Argumentation matters: on integrating argumentative skills in journalistic education
Daniel Perrin (Zurich University of Applied Sciences – Switzerland)
& Marta Zampa (University of Lugano – Switzerland)
Getting an idea through to publication is not only a matter of quality of the idea in itself, but also of how it is proposed and argued for in editorial conferences and other social moments in the newsroom. At the same time, making a good piece of news is not only a matter of having the best story: it is also about framing and formulating it the best way, getting under the surface of what happened and making the story strong and convincing. In other words, it is always a matter of good argumentation. Despite its evident relevance, until now this discipline has been seldom included in the curriculum of future journalists. The present communication aims thus at proposing to integrate argumentation theory (especially extended Pragma-Dialectics – van Eemeren 2010; van Eemeren & Grootendorst 2004; van Eemeren, Grootendorst & Snoeck Henkemans 2002) in journalistic education. The proposal is based on courses of argumentative discourse construction and evaluation offered at the University of Amsterdam and Leiden (The Netherlands), and takes into account the specificity of the newsmaking context. As the concept is thought to be implemented in Switzerland, particular attention is devoted to the complexity of the Swiss media landscape, which is tightly related to its unique political system and to its multilingual and multicultural identity.
Examples of sound argumentation at various level of news production are also analyzed, taken from a multilingual corpus of newsmaking processes at Swiss television and print news outlets, collected during two projects financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation (NP 56 and PDFMP1_137181).
Bibliography
Eemeren, F. H. van. 2010. Strategic Maneuvering in Argumentative Discourse. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Eemeren, F. H. van and R. Grootendorst. 2004. A systematic theory of argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eemeren, F. H. van; Grootendorst, R. and F. Snoeck Henkemans. 2002. Argumentation: Analysis, Evaluation, Presentation. London/ New York: Routledge.