Examining Online News: A Gricean Maxim Analysis of News Outlet Facebook Pages

This study explored how digital news outlets adhere to and violate the Gricean conversational maxims namely quantity, quality, relation, and manner. Using a qualitative research design, 60 Facebook posts from three digital news outlets in Sorsogon, Philippines were analyzed based on the criteria set by H.P. Grice. It was found that the news outlets adhere to the Gricean conversational maxims, especially those of quality and relation. However, there were also instances when they clearly violated the maxims such as those of quantity and manner. These findings suggest that the news outlets share truthful and relevant news but at the same time, they also disseminate unclear messages that lack important details. The analysis further revealed that the creators of these FB posts which do not observe the Gricean maxims have different motives or purposes. The most common possible motives are to emphasize a point, so the readers' attention is drawn towards a particular piece of information in the post and to capture or sustain the readers' interest so that they stay tuned for updates about the issue. Hence, the public needs to be more critical in examining FB posts of these news outlets and the possible motives behind every news story for a better understanding and interpretation of media messages.