Giuliana Elena Garzone – författare

The studies collected in this volume contribute to shedding light on the multi-faceted complexity and stratification of identity within the context of corporate communication, by definition characterized by the interplay and intersection among genres, discursive practices and communicative events involving both individual and collective actors. The texts investigated include openly promotional genres specifically aimed at constructing and promoting a company’s image in the marketplace, such as those used in sponsorship and advertising, as well as organizational genres which in spite of their primarily operational purpose also incorporate cues aimed at the planned self-representation of the enterprise. The arguments presented in the various chapters and the research results supporting them bring evidence to the crucial role discourse plays in the construction of corporate identity at all levels.

This book brings together a selection of papers originally presented at the fifth conference on Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise (DICOEN V) held in Milan in September 2009, and mainly focuses on the relevance of discourse and communication to the world of business and organizations as seen from a variety of disciplines (linguistics, communication studies, management studies, sociology, marketing). What unites the contributions is the discursive framework they adopt for the analysis of corporate communication, looking at it as a situated activity in a broadly constructionist paradigm. The various sections are organized along an internal-to-external-communication gradient, starting from the analysis of communication within a company’s ordinary operational activities and moving gradually towards types of discourse that are specifically aimed at communication to the public at large, including their representation in the media. The picture that emerges is a good approximation to an accurate and updated snapshot of the state of the art in research and expertise in the area of corporate and institutional communication.

This volume explores genres in Web-mediated communication in a discourse-analytical perspective, focusing in particular on genre change and evolution under the pressure of technological renewal, the availability of new affordances, and the consequent emergence of new generic conventions that challenge traditional genre theory. The chapters are organised in an ideal progression from websites and more ‘traditional’ Web applications to Web 2.0 communicative platforms, characterised as they are by user participation and user-generated content, focusing in the final section on blogging and microblogging as the applications that are most representative of the properties of the new platforms. In all chapters the starting point is an awareness of the need to renew or adapt existing analytical tools to make them applicable to the new objects of investigation.

This volume focuses on the evolution of genres in specialized communication under the pressure of technological innovations and the profound social changes triggered by globalization in the contemporary world, in a context where rapid and extensive changes in communicative practices, patterns and technologies have deeply affected the generic configuration of professional and disciplinary domains.These developments call for a reconsideration of the repertoires of conventions traditionally identified in each specific genre as well as for a reassessment of the analytical tools used to investigate them, about three decades after the emergence of genre analysis.

The contributions collected in this book deal with the representation of conflict in the periodical press, which has often been an arena of adversarial stances, staged and enacted either within the same publication or enlarged to involve various newspapers and magazines in a series of provocations and replies. Underlying all the contributions is the awareness that the periodical press provides an ideal terrain for research on the discursive representation of conflict, having the prerogative to combine insight with a constant updating of the debate. The issue is approached in an interdisciplinary perspective, bringing linguistics and discourse analysis with Periodical Studies, hence highlighting the connection between language and ideology. The focus on lexical choices and rhetorical devices used to tackle current controversial issues such as Brexit, immigration, violence in sports, policies regarding health and food, women’s role and legal matters ultimately transcends national boundaries to become more widely representative of today’s discourses of conflict.

This book approaches the issue of ideology in specialized communication in professional, institutional and disciplinary settings across domains as diverse as law, healthcare, corporate management, migration, NGOs, etc. What unites the contributors is their commitment to a discourse view of language use, i.e., the view that organisational and professional practices are rooted in social, ideological orders, although a variety of perspectives on the exact nature of the relationship between ideology and discourse can be discerned in individual chapters. The acts of interpretation – by participants and analysts alike – are invested in ideology, explicitly or implicitly. This manifest/hidden duality surrounding ideology-in-discourse constitutes the main focus. Challenging the traditional presumption of objectivity, impersonality and non-involvement that has often characterized research on Language for Specific Purposes, this book demonstrates how the specialized communication setting is a critical site where ideology is intrinsically embodied in discursive practices.