Reforma Política del Distrito Federal

As is common in news articles nowadays, most of the engagement is of the heteroglossic type, and for the most part the expansion type, i.e. allowing alternative voices and positions. However, quite a few instances of the heteroglossic voice are sourced back to the journalist, thus not all of the heterogloss instances may allow alternative viewpoints. For the most part, the heteroglossic instances traced back to the journalist are of the contracting kind, either countering statements made by external sources, or denying them. This will be further discussed in the following paragraph.

Of the expanding type, most of the heterogloss instances were of the category attribute: acknowledge (see (5.80) and (5.81)), i.e. the journalist introduces other voices without taking a stand to the perspective they might be taking. These examples are signaled by for instance the “neutral” verb “said” and “announced”:

5.80 “The problem,” said Maissa al-Attar, 21, “is that when we are fleeing from the shelling, we still find the shelling around us” (NYT July 20, 2014).

5.81 Early Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces announced on Twitter that they had “commenced Operation Protective Edge in Gaza against Hamas in order to stop the terror Israel’s citizens face on a daily basis” (NYT July 7, 2014).

As can be seen in both of the examples, the sources invited into the discourse are neither tarnished nor fended off. The journalists allow them to contribute without taking a stance themselves.

Of the expanding type, we also find instances of distance, where the journalists allow for other voices, but then chooses to distance themselves from the proposition they make. This can be seen in examples such as (5.82) and (5.83):

5.82 Israeli officials speculate that Hamas militants have threatened people with retaliation if they leave, using them as human shields (NYT July 20, 2014).

5.83 Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for firing dozens of rockets into Israel for the first time in this latest round of hostilities, which began three weeks ago (NYT July 7, 2014).

In (5.82), the journalist clearly separates herself from what she refers to as Israeli officials’ speculations; cf. the verb “speculate”. In (5.83), a similar distance is made regarding Hamas’s statement about the amount of rockets fired into Israel, signaled by “claimed”. Here, Hamas tries to portray their military as a capable party through their achievements, but the journalist does not seem to be entirely certain of their implicit positive appraisal of themselves.

Then we have instances of contraction, meaning that certain viewpoints are either countered (example (5.84)) or denied (example (5.85)) in some way. As previously mentioned, most of these examples are sourced back to the journalist him-/herself, and can be seen in the following examples:

5.84 Colonel Lerner said the missile had been meant to be a “precision strike,” adding, “We are targeting a terrorist.” But he had no immediate information on the identity

of the person in Israel’s sights or why the military struck when the café was abuzz with more than a dozen people (NYT July 10, 2014).

5.85 Perhaps most important, the vast majority of Gazans cannot leave Gaza (NYT July 20, 2014).

(5.84) shows how the journalist first lets in an alternative voice, Colonel Lerner, by allowing him to justify Israel’s attack, but then counters the justification through a denial, due to the lack of reasons for the attack. (5.85) illustrates another way of contracting other viewpoints, by starting off with an expand: entertain, signaled by “perhaps”, continuing with a proclamation: pronounce, signaled by “most important”, and ending with a complete denial of a previous proposition made in the news article, signaled by “cannot leave”, implying that it has been suggested that Gazans have somewhere else to go, which is not the case.

Moving over to the bare assertions of the material, i.e. monoglossic voice, a typical example can be seen in (5.86):

5.86 After 50 days of fighting that took some 2,200 lives, leveled large areas of the Gaza Strip and paralyzed Israel’s south for the summer, Israeli and Palestinian leaders reached an open-ended cease-fire agreement on Tuesday that promised only limited change to conditions in Gaza and left unresolved the broader issues underpinning the conflict (NYT August 26, 2014).

In this example, we are presented with an image of the happenings during and the consequences of the war, as well as a statement of Israeli and Palestinian leaders reaching a cease-fire agreement. At the same time, the journalist is negatively appraising the cease-fire, as it does not lead to any significant change to the condition in Gaza, and does not address the main issues underpinning the war. All of this is done through the journalist’s perspective, seemingly objective, but without the invitation of alternative voices. Now, alternative voices are included in the news article, but it is still interesting to note how this example is organized, especially considering that it is the opening line of the article, and serves as a backdrop for the understanding of the rest of the text.

Naturally, since most of the instances analyzed reveal negative attitude, most of the monoglossic instances will also be linked with the negative attitude. It is, however, noteworthy that most of the instances of positive attitude that can be sourced back to the journalist evaluate judgment: social esteem: capacity or judgment: social sanction: propriety. Consider by way of example the following:

5.87 Israel achieved its original stated goal, to restore quiet, but Hamas’ repeated penetration of Israeli territory through tunnels, the deaths of the most Israeli soldiers since the 2006 Lebanon war, and the killing on Friday of 4-year-old Daniel Tregerman in a kibbutz near Gaza have scarred the country’s psyche (NYT August 26, 2014).

5.88 With the casualties of Israel’s aerial campaign in Gaza mounting, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing, the main gateway for Gaza’s population of 1.7 million, to allow the evacuation of wounded to hospitals in Egypt and the passage of Palestinians who hold Egyptian citizenship (NYT July 10, 2014).

In (5.87), the journalist appraises Israel for having achieved its goal. The statement is a bare assertion, and there are no other voices challenging it. The journalist, however, counters the implication of a successful country (signaled by “but”), by following up with a clause about the setbacks that Israel has suffered, and how this has clearly affected the country’s spirit. (5.88) is an example of a seemingly objective statement still functioning as a positive appraisal of Egypt, which by opening the border crossing has helped millions of people in need. The key point here is that the people in need are portrayed in almost all of the news articles about the war in 2014. Another interesting feature is the use of the word “aerial campaign” to describe an Israeli attack. This can be compared to other wordings such as “air attack”, which carries more negative connotations, as well as alluding to more suffering than the word “campaign” itself. This issue will be further discussed in chapter 6.