Voice attribution: Contrasting science and general news reporting

Description

Journalistic reporting offers various formatting possibilities depending on parameters such as theme, objective, and context in which it circulates. It aims to analyse or discuss social, political, or scientific events or phenomena, seeking to explain or question them (e.g., Fonseca, 2021). It navigates between principles of objectivity and clarity, striving for credibility and reader
engagement (Charaudeau, 2011). Sources and attributions are crucial, as including voices beyond the reporter's is purposeful and socially impactful (Taboada, 2024). Various source types exist (e.g., Rabatel & Chauvin-Vileno, 2006), with markers of enunciative responsibility to attribute voices and assess statements' credibility (Bronckart et al., 2004; Adam, 2011).

Based on the hypothesis that the voices used, their social roles, and reporters' management of their proximity to the subject are crucial for categorising reporting types, this study aims to: i) analyse how sources and attributions are managed in scientific vulgarisation and other socially-driven reports; ii) describe the linguistic markers conveying their forms and functions, and their
discourse implications; iii) correlate the data analysis with the varying didactic and scientific nature observed in the reports and their target audience.

With such purpose, we gathered a corpus of 60 reports from Público, Portugal's leading newspaper, 30 science reports and 30 addressing societal issues. These reports underwent quantitative and qualitative analyses within a framework that integrates principles from Text and Discourse Linguistics (Bronckart et al., 2004; Adam, 2011; Charaudeau, 2011) and reported speech in journalism (e.g. Harry, 2013; Teixeira, 2021; Mesquita, 2022).

Initial results suggest that non-scientific reports often call for ordinary individuals, while scientific reports typically reference specialists and pertinent field articles. These results underscore how source citation serves distinct communicative objectives and the reporter's stance. Both report types frequently utilise direct quotations to enhance credibility and provoke emotional responses from readers, although they vary in using other linguistic features.

Period	13 Dec 2024
Event title	Look Who’s Talking: Voices and Sources in the News
Event type	Conference
Location	Brussels, BelgiumShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International