Title: British Newspaper Discourse The discourse structure of the news story and editorials
1British Newspaper Discourse The discourse
structure of the news story and editorials
2- The discourse structure of news stories
- Types of news articles
3- Journalists do not write articles, they write
stories with structure, order, viewpoint and
values - Bell 1998
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6Inverted pyramid
7The structure of the news story
- The lead (US) or intro (UK)
- Who?
- What?
- When?
- Where?
- Why?
- How?
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10Found prehistoric rodent that was as big as a
bull By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published 16 January 2008
The fossilised skull of a giant rodent that grew
to the size of a bull has been discovered in
South America, where it lived about four million
years ago alongside sabre-toothed cats, huge
flightless "terror" birds and giant ground
sloths. Scientists have found the almost
complete skull of the extinct rodent, which
weighed about a ton and grew about 5ft tall and
about 9ft long.
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12- Tokyo Two sake brewers were seriously ill
after being overcome by fumes when one fell in a
half full vat and the other was trapped trying to
rescue him. Reuter. - (from Bell 1998)
13Deportation setback
- Storms over Iceland delayed the deportation from
Norway yesterday of 12 American anti-abortion
activists who had allegedly planned to stage
demonstrations during the Winter Olympics and
were detained by police when they arrived in
Oslos airport. - (From Bell 1998)
14News reports - revision
- Structure
- Attribution source (byline/agencies), place,
time - Abstract headline, lead(or intro)
- Story episodes (1-n), events (1-n),
attributions, actors, actions, settings (time,
place), - follow-up (consequences, reactions), commentary
(context, evaluation), background (previous
episodes, history)
15Headlines are summaries,
- their main functions are to
- Attract the readers attention to the story (or
paper, if on the front page) - Tell the reader what the story is about by
- summarising the content of the story
- indicating the evaluation of the story
- indicating the register of the story
- indicating the focus of the story
-
16News reports the abstract
- Headlines are powerful framing devices and
prepare the reader by priming their expectations
as to evaluation - The lead (US) or intro (UK) tells us
- Who?What?When?Where?Why?How?
17Inverted pyramid structure
- Beginning of text
Greatest amount of information (Headline and
lead) - As text progresses less really new information ,
more detail, background, commentary
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20- Pope cancels trip in Rome over security
- By Malcolm Moore in Rome, Last Updated
1201am GMT 16/01/2008 - The pope has been forced to cancel a visit to a
university in Rome because of fears for his
safety. - Benedict was due to address students at La
Sapienza University, but called off his trip at
the last minute because of a sit-in protest. The
last papal trip to be cancelled for security
reasons was in 1994, when John Paul II was due to
visit Sarajevo. However, the pope has never been
unable to tour Italy in modern times. Angry
students had threatened to blast dance music at
the pontiff, and also to dress up as nuns.
According to sources close to the Vatican, there
had also been "more serious threats". The
official newspaper of the Holy See, L'Osservatore
Romano, said that "this is a dramatic threat
against the papacy, culturally and civilly". - The controversy began after 67 professors at the
university signed a letter saying the pope should
not be allowed to give the inauguration speech
for the academic year. - The professors accused Benedict of being opposed
to science, and cited a speech he gave two
decades ago. They argued that the pope would have
supported the Church's 17th century trial against
Galileo for claiming the earth revolved around
the sun. - Although there is little evidence in the speech
to support their claim, the students lent their
support to the cause, and occupied the dean's
office, waving banners which said "The Pope has
occupied La Sapienza. Free the Intellectuals!" - The Italian Bishops' Conference said they were
"worried" about the state of the university,
which was founded by the Vatican seven centuries
ago. "There seems to be part of the secular world
which does not argue, but demonises and which
does not discuss, but creates monsters," said a
spokesman for the bishops. - Students rejoiced when the Vatican finally
conceded and cancelled the trip, shouting "Get
the Pope out !" - However, Renato Guarini, the dean of the
university, said he was "bitterly upset" at the
tension on campus. - Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, also
condemned the students' actions, saying that it
had been "unacceptable".
21Exploring stance
- How speakers and writers pass judgements on
people generally, on other writers and speakers
and their utterances, on material objects, on
happenings and states of affairs and thereby form
alliances with those who share these views and
distance themselves from those who dont
22reporting v commenting
- News reports will usually contain some aspect of
subjective evaluation revealing stance - The selection of the story to be told
- The way the story is framed
- The selection of details included
- The choice of attributions
- Transitivity choices
- commentary
23stance is a refracting and structuring medium
- Different newspapers and news broadcasts report
differently, both in content and presentation - They express affiliations and disaffections in
the way they represent or mediate by means of
transformation or differential treatment in
presentation
24The editorial is the voice of the papers opinions
- We will be exploring how attitudes, judgements
and emotive responses are explicitly presented in
texts but also how they can be more indirectly
implied, presupposed or assumed. - How the expression of such attitudes and
judgements is, in many instances, carefully
managed so as to take into account the ever
present possibility of challenge or contradiction
from those who hold differing views.
25commenting
- Editorial
- Voice of the newspaper
- Unsigned
- Op-ed (opposite the editorial)
- A signed comment article
- Giving one persons opinion
- Readers comments letters page or comment
threads under an article
26Guardian editorial page
- Editorials reply p32
- Leveson a public inquiry demands a public debate
- Editorial The derailing of bills through Leveson
amendments is clumsy and blunt but it is forcing
the issue into the open where it belongs - In praise of mind the gap
- Editorial In a world forever catastrophising the
future, mini-institutions embedded into our daily
lives anchor us to our past - Papal conclave I elect as supreme pontiff
- Editorial With no clear favourite, it could take
a long time for the white smoke to emerge when
the cardinals go into lockdown - The SWP and rape why I care about this
Marxist-Leninist implosion - Laurie Penny The SWP has been a significant
organising force on the British left for decades.
But socialism without feminism isn't worth it
27Functions of the editorial
- To comment on items in the news, give opinions,
guide others in forming an opinion, sometimes
humourous. - To persuade
- To create a consensus of opinion with the readers
28Editorial language
- Evaluative lexis affect, judgements
- Modality authority
- Generic statements (show authority, the editorial
claims total knowledge) - Argumentative e.g. rhetorical questions,
exclamatory clauses, other rhetorical devices
such as metaphor, hyperbole - Exophoric reference- first person plural
pronouns we, us, our
29Editorials examples
- Matter of Consent
- The Times January 17, 2008
- Convincing many more people to register as organ
donors is the right approach - Give us justice
- The Sun January 17, 2008
- POLICE catch criminals. Courts punish them.
- Thats the bargain between citizen and state. We
call it justice. - But justice means nothing when decent parents
are murdered on their doorstep by drunken thugs.
30Op eds
- Short for opposite the editorial but of course
this is valid only for the paper version. - They are signed
- They have all the linguistic features which
differentiate editorials from news reports - They appear in sections which label them (blog,
comment, opinion ecc)
31Op-eds
- Blogs Home News US politics Tim Stanley
- Tim Stanley
- Dr Tim Stanley is a historian of the United
States. His biography of Pat Buchanan is out now.
His personal website is www.timothystanley.co.uk
and you can follow him on Twitter
_at_timothy_stanley. - Texas secession petition reaches 25,000
signatures. Even Obama doesn't warrant this
conservative pessimism
32Op-ed example
- Robert Fisk article
- Sunday 18 November 2012
- As Israel and Hamas open the 'gates of hell' in
Gaza, all the journalistic cliches of war are
here again - 'Surgical air strikes', 'rooting out terror', and
'cyber-terrorism' cannot conceal reality - ( on Prof Blog)
33Modality
- A term used in syntactic and semantic analysis to
refer to meanings connected with degrees of
certainty, necessity, obligation or desirability - It is expressed mainly by verbs but also by
associated forms
34A PERSONAL VIEW
- Modality is the speakers assessment of the
probabilities inherent in the situation
(epistemic modality)or of the rights and duties
(deontic modality) - It allows the speaker to introduce a personal,
subjective view of the non-factual and
non-temporal event
35Type of modality Deontic or intrinsic modality
- The system of duty, desirability and necessity
attitude to the degree of obligation which the
speaker does not expect to be disputed on.
Associated with power and formality
36Type of modality Epistemic
- Epistemic or extrinsic modality commitment to
the truth of the proposition i.e. the speakers
confidence in the truth of the proposition
expressed and reflect the certainty and the
authority of these propositions. - It refers to the logical status of events or
states, assessments of likelihood. Associated
with confidence and lack of confidence but also
with power and authority
37Simple present for eternal truths
- All messages choose some form of modality even if
it is only the neutral choice of bold assertion
absence of explicit modality still expresses a
high degree of certainty and therefore a
perception of authority, the right to make
pronouncements. - The speakers choice of modal expressions signals
both the degree and type of involvement a speaker
has in the content of his/her message
38- the neutral choice of bold assertion absence of
explicit modality still expresses a high degree
of certainty - The simple present is used to express universal
truths - The sun rises in the east
- Wood floats on water
39Stance what, how and who
- expression of the writer/speaker's attitude
towards, viewpoint on or feelings about the
entities or propositions s/he is talking about - Assessment of desirability or likelihood
- Affect and evidentiality
- Stance markers
40The interpersonal function of language
- the speakers or writers attitude towards or
point of view about a state of the world - Certainty or possibility or probability
- Trying to get things done or trying to control
the course of events degrees of obligation and
whether something is necessary, desirable
permitted or forbidden, volition and instructions
41Interpersonal meanings
- Modality is concerned with assertion and
assertiveness, tentativeness, commitment,
detachment and other crucial aspects of
interpersonal meaning (as opposed to ideational
or content meanings) - They form a part of the tenor of discourse
- They are part of how a person presents his/her
self through language
42Useful things to distinguish
- Attitudinal targets
- Explicit vs implicit attitude
- Asserted vs presupposed attitude
- Evaluative responsibility
43The right to assess or appraise
- Stance, appraisal and assessment are all about
relative positions - Who is in a position to appraise
- Positions of authority
44Graduation
- Force gradable scaling raising or lowering the
intensity of the utterance - Focus non-gradable scaling raising or lowering
of intensity achieved through narrowing or
broadening, and or sharpening or softening - Both are factors in the expression of strong
opinions
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46Voice of the Mirror
- Respect is due for our soldiers
-
- The disgraceful protests against soldiers in the
Royal Anglian Regiment returning home have no
place in Britain. - Those men who were waving placards that attack
our brave soldiers as "butchers" only shamed
themselves. - Our soldiers have a right to respect and pride
when they return from a tour of duty. - They have given their all for their country.
47The Sun says
- Mob rule
-
- OUR brave troops have enough to put up with as
they risk life and limb in Afghanistan and Iraq. - To top it all, now they fly home to vicious abuse
from Islamic fanatics. - The Royal Anglians had to face a chanting mob
waving grotesque placards accusing THEM of
terrorism and child murder. - Astonishingly, this despicable demo went ahead
with police approval. - When it turned predictably ugly, who did our
brave bobbies arrest? - Not the extremists who started the trouble, but a
couple of locals who rallied to Our Boys
defence. -
48Voice of the Mirror
- Blacklists ruin lives
- Blacklisting workers is wrong and must be stamped
out completely. - The disclosure that some of Britain's biggest
companies secretly banned individuals from jobs
demands a strong Government response. - Men and women deprived of their livelihoods were
unable to challenge allegations that were often
inaccurate. - And a person's political views should never be a
bar to employment in a democracy.
49International paedophile register is needed
- The worrying case of the convicted paedophile
found working as a children's nurse in an NHS
hospital raises serious issues. - The need for a comprehensive, international
register is clear so paedophiles aren't able to
sneak undetected from country to country. - The safety of our kids must never be compromised
50Sources / Useful Reading
- See lesson 3
- Also
- Fowler, R. 1991. Language in the News Discourse
and Ideology in the Press. Routledge. Pp 208-221 - Morley, J. The sting in the tail Persuasion in
English editorial discourse. In Partington et al.
Corpora and Discourse. Peter Lang pp 238-255