Financial Discourse Under Financial Crisis 2007-2008

Introduction

This paper studies financial columnists’ writing under the 2007-08 economic crash from world-leader newspapers such as Wall-Street-Journal, National-Post, Globe-and-Mail, and New-York-Times and related materials from the point of view of genre analysis. Particularly, the studies will focus on writings (texts) produced by financial columnists in Globe-and-Mail, and New-York-Times from the year 2008-2009. The period considered has been discussed as involving instability that resulted in global-saving gluts, as well as mortgage-backed economic innovations which were precursory to the crunch. The selection of the papers for this investigation is based on the fact that they are leading published media both in the United States and in Canada; based on remarkable existing records. And then, the choice for selecting columnists’ writing and evaluating same through data analysis is fostered by the conviction that columnists’ writings are better monitored, critically analyzed, fantastically interpreted, as well as (most often than not) holistically reported opinions which are filed with the consistently defined genre.

Genre-analysis may be viewed as been an absolute reflection of complexities involved in the institutionalized-communication world, or it could be considered to be a pedagogic effect or a perfect device for designing language-teaching programs which are most of the time found alongside virtual classroom-activity contests.

The paper then will respond to certain traumatic events under financial crisis, such as a subprime mortgage, homeless, bailout (save the car companies), RMB rate change through The-Theory-of-the-Binary-Oppositions, and The-Theory-of-‘The Other’.

The following questions will be addressed:

• Is there an identification of any differences in genre between the columnists’ writing in Global-and-Main and New-York-Times or Canadian and American leading newspapers? An attempt will also be made to address questions on ‘in what ways and why are these differences notable?’
• What genre classification method is fundamental and practicable to the columnists’ writing in the newspapers?
• Can the genre’s categorization be measured by how well the public accepts the columnists’ writing as being valid?

Methodology

The paper will be based on rhetoric-genre and will attempt to diagnose the consistency of genre used in the newspapers mentioned earlier. Several scholars have identified similar publications which have been noted to possess a sort of genre. In any case, considering genre analysis to be a rhetoric tool provides authors and readers wider chances to better understand a particular subject matter as it has been noted:

‘Genres are not free-standing entities, but are actually intimately connected and interactive amongst themselves’ (Wittgenstein, 1953).

Rhetoric-genre identifies that the generation of genres is author-based, reader-based, publisher-based, and the entirety of social-forces arrays are expressed on works at various stages in the production stage which makes the effort of identifying the value of genre’s contexts.

The methodology will employ the usage of collected texts from newspapers, websites, and from observations that relate to the investigated genre in consideration.

The theoretical background

The genre concept provides for possible reorganization of linkages even at instances of much diversification. Studies have reviewed:

‘The potential of genre modification is inherent in every act of communication’ (Esslin, 2010).

The utilization of genre effectively in analyzing events, as is used by a newspaper columnist in analyzing the economic crunch typifies social/rhetoric actions (Jenkins, 2009) and makes genre communication purposeful (Pfister, 2008). This agrees with the theory-of-economic that identifies social-system designing; by which means, language is a communicative mechanism that endeavors to distinguish optimized functional analysis as has been by Seib (1995).

Just as it is the situation with reading-within-genres, a knowledge-base of conventional genre results in passive-generic-text consumptions; in order words, it makes much sense for a genre-text to be an active procedure for the construction. As investigated from the financial columnists’ writings, The-Theory-of-the-Binary-Oppositions supposes that cultural myths assume a binary-pair-of-opposite-terms structure which endeavors to reduce complicated conflicts equivalently, and The-Theory-of-‘The Other’ depicts a sense of time of the reported event. Consistency with these theories is notable with Global-and-Main and New-York-Times articles on the subject matter. For example, the report on Warren Buffett’s consistent optimistic view of the United States’ economic uproar in the Globe-and-Mail of Saturday, February 26 this year returns the emphatic usage of The-Theory-of-the-Binary-Oppositions.

A list of relevant works

The following information may be used in the work:

1. Ahrend, Rudiger, Boris Cournède and Robert Price (2008), ―Monetary Policy, Market Excesses and Financial Turmoil‖, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 597, OECD, Paris.
2. Ahrend, Rudiger, Pietro Catte and Robert Price (2006), ―Monetary Policy, Market Excesses and Financial Turmoil‖, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 490, OECD, Paris.
3. Bazerman C., (1993): “Foreword to” N. R. Blyler & C. S. Thralls (ed), Professional Communication: The Social Perspective, London, SAGE Publications. Pp. VII- VIII.
4. Bazerman, C. (1999). The Languages of Edison’s Light. Cambridge, MA: MIT.
5. Bazerman, C. (2000). Singular utterances: realizing local activities through typified forms in typified circumstances.”. ed. Anna Trosberg.Benjamins.
6. Bazerman, C., (1994): “Systems of genres and the enactment of social intentions”, in A Freedman & P. Medway (eds.), Genre and the new rhetoric, (79-101), London, Taylor and Francis.
7. Berkenkotter, C., & T. N. Huckin, (1995): Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication – Cognition / Culture/ Power, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
8. Berkenkotter, C., Huckin, T. N. & Ackerman, J. (1991). Social context.
9. Bhatia V. K., (1995): “Genre-mixing and in professional communication: The case of ‘private intentions’ v. ‘socially recognised purposes’”, in P. Bruthiaux, T. Boswood, & B. Bertha, (eds.), Explorations in English for Professional Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
10. Bhatia, V. K., (1997a): “Genre- Mixing in Academic Introductions”, in English for Specific Purposes, 16, 3, (181-196).
11. Bhatia, V. K., (1997b): “Power and politics of genre”, in World Englishes, 16,3, (359- 372).
12. Bhatia, V. K., (1998a): “Discourse of Philanthropic Fund-raising”, in Working Papers, IU Center for Philanthropy, University of Indiana, Indianapolis.
13. Bhatia, V. K., (1998b): “Generic Conflicts in Academic Discourse”, in I. Fontanet, J.C. Palmer, S. Posteguillo, J.F. Coll (eds.).
14. Bhatia, V. K., (1999a): “Integrating products, processes, purposes and participants in professional writing”,Brook, Anne-Marie (2003), ―Recent and Prospective Trends in Real Long-term Interest Rates: Fiscal Policy and Other Drivers‖, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 367, OECD, Paris.
15. Dalsgaard, Thomas, Jørgen Elmeskov and Cyn-Young Park (2002), ―Ongoing Changes in the Business Cycle – Evidence and Causes‖, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 315, OECD, Paris.
16. Dewey, John (1947). Experience and Education. New York: Macmillan.
17. Dias, P., Pare, A., Freedman, A., & Medway, P. (1999). Worlds Apart: Acting and Writing in Academic and Workplace Contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
18. Fundacio Caixa Castello (15-28).
19. Goffman, E. (1981). “Footing”. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 124- 159.
20. Jamieson, K. H. (1996). The media and politics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
21. Language Study Series.latest technology. Wall Street Journal. 1995: A1.
22. OECD (2009), ―The Effectiveness and Scope of Fiscal Stimulus‖, Chapter 3, OECD Economic Outlook: Interim Report, OECD, Paris, March. OECD (2005), ―Recent House Price Developments: The Role of Fundamentals‖, Chapter III, OECD Economic Outlook, Vol. 2005, No. 78, OECD, Paris.
23. Pain, Nigel, Isabell Koske and Marte Sollie (2006), ―Globalisation and Inflation in the OECD Economies‖, Economics Department Working Papers, No. 524, OECD, Paris.

References

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Pfister, M. (2008). The Theory and Analysis of Drama, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Seib, G. (1995). Cyberpoliticking: presidential races are being changed by socially constructed texts: The initiation of a graduate student into a writing community. In C. Bazerman & J. Paradis (Eds.),(pp. 191-215). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical investigations. New York: Macmillan.