Werner, ValentinValentinWerner0000-0003-2669-35572019-09-192016-05-232016978-3-11-044355-4https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/40452In the area of electronically-mediated communication, real-time online text commentaries (OTCs) as a new specialised register have become popular as an alternative to traditional broadcasting. OTCs have been recognised as “mediated quasi-interaction” (Chovanec 2010) and a hybrid genre showing characteristics of spoken discourse within a written mode (Jucker 2006), as well as a characteristic combination of simultaneous information and entertainment (“infotainment”), where familiarity or “pseudo-intimacy” (O’Keeffe 2006; cf. Chovanec 2008) between commentator and the audience is created. This contribution helps to situate this emerging register from a cross-cultural perspective. I use OTCs by English and German media outlets from the EURO 2012 football championship to tackle the following issues with the help of a corpus-linguistic approach: (i) What are register-specific structural features of OTCs? (ii) Are there any culture-specific aspects along language boundaries or the dimension “intended readership”? I also consider the interaction of layout and content, production circumstances, and the influence of recent developments (such as the incorporation of Twitter messages) on reporting styles.englive textregister variationdigital discourselanguage of footballlanguage of sportbookpart