Recontextualizing and Centering Underrepresented Voices in Nonprofit Investigative News Discourse. An Illustration from the US

The article employs the concept of recontextualization in conjunction with those of voice and media(tion) dispositive to investigate the centering of underrepresented voices in nonprofit, investigative, digitally native news discourse. In line with critical discourse analysis, recontextualization is viewed as the process of “casting into discourse” social events and practices, and thereby transforming them, where discourse is in a dialectical relationship with social contexts ranging from the situation of interaction to the social (here, journalistic) field. The analytic framework incorporates a qualitative analysis of metajournalistic discourse, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observation, and a discourse analysis of voices as discursive and rhetorical enactments of news content, genre and style choices and strategies. The illustration explores news discourse about (undocumented) immigrants in the Wisconsin dairy industry, produced by a well-established investigative nonprofit within the emerging field of engagement journalism in the US, Wisconsin Watch. The main findings reveal the uplifting of the immigrants’ voices through a hybrid approach, which articulates new journalistic principles and values (public service orientation, community-driven news agenda) with a mixed but predominantly traditional news reporting style. This combination creates an arena where underrepresented voices may be heard on their own terms, contributing to a more balanced public debate.