Facebook in the Australian News: A Corpus Linguistic Approach Penelope Thomas A thesis submitted to fulfil requirement for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences The University of Sydney 2018 Declaration This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. Penelope Thomas February 2018 Acknowledgements My thanks to Dr Monika Bednarek for her diligent supervision. My special thanks to Dr Alan Pettigrew for his encouragement. This is dedicated to my family. Capstone Editing provided copyediting and proofreading services, according to the guidelines laid out in the university-endorsed national ‘Guidelines for Editing Research Theses’. Contents Declaration ......................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... iii Contents ........................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 10 1.1 The Effect of Facebook as a Mainstream News Provider ................................. 10 1.2 A Profile of the Traditional Australian Newsprint Media .................................. 11 1.3 Facebook in the Australian News: A Corpus Linguistic Approach .................... 11 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 15 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 15 2.2 Journalism and Media Approaches to News Values ......................................... 15 2.2.1 The Classic Approach to News Values ............................................................... 16 2.2.2 An Ideological Approach to News Values .......................................................... 18 2.2.3 Reworking of Galtung & Ruge’s Original List ..................................................... 19 2.2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 22 2.3 Linguistic Approaches to News Values .............................................................. 22 2.3.1 Critical Discourse Analysis .................................................................................. 22 2.3.2 Practice-Based Approaches to News Values ..................................................... 24 2.3.3 Discursive News Values Analysis ........................................................................ 27 2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 30 Chapter 3: Data, Corpus Design and Methodology ........................................................... 33 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 33 3.2 Corpus Design and Data ..................................................................................... 33 3.2.1 Sources ................................................................................................................ 34 3.2.2 Search Parameters .............................................................................................. 35 3.2.3 Corpus Size and Date Ranges ............................................................................. 36 3.2.4 Articles for the Corpus ........................................................................................ 37 3.2.5 Corpus Check—FNC Frequency List ................................................................... 38 3.3 Corpus Analysis and Methodology .................................................................... 38 3.3.1 Keywords Analysis: FNC Versus BNC-Baby ........................................................ 39 3.3.2 Semantic Categorisation and News Values ....................................................... 40 3.3.3 Collocate Analysis ............................................................................................... 40 3.3.4 Concordancing and Dispersion .......................................................................... 41 3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 42 Chapter 4: Diachronic Analysis: Keywords and Collocation .............................................. 43 4.1 Introduction: Keywords Analysis and the Construction of News Values ......... 43 4.2 Keywords Analysis: FNC and General News Corpus BNC2.2N ......................... 43 4.2.1 Keywords in FNC: What is News Discourse around Facebook about? ............ 43 4.2.2 Keywords that Point to News Values ................................................................. 47 4.2.3 Diachronic Analysis: Comparing Subsets of FNC ............................................... 49 4.2.3.1 Subset 1—Categorisation of Keywords ....................................................... 49 4.2.3.2 Subset 2—Categorisation of Keywords ....................................................... 54 4.2.3.3 Subset 3—Categorisation of Keywords ....................................................... 58 4.2.3.4 Summary of Diachronic Analysis of Keywords ............................................ 60 4.3 Collocation Analysis: Keyword Zuckerberg........................................................ 61 4.3.1 Overview of Results ............................................................................................ 62 4.3.2 Analysis of Zuckerberg Collocates Appearing in All Three FNC Subsets .......... 63 4.3.2.1 All Subsets: News Values ............................................................................. 63 4.3.2.2 All Subsets: Content Items ........................................................................... 66 4.3.2.3 Analysis of Zuckerberg Collocates Appearing in Two FNC Subsets ............ 67 4.3.2.4 Analysis of Zuckerberg Collocates Appearing Uniquely in Each FNC Subset ........................................................................................................... 69 4.3.2.5 Subset 1: News Values ................................................................................. 69 4.3.2.6 Subset 1—Content Items ............................................................................. 71 4.3.2.7 Subset 2—Unique Collocates of Zuckerberg ............................................... 72 4.3.2.8 Subset 3—Unique Collocates of Zuckerberg ............................................... 73 4.3.2.9 Subset 3—News Values ............................................................................... 74 4.3.2.10 Subset 3—Other Findings .......................................................................... 75 4.3.2.11 Summary of the Collocations of Zuckerberg ............................................. 76 4.4 Summary ............................................................................................................. 77 Chapter 5: Synchronic Analysis: Three Keywords in Focus ............................................... 79 5.1 Concordancing Analysis of FNC Keywords: Privacy, Friends and Information 79 5.2 News Values and Concordancing—Semantic Categorisation .......................... 79 5.3 Analysis of the FNC Keyword Privacy ................................................................. 81 5.3.1 News Value—Negativity ..................................................................................... 81 5.3.1.1 Relinquishing of Privacy ............................................................................... 82 5.3.1.2 Activism for Privacy ...................................................................................... 83 5.3.1.3 Invasion of Privacy........................................................................................ 84 5.3.1.4 Breach of Privacy .......................................................................................... 84 5.3.1.5 Violating of Privacy ...................................................................................... 86 5.3.1.6 Insufficient Protection of Privacy.................................................................. 87 5.3.1.7 Concerns and Fears about Privacy .............................................................. 88 5.3.1.8 Problems and Issues around Privacy ........................................................... 90 5.3.1.9 Regulation and Privacy ................................................................................ 91 5.3.1.10 Settings and Functionality ......................................................................... 92 5.3.1.11 Hypothetical Absence of Privacy ............................................................... 93 5.3.1.12 Summary of News Value Negativity and the FNC Keyword Privacy ........ 93 5.3.2 News Value—Novelty