LIVE TEXT COMMENTARY IN SPANISH AMONGST THE JOURNALISTIC GENRES

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to clarify the position of the crónica futbolística en directo (minute-by-minute match report, live text commentary) amongst the Spanish written genres. Live text commentary of football matches is a paradigmatic example of this modality, emerged thanks to the new channel, the Internet, with hypertextuality, multimediality, and interactivity as its defining characteristics. The work addresses topics such as written genres in journalism, some existing classifications of genres and, especially, classification criteria in Spanish tradition. Afterward, we reflect on the traditional genre of crónica and proceed to a detailed presentation of the defining features of the live text commentary of football matches. Based on an extensive bibliographical review and the manifestations of this new modality in practice in the Spanish media, we can conclude that it constitutes a new genre according to the criteria exposed in the literature, and that it differs significantly from the traditional genre of crónica.