SPORTS AND MEDIA: COMPLEMENTARY OR BIASED?

Abstract

Members of a discourse community must have recourse to a shared system of communication in order to share information and knowledge effectively. Science has developed in such a way that scientific knowledge is shared in a manner that relies heavily on written communication and a highly structured format for presenting arguments in different science domains, sports sciences not being an exception. Thus, Montgomery claims that science would not exist “if scientists were not writers” and science “in great measure is a matter of language”. He further reflects that although it cannot be denied that science is much more than a construct of speech, it must be acknowledged that linguistic form and content cannot be separated. Recently, there have been a number of studies that seek to demonstrate that the scientific style of writing is much more than a mere objective channel through which to communicate scientific “facts” and incontrovertible “truths”. Bhatia notes that the nature and construction of a specific register and genre, especially the sports sciences genre, are characterized by the communicative purpose that it is intended to fulfill; that the language used in scientific writing reflects the position it holds in a particular context and thus needs to be rhetorically analyzed.