Evaluation in the Professional Media Texts and Blogs

Abstract

Purpose. The article focuses on the investigation of evaluation and its types in professional (quality press news texts) and non-professional media texts (blog posts) in Russian, German and English. A quantitative and qualitative evaluation analysis is proposed. For quantitative analysis, I propose the method of calculating the evaluative index of media text (the percentage of evaluative means, or evaluatives, to total words number in the text), and for qualitative analysis several types of evaluative contexts are differed and described. Results. The number of evaluation means and the evaluative index is a rather variable indicator, which depends on the length of the text, the subject of the message, the genre and the author's style. In general, blogs demonstrate a higher evaluative index than texts of professional media. The qualitative analysis shows, that in both professional and nonprofessional media texts the means of rational evaluation prevail. This can be explained by the fact, that journalists and bloggers seek for objectivity as well as by the variety of evaluated aspects in this case (object / subject of the action, its characteristics, the act itself, quantitative indicators, etc.). The number of emotional evaluation means is somewhat higher in blogs, where the authors are not bound by the requirements of editorial policy and choose the subject of the message themselves, which is very topical. The results of the analysis demonstrate a preference of emotive evaluatives with negative semantics, which is due to the wish of the journalists to reveal some negative aspects of the life. Conclusion. The study of evaluation in media texts, and especially the description of hidden evaluation mechanisms, seems to be very promising in media linguistics, because of its active usage and development nowadays and because of the need to develop critical thinking of each person who must see evaluative contexts and understand them.