The discursive field in the media

Abstract

Based on the notion of pivot-terms, re-dimensioned under the perspective of theme and discursive event (GUILHAUMOU et al, 1994), one detected, on the 05/7/1998 edition of the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, a discursive field (MAINGUENEAU, 1984) constituted from the terms drought/sack, involving 10 texts from different genres. The analysis delimits the produced meanings in each discursive event and the interlocutory effects that its insertion in the field produces, under the mode of reciprocal refutation (COURTINE, 1981). The conflictive discursive formations, which are manifested in the field, relate to the ideal of impartiality of today’s journalism, but the field shaping, a result from the interpretative move of the newspaper, is in itself a producer of meanings.