Reported Speech and Ideological Positions: The Social Distribution of Knowledge and Power in Media Discourse

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the representations in circulation about the social actors that participated in the education-related conflict which took place in Buenos Aires, in September of 2017. We analyze the positions adopted by two of the main newspapers in Argentina, La Nación and Página/12. In order to perform this analysis, we consider reported speech as a discursive mechanism employed by newspapers to establish the ideological framework within which they inscribe the topics they address. Thus, reported speech constitutes a privileged resource to analyze the ideological positionings taken up by these newspapers. We aim at contributing to the analysis of reported speech as a mechanism that regulates which interpretations are possible for a given text through the hierarchization and legitimization of the different voices and stances that a newspaper incorporates.