Analysing news Attribution and evaluation

Your tasks You need to be able to identify discursive choices: visual, linguistic and semantic choices This is analytical work You select items which you think are significant You describe them in terms of the choice made You comment on them, use them as part of your critical summary in which you are making judgements about the way the news is being presented overall. One dimension is that of attribution

Evidentiality Markers which indicate The kind of evidence one has for making factual claims The indication of the nature of the evidence for a given statement Knowledge of the source and comittment to the truth of a proposition

Choices Attribution of a proposition to another person or voice is a kind of evidentiality – x says y Witness – I was there, I saw y Secondhand or hearsay – attributes to other witnesses, the neighbours reported hearing a Sensory- I felt, it seemed, it looked as if, it sounded like Inferential, - clues and indications

Voices Some sources are given live camera footage or are interviewed on screen Some are given still photos Some just their words on the screen Some have their words paraphrased or summarised by the NP Some have names, positions, roles described; others are anonymous You need to think about the effects of such choices

Interaction Sometimes we hear the question and see the participants together Sometimes we just hear the answer Answers usually depend on questions

1. Attribution Attribution: The task is to identify the voice (who or what is presented as the source of the language being reported) This is not just a matter of identifying who but also to notice how the message (the way in which the function or content of the 'original' Language, speech or even thought, is presented),

Choices in representing thought and speech the message can be quoted, echoed, paraphrased, summarized, or omitted. choice in this category relates mostly to the question of how far the message is presented as matching the original language event.

Direct quotation Quotes appear to have two main functions The first is to indicate a higher degree of faithfulness to an original (or possible) language event than any of the other options. The normal assumption would be that the person actually spoke the quoted words. The second main function of direct quotes is to present the reported language event more vividly to the hearer by simulating the original event

Partial quotes partial quotes may appear within paraphrases and summaries e.g He admitted that he adopted the name simply 'because it occurred to me at the moment'. Or The presidency has been described as 'an irrelevant bore'

Summary and paraphrase Summaries: the focus is likely to be on the speech event more than the message there is still information about the message, though it typically serves a different purpose from, a paraphrase Compare two similar reports, the first a paraphrase and the second a summary (a) Life is full of the promise of spring. Yet the French are grumbling that they have too much time off to enjoy all this (b) People were grumbling about a sick economy as they celebrated the bicentennial In (a), the focus is on what the French are saying, which is labelled as 'grumbling' In (b), on the other hand, the summary of the message is presented as an explanation of why they are grumbling

the signal the signal indicates the way in which the present reporter indicates that this is a language report the most obvious is through the choice of reporting verb, often the choice of said or told gives no indication of the reporter's attitude towards what the person said, whereas points out signals acceptance by the reporter that the view is correct. This shows the reporter evaluates the reported message as valid the reporter is stating his or her own view but indicating that it is shared by, or originates from, someone else Look up the meanings of claims and alleges

Claim state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof Using this verb signals that you are not convinced of the truth of the proposition “the Prime Minister claimed that he was concerned about Third World debt” Sub text: I am not convinced that he is concerned about Third world debt

Allege claim or assert that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically without proof. The two men allege (that) the police forced them to makefalse confessions.policeforcedfalseconfessions It was alleged that Johnson had struck Mr Rahim on the headstruckhead This means that the statements alleged have not yet been proven and the person reporting the allegations takes no responsibility for their veracity

— the attitude the evaluation by the present reporter of the message or the original speaker the reporter's attitude to the reported message The basic choices in this category are common to all expressions of attitude neutral, positive, or negative for language reports one of the main types of value that are assessed in these terms is the truth or validity of what the original speaker or writer said. Reporters may also indicate other types of evaluation, in particular their attitude towards the speaker rather than the message There are again many ways of doing this, including through the choice of reporting verb (where the main choice seems to be to opt for negative evaluation)

Attribution – analisi e sintesi Chi lo dice? Che cosa è stato detto ( pensato)? In che modo? Qual’è l’opinione di chi lo sta rappresentando? Bisogna essere capace di identificare sia le scelte fatte che il significato di queste scelte (l’effetto di una scelta rispetto ad un’altra possibile scelta)