Projected discourse: An analysis of receiver roles in press releases

Abstract

This article looks at the complex receiver roles in press releases, which do not normally compete for journalists attention per se but are primarily meant to be transmitted by them in their own news reporting. In particular, I shall characterize press releases as a special type of indirectly targeted, 'projected', discourse, with the journalists serving as mediators and the journalists' own audiences as absent ultimate destinations. In doing so, I set out to refine the existing categorizations of receiver roles. This article also serves as the starting-point for more detailed research of press releases and how they are 'preformulated' for subsequent news reporting.