Daniel perrin dynamcis

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Dynamics at the process/product interface: The case of stance and stancing in news writing

Daniel Perrin, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland daniel.perrin@zhaw.ch 1

Key concept and context: Stancing as situated activity

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Research question: the transdisciplinary approach of idée suisse

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Research framework: the multimethod approach of idée suisse

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Findings: Solutions emerge in the newsroom

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Conclusion: Evidence of stancing as added value

Perrin, Daniel (2012). Stancing. Strategies of entextualizing stance in newswriting.

Discourse, Context & Media, 1(2–3), 135–147.

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Key concepts: Stancing as taking own positions

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Stancing: the strategy, practice, routine, or procedure of taking one’s own position (commitment, judgement, opinion) within individual, organizational, and societal frames of reference and encoding it through collaborative practices of text production by using semiotic and, in particular, linguistic means.

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Writing strategy: the reinforced, conscious, and therefore articulable ideas of how decisions are to be made during the act of writing so that the process or text product has a great probability of fulfilling intended functions.

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Metalinguistic awareness: „the ability to reflect upon and manipulate language(s); a sensitivity to what is implied rather than stated; and an analytical attitude towards language.“

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process data: editorial confernce, workplace negotiation, snt, rvp, Ehrensberger&Perrin 2009, 277, based on: Jessner, Ulrike (2009). A DST-model of multilingualism and the role of metalinguistic awareness. Modern Language Journal, 92(2), 270-283.

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1.1

Macro context: Public discourse as chains of recontextualization

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Syntagmatic relations in chains of genereating value

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Paradigmatic relations in markets of competitors

Protester

Source

other providers

other providers

other providers

other providers

other providers

VJ

Local TV

Newswires

TSR

TÉLÉJOURNAL

other journalists

other customers

other customers

other customers

other customers

News materials production

News item production

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1.2

Meso context: Text production as text reproduction

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Micro context: Situated activity as strategy, practice, and routine

[– dynamics] static entities of text production: text product, formulation, genre, style, … text production

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[+ dynamics]

[+ target focus]

dynamic entities of text production

strategy [+ activity focus]

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…

…

…

[+ pattern]

…

practice routine [+ established] procedure

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Research question: the transdisciplinary approach

In the Idée suisse project, we investigated how the Swiss public broadcasting company SRG should, wants to, and can contribute to mutual understanding and identity formation in Switzerland while operating between the poles of a public mandate and competitive market forces.

Research questions and frameworks were developed in collaboration with actors in the life-world: media policy makers, media management, journalists. The project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, National Research Programme 56, 2005-2009. http://www.nfp56.ch Perrin, Daniel, Schanne, Michael, & Wyss, Vinzenz (2010). Idéé suisse: Language policy, language norms and language practice. In Walter Haas (Ed.), Do you speak Swiss?

Sprachenvielfalt und Sprachkompetenz in der Schweiz. Nationales Forschungsprogramm NFP 56 (pp. 217-220). Zürich: Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

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Research framework: the multimethod approach

The production of three national news programs has been analyzed with Progression Analysis. In this multimethod approach, ethnographic observation, interviews, computer logging, and cue-based retrospective verbal protocols are combined to investigate collaborative writing as a situated activity in organizational and societal frameworks. In various research projects, Progression Analysis has proven valuable in understanding the process of text production processes as a key backstage activity of journalists, other professionals, and children.

Perrin, Daniel (2003). Progression analysis (PA). Investigating writing strategies at the workplace. Journal of Pragmatics, 35(6), 907-921.

Gnach, Aleksandra, Wiesner, Esther, Bertschi-Kaufmann, Andrea, & Perrin, Daniel (2007).

Children’s writing processes when using computers. Insights based on combining analyses of product and process. Research in Comparative and International Education, 2(1), 13-28.

Ehrensberger-Dow, Maureen, & Perrin, Daniel (2009). Capturing translation processes to access metalinguistic awareness. Across Languages and Cultures, 10(2), 275-288.

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project modules, theoretical sampling

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Findings: Solutions emerge in the newsroom

The overall findings show that the knowledge of how to bridge the public mandate and market forces cannot be identified in executive suites, but in newsrooms. Whereas the managers usually are frustrated by the expectations of media politics, some experienced journalists find solutions to overcome the conflict between public mandate and the market – a straightforward meta stance of finding socially relevant issues attractive for the audience. These solutions tend to emerge when the journalists tackle complex and unexpected problems in critical situations within their daily routines.

Perrin, Daniel, Burger, Marcel, FĂźrer, Mathias, Gnach, Aleksandra, Schanne, Michael, & Wyss, Vinzenz (2009). Talk and action: Practicing internal multilingualism in the newsroom. ZITIMATA EPIKINONIAS (Communication Issues), 3(9), 24-39.

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video, transcript, s-notation, cue-based retrospective verbal protocol

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4.1

The FAMI case: Stancing by overall TASK COMPREHENDING

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O.K. says that the TÉLÉJOURNAL reports on a day in the region, the country, the world. It is often “the only link people have to the world”.

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Explaining the world’s most relevant recent developments in 28 minutes is part of the public remit. Public service media have to ensure citizens’ access to information on political, economic, and international affairs – and the audience “wants to know”.

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In providing information, O.K. thinks that TÉLÉJOURNAL has to perspectivize the news, to offer analysis and foster understanding, and to go beyond “merely indicating the number of deaths”.

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4.2

The FAMI case: Stancing by LIMITING THE TOPIC

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In the week of Febrary 23, 2007, O.K. wanted to realize his idea of a TÉLÉJOURNAL item about the increase of Iraqi refugees in Switzerland.

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On February 2, 2007, the Swiss FEDERAL OFFICE FOR MIGRATION had held a media conference to discuss statistical data showing that the number of asylum seekers from Iraq had doubled in 2006.

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Instead of exposing himself to dangers in Iraq just to report on “very repetitive scenes of violence”, O.K. decided to exemplify “through an individual” the problems of this war and the flood of refugees to Europe in general and to Switzerland in particular.

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The day before he shot the pictures and produced the item, he had the idea of portraying a family in a refugee center telling their story of how they had experienced Iraq, why they had fled the war, how they came to Switzerland, and when they hoped to return to their country.

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4.3

The FAMI case: Stancing by collaborative SOURCE READING with the cutter

Journalist: spending eight thousand dollars to pay a human smuggler […], not all Baghdadis can do this.

Cutter:

Let’s not be so naïve to think this is only a poor refugee, perhaps he has seen other people being made miserable too.

J:

No doubt, but […] he also could have hidden [it], saying: me, I was a trader, you know, constructing another identity, at least, he was honest enough to say OK, I was in the military.

Cutter talk. Source: tsr_tj_070222_1930_kohler_familleirakienne_discourse, lines 292–315

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4.4

The FAMI case: Stancing by STAGING THE STORY during revising

De confession sunnite, cette famille ne souhaite pas s'exprimer à visage découvert, la peur de représailles, pour cet ancien militaire de carrière159[..]159|160160{162[, menacé mort... ]162|163163{167[...]167|168168{, de|170]170,

256

170

[les menace

[la guerre civile. ]256}168|172257{le traumatisme aussi de la guerre

civile.}257}160

Workplace session, Source: tsr_tj_070222_1930_kohler_familleirakienne_snt_1 De confession sunnite, cette famille ne souhaite pas s'exprimer à visage découvert, la peur de représailles, pour cet ancien militaire de carrière, 4

{ 5{pour }5|6sa femme et ses deux enfants,|5}4 le traumatisme 6[aussi]6 de la

guerre civile.

Cutting room session. Source: tsr_tj_070222_1930_kohler_familleirakienne_snt_2

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4.5

The FAMI case: Stancing by STAGING THE STORY in the booth

014 015 …

051 052

Off: /Du jour au lendemain/ laisser une vie derrière soi /From one day to the next/, leaving a life behind you, quitter l’enfer de Bagdad leaving the inferno of Baghdad …

Off: Dans l’immédiat la confédération n’envisage pas For the time being the government does not envisage de renvoyer ces familles /en Irak/. sending these families back /to Iraq/.

/Changes/ in the booth. Source: tsr_tj_070223_1930_kohler_familleirakienne_item

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4.6

Stancing throughout the process

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O.K. had done everything necessary to incorporate his initial stance and incrementally refine his plans:

– – – – …

contrasting the distant war with the local peace in a concise five-step story, no statistics contextualizing instead of reproducing the “very repetitive scenes of violence” from Iraq exemplifying what it means to be Iraqi refugees in Switzerland omitting or masking faces to highlight the fear the refugees live in …

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In contrast, everything superfluous to the telling of the concise fivestep story had been omitted or deleted during the workplace session or the collaboration in the cutting room.

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O.K. renounced discussing or emphasizing that the father of the refugee family had been a career officer under the Saddam Hussein regime and that his family must have belonged to the priviledged classes in Iraq before and even still during the war. …

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4.7

Stancing throughout the sample and the activity fields

Explicit stancing as TAKING OWN POSITIONS is related all activity fields.

Experienced journalists dispose of a wider and more flexible repertoire of stancing strategies and practices.

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Conclusion: Evidence of stancing as added value

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meta stancing by task comprehending: promoting public understanding as telling attractive stories about socially relevant topics

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meso stancing by FINDING THE SOURCES, LIMITING THE TOPIC, STAGING THE STORY, ESTABLISHING RELEVANCE FOR THE AUDIENCE – not only by TAKING OWN POSITIONS

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micro stancing by deciding to omit, to kill darlings in the process – resulting in the absence of linguistic means in the product

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Progression analysis provides empirical evidence for stancing beyond explicit linguistic means.