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In:Dialogue across Media
Edited by Jarmila Mildorf and Bronwen Thomas
[Dialogue Studies 28] 2017
► pp. 137–154

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Dialogism in journalistic discourse

An analysis of Ian McEwan’s “Savagely Awoken”

Published online: 19 January 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.28.08lam
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.
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