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‘Infosuasion’ in European Newspapers: A Case Study on the War in Kosovo 207

testimony, the consolidation of an event. The textum relates to its internal
structure. This looks at the way in which a text is produced, starting with its
framework and ending up with its narrative scheme. 2
In this study the analysis of the textum concentrated on singling out figures
3
of speech and the use of persuasive techniques. These techniques were selected
in a previous research project using the extensive literature on the subject
(Savarese, 1995).
The techniques can be divided into two groups. The first group contains tech-
niques based on gestures and speech. These originate in the speeches made in
the Roman forum. These techniques, typical of the rhetorical approach to per-
suasion, are based on language and on the credibility and fame of their source.
Moreover, some of these strategies consist in a single communicative act such as
a single word.
The second group contains those techniques that go further than the explicit
use of speech and gestures. Often the real message is implicit, if not completely
concealed. All possible forms of communication (verbal, non-verbal and para-
verbal) are employed. They are part of a persuasive strategy which consists of
more than one communicative act. 4
Moreover, the analysis of the textum examines the narrative structure of each
article (report or comment), using Greimas’s (1983) method (to determine the
heroes, the missions, etc.). This method is an elaboration of Russian formalists’
narratology, which enables one to adapt the narratological scheme of any text
that contains a sequence of events. In fact, according to narratology, telling a
story means narrating the transformations which during an event make one
situation turn into another. Following Greimas’s method these transformations
happen at different stages.
In general, in every narrative there is only one hero and one anti-hero. Friends
and enemies on the other hand can be numerous, as can be the value objects. We
limited our research to finding the most important of these: friends, enemies,
value objects. It is also necessary to underline the fact that following Greimas’s
methodology, narrative roles are not necessarily filled by humans but can also be
attributed to abstract or inanimate objects.
Following this method an analysis schedule consisting of a series of multiple
choice answers was prepared and tested on different daily newspapers by five
analysts, who were all mother-tongue graduates. The interpretation of the articles
according to the schedule is without doubt more reliable if the reader-analyst
shares the same cultural background as the model reader and author. Even after
taking this into account, the actual analysis began after an initial preparation
period of three weeks of pretesting and discussion.
The strategy used to analyse data follows both the usual paths taken in
descriptive statistical analysis and the method perfected by Lebart et al. (1977)
known as ‘multiple correspondence analysis’ (MCA). This instrument enables
the contemporaneous elaboration of a large number of qualitative variables
5
after they have been converted into quantitative variables. The aim of MCA is
to analyse the structure of the associations among the various modalities of
the variables observed using a questionnaire as a function of latent variables or
factors underlying the data. In other words, MCA allows the structure underlying