Part of
Dialogue across MediaEdited by Jarmila Mildorf and Bronwen Thomas
[Dialogue Studies 28] 2017
► pp. 137–154
Drawing on Bakhtin’s (1986 [1929]) idea that language use is dialogic as it is marked by “addressivity” and “answerability” and addresses people and a particular context, this chapter argues that dialogism is also present in a commentary piece because it is part of a continuing, intertextual “dialogue” with previous reports and reporters of similar events as well as its readers, where it functions as “community building.” A discourse stylistic analysis of McEwan’s “Savagely Awoken” commentary identifies how dialogism is created and fulfils the important news values of newsworthiness in this carefully crafted and moving piece of journalistic writing.