ancient times to the present day. Findings – the final thesis of this article states that, although the requirements for public speech have been modified throughout history, the ability to reach rhetorical persuasion depends on the capacity to speak under the canons of classical rhetoric. Moreover, the most effective communication strategy is based on the synthesis of logos, ethos and pathos categories and their application in modern public discourse. Practical implications – the paper reveals several practical implications important for leadership development. Ethical and effective eloquence is the key to leadership, encouraging young members of contemporary society to be equally responsible for preserving common values and overcoming global issues. The modern public discourse demonstrates an obvious tendency towards opposition in speaking and acting processes. This situation is conditioned by an obvious lack of synthesis of the logos, ethos and pathos categories in daily rhetoric activities. Although it is common to speak eloquently and convincingly, spoken words do not always match the actions taken, particularly in political discourse. Therefore, rhetoric values, such as res non verba taken from Antiquity, the cradle of European culture, ought to be included in the education and development system of future leaders. Research limitations/implications – the speakers selected for the scope of this review differ in terms of their intentions, purposes, and types of speeches, i.e. some are informative, while others are emotional or appealing. The difference in structure and type of public speeches limits the scope of the analysis. Moreover, an additional factor of distinct variables has to be taken in consideration analyzing modern public discourse, namely historical period, culture, age, religion, gender and occupation, and, last but not least, the circumstances of a public speech which can all have a negative impact on the evaluation of paper making the analysis superficial and incomplete. Originality/Value – within the great variety of rhetoric theories and conventions, some have been modified over time, although the fundamental ones remain unchanged to this day. This has not, however, reduced the significance of public speaking quite on the contrary public speaking has become a daily activity in everyone's life. Therefore, Aristotle's theory of rhetorical categories is an important approach to every public speaker and the most effective strategy leading to rhetorical persuasion. Moreover, the dissemination of rhetoric is promoted by a significant growth of communication throughout the world. Furthermore, stylistics, structural poetics, text linguistics, logic, advertising theory, pedagogy, psychology and other sciences are also based on the research of classical rhetorical traditions and transformations. By comparison, in the context of cultural integration, eloquence and the ability to communicate has become particularly important in social, political, educational or entrepreneurship activities.

Purpose – the purpose of this article was to present the main features of classical rhetoric and to reveal their transformations, focusing, in particular, on Aristotle's theory of categories of persuasion, an important technique of rhetoric applied in modern public discourse. Design/methodology/approach – the paper is based on scientific literature analysis and comparative analysis of different types of public speeches from ancient times to the present day. Findings – the final thesis of this article states that, although the requirements for public speech have been modified throughout history, the ability to reach rhetorical persuasion depends on the capacity to speak under the canons of classical rhetoric. Moreover, the most effective communication strategy is based on the synthesis of logos, ethos and pathos categories and their application in modern public discourse. Practical implications – the paper reveals several practical implications important for leadership development. Ethical and effective eloquence is the key to leadership, encouraging young members of contemporary society to be equally responsible for preserving common values and overcoming global issues. The modern public discourse demonstrates an obvious tendency towards opposition in speaking and acting processes. This situation is conditioned by an obvious lack of synthesis of the logos, ethos and pathos categories in daily rhetoric activities. Although it is common to speak eloquently and convincingly, spoken words do not always match the actions taken, particularly in political discourse. Therefore, rhetoric values, such as res non verba taken from Antiquity, the cradle of European culture, ought to be included in the education and development system of future leaders. Research limitations/implications – the speakers selected for the scope of this review differ in terms of their intentions, purposes, and types of speeches, i.e. some are informative, while others are emotional or appealing. The difference in structure and type of public speeches limits the scope of the analysis. Moreover, an additional factor of distinct variables has to be taken in consideration analyzing modern public discourse, namely historical period, culture, age, religion, gender and occupation, and, last but not least, the circumstances of a public speech which can all have a negative impact on the evaluation of paper making the analysis superficial and incomplete. Originality/Value – within the great variety of rhetoric theories and conventions, some have been modified over time, although the fundamental ones remain unchanged to this day. This has not, however, reduced the significance of public speaking quite on the contrary public speaking has become a daily activity in everyone's life. Therefore, Aristotle's theory of rhetorical categories is an important approach to every public speaker and the most effective strategy leading to rhetorical persuasion. Moreover, the dissemination of rhetoric is promoted by a significant growth of communication throughout the world. Furthermore, stylistics, structural poetics, text linguistics, logic, advertising theory, pedagogy, psychology and other sciences are also based on the research of classical rhetorical traditions and transformations. By comparison, in the context of cultural integration, eloquence and the ability to communicate has become particularly important in social, political, educational or entrepreneurship activities.

This Essay identifies and elaborates two complications raised by Robert Post's Democracy, Expertise, and Academic Freedom, and in doing so attempts to show how Post's theory can account for constitutional protection of the press. The first complication is a potential circularity arising from the relationships between the concepts of democratic legitimation, public discourse, and protected social practices. Democratic legitimation predicates First Amendment coverage on participation in public discourse, whose boundaries are defined as those social practices necessary for the formation of public opinion. But close examination of the relationships between these three concepts raises the question of whether public discourse and social practices can do any analytic work independent of the value of democratic legitimation, or instead are simply labels for speech that furthers it. Consideration of the press helps to illuminate the problem and a potential solution. The second complication is the interface between expert knowledge and public discourse. Post's theory of democratic competence convincingly explains how such knowledge is created and circulated outside of public discourse. But in order to inform self-governance, expert knowledge must ultimately be disseminated into public discourse. The theory does not yet account for how this happens, nor how such expert knowledge can serve an informative function, given that public discourse transmutes claims of expert knowledge into statements of opinion. Again, the press serves as an illustrative and important example.

Taylor & Francis The changing political environment in Hong Kong is likely to accelerate the transition in environmental policy discourse. Opportunities for critical public involvement are increasing and new environmental discourses are emerging. Yet, previous social surveys did not explore the range of these discourses and few focused on climate change. The paper outlines the public discourses of climate change in Hong Kong. Using Q-methodology, four distinctive discourses were identified, namely Pure Environmentalism, Political Pragmatism, Popular Optimism, and Fair Rationalism. While the first one is climate-centric, the other three are political or social in nature and do not indicate a clear or coherent climate orientation. This suggests that the climate change concern of the Hong Kong public is not tightly embedded into a coherent narrative of social and institutional transformation. Effective climate change governance and policies require strengthening the link between such concern and the public desires for social and institutional transformation. Bringing together the ongoing social movements and environmental campaigns will be instrumental to nurture an active climate citizenry. ; postprint

The current situation in Zimbabwe under the ZANU-PF government shows increasing signs of abuse of power by those in political control. They also direct their desire to suppress criticism towards the media. Press organs in private ownership have been closed down and journalists have been physically harassed, arrested and expelled. Laws are abused to regulate and manipulate public opinion by a policy of banning. Worldwide condemnation of the growing restrictions upon the freedom of expression goes hand in hand with the protests inside the country against the growing tendencies of totalitarian rule. Current events are critically reflected upon and the background to these developments is summarised in this publication. It is based on some of the contributions to a recent conference on Zimbabwe organised by the Nordic Africa Institute and offers insights into the contested space of public opinion in Zimbabwe. The critical analyses of current developments are there-by complemented with particular reference to the media sector in the ongoing battle for hegemonic control over the public sphere. ; CONTENTS -- Inside the "Third Chimurenga": Media Repression, Manipulationand Hegemony in Zimbabwe - Some Introductory Notes. Henning Melber -- From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe: Change without Change?Broadcasting Policy Reform and Political Control. Dumisani Moyo -- Redefining the National Agenda:Media and Identity - Challenges of Building a New Zimbabwe. Sarah Chiumbu -- Bibliography -- Appendices: -- Resolutions passed by the 53rd General Assembly of the International Press Institute (IPI) in Warsaw/Poland -- Press Release by the World Association of Newspapers (Paris) June 2, 2004

The Internet is often praised for its ability to provide a space to enable every person to present her or his view, thus (potentially) allowing for more inclusion and participation in the public discussion. This potential has led many scholars to examine online discussions and see what these can contribute to democracy and the public sphere. These investigations, however, often focus on a single aspect of online discourse: the actual content. It is important to realise that discourse is not constructed in a vacuum: in addition to the text, there is the environment in which the text is produced and consumed as well as the wider social practice to which it belongs. Every instance of language use, including that of online political communication, is a communicative event that consists of three dimensions: the text; the "discursive practice which involves the production and consumption of texts"; and the social practice (Jorgensen & Philips 2002, 68). Though important, the discursive and social practices are often neglected in studies of online political communication. The potential of the Internet for opening up public discourse cannot be fully evaluated if the context in which it is produced is ignored and if issues of power involved in this context are not addressed. In this article I introduce an integrated approach that looks at all three of the aforementioned dimensions of online public discourse from a critical discourse analytical perspective. The proposed mixed method approach allows for an examination and evaluation of the discourse in context, thus broadening the scope of explorations.

This article describes how a small but vocal group of biomedical scientists propagates the views that either HIV is not the cause of AIDS, or that it does not exist at all. When these views were rejected by mainstream science, this group took its views and arguments into the public domain, actively campaigning via newspapers, radio, and television to make its views known to the lay public. I describe some of the harmful consequences of the group's activities, and ask two distinct ethical questions: what moral obligations do scientists who hold such minority views have with regard to a scientifically untrained lay audience, and what moral obligations do mainstream newspapers and government politicians have when it comes to such views. The latter question will be asked because the "dissidents" succeeded for a number of years in convincing the South African government of the soundness of their views. The consequences of their stance affected millions of HIV infected South Africans severely.

The first half of the 20th century excluding the Reza Shah period is unique in the whole history of Persian literature in the amount of satire, lampoons and invectives which were published largely though not entirely through the press, and usually with a political motive. It was characteristic of Iranian history that the fall of an arbitrary state, often even the death of a ruler, led to division and chaos. The first quarter of the twentieth century was a period of revolution, chaos and coup. And in the period after the fall of Reza Shah up to the 1953 coup, chaos was resumed and was once again accompanied by licentious journalism and pamphleteering.