Manyun Zou, I am not an expert in this field, but as a post-disciplinary scholar of critical thought, I was intrigued by your question, and thought it would be a good exercise to attempt an answer. I therefore offer this not as any definitive answer to your question, but a perspective that might offer some insight.

To start, I sought out the article from Pan, Z. and Kosicki, G.M., 1993. Framing analysis: An approach to news discourse. Political communication, 10(1), pp.55-75.

The authors note three questions: first, how do the news media frame public discussion; second, how do those with an agenda attempt to leverage the media to frame debates over public policy; and third, how do audiences construct meaning from news information? The authors suggest a problem in researching these questions is to identify a meaningful relationship between news texts, their production and their consumption. They suggest one idea is to "view news texts as a system of organized signifying elements that both indicate the advocacy of certain ideas and provide devices to encourage certain kinds of audience processing of the texts."

If I turn to your own questions.

Firstly, what are the social functions of news discourse? Here I suggest, socially, people have always been interested in gaining information they can use in their daily lives for whatever purpose. I would suggest the news media first evolved as a ‘trusted’ information channel for production and supply of information that met a certain need for information consumption. Based on the Pan et al.’s own first question, news media content, in its ‘trusted’ form, becomes a ‘signifying element’ in the social construction of certain meanings. Trust is inferred upon the meaning constructed and, based on that trust, news information tends to a class of knowledge which frames public discussion. Problems arise when the element of trust is not well founded, is undermined, or otherwise deficient.

Secondly, how does news discourse impact social relationships, public opinion, and social policy? Here, I find an interesting overlap with some of my own work in negative dialectics. From a dialectic perspective, one would imagine that the concepts of news and news discourse, serve a positivistic social purpose to educate and inform, to represent and make available information with a positivistic value (despite the negativity of much of the content itself). I believe this implicit positivism centres on the notion of trust. But, based on that trust, the news media inherits a power dynamic over its consumers. This power dynamic gives rise to Pan et al.’s second question, in that with power one can influence those with whom one has power over. It leaves news media open to purposefully framing public discussion in line with the direction (motivation) of that power. This can clearly act to impact social relationships, public opinion, and social policy.

Understood dialectically, we make positivistic assumptions about the value of news media and its potential for effect, often neglecting or avoiding the issue of power. However, understood from a negative dialectic position, there can be nothing positivistic about the concept; the news media in neither inherently positive nor negative, its impact can only be observed after the event of its consumption. This speaks to Pan et al.’s third question, how do audiences construct meaning from news information? In a negative dialectic approach, I allow the boundary of the concept to dissolve. What if we do not assign a value of trust to media, but instead question the source (its production and its motivations) directly. Just as trust applies to the consumer relationship with the news media, so trust also applies to the relationship between the news production source and the news media. This trust also invokes a power dynamic; yet to the consumer this power dynamic remains hidden. The power dynamic between source and media is wholly contextual. It is certainly complex, and to my mind it is the root of news discourse that might best be investigated.

Finally, what are the methods to research news discourse? As an alternative to Pan et al.’s dialectic focus on news texts, if I was to research this area, I would use a negative dialectic approach in which I am not so much concerned with investigating the concept of news media, but, from an anthropological perspective I would look to the question: what are the dynamics of trust and power in operation between the production and consumption of news and how do they impact social relationships and influence the emergence of public discussion, public opinion, and social policy. We might then better see the forms of news media that might emerge in the space between.

I would therefore reframe your question “What are the social functions of news discourse?” Rather, I would ask “How does news discourse emerge in the power plays that influence news production and its consumption in the construction of meaning in society and social policy?

Manyun Zou News discourse plays several important social functions that help shape public opinion and shape social policies. Some of the key functions of news discourse include:

In terms of how news discourse impacts social relationships, it can both bring people together and drive them apart, depending on the content and tone of the discourse. News that highlights common values and goals can foster a sense of community and belonging, while news that emphasizes division and conflict can contribute to social division and polarisation.

The impact of news discourse on social policy can be significant, as public opinion and media coverage can influence the decisions made by elected officials and policy makers.

To research the social functions and impact of news discourse, scholars often use methods such as content analysis, survey research, and experimental studies. Content analysis involves analyzing the content of news stories to understand what topics are covered, how they are framed, and what perspectives are emphasized. Survey research can be used to understand public opinion and the role of news media in shaping it. Experimental studies can manipulate exposure to news media to determine the causal impact of news on attitudes and behaviours.

Manyun Zou, News discourse have some functions,among others, help us to clarifity our ideas about a topic or topics. Those discourses transmit information but create a social reality too. The discourse encompasses differents fields such as sociology, antropology etc. In addition to the informative discourse, our find other types very used like the discourse the debate, the discourse motivational, among others.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/266995556.pdf