News Values and Narrative Themes: Irony, Hypocrisy and Other Enduring Values.

This paper explores an alternative way of studying journalism in the classroom by focusing on contemporary journalists' ironic treatment of morality. The paper examines the performative character of the language of news, when the words investigative journalists use are of interest not so much for what they say but for what they do. The paper establishes an appropriate framework of irony as a rhetorical device, with emphasis on its evaluative role and the implications of that role for journalists who, as a matter of professional obligation, must eschew explicit evaluation. The paper presents detailed examination of how irony works in the work of several distinguished reporters. (Twenty references are attached.) (KEH)