Media Genre of BBC Monitoring Briefing: A Linguistic Rhetorical Approach

Abstract

This article examines the rhetoric of text organisation in the media hypo-genre of the BBC Monitoring briefing defined as a verbalised techno-textual scheme of interaction between authors and the mass audience so as to briefly summarise reports from other media outlets about one or more events. The application of the rhetorical canons to the study of BBC Monitoring briefing texts brings about the following findings. From the media perspective, the texts, accompanied by photographic materials and infographics, are placed in the centre of a webpage and consist of the headline, the introduction "At a glance", and the "Full Story" section. The "At a glance" introduction briefly dwells on the main events indicated in the headline. The "Full Story" section elaborates on the content of both the headline and the introduction. Both sections are structured symmetrically to the headline, i.e. front the linguistic unitsreferring to media sources or event participants while the predicates denote their activity. The selection of naming means in the text depends on the subject matter, which in the reports under analysis covers the war in Ukraine, Russia's relationships with former Soviet republics, new allies, enemies, as well as state institutions. The analysis of forty headlines representing BBC Monitoring briefing genre reveals two main characteristics of word usage. First, most headlines begin with reference to the source of information by constructions that consist of the country name and the type of media source. These are followed by predicates that denote the action of the referents named at the beginning of a paragraph. Second, the predicates are combined with subordinate clauses or constructions that denote the event itself.