Labov’s element of orientation in conversational narratives is partially found in the lead sentence. The lead sentence uses the deictic term ‘yesterday’ to position the event in relation to the present time. The first and second paragraphs provide the reader with the complete ‘who, what, when and where’ information required as covered in Labov’s research. It is a boy called Steffan Jones who was awarded damages for suffering brain damage in 1990 in Swansea.
The action element of Labov’s research describes the chain of events which occurred and although personal narratives usually follow a chronological order, news stories are normally in reverse order. The article in Appendix A actually jumps around chronologically. A newspaper article usually provides the reader with background, commentary and follow-up information in no particular order. Teun Van Dijk (p.12 course book) refers to the non-chronological orders of news stories as the instalment method, whereby a brief introduction to a story is given and then the story is returned to in more detail two or three times. In Appendix A, the lead sentence introduces the story about the brain damaged child. Further information is then given to the reader regarding his brain damage and his disabilities in paragraphs 2 and 13 (marked as p2 and p13 respectively on the Appendix A). The background to the story can be found in paragraphs 2, 12 and 13 and it is quite possible that the boy’s birth would have been a news story in its own right (p.13 course book). The commentary encompasses the journalist’s observations on the present day event which consumes most of the article, giving the reader an insight into what the compensation will provide for the boy and what personal achievements he has attained recently. The commentary links up with Labov’s Evaluation theory which establishes why the story is being told and justifies the telling of the story (p.10 course book). The follow-up is then found in the final paragraph where the NHS Trust says that they will be making a statement of apology to the family. This method of concluding a story by looking to the future is quite standard in newspaper articles. This follow-up links to Labov’s Resolution theory whereby the beginning of a story is everything and the ending is nothing (p.10 course book). The final sentence of the article also demonstrates the on-going nature of news stories. As discussed, whilst Labov’s theory of conversational narratives can be applied to a newspaper article in most respects, the non-chronological order to an article is at odds with his theory.
As is customary, each sentence of a newspaper article is a small paragraph and most articles lack any form of time adverbs between the paragraphs such as ‘therefore’ or connectors such as ‘however’. These connectors normally help the reader to follow the development of the story. There seems a lack of continuity in articles which do not contain any connectors but this is quite common in newspapers. However, the article in Appendix A does in fact use ‘however’, ‘and’ and ‘as well as’ to develop the story, but the majority of the paragraphs are isolated pieces of information.
News English can be regarded as a production line language because so many people have an input to the finished article along the way. The production of an article involves the journalist, the editor and other newspaper employees as well as the sources of information given to the journalist. These sources may be directly quoted, paraphrased or merely hinted at. A great deal of news English is composed of language, quotes, texts etc. from third parties which are reworked into the current article. This mixing of voices is a clear example of Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia (p.18 course book). Journalists are rarely found at the scene of an event; therefore, most news stories are reported from accounts taken from other people’s recollections of the event.
The journalist will often use other texts and materials to shorten the time needed to compose a story. The system of embedding, when a journalist takes an element of one text and inserts it into another, is quite common. Nowadays, it is relatively simple for a journalist to use a computer to access previous versions of a news story for example, and insert text from the initial article into his own article.
In TV7 ‘News Stories’, the trainee news journalists are taught to write a news story using a striking introductory line, with short concise sentences, for several reasons. Firstly, the time constraint in television broadcasts must be taken into consideration. The sentences need to be short to fit within the timeframe allocated. Secondly, they need to bear in mind that the newsreader may be using an autocue which only shows three or four lines at a time. There could, therefore, be some confusion if the sentences were long and complex. Finally, the viewers are only going to hear the story once so the language needs to be simple and concise. The trainee journalists are taught not to use descriptive or superfluous language which would take up valuable time. The pictures seen by the viewers should provide all the descriptions they need. Television broadcasters prefer to use conversational, accurate and clear language with fairly straightforward constructions. Broadcasters need to bear in mind that, with the BBC World Service in particular, people for whom English is a second language may also be listening.
One of the main reasons for this style of writing may be due to the time pressures placed on a journalist whilst writing a story. One vital element of news stories is the recency of a story. A story can be regarded as newsworthy if it has happened within the last 24 hours and also if it is an unexpected or unusual story. A journalist is always working towards a deadline and within a news cycle. A journalist feels a sense of pride and achievement if he can produce an unusual or unexpected story just in time to reach the deadline. Nowadays it is not just a matter of being up to date and providing recent news, journalists now try to provide news which is immediate and taking place at the present time. Journalists now pride themselves on being the first to produce a story. A good journalist is not regarded as one whose literary skills are excellent but one who gets the story first.
Due to technological developments there are many example nowadays of live reporting on air. Whilst, real time reporting uses many deictic references and is spoken in the present tense, newspaper articles are normally written in the past tense. Real time reporting uses present tense as the reporter is speaking as an event unfolds before him, for example, September 11th in New York and the war in Iraq. Previously, news such as the September 11th disaster would have reached the public some time after the event had begun. However, on that day many people actually witnessed, via the satellite system, the second aeroplane actually flying into the tower and the towers falling. It is frightening to realise that such a disaster is taking place in the world whilst one is sitting comfortably on one’s sofa.
This essay has examined the unique style and structure of English used in newspaper articles and television broadcasts, bearing in mind the pressure of time placed on journalists. The complex method of composing a text using many different sources has also been discussed. The current technological developments which have enhanced and changed the way of reporting have also been discussed.
Bibliography
GOODMAN, S., GRADDOL, D., (eds) (1996) Redesigning English new texts, new identities, London, Routledge in association with The Open University (course book)
GRADDOL, D., CHESHIRE, J., SWANN, J., (2001) Describing Language.. (Second Edition), Buckingham, Open University Press
Open University TV7, News Stories, Producer Paul Manners
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