The Discourse of Broadcast News
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The Discourse of Broadcast News In this timely and important study, Martin Montgomery unpicks the inside workings of what must still be considered the dominant news medium: broadcast news. Drawing principally on linguistics, but multidisciplinary in its scope, The Discourse of Broadcast News demonstrates that news pro- grammes are as much about showing as telling, as much about ordinary bystanders as about experts, and as much about personal testimony as calling politicians to account. Using close analysis of the discourse of television and radio news, the book reveals how important conventions for presenting news are changing, with significant consequences for the ways audiences understand its truthfulness. Fully illustrated with examples and including a detailed examination of the high-profile case of ex-BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, The Discourse of Broadcast News provides a comprehensive study that will challenge our current assumptions about the news. The Discourse of Broadcast News will be a key resource for anyone researching the news, whether they be students of language and linguistics, media studies, or communication studies. Martin Montgomery is Director of the Scottish Centre for Journalism Studies and Reader in Literary Linguistics at the University of Strathclyde. The Discourse of Broadcast News A linguistic approach Martin Montgomery First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 Martin Montgomery All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Montgomery, Martin. The discourse of broadcast news / Martin Montgomery. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Mass media and language. 2. Discourse analysis. I. Title. P96.L34M66 2007 306.44–dc22 2007015387 ISBN 0-203-00663-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-35871-X (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-415-35872-8 (pbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-35871-2 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-35872-9 (pbk) Contents List of figures ix Acknowledgements xi Transcription conventions xiii Structural notations xvii 1 Broadcast news 1 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Defining news 4 1.2 News values 5 1.3 The epistemological status of news values 10 1.4 Broadcasting standards: the regulation of broadcast news 11 1.5 The relative importance of broadcast news to audiences and producers 13 1.6 Conclusion 18 2 Broadcast news and discourse analysis 20 2.0 Introduction 20 2.1 The linguistic approach to discourse analysis 21 2.2 Discourse as social action 23 2.3 Discourse practice 24 2.4 Discourse structure 25 2.5 Discourse genre 26 2.6 Discourse domain 27 2.7 Order of discourse 28 2.8 Participation framework and broadcast news 29 2.9 Scripted discourse and improvised discourse in broadcast news 30 2.10 Modality and the speaker’s alignment to the discourse 32 vi Contents 2.11 Institutionalised discourse roles and participation framework 34 2.12 Summary 36 2.13 Conclusion 36 3 The discourse structure of broadcast news 38 3.0 Introduction: broadcast news and discourse structure 38 3.1 The overall discourse structure of a news bulletin programme 39 3.2 Opening the news bulletin programme 41 3.3 Closing the news bulletin programme 45 3.4 Opening a bulletin news item 48 3.5 Opening and closing a bulletin news report 50 3.6 Opening a live two-way with a reporter/correspondent 53 3.7 Closing a live interview with a reporter/ correspondent 57 3.8 ‘Open’ versus ‘closed’ discourse structures in broadcast news 59 3.9 Open structure news discourse 61 3.10 Conclusions 66 4 News presentation 68 4.0 News presentation: its role and performance 68 4.1 Television news presentation, news-reading and direct visual address 74 4.2 The space of the news studio versus the space of the news field 75 4.3 The discourse of headlines 78 4.4 News items and news kernels 83 4.5 Features of news kernels 84 4.6 Conclusions 87 5 The discourse of television news reports: narrative or commentary? 89 5.0 Introduction 89 5.1 TV news and narrative 89 5.2 Some textual features and principles of intelligibility of television news reports: tense and reference 92 5.3 Textual cohesion in television news reports: the interplay of the visual with the verbal 94 Contents vii 5.4 Principles of intelligibility in TV news reports 97 5.5 The intelligibility of television news reports: an example 105 5.6 Conclusions: narrative or commentary in TV news reports? 108 Appendices 109 6 The discourse of live, two-way affiliated interviews 117 6.0 Introduction 117 6.1 Live discourse, scripted discourse and the news 118 6.2 The discourse of the live two-way compared with the discourse of news presentation 120 6.3 Further discursive properties of the live two-way and the question of truth values 125 6.4 The use of scalar expressions to support Push versus Pull 127 6.5 Issues of identity in the live two-way 128 6.6 The live two-way, the Gilligan affair and the Hutton inquiry 130 6.7 The aftermath of the Gilligan–Humphrys two-way 139 6.8 Conclusion 142 7 The broadcast news interview 144 7.0 The notion of interview: a short social history 144 7.1 The media interview and the news interview 145 7.2 The accountability interview with a public figure 148 7.3 The experiential/witness interview with an ordinary member of the public 155 7.4 The expert interview 170 7.5 The interview fragment 176 7.6 Conclusions 178 8 The changing discourses of broadcast news 182 8.0 Broadcast news as an order of discourse 182 8.1 Stylistic, sub-generic norms of broadcast news discourse 183 8.2 Broadcast news and pressures for change 184 8.3 Illustrating some changes in the discourse of broadcast news: two bulletin news programmes 185 8.4 Changes in presentational style: towards conversation 200 viii Contents 8.5 Uneven rates of change 202 8.6 Discursive change and normative tension: news presentation and the limits of conversationalism 202 8.7 Discursive change and normative tension: accountability interviewing and the limits of adversarialism 203 8.8 Discursive change and normative tension: the accountability interview and the limits of neutralism 213 8.9 Discursive change and normative tension: the live two-way and the limits of informality 216 8.10 Discursive change and the validity claims of broadcast news 217 8.11 Towards an ethics of the discourse of broadcast news 219 Notes 222 References 231 Index 240 Figures 1.1 Primary source of world news amongst the general UK population 14 1.2 Primary source of UK news in 2003 14 1.3 Average audiences for network news bulletins 2003/2004 15 1.4 Average weekly reach of news channels in multichannel households, 1996–2003 18 2.1 Components of a discourse model for broadcast news 36 3.1 Signature graphics and logo for the BBC’s Six O’Clock News 43 3.2 Opening signature and graphics for NBC’s Nightly News 44 3.3 End of news item on Prince William’s girlfriend 51 3.4 Beginning of the next item about USA air strikes in Somalia 51 3.5 Transition from news presentation to live two-way 56 3.6 Transition from news presentation to live two-way continued 56 3.7 Presenter continuing to frame question 57 4.1 Presenter Natasha Kaplinsky reading a Six O’Clock News item 70 4.2 and 4.3 BBC Breakfast presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid 72 4.4 More flexible use of studio space 73 4.5 Beginning of the first news item 73 4.6 Presenter more expressive than in Figure 4.5, smiling 75 4.7 BBC Scotland’s newsroom is discernible as background to David Robertson’s presentation 76 4.8 Time, space and programme title blended in opening signature graphic for ITN’s ‘News at Ten’ 76 4.9 The title of this Scottish news programme, Reporting Scotland, has been superimposed on part of a map of Scotland 77 x Figures 7.1 Blair admits Iraq ‘a disaster’ 155 8.1 Opening signature graphic: ITN News at One, 1985 194 8.2 Opening signature: ITV Lunchtime News, 2006 194 8.3 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006 195 8.4 ITN News at One, 1985 195 8.5 ITN News at One, 1985. Presenter 196 8.6 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. Presenter 1 197 8.7 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. Presenter 1 197 8.8 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. First headline 198 8.9 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. Presenter 1 and Presenter 2 204 8.10 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. Presenter 2 and Presenter 1 204 8.11 ITV Lunchtime News, 2006. Presenter 2 and Presenter 1 205 Acknowledgements It seems as if this book began to take shape a long time ago but in fact it’s only about three years since I first discussed it with Louisa Semlyen at Routledge.