Abstract

IRAJZAD, Fatemeh; KAFI, Mohsen  and  SHAHRIARI, Hesamoddin. A Rhetorical Analysis of English and Persian Online Comments on the News Articles Related to Iran's Nuclear Issue. OBS* [online]. 2017, vol.11, n.1, pp.95lpage=110-. ISSN 1646-5954.

The comments section of news articles is intended for the public to share their views on posted news stories. Accordingly, this section has been subject to numerous analyses from a wide range of perspectives. The current study analyzes the tone and purpose of comments posted on news articles dealing with Iran's nuclear issue. The data consisted of 150 online comments in English and 150 in Persian. The comments were taken from three news websites in English and three in Persian. These websites were chosen based on their different political leanings in order to take account of the various approaches to Iran's disputed nuclear talks. The results did not indicate a significant difference between the tone of English and Persian comments, but the purposes intended by English and Persian comments varied extensively. It was also found that the political leaning of news agencies is a major cause of the observed differences.

Keywords : Comment analysis; Iran's nuclear dispute; news articles; purpose; tone.

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