Page 221 - Communication Theory and Research

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206 Communication Theory & Research
Competition with television has forced newspapers to develop a new way
of communicating that gets people’s attention and emotive involvement. The
circular relationship between the printed press and television led several researchers
to speak of a ‘media logic’, as early as the beginning of the 1970s (Altheide and
Snow, 1979). In confirmation of this idea, one can recall the complete graphic
transformation that many western newspapers underwent in the 1980s, which
started with the launch of the American newspaper USA Today. This process
climaxed with the introduction of four-colour printing in the daily press (Savarese,
1991). This contributed to an increase in the persuasive aspect of journalistic com-
munication in general. The object of this study is therefore to look at journalistic
discourse as a form of persuasive communication.
In analogy with the concept of ‘infotainment’ we have coined the term ‘info-
suasion’, i.e. mixed and persuasive information. It is a fact that simply reporting
someone else’s point of view can have a persuasive effect if it is not offset by
different points of view. The ‘infosuasion’ hypothesis, however, goes even further
and considers as elements of persuasive language not only the explicitly reported
opinions but also the use of figures of speech, already used in ancient rhetoric,
modern propaganda techniques and narrative structure itself. Such persuasive
techniques are used either deliberately or unwittingly to convince the public of
a certain point of view (for or against something) without being explicit, and
are part of journalistic routine. A restrictive interpretation of persuasion and of
the way in which it acts in terms of language would in fact ultimately leave
the media with a wide-ranging freedom and a restrictive conception of objectiv-
ity (Tuchman, 1972). In other words, a restrictive interpretation of the concept
of persuasion would endorse a formal, rather than a substantial, conception of
objectivity.
The aim of this article is to evaluate the type of information produced
by European newspapers during the war in Kosovo. It specifically looks at the
ways of communicating used in newspapers in France, Spain, Italy, the UK and
Germany, before and during the first days of NATO’s aerial operations.
NATO’s armed intervention against Milosevic’s government in spring 1999 is
an extremely interesting case study both for the enormous amount of western
press coverage and because of the similar analysis done during the crisis in the
Persian Gulf (Savarese, 1992). During this earlier event, the US-led coalition
intervened with military force against Iraq, which had invaded Kuwait.
On the strength of the results of the previous case study, it has been possible
to apply some of the same hypotheses to the crisis in Kosovo. In particular, we
look at the idea that a ‘media logic’ is a common denominator among the biggest
and most well-known daily European newspapers with regard to their selection,
production and diffusion of news.

Methodology

The investigation was conducted on newspaper articles, in their twofold dimen-
sion as testis and as textum. The testis refers to the significance of a text as