An Analysis Of Inappropriate Quotes In China's Contemporary News Coverage

Speech quotation is an important component of news reporting. Currently there exists a great amount of inappropriateness in quotes in Chinese journalism. This paper is a systematic analysis of inappropriate quote in the areas of its form, content and the quote lead, within the context of contemporary journalistic discourse in China. The paper is composed of the following five parts:The first part, the Introduction, reviews the literature in the research and use of quotes by the journalistic academia and practicing community both in China and the West, discusses three common forms of journalistic quotes and their functions, and proposes the philosophy and expected academic significance of this paper.The second part focuses on formal inappropriateness in quotes, namely, a distinct lack of effective choice of the three different forms of quotes. Three aspects are analyzed here: intrusion of indirect speech upon direct speech, misplacement of direct and indirect speech, and cancellation of the otherwise potent aposiopesis by overly lengthy direct quotes. The third part analyzes inappropriate quotes in their content representation, including invented, irrelevant, misrepresented and ill-balanced quotes.The fourth part of the paper discusses inappropriate quote lead from the aspects of the subject of the discourse, the reporting verb and its position in the quote.The last part, the Conclusion, summarizes possible causes of inappropriate quotes, proposes some solutions to the phenomenon and calls for more attention to be paid to the study of journalistic quotes.