Role and position of scientific voices: reported speech in the media

Abstract

The purpose of this study is twofold: one, to determine the presence and function of scientific knowledge when it is required by such cases as "mad cows" disease, when the crisis breaks in the press; and two, to explore the role of scientific information through the analysis of quoted speech brought by journalists to their discourse./nCitation is the most explicit form of inclusion of other-discourse (D2) in one’s-discourse (D1). Within the framework of the theory of énonciation (Ducrot’s poliphony perspective), in combination with a critical view of discourse, we analyse the following: i) the identity of agents of reference chosen by journalists; ii) the specific linguistic choices made in the pre-citation segment where the agents are/nintroduced, that is, discourse identity procedures and use of specific verbs of communication. The study shows the proportion of scientific and nonscientific voices, the different ways of representing science agents in the process of news communication as well as the use of citation by journal writers not just to confer authority and legitimation to their discourse but to set the scene of the conflict. The scientific role is not presented as a decisive social role capable by itself of mitigating 2 social alarm and journalists fail to secure appropriate credibility for the scientific community.