Hala Abdulrahman Alwohaibi, and Hesham Suleiman Alyousef*
English Department, College of Language Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Abstract:
Introduction: Investigating patterns of dialogic engagement in newspaper articles can help inform novice writers of effective writing strategies that can increase their readers’ engagement and interest. The study aimed to identify the linguistic features used to engageand sustain readers’ interest in sports newspaper articles and explore related research within a systemic functional linguistics framework.Methodology: A corpus of 9,000 words from 14 different sports newspaper articles was analyzed using the UAM CorpusTool softwarefollowing Appraisal Theory proposed by Martin and White (2005).Results: The study revealed that writers of sports news employed various linguistic and discourse strategies, including evaluative language, to create engagement. The findings suggest that heteroglossic instances were more common compared to monoglossic ones. Moreover, the writers preferred to use contract resources more frequently than expand resources. Disclaim resources had a higher frequency than proclaim resources, while attribute and entertain resources werealmost equally used.Conclusion: According to the findings,sports news writers use a range of grammatical structures and vocabulary choices to create a sense of immediacy and establish the relevance of the reported events.
1. Introduction:
Sports news is a ubiquitous genre that plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and creating a sense of community among its readers. Theability of sports news writers to engage their readers and sustain their interest is critical to the genre’s success.The World Cup is one of the world’s most widely followed and closely watched sporting events. The tournament, held every four years, brings together some of the best national teams from around the globe to compete for the world champion title. The World Cup is not only a sports event but also a cultural and social event, as it reflects the diversity of cultures and societies participating.The World Cup also generates significant media coverage in terms of the tournament itself and the teams and players involved (Haynes & Boyle, 2017). Previous studies have indicatedthat the World Cup tournament generates a significant amount of media coverage. For example, studies by Bettine (2019)on the World Cup 2014 in Brazil and Makarychev (2022)on the media coverage of the World Cup 2018 in Russia revealedthat the tournament received extensive coverage in international media, focusing on the teams, players, and matches, as well as the host country. Thus, The World Cup has been the subject of numerous studies in various fields, such as politics, media, and sports. In addition to the media coverage of the World Cup, studies have also explored the representation of different nations and teams in the media. A study by Ngomba (2014)on the media representation of African teams at the World Cup indicatedthat they were often portrayed negatively, focusing on their lack of success and failure. Similarly, a study by Lee and Choi (2009)on media representation of Asian teams at the World Cup demonstratedthat the teams were often portrayed as underdogs and not takenseriously as potential winners.
