Intertextuality in the News Articles on the Security Situation in Iraq

Abstract

Intertextuality refers to the relationship with which texts are interwoven with each other. It is used to describe the range of ways in which texts make reference to other texts. Recently, mass media and modern technology has become a global issue and started influencing every individual. The information presented in the mass media affects the way people think. Thus, both form and content of mass media are of major importance. News article reporters need to be creative in their language and, at the same time, refer to facts and use common forms of language. Intertextuality is very common among mass media reporters because it is a powerful tool that serves their purposes. The present paper aims at analyzing the reasons which motivates reporters of the news articles on the security situation in Iraq to resort to intertextuality. The period between April and July 1214 is one in which the security situation in Iraq has been in turmoil. Therefore, twelve news articles belonging to the period above have been downloaded from the internet and analyzed carefully. The model adopted in the analysis is that of Bazerman (2004:5) for being a unified comprehensive scheme which covers all the types of techniques presented by other linguists. The analysis has revealed a heavy use of intertextuality in these news articles with particular focus on particular techniques rather than the others for certain reasons that serve the reporters’ purposes.