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INTRODUCTION Newspaper ownership may directly affect the news the read, editorial points of view and political stanceWHO PAYS FOR THE PAPER? Profit lies in sales and advertising - Adv depends on the sales  the higher the circulation, the more lucrative the advertising  If the readership is seeki...

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INTRODUCTION 

Newspaper ownership may directly affect the news the read, editorial points of view and political stance

WHO PAYS FOR THE PAPER?  

Profit lies in sales and advertising Adv depends on the sales  the higher the circulation, the more lucrative the advertising If the readership is seeking a certain type of entertainment, opinion or slant on events, a profitseeking paper will try to meet these needs  it will not want to challenge the interests of the collective readership

Fundamental question: can a newspaper organization or owner afford to publish articles that are hostile to their commercial or political interests? CAN NEWSPAPER BE IMPARTIAL? 

Newspaper reader is the receiver of selected information which may well be selected with an ideological spin

QUALITY AND POPULAR PRESS British and Australian newspaper generally divided in quality and popular press -

1. Quality press [broadsheets] Larger format More home and overseas news, economic and political news, extensive coverage of sports, finance, cultural events Detailed fewer pictures + less advertising The times, Guardian 2. Popular press [populars, tabloids] Bold headlines, large photographs, more advertising Local news + reports of recent sensational and juicy events, often involving celebrities More colloquial  readership generally = working class

This distinction not so clear in Italian papers, where bigger/smaller format are not an indicator of the distinction between quality (bigger) and popular (smaller) press.

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Papers which are between the 2 categories = middle-range tabloids  readership generally =middle class

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS Freedom of the press is the guarantee that news-gathering organizations [organizzazioni per la raccolta di notizie] will not be coerced by state interference in their publication and distribution of stories, photos, etc. 

BUT if the same conglomerate has business interests in other area, it would be very difficult for the paper to report on those area objectively

MEDIA MAGNATES Today is impossible for a newspaper to survive independently: to succeed a newspaper needs strong financial backing  stories may avoid certain issues and promote others in the interests of the consortium ADVERTISING About 25-40% of total page space is advertising  news reporting usually occupies only first pages  more space is used for advertising than to news reporting  -

Position of ads is based on their efficacy in attracting reader attention News section: more general adv. Most people read the news = more readers = more ads Next sections: more specialized ads. Less people continue in reading

1 WHAT IS THE NEWS? WHAT IS IN THE PAPER?  

To watch what is not reported is as important as watch what is reported After the selection, the stories undergo [subire]a process of elaboration

Processes of selection and transformation are guided usually by ideas and beliefs 

News = new information about something which has happened recently  but this definition not so helpful

NEWSWORTHINESS = the factors which predict the amount of interest that a story will have for the reader [also “news values”] 

The editor makes a choice of content based on the probability of readership interest + readers’ desire

An high level of newsworthiness means a news is: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Timely: ideally happen over the past 24 hours [nelle ultime 24h]. It must be recent Negative: an event with negative implications Novel: unexpected, unusual Celebrated: celebrities and VIPs make better news Geographically close

6. Culturally close: more familiar so more meaningful 7. Attributable: can be attributed to respected and authoritative sources 8. Factual: high facticity and include abundant supporting evidence 9. Numerical: bigger numbers make bigger news 10. Personal: focuses on the experiences of individuals involved in events to personalize the story, rather than the event itself 11. Relevant: tells of implications and effects on the readership’s own lives/experience

GATEKEEPING = selecting which stories to include and which to exclude, which aspect of a story underline or ignore [gatekeeper= someone who guards a gate and controls access]  -

Implications of gatekeeping = editorial decisions are being made on behalf [interesse] of the reader, who has no opportunity to comment on these decisions Readers have no control over what they are being presented with as news, especially ad they may not have access to or wish to verify, other sources of information to make comparisons

TYPES OF NEWS Four categories of written papers (also in Italian papers):

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1. Hard news: recent stories about events, conflicts or problems that have just occurred (crimes, disasters, protests). What happened, why, attempts to resolve the situation, how the reader will be affected 2. Soft news: stories are aimed more at informing or satisfying curiosity Focus on people, places, issues that affect readers’ lives, community problems, trend, inspirational stories Timeliness is less important  BUT timely events can occur in non-serious subjects and some stories not actual can provide an opportunity for reflection and analysis

Hard and sof based on the concepts of seriousness and timeliness of a story 3. Special interest news 4. Headlines, subheading, captions etc. STABLISHING AND DESTABLISHING EVENTS Important for newsp. To maintain their readership by producing what they believe what reader wants 

Event which have high newsworthiness tend to have a positive or negative impact on material and/or moral aspects of the readers’ lives

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Broadsheets more concerned with politicians and people in the world arena Tabloids write about ordinary people and local sport and TV stars

2 THE STRUCTURE OF NEWSPAPER STORIES

BACKGROUND  -

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In 19-20th cent stories were chronological: recounting events from beginning to end Story hadn’t headline 1. Crisis event 2. Consequences 3. How the situation was or not resolved Chronological account presumes a small community with a shared interest in the event The pressure of practical demands on the grammar and text  gram. And text has led to a style of writing which is based on headlines and lead [the firs sentence(s) of a news story, which includes the essence of the story, and most of the 5W’s] Events rarely are concluded  story can be update constantly

THE AUDIENCE AND THE ANGLE

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Market research helps to construct an implied readership [a stereotypical, homogeneous group, used to create the profile of the readers of a certain newspaper, carried out in order to ascertain the values, belief and ideologies that they share] In this way, newspaper can orient itself in relation to the news in a way which is coherent and appeals to the beliefs of the readership The reader as an individual doesn’t exist: the readership = powerful group These groups will differ according to the various newspapers Defining their ideal readers allows newspapers to identify and develop an angle on the event [the particular emphasis given to a news; the aspect or details of the story which are developed to make It interesting, or to give greater newsworthiness] The angle becomes the basis for the nucleus of the story structure

THE NUCLEAR STRUCTURE Satellites are not usually linked to each other but are self-contained BUT each is link to the nucleus  stories appear constantly shift focus, resulting in a mosaic-like structure

Nuclear structure makes it possible to cut paragraphs/satellites, or change their order, without affecting the coherence of the story  practical implications for editing procedures

Parts of the paper THE NUCLEUS

News story begins with a surge [ondata] of informational intensity which maximises the story’s emotional impact  headline and lead = basis for how the story will develop    -

Similar information may be found in the body of the story, in fact repetition is common Lead Often in bolden font Elaborates headline + previews the events and perspective that the satellites will say in greater detail It’s not an introduction  newspaper story has not a real introduction or even background: it launches immediately into the event: in the point of the greatest impact or intensity It gives the consequences, good or bad, even before it reveals the events which led to them It gives some or all 5W’s The wrap-up stems directly from the nucleus  it gives a sense of resolution: Put events into a wider [più ampio] context, listing similar events or quoting experts and nonexperts on the significance of the event It can also underline the wider destablishing implications of the story

The nuclear structure of news stories allows the important or more interesting factors of the event to be foregrounded [essere messi in primo piano]. These factors are underlined in the angle (as presented in the lead) and echoed in the wrap-up THE SATELLITES The nucleus generates a series of independent satellites: randomly organized + no clear ending + information often repeated. They:   

Elaboration: reformulate information given in the nucleus Extension: add information Enhancement: give causes and conditions

Satellites of hard news stories are based on the 5W’s -

A good-written story answer to 5W’s and to the question “so what?” [why is it important or relevant + how does it affect you?], which refers to the significance of the story for the implied readership

WHAT THE HEADLINES SAY Characteristics: bold print + the telegraphic – and at time sensational, wording HEADLINES    

At least one of the W’s will be mentioned to entice the reader to read the entire article It’s also the newspaper’s opportunity to establish the angle and stance on a story + signal its significance to the readership It summarizes the most salient aspects of the reported event in terms of newsworthiness, which are the developed It’s written by the editor or subeditor

THE LEAD

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The print is usually bolder/larger than the resto of the story + it will repeat, elaborate the W’s mentioned in the headline + adding other W’s (in particular when? And where?) It can preview other information May preceded by a by-line which names the reporter or the source of the story

THE DISTINCTIVE LANGUAGE OF HEADLINES Specialized vocabulary of headlines tends to be unusual, sensational, brief, it used rhetorical devices like metaphor, metonymy, alliteration ATTENTION-SEEKING STRATEGIES Some linguistic features make headlines particularly memorable and effective. Typical linguistic features: 1. OMISSION For economy of space, headlines abbreviate by omitting certain words -

Usually are omitted function words: essential to the grammatical structure but do not carry intrinsic meaning Content words (nouns, main verbs, etc.) are not eliminated: necessary to express meaning 2. SHORT, LOADED WORDS

Words not found elsewhere in the language  they have evolved for their brevity and colour -

They’re also more economical: occupy less space Often are used sensational and emotionally charged lexis, with connotations that go beyond the literal meaning  to enticing [allettare] the reader to continue reading 3. NOMINALIZATION

Headlines create incisive, effective, economical texts by creating noun phrases where modifiers add further information to the noun, including descriptive detail -

The noun (=headword) is the last word in the headline

Nominalization = permits a noun to be used instead of the verb

4. USE OF GIMMICKS [trucco, stratagemma] (puns, word play, alliteration) The resulting plays on words, or puns, have double sense, as the writer implies a second meaning, which Is linked to the context of the article -

Rarely found in Italian papers, party bc the nature of Italian language

Plays:  

Homophones: when spoken forms have the same pronunciation, but written forms are different Homonyms: words with more than one meaning

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Intertextuality: reference to familiar phrases which are already known to the reader, many coming from film/book titles or the words of a song Metaphor: comparison between 2 apparently unrelated subjects Alliteration: the repetition of sounds Rhyme: words which rhyme and often make a comment at he same time

VERBS   

Headlines tend not to use finite verbs (auxiliary, adverbs)  there is no time reference BUT the verb may be incorporated in a noun phrase by class-shifting (or nominalization), becoming a dynamic noun Sometimes the verb is present

Usually the verb appears in one of these forms: 1. Present simple  timeless 2. Past participle used to signal the passive form  to foreground the effects of an event, or what happened, rather than the people involved 3. Infinitive used to refer to the future  prefer to other future forms bc occupies less space 4. Modal verbs and conditional  less common. Used to disguise conjecture 5. Other tenses which appear are normally in the form of quotes, reflecting spoken language 4 EVALUATION Certain values are encoded in news stories: they are influenced to some degree by the attitudes, culture, beliefs of the writer/editor DIFFERENT WAYS OF SAYING THE SAME THING  

The reporter will unconsciously or not build is point of view into the text Every utterance [espressione], written or spoken, is the result of a series of more or less conscious choices  every utterance is the culmination of a series of choices the speaker/writer has to make

EVALUATIVE LANGUAGE  

Evaluative language expresses the writer’s point of view  language is a series of choices, some form of evaluation will be inherent in the news story Questions: 1. How implicit or explicit is this evaluative language? 2. How covert or overt is the reporter’s stance on an issue?

EXPLICIT EVALUATION = The writer uses words which clearly indicate the writer’ position  Adjective and adverbs 

Probably with the aim to consolidating the reader’s feelings about the same person

IMPLICIT EVALUATION

= Unmistakable [inequivocabili] lexical choices which may reveal a particular stance on the part of the newspaper TOKENS OF EVALUATIONS A further type of evaluation lies not in single words but in entire stretches of language which at first sight appear to be factual, objective and impartial  we call this token evaluation 

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Despite their apparently factual meaning, tokens can evoke evaluative responses which depend on the readership sharing the same ideological values with the reporter/newspaper and each other The power of language does not lie so much in explicit views or opinions, but in implicit evaluation

DENOTATIVE AND CONNOTATIVE MEANINGS  

The effect the word choice has on the reader = perlocutionary force  the choice of one word over another can have a predictable or desirable effect on the reader This choice is based on the connotative and denotative properties of the lexis: every word has two meanings 1. Denotative meaning: literal, neutral meaning 2. Connotative meaning: associations or emotional loadings linked to a word

A group of words can share a denotative meaning but having different connotative meanings LOADED LANGUAGE = general term referring to emotional and evaluative overtones or connotation of the language that the reporter may use to evoke favorable or unfavorable reactions. This form of evaluative language includes:  -

EUPHEMISM AND DYSPHEMISM Euphemism is used to dilute unpleasant or disturbing ideas  to make something sound better then it really is Dysphemism is used to make something sound worse than it really is

Usually eu. where is necessary to soften the news, dys. to turn the reader against certain ideas -

Some words are not used now to be “politically correct”

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DOUBLESPEAK

Deliberate and calculated use of euphemism by gov, military, corporate institutions  the message is softened by confusing and concealing the truth -

In order to conceal the gravity and consequences of the act

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HYPERBOLE

Exaggeration which distorts the facts by making ideas and events appear much bigger or important than they objectively are -

Used by tabloids in particular; a story is made to appear more interesting or important than it really is

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PRESUPPOSITION

The reporter presupposes a certain point of view or state of affairs without explicitly defining it. An assumption, about a situation or state, is embedded within a statement with the result that the truth of the assumption is take for granted, irrespective of whether the sentence is true or not -

Presuppositions must be assumed by both the reporter and the readers for them to work

In these, the truth of what is being presupposed is taken for granted  they are difficult for the reader to challenge: they are not directly asserted + tend to be hidden by the text FIGURES OF SPEECH = are effective in the construction of opinion and as indicators of reporter stance -

This form of evaluative language in the news story presumes that the readership has the same views as the reporter

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METONYMY

= a single characteristic or attribute is used to identify a more complex entity, or something/someone is referred to in terms of its parts -

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One word is substituted for another which is associated with it [e.g. the white house says: a location removes the personal responsibility of an individual: the responsibility of the president is obscured by referring to the Whitehouse] Similarly, individuals can be used as metonyms for institutions or regimes  This type of metonym allows human characteristics, like evil or cruelty, to be attributed, and a single persona can be easily identified as the villain METAPHOR

Figure of speech where a quality, normally recognized belonging to a particular area of the lexis, is used to apply to another unusual area 

SIMILES

= comparison between 2 different entities 5 WHO DOES WHAT TO WHOM The way the elements of a sentence are organized is the syntax.

Different syntactic organization can give more or less emphasis to certain people and action, or even remove them completely PARTICIPANT AND PROCESSES The examination of how participants, processes and circumstances interact [=who does what to whom (and how, why, when, etc.)] is the study of transitivity  A clause consists of: 1. Processes: actions, states, events  = verbs The type of process that the reporter uses to explain and describe an event is crucial to how that event will be perceived by the readership  -

There are 6 process types Major types: Material: processes of doing (work, arrest) Relational: processes of being and having (be, have, stand) Mental: processes of sensing and feeling (feel, think, wish) Minor types:

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Verbal: processes of saying (say, tell) Behavioural: processes of human behavior (sleep, look) Existential: processes which are signaled by there (there is)

Mental processes are rare, while verbal processes are very common  -

It’s also important to note if processes involve only one participant (the actor) or an actor and a receiver Transactive processes: there is an actor + someone/something affected by the action 9a woman killed ...