{"title":"Attitudinal Positioning and Journalistic Commentary in Politically Fraught Circumstances: Editorializing About the Killing of Osama bin Laden","authors":"Zaidi Abbas, Peter White","doi":"10.22055/RALS.2021.17011","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This study explores the strategic use of resources for conveying attitudinal assessments by journalists when their communicative options are seriously curtailed—when there are severe social, legal, or political constraints on what they can say about powerful people and institutions. It offers, by way of a case study, an analysis of editorials published in two Pakistani English-language newspapers the day after the US forces covertly entered Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden. Whereas these actions raised serious questions about the prior conduct of the Pakistani military and intelligence services, the journalists were prevented by strict legal prohibitions from any overt criticism. Through an appraisal-framework analysis, this study describes the ‘oblique’ attitudinal style used in the two editorials to advance cases which position readers to view those involved in an extremely negative light.","PeriodicalId":44330,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.22055/RALS.2021.17011","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
This study explores the strategic use of resources for conveying attitudinal assessments by journalists when their communicative options are seriously curtailed—when there are severe social, legal, or political constraints on what they can say about powerful people and institutions. It offers, by way of a case study, an analysis of editorials published in two Pakistani English-language newspapers the day after the US forces covertly entered Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden. Whereas these actions raised serious questions about the prior conduct of the Pakistani military and intelligence services, the journalists were prevented by strict legal prohibitions from any overt criticism. Through an appraisal-framework analysis, this study describes the ‘oblique’ attitudinal style used in the two editorials to advance cases which position readers to view those involved in an extremely negative light.
本研究探讨了当记者的沟通选择受到严重限制时,即当他们对有权势的人和机构的言论受到严重的社会、法律或政治限制时,如何策略性地利用资源来传达记者的态度评估。它以案例研究的方式,对美国军队秘密进入巴基斯坦并击毙奥萨马•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)后第二天两家巴基斯坦英文报纸发表的社论进行了分析。尽管这些行动引发了对巴基斯坦军方和情报部门先前行为的严重质疑,但严格的法律禁止记者公开批评。通过评价框架分析,本研究描述了两篇社论中使用的“倾斜”态度风格,以推进读者以极端负面的眼光看待那些涉及的案例。
期刊介绍:
The growth of Applied Linguistics as a separate discipline is a success story of the 1950s. The field has developed in many parts of the world and is clearly destined to continue developing well into the twenty-first century. Being concerned with pragmatically motivated study of language in social and cultural settings, Applied Linguistics brings together work in a wide array of fields, including linguistics, literary studies, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and economics. The purpose of Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics is to contribute to the development of the field, reflect the breadth of work in Applied Linguistics, and enable readers to share in the exciting new developments that are taking place at the present time. Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics (RALs) invites all Iranian and foreign linguists, applied linguists, and teaching practitioners to contribute to the journal by submitting papers under the following main headings: Applied Linguistics Literary Studies Translation Studies.