Alternative discourses and their evaluative power in the journalists’ coverage of a public sector workers’ strike in Botswana

Q2 Arts and Humanities

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice Pub Date : 2022-08-19 DOI:10.1558/jalpp.19264

Boitshwarelo Rantsudu

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

This paper investigates how the quotation of external voices in hard news reporting can be exploited by journalists for evaluative purposes when the same news source is quoted by different newspapers. While attribution of news content to external news sources affords journalists support in asserting the objectivity of their news reports, it has also been established that the use of attribution can function as an evaluative outlet for journalists. In this paper I examine how two newspapers selectively (de)emphasise contrasting news narratives when they quote the same external news source and report the same event, thus creating alternative discourses in their news coverage. I examine how the journalists’ indirect evaluation of the external news source as either conciliatory or confrontational is reflected in such alternative discourses, using Botswana as a case study. The news reports selected for analysis are parallel news stories from a government-owned newspaper, Daily News, and a privately owned newspaper, Mmegi, and they cover the 2011 nationwide public sector workers’ strike. The findings show that the reporting was somewhat set in implied antagonistic relations between the government and the workers’ unions.

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博茨瓦纳公共部门工人罢工新闻报道中的另类话语及其评价力

本文研究了当不同报纸引用同一新闻来源时，记者如何利用硬新闻报道中外部声音的引用进行评估。虽然将新闻内容归因于外部新闻来源为记者维护其新闻报道的客观性提供了支持，但也已经确定，使用归因可以作为记者的评价渠道。在本文中，我考察了两家报纸在引用同一外部新闻来源并报道同一事件时，如何选择性地（去）强调对比鲜明的新闻叙事，从而在新闻报道中创造替代话语。我以博茨瓦纳为例研究了记者对外部新闻来源的间接评价是如何反映在这种替代话语中的，即和解或对抗。选择进行分析的新闻报道是来自国有报纸《每日新闻》和私营报纸《Mmegi》的平行新闻报道，它们报道了2011年全国公共部门工人罢工。调查结果表明，这份报告在某种程度上隐含了政府和工会之间的对立关系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics

CiteScore

0.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice was launched in 2004 (under the title Journal of Applied Linguistics) with the aim of advancing research and practice in applied linguistics as a principled and interdisciplinary endeavour. From Volume 7, the journal adopted the new title to reflect the continuation, expansion and re-specification of the field of applied linguistics as originally conceived. Moving away from a primary focus on research into language teaching/learning and second language acquisition, the education profession will remain a key site but one among many, with an active engagement of the journal moving to sites from a variety of other professional domains such as law, healthcare, counselling, journalism, business interpreting and translating, where applied linguists have major contributions to make. Accordingly, under the new title, the journal will reflexively foreground applied linguistics as professional practice. As before, each volume will contain a selection of special features such as editorials, specialist conversations, debates and dialogues on specific methodological themes, review articles, research notes and targeted special issues addressing key themes.