LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF EDUCATION IN HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH PHILOLOGY AND DIDACTICS JANINA BUITKIENĖ JŪRATĖ MARCHERTAITĖ DAIVA VERIKAITĖ-GAIGALIENĖ THE LANGUAGE OF MEDIA TEACHING AID Vilnius, 2018 J. Buitkienės, J. Marchertaitės ir D. Verikaitės-Gaigalienės mokomoji knyga „The Language of Media“ apsvarstyta Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto Humanitarinio ugdymo fakulteto Anglų filologijos ir didaktikos katedros posėdyje 2018 m. gegužės 28 d. (protokolo Nr. 12), Lietuvos edu- kologijos universiteto Humanitarinio ugdymo fakulteto tarybos posėdyje 2018 m. birželio 1 d. (protokolo Nr. 89) ir rekomenduota spausdinti. Recenzentės: Doc. dr. Jurga Cibulskienė (Lietuvos edukologijos universitetas) Doc. dr. Eglė Petronienė (Lietuvos edukologijos universitetas) ISBN 978-609-471-130-5 (internetinis) Leidinio bibliografinė informacija pateikiama Lietuvos nacionalinės Martyno Mažvydo bibliotekos Nacionalinės bibliografijos duomenų banke (NBDB). © Janina Buitkienė, Jūratė Marchertaitė, Daiva Verikaitė-Gaigalienė, 2018 © Lietuvos edukologijos universiteto leidykla, 2018 CONTENTS PREFACE 4 INTRODUCTION 5 1 ASPECTS OF THE QUALITY NEWSPAPERS AND TABLOIDS 7 2 THE INVERTED PYRAMID AND FIVE WS 11 3 NEWSPAPER ARTICLE GENRES 17 3.1 News Articles 18 3.1.1 Hard News 18 3.1.2 Soft News 20 3.2 Opinion Articles 26 3.2.1 Editorials 26 3.2.2 Columns 30 3.3 Feature Articles 39 3.3.1 Eye-witness News Feature 39 3.3.2 Participatory Feature 49 3.3.3 Profile 58 3.3.4 Preview/Curtain-raiser and Retrospective 75 3.3.5 Life-style Feature 78 3.3.6 Timeless Feature 85 3.3.7 Reviews 90 4 PECULIARITIES OF NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE 100 4.1 Text Cohesion 100 4.1.1 Reference 101 4.1.2 Lexical Cohesion 104 4.2 Syntax 109 4. 3 Vocabulary 111 5 HEADLINES 121 5.1 Headline Functions 121 5.2 Headline Language 124 6 GUIDELINES FOR A NEWSPAPER ARTICLE ANALYSIS 130 REFERENCES 131 GLOSSARY 132 PREFACE Traditionally mass media are perceived as newspapers, television and radio. These days, however, it has expanded to include social networks and computer- aided communication. No matter what channels of communication they choose to use, media remain one of the most important social institutions reflecting the political, cultural and social life of a society and having a significant impact on society’s views and values. As with any communication, communication through media requires the use of language. Media language has specific linguistic characteristics that are predetermined by many factors such as a medium, target audience, genre and intention. Since mass media are famous for being capable of manipulating addressees in a way they do not even notice it, surprisingly small changes in wording can make a big difference to addressees’ perception and interpretation of the message. Hence, media not only shape the attitudes of an audience but also affect the language use of it. Therefore, for adequate interpretation of information presented in mass media, it is essential to develop the skill of critical thinking which could be acquired by learning about the communication strategies used as well as language employed to achieve specific communication aims. The general intention of this book is to provide study material for media language analysis with the focus on language of newspapers. The book provides a short overview of newspaper genres, discusses features of quality press versus tabloids, introduces the major principle of information presentation in newspapers, and gives numerous examples of newspaper articles representing different genres. The second part of the book focuses on media text characteristics including text cohesion and its linguistic means of realization such as reference and lexical cohesive devices as well as syntax and vocabulary. Due to the fact that headlines of media text play a crucial role in attracting addressees’ attention, they are also given due attention by discussing their functions and linguistic features. This book is primarily intended to assist the BA students majoring in English who study the language of media. However, it could also be of some use to all of those who have a general interest in media and language. 4 INTRODUCTION Language used in media, or the language of media, has attracted increasing interest of scholars in many fields of research. It has been investigated in linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, semiotics, communication studies, sociology, and social psychology. The interest of so many fields points to its importance: media language mirrors the language used in society and at the same time affects the language used by the society. It embodies social interaction between people and at the same time it helps to construct the social reality. To become media and information literate, it is important to know how information is communicated through various types of media. Media languages use a particular type of vocabulary characteristic of a particular medium and it is usually referred to as verbal language. Verbal language is enhanced by visual language, i.e. some visual images are used to reinforce ideas expressed with the help of words. Each medium has its own conventions of information presentation as well as its own language that help to transfer the meaning in the most effective way. The newspaper has been one of the most popular communication forms of mass media. Traditionally newspapers were published in print; however, today most of newspapers have changed their mode and are published on websites as online newspapers which makes them more easily accessible for a wider audience. No matter what their publication mode is, a newspaper is a periodical that contains written information about current events and issues. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of topics ranging from politics and economics to art and entertainment. They display articles of different genres such as news articles, opinion articles or feature articles. They can also include weather forecasts, reviews of local services, advice columns, birth notices, obituaries, comic strips, editorial cartoons or crosswords. Newspapers usually meet the criteria of public accessibility, periodicity, currency and universality. Recently, newspapers have put much effort into enhancing public accessibility by making their publications available online. As for periodicity, newspapers are published at regular intervals, i.e. daily or weekly. Periodicity ensures the timely provision of information about newly- emerging events thus making the information current and up-to-date. The currency of a print newspaper is usually limited by the time needed for printing; however, online newspapers can be updated as many times a day 5 as needed. As far as universality is concerned, newspapers cover a variety of topics from business to art and entertainment. Most newspapers are addressed to general audience, however some focus on readers with a more defined interests such as business or sports. With regard to their geographical scope and distribution, newspapers can be divided into local or regional, national and international. A local newspaper dominates in a particular area such as a small town, a district of a city or a city. There are some newspapers in a country that circulate throughout the whole country and they are considered as national. However, there are some newspapers that can be treated as international due to the fact they cross the borders of one nation and are popular world-wide. Most of modern newspapers are published in one of three sizes: broadsheets (600 mm × 750 mm), tabloids (280 mm × 430 mm) and Berliner or Midi (470 mm × 315 mm). They not only differ in size but in their content, too. Broadsheets are considered to be more intellectual, tabloids are perceived as sensationalist and Berliners or midi are used by European papers such as Le Monde in France. Newspapers of the modern world are coping with the challenges that new technologies pose. By the late 1990s newspapers circulation started to decline due to availability of 24-hour news on TV. On 10 April 1995 the first daily Internet-based newspaper The American Reporter was launched. In the 2000s many newspapers around the world launched their online editions. In the 2010s most of traditional newspapers started to offer digital editions that are accessible through desk top computers, laptops or mobile devices. As of 2017, an increasing number of people get their news from social media websites such as Facebook, therefore causing a decline of interest in newspapers. In spite of the questions whether new technologies will make the print newspaper obsolete and what role newspapers will adopt in the future, newspapers still remain a powerful and influential medium of communication. 6 ASPECTS OF THE QUALITY 1 NEWSPAPERS AND TABLOIDS The British newspapers are often divided into broadsheets and tabloids. Technically the terms refer to the size of a newspaper. A broadsheet newspaper is about 75 centimeters by 60 centimeters, while a tabloid is about 43 centimeters by 28 centimeters. For today almost all the newspapers changed from the broadsheet size to a smaller size for the purpose of convenience, economics and competitiveness. Some broadsheet newspapers, e.g. The Times, changed to the tabloid size and some, e.g. The Guardian, to the intermediary size called Berliner which is about 47 centimeters by 32 centimeters. Though the format of the broadsheet newspapers has been downsized in last years to a compact version, they are still often referred to as broadsheets. For example, to say that The Times is a tabloid would be a great mistake and can cause a major misunderstanding, though its size is identical to that of The Sun which is the biggest tabloid in the United Kingdom. The reason for this possible confusion is that historically the term broadsheet has come to indicate not only size but also quality of a newspaper. Therefore, the term broadsheets allude to “quality press”, while tabloids mean “popular press”. Today such newspapers as The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and The Independent are considered to be quality newspapers; in comparison, the tabloids with red mastheads like The Sun, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star are good examples of popular press.