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Controversy as News Discourse pp 139–175Cite as

Reporting Controversy in Constructed Dialogue

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Part of the book series: Argumentation Library ((ARGA,volume 19))

Abstract

Journalists use constructed dialogue to narrate controversies in their reporting. They develop interlocutor profiles, constructing dialogues among participants whom they nominate and voice through reported speech. These are extended pragmatic event formulas, and through them, journalists provide a narrated location for public controversies. They regularly narrate dialogue among interlocutors who have not necessarily shared physical proximity, addressed one another directly, provided public, on-the-record statements that are relevant, nor engaged a common issue. While they do construct decision making dialogues, journalists do not necessarily narrate controversy according to the norms and standards promoted in the discourse arts. In most cases, doing so would tend to put journalists at odds with their own professional norms, which stress the reporting of events through assiduous display of empirical grounding in the statements of sources. By narrating controversy in constructed dialogue, journalists share with the discourse arts the use of a dialogue model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, V5A 1S6, Burnaby, Canada

    Peter A. Cramer

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  1. Peter A. Cramer
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Correspondence to Peter A. Cramer .

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Cramer, P.A. (2011). Reporting Controversy in Constructed Dialogue. In: Controversy as News Discourse. Argumentation Library, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1288-1_5

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