Document Type
Journal Article
Department/Unit
Department of Journalism
Title
The strategic ritual of irony: Post-Tiananmen China as seen through the ‘Personalized Journalism’ of elite US correspondents
Language
English
Abstract
© The Author(s) 2015. Inspired by Tuchman’s concept of the ‘strategic ritual of objectivity’, we argue that journalists employ what can be called the ‘strategic ritual of irony’ in their accounts to convey moral stance toward morally ‘tainted’ stories, often under the façade of objectivity. Systematic reading of American journalists’ memoirs and writings reveals that their portrayals of post-1989 China, against the tragic background of the Tiananmen crackdown, habitually resorted to two genres of irony – situational irony and verbal irony – to express their disdain for an emerging moral vacuum in contemporary China. The injection of irony, in the form of objectivity, distances journalists from the ‘tainted’ targets they cover and hence protects their own professional reputation.
Keywords
expression of moral disdain, irony, objectivity, personalized journalism, strategic ritual, US correspondents
Publication Date
2015
Source Publication Title
Media, Culture and Society
Volume
37
Issue
8
Start Page
1176
End Page
1192
Publisher
SAGE Publications
DOI
10.1177/0163443715591673
Link to Publisher's Edition
ISSN (print)
01634437
ISSN (electronic)
14603675
Recommended Citation
Song, Yunya, and Chin-Chuan Lee. "The strategic ritual of irony: Post-Tiananmen China as seen through the ‘Personalized Journalism’ of elite US correspondents." Media, Culture and Society 37.8 (2015): 1176-1192.