week 8- politics and the news

Question 1

What do we mean by “the news”?

Answer 1

mass media

Question 2

Why can’t we define “the news” as easily as we used to?

Answer 2

sources increased
anyone can contribute
no filter

Question 3

what are news values?

Answer 3

factors that take an event into the news

Question 4

what are the 9 news values?

Answer 4

• Negativity (conflict, famine)
• Timeliness / Recency (only just happened or ongoing)
• Proximity (geographical/ cultural proximity)
• Prominence / Eliteness (high profile individuals)
• Consonance ( extent to which the story fits stereotypes)
• Impact (consequences)
• Novelty / Unexpectedness
• Superlativeness (the biggest, the fastest etc)
• Personalisation (eye witnesses)

Bednarek and Caple

Question 5

how are media texts structured?

Answer 5

• Headline – Draws attention, summarises, syntactically abbreviated, high impact.
• The lead – (i.e. the first paragraph) main substance, often an expanded version of the headline. Attitude, directional summary.
• The sources – Specific sources, indirectly or directly, authority, disclaiming ideological responsibility.
• The actors – Participants categorised according to … Naming and labeling, connotations qualifying labels.
• Facts and figures – Not about inclusion but qualifying lexical terms accompanying facts and figures.
• Graphic conventions – Highlighting, rhetorical implications, impact upon readers senses, perceptions and expectations.

Question 6

what syntagmatic choices are made in the news at various levels?

Answer 6

• Lexemes – One lexical item used when another could have been… why? Does it have particular connotations? What kinds of clusters of words are used?
• Descriptions –What angle are facts considered from? e.g. these two accounts of the same thing come from newspaper reports: (1) A man fighting for the life of his unborn child (2) A man trying to stop his girlfriend having an abortion.
• Ordering or sequencing of information –What comes first, why? E.g. Yellow vest violence returns to Paris (BBC news, 6/03/2019) vs Paris in flames as ‘Yellow Vest’ anarchists burn restaurants and shops (The Sun, 16/03/2019)

Question 7

Presupposition

Answer 7

assumptions that are inherent in the sentence or utterance

Question 8

Nominalisation

Answer 8

when a process is converted into a noun as if it were an entity

Question 9

active voice

Answer 9

Active voice sentence structure = Agent –Action – (Affected) e.g. The crowd attacked the police horses and their riders

Question 10

passive voice

Answer 10

Passive voice sentence structure = Affected –Action – (Agent) e.g. The police horses and their riders were attacked by the crowd

Question 11

Three-part statements

Answer 11

either words alone or whole structures given as a series of three

Question 12

Contrastive pairs

Answer 12

either words alone or whole structures presented as a contrast.

Question 13

What is ideology?

Answer 13

‘socially shared beliefs’, social formulas, ideas, ideals, coded in language (van Dijk, 1998)
‘systematically organised presentation of reality’ (Hodge and Kress, 1993:15)

Question 14

What does ideology do?

Answer 14

• Legitimates power and inequality
• Conceals or obfuscates the truth
• Empowers dominated groups to challenge the dominant action
• Serves as a basis for group mobilization and protection of shared values – solidarity
• Marks out ‘the other’ - distance

Question 15

Jargon

Answer 15

can be used inclusively or exclusively

Question 16

Sound Bite

Answer 16

a memorable or catch utterance which gets repeated enough to have particular associations, e.g. Brexit is Brexit

Question 17

Epithet

Answer 17

adjective used before a noun which gives qualitative information i.e. is value-laden, e.g. horrendous crime

Question 18

Euphemism

Answer 18

to make something appear more positive, e.g. Jobseeker’s allowance instead of unemployment benefit

Question 19

Dysphemism

Answer 19

to make something appear more negative, e.g. creatures instead of people

Question 20

how are pronouns, you and we used in the news?

Answer 20

• Pronouns: ‘it’ as a dummy subject
• ‘you’ = personal; generalised; particularised personal reference
• ‘we’ = exclusive; corporate; inclusive

Question 21

What did fowler say about representation?

Answer 21

“Events and ideas are not constructed neutrally … because they are transmitted through some medium with its own structural features, and these structural features are already impregnated with social values which make up a potential perspective on events.”

(Fowler 1991:25)

Question 22

Problems with the news values

Answer 22

No reference to how dramatic pictures can impact (Tunstall, 1971)