| Summary: | This paper is based on the premise that the analysis of company discourse from the perspective of English for Specific Purposes contributes to the discovery of a specialized culture and bears witness to the values of a given period. Previous studies have shown that the media and the public react differently to environmental and technological controversies in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It is thus relevant to assess how the specialized community formed by technological risk companies is impacted by the cultural context. This paper focuses on the specialized discourse produced by two American companies involved in agricultural biotechnology and oil production – Monsanto and Chevron, respectively – in specific sociocultural contexts. More precisely, their British and American websites are analyzed so as to determine how their form and content are influenced by public concerns. Differences in form and content between the American and British websites can be said to reflect specific corporate responses to the controversy in different contexts. Company discourse should thus be considered as a reflection of social trends, as the rhetorical strategies implemented by Monsanto and Chevron vary depending on the local audience. It is assumed that this particular aspect of company discourse reflects the specificity of the discourse community formed by technological risk companies within the corporate world.
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