Strategic Maneuvering in The Guardian and The Financial Times: A Comparative Critical Stylistic Study

This study examines strategic maneuvering in 14 online articles on artificial intelligence in The Guardian and The Financial Times. The study explores how the different writers employ the three aspects of strategic maneuvering, namely topical potential, audience demand, and presentational devices. The data are carefully selected and have specific criteria as the articles are only argumentative opinion articles on artificial intelligence covering the span of four years as of 2020 till 2023. To this end, the study relies on Van Eemeren’s (2018) model of strategic maneuvering along with Van Eemeren, Grootendorst and Henkemans’ (2002) taxonomy of fallacies, Wodak and Meyer’s (2001) taxonomy of topoi, van Dijk’s (2012) argumentative moves, and Jeffries’ (2010) critical stylistic model. The article fills a gap in the literature by integrating argumentation and critical stylistics. In addition, the researcher suggests specific elements to explore the audience demand aspect and the presentational devices aspect. Results show that the two newspapers balance between reasonableness and effectiveness by making certain topical choices, meeting the audience’s preferences and utilizing suitable presentational devices. Besides, the writers keep warning the readers of the negative side and potential dangers of artificial intelligence which stresses their disapproval of unplanned automation.