Chapter 5. Self- and other-positioning in eighteenth‑century newspapers

Abstract

This study takes a sociopragmatic perspective on processes of self- and other-positioning in eighteenth-century newspapers. A case study of the adversarial separation of Edward Topham and John Bell, the makers of the highly successful newspaper The World, will reveal the complexities of indexical practices in negotiating positions and responsibilities. Evidence of their feud was mainly found in Bell’s new paper, The Oracle, which was launched in June 1789. Drawing on Reisigl and Wodak’s (2001) framework of positive self- and negative other-presentation, this study particularly explores the referencing and predication strategies, but also some of the perspectivation and argumentation strategies employed in a kaleidoscopic dataset including Bell’s inaugural comment and a range of further newspaper genres. While the processes of positioning provide evidence of the self-serving bias, i.e. “a tendency for people to take personal responsibility for their desirable outcomes yet externalize responsibility for their undesirable outcomes” (cf. Shepperd et al. 2008: 895–896), they were probably carefully planned with the formation of public opinion and marketing effects in mind.