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Morality, loyalty and eloquence
Conversational challenges and resources in a televised confrontational dialogue
- Source: Journal of Language and Politics, Volume 17, Issue 3, Jan 2018, p. 405 - 427
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- 30 Dec 2016
- 27 Nov 2017
- 20 Jul 2018
Abstract
The new dialogic, conversational nature of television broadcast news ( Hamo, 2009 ) poses a challenge to traditional commentators, who are forced to move from an authoritative monologue to a confrontational dialogue that requires additional flexibility and conversational skills. The paper focuses on an Israeli case study which presents a confrontational dialogue in which one of the discussants is an experienced military correspondent and commentator. We demonstrate the various resources he uses in order to cope with a complex discursive challenge by using multimodal tools, both verbal and visual ( Kress 2010 ; Kress and Van Leeuwen 2001 ; Jewitt and Oyama 2001 ).
Besides interrupting his interlocutor’s eloquent discourse in any possible way, demonstrating his well-known direct and involved television persona, the military correspondent employs institutional discursive resources such as using authoritative voice and taking the role of the mediator. Concession structures ( Anscombre 1985 ) reflect his inner moral conflict toward the issue ( Livnat 2012 ).