british news discourse the discourse structure of the news story
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
British News Discourse
The discourse structure of the news story
![Page 2: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
“Journalists do not write articles, they write stories – with structure, order, viewpoint and values”
Bell 1998
You need to learn how to notice the choices made and the indications they give of the
values underlying those choices
![Page 3: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
• The discourse structure of news stories
• News reports in newspapers
• Broadcast news
First a recap of what you learnt last year about news reports in broadsheets and tabloids
![Page 4: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
structure
• First we will look at the structure of written news reports and revise what we learnt last year and then we will look at
• broadcast news structure
![Page 5: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
newspapers
• You need to be able to quickly identify the various parts of a news article in order to be able to see the choices made and to be able to place it in context and understand some of the underlying values
![Page 6: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
News reports• Reports have a recognisable structure
• Attribution (source, place, time, byline or who is taking responsability)
• Abstract (headline, lead)
• Story (Episodes, events(1 – n)
• Events (actors, action, setting, attribution or who is given a voice within the story, follow-up, commentary, back-ground)
![Page 7: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
![Page 8: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
![Page 9: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Inverted pyramid
![Page 10: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
The structure of the news story
• The ‘lead’ (US) or ‘intro’ (UK)– Who?– What?– When?– Where?– Why?– How?
![Page 11: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
![Page 12: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
![Page 13: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Found: prehistoric rodent that was as big as a bull By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 16 January 2008 The fossilised skull of a giant rodent that grew to the size of a bull has been discovered in South America, where it lived about four million years ago alongside sabre-toothed cats, huge flightless "terror" birds and giant ground sloths.
Scientists have found the almost complete skull of the extinct rodent, which weighed about a ton and grew about 5ft tall and about 9ft long.[…]
![Page 14: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
![Page 15: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
News reports - revision• Structure• Attribution: source (byline/agencies), place,
time• Abstract: headline, lead(or intro)• Story: episodes (1-n), events (1-n), attributions,
actors, actions, settings (time, place),• follow-up (consequences, reactions),
commentary (context, evaluation), background (previous episodes, history)
![Page 16: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Headlines are summaries,
• their main functions are to:
• Attract the reader’s attention to the story (or paper, if on the front page)
• Tell the reader what the story is about by: – summarising the content of the story
• indicating the evaluation of the story• indicating the register of the story• indicating the focus of the story
![Page 17: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
News reports: the abstract
• Headlines are powerful framing devices and prepare the reader by priming their expectations as to evaluation
• The ‘lead’ (US) or ‘intro’ (UK) tells us:
• Who?What?When?Where?Why?How?
![Page 18: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Inverted pyramid structure
• Beginning of text Greatest amount of information (Headline and lead)
• As text progresses less really new information , more detail, background, commentary
![Page 19: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
![Page 20: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
![Page 21: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Broadcast news
• We will now look at broadcast news to see what is typical and to try to discern the choices which are the result of values
![Page 22: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Broadcast news
• News programme
• Opening signature visuals, theme tune and logo
• Headlines
• News items (1 - n)
• Signing off
• Closing visuals
![Page 23: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
Openings
• Before the news
• A continuity announcer will typically announce the transition from the prior programme in the schedule to the news programme
• This serves to identity the channel, the upcoming programme, the upcoming speakers, and the present time
![Page 24: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
Opening trailers
• Before the news actually starts
• Like headlines in newspapers they give us an idea of the content
• They provide focus and project us forward temporally into the programme
• They provide clues to the overall structure and give us a reason to continue viewing
![Page 25: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Idents
• News programmes usually open with signature music, signature graphics and logo (often a spinning globe or a map) which blend channel identification with notions of both time and space.
• What are the differences between the idents of Al Jazeera, France 24, CCTV and RT?
![Page 26: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Contextualising shots of news presenter
• E.g crane shot of studio setting with news presenter shown in long shot position (sometimes sitting sometimes standing)
• Followed by zoom in to NP now given on face to camera
• This is the cue for the presenter to greet the audience in direct address
![Page 27: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
Openings may last well over a minute
• Openings therefore amount to a complex multi-layered introduction to the structured nature of the anticipated programme placing the programme within the schedule, inserting it into the broadcast flow and into a temporal moment (9 o’clock, ten o’clock, early evening), signalling the channel and the genre, and anticipating the structure of the programme
![Page 28: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
News item
• News presentation (+ news subsidiary)
• News kernel (+news report) (+live interview with reporter/ correspondent)
• That is to say a news item consists minimally of a news presentation of a news kernel by a news presenter
![Page 29: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
News item = [news presentation (+news subsidiary)]
• It may also consist of a sequence of a news presentation of a news kernel from the studio coupled with additional optional subsidiary material in the form of a news report where
• News presentation = news kernel
• News subsidiary = news report
![Page 30: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
News subsidiary= [news report+(live 2 way interview)]
• There is a sequential constraint. A report or an interview will always be preceded by a studio presentation. This reflects the hierarchy of news discourse all voices of tv news are subordinate to its institutional voice from the news studio (deictic point zero of enunciation)
• It is possible to embed a news report within a live 2 way
![Page 31: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
transitions
• Oftne you will find phrases which project forward in the programme structure such as
• Coming up later…
• After the break…
![Page 32: British News Discourse The discourse structure of the news story](https://reader035.vdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062321/56649efb5503460f94c0d7f5/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
Closings• Closing is more perfunctory than opening• Some kind of a reprise of main items
(sometimes preceded by a reprise preface our headlines tonight, our main headline tonight)
• A closing to indicate there are no further items to come (that’s all for now)
• Optional trailer of later bulletins• Leave-taking (it’s goodbye from me)• Final signature graphics, theme tune, logo and
credits