The paper offers a single-case analysis of newsmaking discourse, considering the source, the writing process and the news product from the vantage point of argumentation. The case study examines how a journalist of the business-finance desk of a generalist newspaper copes with the argumentative and persuasive nature of the corporate press releases on financial results on which he depends for his reporting. The paper contributes to the understanding of journalistic practices in the economy-finance desk showing that even within the constrained genre of hard news reporting and despite the epistemic and practical limitations of newsmaking practices the journalist does not renounce to a critical stance towards the argumentation in the source. This is done without fully and explicitly assuming the argumentative roles of antagonist and protagonist of alternative standpoints but rather by rhetorically framing the reader in these roles. Methodologically, the paper showcases a two-way cross-fertilization between argumentation theory and the ethnography of newsmaking. The newsmaking process joining the press release and the newspaper article is analyzed in vivo thanks to the ethnographic methodology of Progression Analysis (PA). Progression Analysis provides a new kind of evidence for argumentative reconstruction, while argumentative reconstruction provides an explicit framework for comparing source and product texts and for laying down the reasoning behind the journalist’s decision making as elicited by (PA).
2011 “Argumentative Valences of the Key-phrase Value Creation in Corporate Reporting”. In Proceedings of the seventh conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, ed. by F.H. Van Eemeren, B. Garssen, D. Godden, and G. Mitchell, 461–479. Amsterdam: Sic Sat.
Filimon, I. Agatha
2014 “Two-sided Rhetorical Strategies in Top Management’s Letters to Shareholders and Stakeholders from Corporate Reports”. In Rhétorique et Cognition/ Rhetoric and Cognition, ed. by T. Herman and S. Oswald, 215–248. Bern: Peter Lang.
Gieber, Walter
1964 “News is what Newspapermen Make it”. In People, Society and Mass Communication, ed. by Lewis Anthony Dexter and David Manning White. New York: Free Press.
Harcup, Tony
2009Journalism: Principles and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Healy, P., K. Palepu
, and V. Bernard2003Business Analysis and Valuation Using Financial Statements: Text and Cases, 3rd ed. Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.
Henry, E.
2008 “Are Investors Influenced By How Earnings Press Releases Are Written?” Journal of Business Communication 45 (4): 363–407.
Hursti, Kristian
2011 “Management Earnings Forecasts. Could an Investor Detect an Unduly Positive Bias on the Basis of the Strength of the Argumentation?” Journal of Business Communication 48 (4): 393–408.
2009 “Pour Une Analyse Discursive de La Communication : La Communication Comme Anticipation Des Pratiques de Reprise et de Transformation Des Énoncés.” In Actes Du Colloque « Le Français Parlé Dans Les Médias : Les Médias et Le Politique », ed. by Marcel Burger, Jérôme Jacquin, and Raphaël Micheli, 1–15.
Luciani, Margherita, Andrea Rocci, and Marta Zampa
In press. “Capturing Editorial Gatekeeping through the Analysis of Argumentation in Editorial Conference Discussions”. In
Procedeeings of the VALS ASLA conference “Norme linguistiche in contesto“
, Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland), 12-14th February 2014 ed. by Matteo Casoni, Sabine Christopher, Alain Kamber, Johanna Miecznikowski, Elena Pandolfi and Andrea Rocci
Martin, James Robert, and Peter R. R White
2005The Language of Evaluation. New York: Palgrave Macmillian.
Merkl-Davies, Doris M., and Niamh M. Brennan
2007 “Discretionary Disclosure Strategies in Corporate Narratives : Incremental Information or Impression Management ?” Journal of Accounting Literature 261: 116–119.
Miecznikowski, Johanna, Andrea Rocci, and Gergana Zlatkova
2012L’argumentation dans la presse économique et financière italienne” In Les discours de la bourse et de la finance. (= Forum für Fachsprachen-Forschung), ed. by Laurent Gautier, 65–83. Berlin: Frank und Timme.
Pander Maat, Henk
2007 “How Promotional Language in Press Releases is Dealt with by Journalists: Genre Mixing or Genre Conflict?” Journal of Business Communication 44 (1): 59–95.
Perrin, Daniel
2003 “Progression Analysis (PA): Investigating Writing Strategies at the Workplace”. Journal of Pragmatics 351: 907–921.
Perrin, Daniel
2012 “Stancing. Strategies of Entextualizing Stance in Newswriting”. Discourse, Context & Media 1 (2–3): 135–147.
2010Writing from Sources. Ethnographic Insights into Business News Production. PhD dissertation, Universiteit Gent.
Van Hout, Tom, and Felicitas Macgilchrist
2010 “Framing the News: An Ethnographic View of Business Newswriting”. Text & Talk 30 (2): 169–191.
Walsh, Polly
2001 “Prediction and Conviction: Modality in Articles from The Economist.” In Modality in Specialized Texts, ed. by Maurizio Gotti and Marina Dossena, 361–378. MLA-IB. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Walsh, Polly
2006 “Playing Safe? A Closer Look at Hedging, Conditions and Attribution in Economic Forecasting.” In Explorations in Specialized Genres, ed. by Vijay K Bhatia and Maurizio Gotti, 351:135–154. Bern etc.: P. Lang.
White, D.M.
1964 [1950] “The “Gatekeeper”: A Case Study in the Selection of News”. In People, Society and Mass Communication, ed. by Lewis Anthony Dexter and David Manning White, 160–172. London: Collier-Macmillan Ltd.
White, Peter R.R.
2004 “Subjectivity, Evaluation and Point of View in Media Discourse”. In Applying English Grammar, ed. by C. Coffin, A. Hewings and K. O’Halloran, 229–257. London: Hodder Arnold.
2012 “Exploring the Axiological Workings of Reporter Voice News Stories. Attribution and Attitudinal Positioning”. Discourse, Context and Media 1 (2-3): 57–67.
Zampa, M., and D. Perrin
This volume “Arguing with Oneself: The Writing Process as an Argumentative Soliloquy”. In Argumentation in Journalism, ed. by Corina Andone and Andrea Rocci.
Special issue of Journal of Argumentation in Context
5 (1): 9–29.
Zampa, M.
2015News Values as Endoxa of Newsmaking. An Investigation of Argumentative Practices in the Newsroom. PhD Dissertation.
2019. Good Professional Reasons for Bad Journalism Practice: Inventing Audience Contributions in a Live Tv Debate. Journalism Practice 13:10 ► pp. 1185 ff.
Palmieri, Rudi
2017. The Role of Argumentation in Financial Communication and Investor Relations. In The Handbook of Financial Communication and Investor Relations, ► pp. 45 ff.
Rocci, Andrea
2017. Introduction. In Modality in Argumentation [Argumentation Library, 29], ► pp. 1 ff.
Rocci, Andrea
2017. Meaning and Argumentation. In Modality in Argumentation [Argumentation Library, 29], ► pp. 33 ff.
Rocci, Andrea
2017. Case Studies of Italian Modal Constructions in Context. In Modality in Argumentation [Argumentation Library, 29], ► pp. 371 ff.
Rocci, Andrea & Carlo Raimondo
2017. Conference Calls. In The Handbook of Financial Communication and Investor Relations, ► pp. 293 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.