The armada is coming: Editorialese strategies in economic comment columns

Abstract

This paper analyses the economic comment columns of the British electronic versions of The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent when dealing with the numerous examples of Spanish corporations that have crossed the Channel in order to buy British companies. Firstly a classification of the strategies present in these articles will be provided. Then, I shall analyse the results. For this purpose I shall resort to Baker's recent adaptation (2006) of Bruner's narrative theory (1991), which attempts to reflect upon the ways in which various types of conflicts are reflected in the news. I shall cover the sample by identifying framing patterns (Baker 2006: 104ff) in the discursive construction of the texts: ambiguity, labelling and repositioning of participants. I shall put two issues to the test: whether the British news media project a negative view of the arrival of Spanish capital and whether this view is present to the same extent in the four media.

Key words: Editorialese strategies, economic comment columns, narrative theory,discursive construction of the texts.