Linguistic resources to socialize children into consumers : a discourse analytical study of commercials recorded from chilean TV intended for young children

Abstract

The diversity of discourse strategies in mass media have been the target of several research studies in the field of discourse analysis within the last four decades (McLuhan, 1964; Leech, 1966; Cook, 1992; Cotter, 2001). Some of the most commonly analyzed features of mass media are television shows, including pieces of news and commercials, among other types of programs (Van Dijk, 1988; Goddard, 1998; Cotter, 2001). Grounded in discourse analysis as methodological and theoretical framework, this study intended to explore communicative resources that are used as means of persuasion in TV commercials intended for young children. A sample of 42 commercials were recorded from five cable broadcast and two free-to-air Chilean TV networks. Three discursive strategies, pauses, imperatives, and repetitions, were isolated for further analysis. The results of the study showed that such discourse strategies are used in commercials as rhetorical devices to encourage children to buy products and services by tapping into their emotions and rational mind. Each of the discourse strategies analyzed for this study played different functions depending on the context or the way in which they were used in the commercials. Owing to the nature of this research, which could take into account only a small sample of commercials and limited communicative strategies, it is recommended that, in the future, other studies can carry out similar research but making a comparison between different commercials, or to take another perspective of analysis such as focusing on the real effects on children.