An analysis of news headlines under the light of Relevance Theory, newsworthiness and sensationalism

Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira; Gustavo Ximenes Cunha; Bruna Monteiro de Siqueira

doi:10.22168/2237-6321-22084

Authors

Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1857-0207
Gustavo Ximenes Cunha Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9953-1204
Bruna Monteiro de Siqueira Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7005-531X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22168/2237-6321-22084

Keywords:

News headlines. Relevance theory. Newsworthiness.

Abstract

From the perspective of the Relevance Theory, an utterance is considered “relevant” to the extent that its positive cognitive effects are large and the mental processing effort is small. Taken that news headlines may be designed to optimize relevance, as well as to promote newsworthiness and sensationalism, the central aim of this study is to analyze Brazilian news headlines in an attempt to associate some tenets of Relevance Theory to the notions of newsworthiness and sensationalism. In order to carry out the study, 56 front pages from major Brazilian newspapers, extracted from the Corpus de Manchetes Brasileiras (CMB – Brazilian News headline Corpus), were analyzed. After the main headlines were identified, a sample was formed in order to carry out the qualitative analysis. The results showed how news headlines packed information in such a way that the news items many times appeared more significant and novel than it was the case. More particularly, the study also demonstrated how the headlines analyzed typically connected the concept of newsworthiness to the principles of Relevance Theory, while also working as click-baits to attract the reader to the news story.

Author Biographies

Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Professora da Faculdade de Letras da UFMG e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos (POSLIN/UFMG). É pesquisadora do Núcleo de Estudos da Língua em Uso (NELU/UFMG) e do Grupo de Estudos sobre Pragmática, Texto e Discurso (GEPTED/UFMG). É membro do GT Descrição do Português, da ANPOLL.
Gustavo Ximenes Cunha, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Professor da Faculdade de Letras da UFMG e do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos (POSLIN/UFMG). É pesquisador do Núcleo de Estudos da Língua em Uso (NELU/UFMG), do Grupo de Estudos sobre Pragmática, Texto e Discurso (GEPTED/UFMG) e do Grupo de Estudos sobre Discurso Midiático (GEDIM/UFES). É membro do GT Descrição do Português, da ANPOLL. É bolsista de Produtividade em Pesquisa do CNPq - nível 2.
Bruna Monteiro de Siqueira, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Graduanda do curso de Letras, da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

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