Analysis Of Reporter’s Subjective Value Judgement In English Hard News Discourse Based On Dialogicity

Hard news discourse is generally regarded as authoritative and objective,aiming at providing objective facts rather than persuading readers to accept specific viewpoints.However,more and more modern media researchers have found that the pure objective and neutral reports preached by the press do not exist;in reality news report is wrapped up with reporter‘s subjective sides-taking and inducing readers to make value judgments.By holding the same argument,this paper makes an in-depth analysis of four news reports published in two major British newspapers,The Guardian and The Times on economic and political issues.It is found that by inviting voices into the text as much as possible,the news report is constructed as a platform for multiple parties to conflict and negotiate,so as to highlight the status of the report as objective and authoritative informational transmitter;at the same time,through manipulating the voice source,quoting sequence,and reporting resources as well as framing structural context,reporter is imperceptibly influencing the voice interacting balance and thus directing readers to arrive on certain value position.This research is conducive to strengthening the awareness of critical discourse analysis among foreign language learners in China,helping them maintain independent judgment.And it is expected to shed due new light on the understanding of the so-called professional doctrines of objectivity and being-free-of-bias for media.Bakhtin’s translinguistics takes a sociologic look at language--the concrete speech in a concrete context,the dynamic and dialogic nature of meaning.These aspects of language use can find strong resonance in Hallidayan SFL.Li Shuguang placed Bakhtin’s concept of dialogicity in the context of systemic functional linguistics and postmodern linguistics,making up for the lack of discourse analysis means in translinguistics and enhancing the operability of dialogic analysis of utterance.This research is carried out under such a theoretical background.According to Bakhtin’s theory of dialogicity,any discourse existing in human communication activities is dialogic.Therefore,news report,as one of the most important language exchanges in human society,is dialogic in nature,which is the due meaning of Bakhtin’s theory.Dialogicity refers to the existence of two or more interactive voices in language or discourse,which form a relationship of agreement and opposition,affirmation and supplement,and question and answer.In news discourse,the main party that participates in the dialogue includes the voice of the reporter,the foreign voices introduced into the text,and the voice of the reader.This paper focuses on the dialogical relationship between the first two in news discourse so as to investigate reporter’s biased attitude.