[Commlist] cfp: A True and Fair View: Communicative, Linguistic and Ethical Aspects of Expressing Point of View in Journalism

CALL FOR PAPERS

A True and Fair View:

Communicative, Linguistic and Ethical Aspects of Expressing Point of 
View in Journalism

10-11 December 2020

Fourth biennial conference of the Brussels Institute for Journalism 
Studies (BIJU)

Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium

Deadline for proposals: 30 June 2020

Please send a proposal of no more than 300 words (excluding selected 
references) together with your affiliation and a short biography (c. 100 
words) to (fairview /at/ vub.be) <mailto:(fairview /at/ vub.be)>by 30 June 2020. 
Decisions will be announced by 15 July.

Plenary speakers

KARIN WAHL-JORGENSEN (Cardiff University, UK)

PETER R. R. WHITE (University of New South Wales, Australia)

After three successful small-scale, high-quality international 
conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2018, the Brussels Institute for 
Journalism Studies (BIJU) is now ready to launch its fourth call for 
papers. The topic for this year’s conference will be the expression of 
standpoint and viewpoint in journalism. As always, our conference is 
multidisciplinary. So, we invite scholars from different backgrounds 
like communication and media studies, linguistics, ethics, epistemology 
and political and social sciences to think about the modi operandi and 
the desirability of journalists expressing their standpoints and sharing 
their views.

Many different aspects come to mind when thinking about views and 
standpoints in (journalistic) communication. Many different terms apply 
as well. In linguistics, stance, vantage point and footing are 
differentiated and non-interchangeable terms for referring to the 
perspective from which one communicates. Applying these insights to 
journalistic communication offers exciting new way of approaching the 
expression of perspective in journalistic writing and reporting.

The linguistic study of reported speech and quoting can also contribute 
to the study of expressing perspective. Quoting several sources is a 
commonly used technique for keeping a neutral or ‘neutralistic’ position 
in journalism, at the risk of giving a too broad forum to non-relevant 
sources or leaving the news consumer puzzled.

The line between point of view and opinion is thin. When expressing 
opinions, assessments are made. In order to be able to judge whether a 
situation is desirable or non-desirable, a norm has to be defined and 
this raises new questions. How do journalists express or imply the norms 
or reference points they operate from? In this context, the application 
of linguistic Appraisal Theory can be illuminating.

Such linguistic approaches to point of view in journalism connect with 
longtime, yet, recently revitalized developments and debates, in both 
professional and scholarly fields, relating to what constitutes 
legitimate journalistic goals, role conceptions, and (associated) 
practices or genres. This ultimately pertains to the normative 
foundations of journalism which, at least from a Western perspective, 
have been primarily informed by the so-called ‘core value’ or ‘strategic 
ritual’ of objectivity and the implied tendency for journalists to 
identify with the disposition of a neutral, detached, ‘passive’ observer 
of events and transmitter of information, as opposed to adopting a more 
‘active’ or ‘interventionist’ role. Indeed, the idea of the journalist 
‘providing views rather than news’, and reflecting upon or variously 
interpreting the news, has been typically relegated to the background by 
the objectivity-led and ratio-centered ethos of the traditional news 
paradigm.

Challenges to established professional norms and standards have surely 
been evident throughout journalism’s history. Yet, indications of a what 
has been identified as a ‘paradigm reexamination’ have arguably become 
ever more manifest in the contemporary cultural and sociopolitical 
moment, which is notably characterized by shifting knowledge and truth 
claims, a heightened sense of ‘(self-)reflexivity’, and an increased 
centrality of subjectivity and ‘emotionality’ in public life. In 
combination with the affordances of digital, networked media, and the 
coping strategies developed by legacy media in response to market 
pressures, non-professional ‘newcomers’ in the journalistic field, and 
questions of public confidence and accountability, this context has 
provided an impetus for both novel and once ‘marginalized’ 
non-paradigmatic journalistic genres and practices to proliferate and 
(re)claim authoritative status. As part of what has been referred to as 
an ‘inter­pretive turn’, subjective, evaluative, (self-)reflective, 
experiential, and ‘confessional’ discourses have rendered the 
journalist’s ‘voice’ more prominent, moving beyond a detached, 
matter-of-fact, ‘he said, she said’ style of reporting and making the 
boundaries between news, opinions, and personal narratives ever more 
porous. In the process, the association of truth or epistemic authority 
with objectivity has been variously defied, or replaced with 
considerations of transparency and epistemic hesitation.

We invite participants to engage in a critical discussion of point of 
view in journalism. Possible questions which can be addressed are: is it 
possible to define the ‘proper’ standpoint, is it possible to give a 
full account of a state of affairs, does the traditional journalistic 
method of including multiple sources guarantee balanced reporting, is 
interpretive or transparent journalism to be preferred over the 
traditional ‘neutralistic’ journalism, how can interpretive forms of 
journalism be meaningfully differentiated, measured and assessed, how 
does point of view relate to verification, assertion, and affirmation, 
how can stances and points of view be rendered linguistically and/or 
visually, is there a place for emotions in journalism, what are the 
ethical implications of expressing points of view in journalism?

Inspirational literature:

Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin (2019). Emotions, Media and Politics. Cambridge: 
Polity Press.

White, Peter R. R. (2020). The Putative Reader in Mass Media Persuasion: 
Stance, Argumentation and Ideology. Discourse and Communication (online 
soon).

We welcome submissions from all relevant disciplinary backgrounds 
approaching topics including but certainly not limited to:

The objectivity norm / bias in news reporting

Interpretive journalism

Transparency in journalism

All forms of advocacy journalism

The position of point of view in non-Western models of journalism

Ethical aspects of the expression of opinion

Linguistic devices for neutralism

Plurivocity in news reporting

Appraisal and alignment

Point of view or the expression of ‘voice’ in visual communication

Fake news / Post-truth

We welcome both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and analyses 
at process, product/text, and/or audience level.

After the previous conferences, we have edited special issues of 
renowned journals and a book volume with a renowned publisher bundling 
the most innovative papers presented. We will endeavour to do the same 
after this conference.

Junior researchers are warmly invited to participate.

The venue for the conference will be the Africa Museum 
(https://www.africamuseum.be/en) Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren. 
This is about 15 km from the Brussels city centre, but it can easily be 
reached with tram 44.

Conference fee (including reception, lunches, coffee):

€ 150 (regular participants), € 75 (PhD students).

Dinner will be organized on Friday 11 December and charged separately.

Questions about any aspect of the conference should be addressed to 
(fairview /at/ vub.be).

For updates on the practical organization, please check our website

http://www.vub.ac.be/en/events/2020/fairview.

Websites of the previous conferences:

https://www.vub.be/en/events/2014/hybridity-and-the-news-hybrid-forms-of-journalism-in-the-21st-century

https://www.vub.be/en/events/2016/constructed-constructive-journalism

https://www.vub.be/en/events/2018/whatnews

Publications of the previous conferences:

Hybridity and the news: Blending genres and interaction patterns in new 
forms of journalism

(Journalism)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1464884916657520

Post-truth and the political: Constructions and distortions in 
representing political facts (Discourse, Context & Media)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211695818303271

Constructive journalism: Concepts, practices, and discourses

(Journalism)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884918770885

Special issue of Journalism Studies on News Values (in preparation)

Book volume on News Values from an Audience Perspective (Palgrave 
McMillan – in preparation)

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