A World We Live In - Unit4

4. This is the banner headline, often just called a banner. This should not be confused with the banner that is the name of the newspaper. The banner headline is the top headline, frequently running across the whole page. Its large type size dominates the page.

5. A headline for a news story. By choosing the correct type size and style, the editor tries to focus your attention on the story under the headline. Most headlines (usually called heads, for short, in newsrooms) try to give you an idea of what the stories are about. Headlines are nearly always written with the verb in the present tense. The story, on the other hand, is written in the past tense. It sounds as though the two wouldn’t mix, but they do - and the reason for the difference is logical. Newspapers try to be as up-to-date as possible. With the headline in the present tense, the reader is given the sense that the events are happening right now. For the story, however, the past tense is used to make the account more accurate and readable. For example, the headline might read:

PRESIDENT MEETS WITH NEW

ARAB CHIEF

And since the newspaper is describing a meeting that has already taken place, the story would be written in the past tense.

6.A byline tells who wrote the story. The writer of a story, however, does not always receive a byline, and often a story will appear with no byline. Often, credit will be given to reports from the wire services, such as the Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI). Reporters prefer, of course, to have bylines appear on their stories because bylines give them individual credit for a particular piece.

7.The index tells which sections of the paper contain certain types of news. One type of index simply lists the sections in alphabetical order. Others are more complete, in that they also provide a summary of the news and feature articles for this particular day. Unlike a book, which has the index at the back, a newspaper often prints the index on the front page. The exact location and size vary with every newspaper.

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Read the information and answer the questions that follow.

Where Does

News Come From?

From thousands of people there are thousands of potential news stories available. But out of these thousands, some are more newsworthy than others, and someone has to decide which stories have news value and which do not. Generally speaking, to have news value, an event has to be:

1.Happening today. This requirement is the most important. Today’s event is news; yesterday’s is past history. Even a story written two hours ago may be replaced by an event occurring only a few moments ago. The freshest news story will have the highest news value. Newspapers place such importance on having the most recent news that they will often not even “make up” (position the stories - and sometimes pictures) page one until the last possible moment before the newspaper goes to press. This allows them to include the latest news available.

2.Close to home. Newspaper readers are most interested in events taking place near their homes and involving people they know or from their community.

3.Important. Stories about national events, such as election campaigns and federal policy making, or international events have high news value. So do stories about changes in the laws, because they could affect all of us.

4.Significant. “Big” storms or earthquakes that damage hundreds of homes and businesses have much more news value than a thundershower.

News, even the most newsworthy news, however, doesn’t just arrive on the newspaper’s doorstep. Newspapers have to gather the news each day and then try to tell you what happened, how it happened, and what could happen next. The newspaper is your key to unlocking doors to your community, the nation, and the world.

1)What events are of the greatest news value for you?

2)What makes the most newsworthy news?

3)Do you think that the newspaper can be your community, the nation, and the world?

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Read the article and find the answers to the following questions:

1)What makes local news?

2)In what way can local news become national news?

3)Can a contrast be drawn between national and international news?

Local, National,

And International News

News that makes headlines in New York City is often not as interesting to people in Phoenix, Arizona, and news that makes headlines in Phoenix is seldom of great interest in Vermont or New Hampshire. News that is primarily of interest to people living in a particular community is local news. In selecting the stories for the local-news section of a large daily paper, the local-news editor will leave stories about war, fraud in the nation’s capital, and troubles with foreign trade for other editors to deal with. The local-news editor will instead choose stories about a local robbery, fire, new road construction, or other events of local interest. These stories are of importance to the communities and neighborhoods where or near where they happen, but, unless they are truly “big” local events, they are of little interest to people living in other communities throughout the nation.

National News

What makes national news? The word “national” itself provides a clue, because it contains the word “nation.” Therefore national news is generally what is of interest to, or has an effect on the lives of, many people throughout the nation. On the surface, a story about a cattle disease in Texas may at first sound like local news to you, but it becomes national news because it is important news to people who:

*like to eat steak;

*work for meatpacking houses;

*sell wholesale meat to retail stores;

*work as butchers.

Others interested in reading about the disease could be veterinarians, Department of Agriculture administrators, cattle breeders, corn farmers, or restaurant owners.

How do you think a news story shown by each of these headlines might affect you?

Auto Workers Strike in Detroit

Alaska Pipeline Breaks; Large Oil

Spill Noted

Cold Snap Destroys Florida

Citrus Crops

At first glance, these headlines appear important only to those directly involved, or those who live in particular places. But do they only affect these people? They would also be of interest to you if you:

*plan to buy a car,

*are a member of a union,

*want to know how the strike will affect auto prices,

*are worried about gasoline prices,

*are concerned about Alaska’s fragile tundra environment,

*are disturbed about America’s rising oil imports,

*like orange juice for breakfast,

*work in an industry that depends on a steady supply of citrus fruits,

*are concerned about high grocery prices.

International News

Trying to draw a contrast between national and international news is difficult because news events that are taking place in other countries often are related to the United States’ policies with other nations.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem that a story about a change in government in a Latin

American country would interest most American readers. But in fact we live in a world where travel is so easy and so fast that people need to know what is happening in other countries.

Also, the change in a small nation’s government may indicate who will be in control of important energy reserves, whether this resource will be sold, and at what price. If the resource is oil, all American car owners may find the newspaper story of interest to them. The following examples of international news stories contain information that may affect the way you live:

Giant Oil Deposits Found in

Mexico Gulf

Brazil’s Cars Run on Plant Alcohol

Japanese Car Exports Expected

to Rise

Although the United States is not mentioned in any of these headlines, news about fuel and cars is of great

*animal and zoo stories

*unusual happenings

*family life - past or present

*acts of heroism

*people coping with adversity

*famous people

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Read the information (A) about special sections of newspapers. Which of them do you

read more often? Can you recollect an interview with a celebrity you’ve recently read? Study the titles of articles and story headlines (B) and guess what they can be about.

(A)Besides stories like these, newspapers print many other articles in the special sections that focus on the way people live and play. Among these articles might be the following:

*theater, art, and book reviews

*fashion news

*health and nutrition

*career tips

*consumer advice

*holiday crafts and traditions

*interviews with celebrities

Articles will be selected with thousands of people in mind - joggers, dieters, dancers, cooks, even Pac-Man fanatics!

(B)The following titles of articles and story headlines will help you to see the types of reading that newspapers offer in specialty sections.

1)Bow Ties Are Back In Men’s Wear

2)Women’s Legal Rights

3)Victorian Homes

4)Have Special Christmas Touch

5)Grandma Was Right: An Apple a Day Is Good for You

6)Rock Star Is Star Tather

7)Summer Movie Winners

8)Cutting Your Meat Budget

9)Returning to the Job Market?

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A. What do you know about the British Press? Have you ever read British newspapers? Read the article, entitle it and working in small groups, summarize its main issues.

B. Answer the questions about you.

1)Have you ever written to a newspaper?

2)Why do you think people write to newspapers?

The English are avid readers of newspapers. No other country in the world has such a massive daily diet of the printed work. That serious, sometimes justified, criticisms can be made of some newspapers in no way alters the fact that they are read in their millions. They are accused of irresponsibility, distortion, political bias, frivolity, sensationalism; of vulgarly and immorally debasing noble values and of prying into private lives - but they are read with

relish.

Many of the strictures on the press apply only to a few newspapers; yet the mud clings to all. Criticisms are made against the press when, in reality, the critic means a specific journalist or newspaper. I would suggest that such a nebulous concept as “The Press” gets in the way of serious discussion. In blaming, it would be better to name the paper or papers under discussion. “The Press” is an umbrella term covering a wide variety of quite different products. What might be true of the Daily Sketch might not be true of The Times and The Guardian; what might be true of the News of the World might not be true of the Observer. All that is good, however, is not the exclusive preserve of the “Quality” Press; the “Popular”

Press does not have a monopoly of all that is bad.

A newspaper has many functions. One - and only a fool would deny it - is that it must sell, at the right place at the right time. There is nothing ignoble about this: it must pay its way or disappear. To a large extent it has to give its readers what they want.

In his book Dangerous Estate, Francis Williams - now Lord Williams - had this to say:

“They (Newspapers) hold a mirror to society, and - appalled and fascinated by what the mirror shows - there are many who would like to cut off the hand that holds it.” Too often the newspapers are blamed for the ailments of society: after all, people who are offended by the

“Popular” Press can always stop buying the offending paper. That millions of people persist in their reading habits would suggest that they believe they are getting their money’s worth; a very real demand is being satisfied.

This, however, is a simplification of the situation. In his book Uses of Literacy, Richard Hoggart suggested that people are not being given what they really want. He argued that many newspapers blunt the natural appetite for the real facts. “The mass-produced bad makes it harder for the good to be recognized,” he wrote. His suggestion was this: constantly fed on trivialities, half-truths and gossip, the great reading public is becoming incapable of wanting anything better. And - most important in a democracy - they are not in a position to evaluate real facts and take real decisions because they are never in possession of the relevant information. There is some truth in this. But there are newspapers to which it does not apply.

Journalists argue over the functions of a newspaper. I can only offer you my idea of what a provincial paper should be and should do. Its purpose is not only to present and project the news objectively and imaginatively, but to help its readers to express themselves more effectively, canalizing their aspirations, making more articulate their demands. A newspaper should reflect community it serves - warts and all. When the mirror it holds to society reveals neglect, injustice, inhumanity, ignorance or complacency, the mirror should not be clouded but polished; so that these things can be eradicated rather than ignored. And the newspaper should help to eradicate them. It would be pretentious to think that a local paper (or even a national) can change the course of world affairs - but at the local level it can exert influence, it can probe, it can help to get things done. Though, of necessity, it must concentrate on local affairs, it should also try to broaden its readers’ horizons, discarding the parish-pump mentality. In its columns its readers should be encouraged to express their opinions, their fears, their hopes - and, just as important, air their grievances. In these days of the big battalions, the individual’s voice should not be stifled; the local newspaper should provide the individual with a platform. In short, readers should be encouraged to participate in the newspaper. The paper should become part of their lives, and, as such, its contribution to the community can be that much greater. A citizen with a grievance can always write to his local paper. If the newspaper is doing its job properly, that grievance will be investigated - and the paper will help to put it right.

I have dwelt at length on this subject because there is often antagonism between teachers and journalists. It is a pity because we can be of great help to each other. We share the desire to broaden the horizons of our young people - and their parent. We share the desire

to enrich the community in which we find ourselves. We share the desire to foster constructive criticism in the search for a better way of life.

(From: Loring E., Lawley A.H. English Language Today.)

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What is odd in the following news items?

Howlers and Oddities from the Press

Mrs. J. Clement, of Rotherfield Avenue, Bexhill, Sussex, unearthed a hen’s egg a foot below the surface in her garden, which, it is believed, had not been dug for two and a half years.

She cracked the egg, found it fresh, and cooked it for her husband’s supper. “A nice egg it was too,” says Mr. Clement.

Evening News

** *

Cleveland, Monday - A dentist is to climb up to Charley Lupica of Cleveland, the pole-sitter who has been squatting for ninety days to prove his faith in the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Lupica has toothache and will have a temporary filling to last him until he comes down.

News Agency

** *

“Can I have some fresh air, please?” asked one of my reporters. The proprietor of the small gift shop opposite the Coliseum Theatre sighed.

“Sorry,” he said, “sold out.”

Fresh English country air, in tins, is doing a blooming trade. The tins cost half a crown each and have been selling at the rate of a gross a week since Christmas.

“A lot of customers buy it to send abroad,” says Mr.Lyons, the shop’s owner.

And where does this bracing country air come from? “Swiss Cottage,” says Mr. Lyons.

Evening Standard

* * *

A tight hat can be stretched. First damp the head with steam from a boiling kettle ...

Scots paper

** *

You too can know the confidence and comfort of a firm denture if you sprinkle your plate every morning with Dr. Thompson’s Powder. You can laugh, talk and enjoy your meals all day long. Forget your false teeth, start using Dr. Thompson’s today.

Advert in daily paper

** *

An unnamed boy aged 14, in Washington D.C., used to turn on false fire alarms. He underwent psychiatric treatments to cure him of that, and he stopped doing it. Apparently he learned never to break the glass and pull the hook unless there actually was a fire. So now he sets the house afire first, and has done it four times.

“Baltimore Sun”, quoted in “Doubt”

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Read the dialogue and complete the tasks that follow it.

THE ENGLISH PRESS

(The Sallises and Peter are discussing the newspapers they are reading as they sit in the lobby of the Hotel Leicester)

Barbara: Oh, these newspaper headlines are difficult to understand. Listen, what does this one mean? “Broke - Stole Frozen Food”?

Peter: It means the man was broke: he had no money, so he stole some frozen food.

B: Oh, I see. But listen to this. What on earth does it mean? “Twenty and Never Been Kissed.”

P: It means that the girl is twenty years old and that she’s never been kissed.

B: What a ridiculous news item! Some newspapers are really a trivial - full of gossip, divorce and crime.

Harry: All the same you’ve certainly been buried in them for the last quarter of an

hour!

B: That isn’t true! The only good thing that you can say about these newspapers is that the print and the pictures are excellent. Listen, here’s a sensational report about a man who stole his brother’s false teeth.

H: You see, it does interest you -

P: No, but many English papers are excellent. If you read the Times or the Guardian or

...

B: After reading those newspapers, I feel that everyone we meet will either be divorced or wearing someone else’s false teeth.

From “English by Radio”

1)This dialogue is quite emotional, isn’t it? 2) What feelings should the characters of the dialogue express? 3) Is it a feeling of disgust, surprise, enjoyment, irritation? While reproducing it intone it adequately.

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JOURNALISM OR THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

The Fact

There was some trouble with the Buburuk tribe in the Pacific Island, Charamak. A party of ten English and two American soldiers, under the command of Capt. R.L.A. T. W. Tilbury, raided the island and took 217 revolutionary, native troublemakers prisoner and wrecked two large oil-dumps. The party remained ashore an hour-and-a-half and returned to their base without loss to themselves.

How to report this event? It depends which newspaper you work for.

The Times

... It would be exceedingly perilous to overestimate the significance of the raid, but it can be fairly proclaimed that it would be even more dangerous to underestimate it. The success of the raid clearly proves that the native defences are not invulnerable; it would be fallacious and deceptive, however, to conclude that these defences are vulnerable. The number of revolutionaries captured cannot be safely stated, but it seems likely that the number is well over 216 but well under 218.

In The House

You may become an M.P. (Nothing is impossible - this would not be even unprecedented.) You may hear then the following statement by a member of Her Majesty’s

Government:

“Concerning the two wrecked oil-dumps I can give this information to the House. In the first half of this year the amount of native oil destroyed by the Army, Navy and the R.A.F. - excluding however, the Fleet Air Arm - is one-half as much as three times the amount destroyed during the corresponding months of the previous year, seven and a half times as

much as the two-fifth destroyed two years ago and three-quarters as much again as twelve times one-sixth destroyed three years ago.” (Loud cheers from the Government benches.)

You jump to your feet and ask this question:

You: Is the Right Hon. Gentleman aware that people in this country are puzzled and worried by the fact that Charamak was raided and not Ragamak?

The Right Hon. Member: I have nothing to add to my statement given on 2nd August,

1892.

Evening Standard

(Londoner’s Diary)

The most interesting feature of the Charamak raid is the fact that Reggie Tilbury is the fifth son of the Earl of Bayswater. He was an Oxford Blue, a first-class cricketer and quite good at polo. When I talked to his wife (Lady Clarisse, the daughter of Lord Elasson) at Claridges today, she wore a black suit and a tiny black hat with a yellow feather in it. She said: “Reggie was always very much interested in warfare.” Later she remarked: “It was clever of him, wasn’t it?”

You may write a letter to the Editor of The Times:

Sir,

In connection with the Charamak raid I should like to mention as a matter of considerable interest that it was in that little Pacific Island that the distinguished English poet,

John Flat, wrote his famous poem ‘The Cod’ in 1693.

Yours, etc. ...

You may read this answer on the following day.

Sir,

I am very grateful to Mr ... for calling attention to John Flat’s poem ‘The Cod’. May I be allowed to use this opportunity, however, to correct a widespread and in my view very unfortunate error which the great masses of the British people seem to share with your correspondent. ‘The Cod’, although John Flat started writing it in 1693, was only finished in the early days of January 1694.

Yours, etc. ...

If you are the London correspondent of the American paper The Oklahoma Sun simply cable this:

‘Yanks Conquer Pacific Ocean’.

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Read the text and do the exercises that follow it

ENGLISH IN NEWSPAPERS

by Maria Edelson The variants of English which are characteristic of different branches of knowledge

and used only within a limited group of specialists are often called jargons.

Journalistic writing in its most characteristic form, newspaper reporting, also has many of the features which classify a language variant as a jargon. Its very strongly marked character results from its functions and techniques.

The basic functions of the press are to inform, to attract interest and to persuade. Its

technical aspect is determined by the necessity of immediate response to events of the present and the limited space for presenting the information concerning the events.

The outcome of these basic conditions is a number of characteristic features. Journalistic English puts stress on information about facts, events and people; the language, therefore, tends to be factual. There is no place in hurriedly prepared newspaper writing for aestheticizing or embellishment with elaborate metaphors and phrases; sentences may often be clumsy and unbalanced, or overloaded with information. Other journalistic techniques are used, however, which appeal to the more general reader and which ensure a bigger reading audience.

There are, of course, differences in the quality of newspapers. Some papers are straightforward and objective, while others are characterized by sensationalism and other

“cheap” tricks, which they use so often that these techniques have become associated with journalism in general.

Sensational journalism favours striking and unusual news events, preferably those evoking excitement and horror. The world today provides a profusion of material for sensational articles about wars, political and economic crises, famine, earthquakes, and floods. The worst types of sensational papers concentrate on shocking reports of murder and unnatural crime. At their mildest they describe such events as the most recent appearance of the Loch Ness monster.

Another popular means of attracting the readers’ attention is by adding “human interest” to a news story, supplying human details of an event and bringing out the prominent characteristics of a person involved (which often boils down to mere gossip). And thus we may learn, for instance, about the personal affairs of royalty and of the table manners of a well-known politician.

The use of the vivid dramatic language (especially adjectives) greatly helps in attracting the interest of the reader, but this is not the end goal of journalism; the interest of the readers is often attracted in order to persuade or dissuade, to move them to believe or disbelieve, to like or dislike, according to the writer’s intentions. Those intentions are most obvious in articles on political and social problems.

The desire to create a vivid picture while providing as much information as possible in a limited space, often results in unusual sentence structures which combine disconnected items of information. The following is a typical headline:

Attractive Brunette Cynthia Kills Her Ex-Soldier Brother

One may well ask what the fact that Cynthia is a brunette has to do with the murder. The effects of such irrelevant combinations are often unintentionally amusing.

Newspaper articles abound in unnecessary adjectives and such journalistic clishйs as heroic, tragic, dramatic, etc. This is also true of adverbials in a sentence, newspaper writers seem to prefer to put them either at the end or at the beginning of a clause as in the following sentence:

Across the street, Brown said, the building was where she died.

Adjectival forms of the type of Council refusal and excessive compounding are due to the tendency to condense the language.

The length of sentences varies and there is no rule about it. When the sentences are long, they tend to be stylistically awkward and sometimes unclear. The use of dashes adds to the often casual character of this kind of writing and the frequent omission of commas may also contribute to the lack of clarity.

Unlike regular commas, inverted commas are used very frequently. They appear in articles containing reported speech. Newspaper writers often use direct quotation, rather than indirect speech, to create an objective authenticity, as in:

The identical two-storey brick structures had been blazing for about eight hours.

“Fire brigade?” the sergeant - major said,

“No, they came and left when they heard the snipers”.

Newspaper reporting is one of the few kinds of writing which uses graphic devices, one such device being the paragraphing of a text into small units for easier reading. The most obvious technique, however, is the use of different types and sizes of print, especially in headlines. Sometimes the letters may be minute or gigantic, depending on the importance given to the news.

Headlines carry the characteristic features of newspaper writing to an extreme. Whereas news stories or editorials are sometimes written in careless style and grammar, their headlines often tend to be misleading; definite and indefinite articles are habitually omitted, nouns are used as modifiers or verbs. Headlines are frequently ambiguous because of the possibility of interpreting them in different ways; they may be puzzling because of the drastic elimination of all that is considered unessential. This is illustrated by the example given below:

Brown in Dawa Kidnap Drama

The ambiguity is not altogether unintentional: it serves as an additional means of attracting attention by intriguing and puzzling.

Headlines are forceful and effective because they consist of words rich in meaning, for the most part nouns and verbs, the most important parts of speech. The effectiveness of a headline is increased by the occasional use of alliteration:

Mystery Mother Murder

The features of journalistic writing which have been pointed out here are among the most salient.

Exercises

I. Read this article carefully and answer the questions which follow: 7 Die in Blast

In Amsterdam

Chemical Plant

AMSTERDAM, Aug. 10 (AP) - At least seven people were killed here today when an explosion blasted a chemical plant in the Amsterdam harbor area, the police said.

A fire swept through the sprawling Marbon Europe chemical plant near the docks. Most employees were quickly evacuated.

The police cordoned off all roads in the area as dozens of ambulances and fire engines sped to the scene.

Civil defense experts said they were checking the huge cloud of smoke drifting over the harbor for possible poisonous content. They said the smoke smelled strongly of styrene, a chemical used in plastic production, which could cause nausea and headaches.

1.What might be the reason for the explosion? Does the article suggest it?

2.Why was it necessary to evacuate the employees?

3.What other steps were taken?

4.Was there any danger of poisoning for the people outside the plant?

5.What is the most serious result of the explosion?

6.Is there an element of sensationalism present in the article? If so, which part of the article contains it?

7.How does the headline help to attract attention?

8.Point out the words and phrases which make the report vivid and dramatic.

9.Whose words are quoted in the article? For what purpose?

10.What are the means of making the information given in the article seem complete and reliable?