It is widely accepted that news discourse is 'free' from both rhetoric and ideology. Western journalists would all too eagerly support such a claim, and add to it the myth of objective-mirroring ofreality. It is, therefore, of particular interest for the Student of news to uncover rhetorical devices related, äs they are, to specific ideological 'environments'.It isfound (in the Israeli case) that the various ways ofspeech presentation contribute to the dominant 'rhetoric of objectivity' in the news. Firstly, it is the preferred indirect-speech technique that contributes to the standardized, no-digression, impersonal type of discourse. And secondly, for direct and combined speech to occur -ideology seems repeatedly to be consulted. Such digressions tend to be coloredby the Speaker's judgements, and, indeed only in some situations, some quotations are permitted to be presented with their original flavor.The news tries hard to avoid an overt expression of such flavor s. Direct speech is therefore very rare, andmimetic elements of combined speech are somewhat controlled-or t perhaps concealed-in the preferred grammatical indirect speech. Moreover, äs a rule it is the speech ofnon-elite, enemy t and other non-very-important Speakers which is presented in combined speech. Ideological permission to deviatefrom indirect speech is also given to less important, less respected issues.Patterns of speech presentations become, thus t clues for a System of values, for cultural hierarchies. Beyond direct and indirect speechThe various techniques of speech presentation in narrative fiction have been widely researched and described by scholars of both literature and linguistics (for example, McHale, 1978;Rimmon-Kenan, 1983). Speech
Since its eruption in December 1987, the Intifada has been accorded considerable press attention. In the study reported here we show that in this crisis journalism tends to articulate mainstream ideology, rather than energize public awareness about the importance of its events. Two Israeli daily newspapers are studied, one `quality' paper, catering to a highly educated audience, and the other, a `popular' paper, with the largest readership in the country. Contrary to expectations, the differences in the Intifada coverage of the two Hebrew dailies seem to be rather meagre. It is argued that consensus and widely shared national ideology override professional norms and practices, so that differences in narrative structure and rhetorical strategies are minimized. The major crisis, threatening the coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians, is similarly presented in the otherwise distinctively different papers, in what amounts to a general tone of `playing it down'. A `rhetoric of conformity' in both papers suggests a clear preference to `our' point of view, expressing a perceived consensus, and at the same time contributing to its maintenance.
This article analyzes television news reports, from jiue countries, dealing with a n incident that took place in the West Rank uillage ofNahalin in April 1989 during the Palestinian uprising. The analysis of both the tlerbal and ziisual texts attempts to explicate "open" and "c1osed"presentations of the incident by referring to three dimensions: the rhetoric of balance, the rhetoric offacticity, and the rhetoric of neutrality. The analysis suggests that the stories by both Israel Television and CHS are relatively "closed, 'I uiith the Israeli case being "defensive" uihile that of CBS being "offensize '' The other zjersions are appraised as lying someuihere between poetic closure and journalistic openness.On December 9, 1987, the intifada began. As with many other historical events, nobody really knew on that day that it was the beginning. Several days earlier, an Israeli truck hit and killed several pedestrians on a road in the Gaza Strip. Rumors quickly spread among the Arab inhabitants that it was not an accident. They promptly took to the streets in a series of violent demonstrations. (Many riots and demonstrations had taken place before, but the duration and intensity of the present ones had increased dramatically.) Israeli army reinforcements were called in to quell the riots and arrest some of the demonstrators. They used live ammunition, and more Palestinians were wounded and killed (Schiff & Yaari, 1990). The situation in the area continued to escalate and casualties mounted.' At the time of this writing, the intifada is in its 43rd month with no real end in sight. The media around the world have been covering it since it began. After the first few months of heavy and saturated coverage, there were ups and downs, with subsequent high moments when major events took place (see, for ' This paper analyzes how one intifada event was presented on 10 different stations on the same night.
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