A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines

Women’s magazines have become the subject of an increasing scholarly exploration as they are widely seen as mirrors of social change in society. They typically cover a variety of topics but one enduring genre is the relationship advice genre. This study presents a cross-cultural analysis of the l...

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Main Authors: Reem A. Lulu, Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/1/29069-102460-1-PB.pdf
id ukm-14078
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-140782020-01-31T22:35:55Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/ A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines Reem A. Lulu, Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff, Women’s magazines have become the subject of an increasing scholarly exploration as they are widely seen as mirrors of social change in society. They typically cover a variety of topics but one enduring genre is the relationship advice genre. This study presents a cross-cultural analysis of the linguistic constructions of articles in relationship advice columns in women’s magazines. We examine the strategies, which are employed by them to persuade the reader to accept the advice given. We also examine the positioning of the implied reader in these texts by the writers of these articles. Data drawn from six English-language women’s magazines from three contexts which are, the US, Malaysia and the Middle East, was analysed with reference to the linguistic features used as persuasive strategies by the producers of texts, as investigated by several Discourse Analysis (DA) scholars. The findings of the study reveal that in all three contexts, the writers of advice articles in women’s magazines are often seen in a ‘balancing act’ as they set themselves up as experts while at the same time constructing themselves as a friend of the reader. However, we also found evidence of differences in how the reader is positioned as well as the strategies of persuasion used in the different contexts which we believe is attributed to the differences in the cultural norms and values of the respective societies. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/1/29069-102460-1-PB.pdf Reem A. Lulu, and Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff, (2019) A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 19 (2). pp. 15-32. ISSN 1675-8021 http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1188
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description Women’s magazines have become the subject of an increasing scholarly exploration as they are widely seen as mirrors of social change in society. They typically cover a variety of topics but one enduring genre is the relationship advice genre. This study presents a cross-cultural analysis of the linguistic constructions of articles in relationship advice columns in women’s magazines. We examine the strategies, which are employed by them to persuade the reader to accept the advice given. We also examine the positioning of the implied reader in these texts by the writers of these articles. Data drawn from six English-language women’s magazines from three contexts which are, the US, Malaysia and the Middle East, was analysed with reference to the linguistic features used as persuasive strategies by the producers of texts, as investigated by several Discourse Analysis (DA) scholars. The findings of the study reveal that in all three contexts, the writers of advice articles in women’s magazines are often seen in a ‘balancing act’ as they set themselves up as experts while at the same time constructing themselves as a friend of the reader. However, we also found evidence of differences in how the reader is positioned as well as the strategies of persuasion used in the different contexts which we believe is attributed to the differences in the cultural norms and values of the respective societies.
format Article
author Reem A. Lulu,
Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff,
spellingShingle Reem A. Lulu,
Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff,
A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
author_facet Reem A. Lulu,
Sharifah Nurul Huda Alkaff,
author_sort Reem A. Lulu,
title A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
title_short A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
title_full A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
title_fullStr A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
title_full_unstemmed A cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
title_sort cross-cultural study of persuasive strategies in relationship advice articles in women’s magazines
publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2019
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/14078/1/29069-102460-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:06:17Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:06:17Z
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