Political Terminology in French-Language News Texts for Children and Teenagers

Abstract

Mass audiences usually learn specialized terms from mass communication media. This research featured political terms obtained from 50 political news pieces published in the French-language magazine GEOAdo (2013– 2022) with 10–15-year-olds as target audience. The authors used general scientific methods, as well as the lexical analysis and the qualitative content analysis, to divide the terms into three groups, i.e., political organizations, political documents, and political activities. The political organizations from first group were often represented by abbreviations, which were accompanied in the news text by their dictionary definition or an explanatory interpretation of the main functions. The terms from the second group were explained by introducing a full or brief dictionary description. The terms from the third group were introduced by paraphrasing their dictionary definition with a stress on the main activity or other political references. In general, the political terms were explained by paraphrasing their dictionary definition with the key feature emphasized, which made news comprehension easier for young readers.