Abstract
M.A. (Communication Science)
This dissertation is a profusion in combining two sub disciplines
of the communication science, namely journalism and persuasion
theory. An. analysis of journalism as a form of persuasion is
made in which is shown that not only in explicit commentary, but
also in everyday news stories the contents is slanted. This is
because of the inescapable subjectivity of man that
de-objectifies information. The sources of de-objectification
is localized in the study by means of a model of the press
process, which traces the development of the news item and
identifies the different phases in which the information is,
mostly unknowingly, given new meanings by subtle slanting. As a
pilot study, and therefore as a matter of testing the validity
of combining the two communication subdisciplines mentioned, a
simple comparative study is done. The most explicit commentary
article, namely the leader, of three Johannesburg newspapers are
sampled and judged by means of three of the most simple
persuasion principles. A comparison is made of the effective
use of these persuasive techniques by the three newspapers'
leader writers. The conclusion is reached that further studies
in this field could be very fruitful, keeping the following two
qualifications in mind firstly, that the many contradicting
conclusions reached within persuasion research should be cleared
up, and secondly, that some sort of stable scale for measuring
the effectiveness of journalistic persuasion, except by
comparative means, be devised.