The Social Dimension of the Press Interview: A Case Study

Abstract

This article presents a text genre analysis of a socially significant text: an interview by Anna Dziewit-Meller with Janina Bąk, entitled “58 blizn” (58 scars). This text features two interactional modules: the interview as an intimate statement (making privacy public, coming out) and the interview as a social manifesto. These two intertwined perspectives are represented at the level of the text genre: structure, strategic points, the discussed topic of mental disorder, and the purpose of the interview. At the pragmatic level, the analysis of the statements made by the journalist and the interviewee of the text testifies to their being aware that the interview is a genre intended for public reception. The compositional combination of an intimate testimony with a journalistic, interventionist and social dimension has a clear educational character, and can even serve as a social intervention itself. The analysed text, as far as its genre is concerned, also has a discursive dimension. It is an evident manifestation of the discourse on exclusion, illness, and the disclosure of intimacy. At the same time, its social context is expressed through the ability to define one’s own identity, to speak openly about difficult experiences with the awareness of “being public” when functioning in the world of the media.