DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L318.28
Authors: Kareen Gervasi
Abstract: This qualitative and quantitative study focuses on the use of Reported Speech in news reports from Granma and El Nuevo Herald, two Spanish language newspapers. It analyzes pragmatic and social factors that influence journalists’ choices between direct speech (literally quoting news actors) and indirect speech (paraphrasing their words). Granma (GR) is a state-run newspaper in Cuba, whose writers are expected to present news from the perspective of the Communist Party. Conversely, journalists at El Nuevo Herald (ENH), which serves the Cuban-American community in Miami, have significantly more freedom. The news articles come from two different junctures in the relationship between Cuba and in the United States: Before and after normalization of diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba on July 1, 2015, and after Donald Trump’s election and inauguration. GR journalists, operating in a repressive society, tend to utilize indirect speech when quoting the voices of powerful news actors. This is a discourse strategy by which journalists implicitly endorse the speech of such news actors. Contrarily, reporters in ENH use direct speech and indirect speech in a proportionate manner (Gervasi 2014). The results of the analysis of the new data collected after the normalization of relations exhibit the emergence of a new pattern. GR and ENH are moving towards a more free press, which is reflected in a decrease in the use of indirect speech.
Keywords: language ideology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics
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