Responsibility and the conventions of attribution in news agency discourse

Authors

  • Maija Stenvall University of Helsinki

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v9i3.20845

Keywords:

attribution, conventions, news agency discourse, objectivity, responsibility

Abstract

The paper examines conventions of attribution in the discourse of two global news agencies, AP (the Associated Press) and Reuters, from the point of view of responsibility. In news agency reporting, the notion of responsibility is central on various intertwining levels. At the macro-level, news agencies bear responsibility as powerful distributors of news. They are important agenda-setters for other media and, to a great extent, also responsible for creating and reinforcing conventions of news writing. At the micro-level, the study explores two kinds of responsibility in the attribution of claims: the responsibility of news actors, i.e. those who have been quoted in news reports, and that of journalists. The analysis illustrates how the traditional structure of a news report affects attribution routines. Discontinuous topic realization, together with the tendency of proceeding from general to specific, opens up various rhetorical options to the journalist and can lead to ambiguity. The study further deals with the complex issue of sharing responsibility between the journalist and the news actor, for examples when sources remain anonymous.

Author Biography

  • Maija Stenvall, University of Helsinki

    Maija Stenvall is a researcher at the Research Unit for Variation, Contacts and Change in English, at the University of Helsinki. Her doctoral thesis, published in 2011, explores objectivity and factuality in the discourse of two global news agencies, the Associated Press (AP) and Reuters. She is currently interested in historical news (agency) discourse.

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Published

2015-07-10

How to Cite

Stenvall, M. (2015). Responsibility and the conventions of attribution in news agency discourse. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 9(3), 405–423. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v9i3.20845

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