Appraising through someone else’s words: The evaluative power of quotations in news reports

Abstract

This article explores the inclusion of external voices in news reports, especially looking at the way these are exploited for appraising purposes. It is argued that attributions are not evaluation outlets for sources only, but indirect means of appraisal for the journalists as well, who support – and reinforce – the points they want to make through these voices. In this way, quotations help them imprint their personal views on the events and ultimately serve an ideological function in the text. The study compares the use of attributed material in various pieces of online news reporting on the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize award to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Taking some elements of Appraisal Theory, the article examines the role of external sources in two corpora representing opposite ideological positions concerning this event – China and the Western world – in order to explore how such material is used by the writer to engage in an ideological–evaluative activity.

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