Comparing seventeenth-century news broadsides and occasional news pamphlets: interrelatedness in news reporting

In this paper I shall anayse the various forms of linguistic interrelatedness existing between 17th-century news broadsides and occasional news pamphlets at the level of news presentation on the front page and at the level of the body of the news. In particular, I shall be considering the news values responsible for common lexical choices and discourse constructions and whether, and to what extent, broadsides and pamphlets anticipate text-organising principles of modern journalism. By drawing upon van Dijk's (1988) persuasive content features of modern journalism and to his news schema categories, I shall concentrate on providential news about natural disasters and prodigies. The analysis of the discourse fluctuation existing between the two genres will eventually shed some light on the ideology and priorities held in Protestant England and on the communal strategies adopted to have them accepted by people.