67- The Press in English

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67. THE FORMS OF MEDIA COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH: THE JOURNALISTIC STYLE, THE PRESS, QUALITY NEWSPAPERS AND SENSATIONALIST NEWSPAPERS

OUTLINE

1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE PRESS IN ENGLISH: ORIGINS OF THE PRESS AND A BRIEF HISTORY 3.

JOURNALISTIC STYLE

4. THE PRESS IN THE UK 4.1. MAIN CHARACTERISTICS 4.2. NATIONAL PRESS 4.2.1. QUALITY VS. POPULAR PAPERS 4.2.2. JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES 4.3. REGIONAL AND LOCAL PAPERS 5.

THE PRESS OUTSIDE THE UK: USA AND OTHER ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES

6.

CONCLUSION: APPLIANCE TO THE ESL CLASSROOM

7.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. INTRODUCTION The present unit aims to provide a useful introduction to the mass media in English which comprises the main means of communication: press, radio and television. Yet, this unit will focus on the press in order to analyze the journalistic style and the press itself. It is within the field of journalisms that the main types of newspapers in Great Britain and other English-speaking countries will be analyzed. In doing so, other general features of journalism will be approached, for instance in terms of aims, style and language so as to better understand its scope within the international area.

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2. THE PRESS IN ENGLISH: ORIGINS OF THE PRESS AND A BRIEF HISTORY Looking at its origins, the newspaper is considered the oldest form of written communication. The newspapers are almost as old as the printing itself. Newspapers originated in Europe in the late 1400s after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing in 1450. Newspapers had a slow start in the Colonies due to the licenses required by Britain for printing. After gaining independence from Britain, newspapers in the United States began to grow. During the 17th century, there were many kind of publications that told both news and rumours. Among these were pamphlets, posters and so on. Even when the news periodicals emerged, many of these coexisted with them. In the beginning of the 17th century the right to print was strictly controlled in England. This is probably the reason why the first newspaper in English language was printed in Amsterdam around 1622. Therefore, it followed the style established by the Dutch. However, when the English started printing their own papers in London, they used the pamphlet format which were commonly used by contemporary books. The era of these newsbooks lasted until the publication of the Oxford Gazette in 1665. When the English Civil War started, it escalated the demand for news and more newspapers arise, including the London Gazette (first published as Oxford Gazette), which was the official journal of records and the newspaper of the Crown. Publication was controlled under the Licensing Act of 1662, but the Act’s lapses from 1679 and 1685 and from 1695 onwards encouraged a number of new titles. In the late 1800s to mid 1900s, regarded as the “Golden Age of news”, newspapers were brought to a whole new audience, since they changed their contents from only military news into a more social and political news. 3. JOURNALISTIC STYLE Journalistic style refers to the ways of expression used in the mass media means. It is important to bear in mind that journalistic communication is expressed by means of written texts, the ones that are important in this unit, but also by means of oral texts, which can be audio texts, for instance the radio, and audiovisual texts, as in television and video. The journalistic style, also known as news style or news writing is the particular prose style used for news reporting in newspapers. There are six main features of this specific style: 1) Correctness, since journalistic language is non-literary and must be closed to cultivated colloquial language. 2) Conciseness, since short sentences are often the most appropriate in journalistic language. 3) Clarity, because the communicative efficiency can be achieved by means of active forms of verbs and the indicative mood.

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4) To hold the attention of the reader, since articles of an informative nature have a particular structure that attracts reader’s attention from the first line to the last. 5) Language produced in groups. The journalistic texts are written and revised by different people and, therefore, the final result is usually produced by more than one person. 6) The use of a mixed language, since the plurality of concurrent codes drives the different languages to depend on each other. Regarding the genres that are included in the journalistic style, there are seven that are the most outstanding ones, and which have particular features with regard to content and expression. 

Reports, which are a vivid narration of what a journalist has seen and heard about something which must interest public opinion.

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Interviews, which include dialogues between the journalist and the person whose opinions may interest the audience. Note that they can be written either in direct or indirect speech.

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Chronicles, which tell a series of events that have taken place during a certain time and which are interesting to consider. Like reports, they are usually signed.

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Editorial texts are written without a signature but are usually written by the newspaper director. They appear in a fixed and outstanding place in the paper.

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Articles are written by journalists. This is said to be the most subjective journalistic genre, since the quality of the language and the suggestive strength of the content are very much appreciated.

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Columns are a fixed space reserved to reporters who in a regular basis comment on current matters in a rather subjective tone.

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Finally, reviews are carried out by journalists who judge books, films, plays, and so on.

In terms of structure, it could be assumed that the most important structural element of a story is the lede or lead, which is usually the first sentence ideally 20-25 words in length. Article ledes are sometimes categorized into hard ledes and soft ledes. A hard lede aims to provide a comprehensive thesis which tells the reader what the article will cover. On the other hand, a soft lede introduces the topic in a more creative, attention-seeking way, and is usually followed by a brief summary of the facts. The pieces that lead the inside sections of a newspapers are known as features and the section that signals what a feature is about is called the nut graf or billboard. Billboards appear as the third or fourth paragraph from the top and may be up to two paragraphs long. Two other terms common in journalistic style are hed and dek or deck. Hed is used to denote an article’s headline or heading whereas a deck refers to a quick blurb or article teaser.

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4. THE PRESS IN THE UK In the case of the press in the UK, following the website britannia.com, it has to be said that there is a big press industry, since there are about 130 daily and Sunday newspapers, over 2,000 weekly newspapers and some 7,000 periodical publications in Britain nowadays. The major papers, 12 national morning daily newspapers (5 qualities and 7 popular) and nine Sunday papers (4 quality and 5 popular) are available in most parts of Britain. All the national newspapers use computer technology and its use is widespread in the provincial press as well. Newspapers are almost always financially independent of any political party, but their political leanings are easily discerned. The industry is self-regulating, since a Press Complaints Commission was set up in 1991 in order to handle public complaints. This Commission was established at the suggestion of a government-appointed committee to promote more effective press self-regulation and to prevent intrusion to privacy. 4.1.

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS

Although the press in Britain is aimed to guard its freedom to print, there are some rules that restrict its scope of information. Therefore, among this restricting features, there are included: (1) the laws of libel, by means of which a newspaper or periodical can be sued in the law courts for damages if it publishes harmful untruth about someone; (2) The Official Secrets Acts, a law which restricts the reporting of some military and government matters; (3) the government requesting newspapers not to publish information about sensitive public matters; (4) legal restrictions on reporting certain court proceedings or commenting on a trial in progress; and finally (5) the influence of the Press Council, an official organization which aims to maintain high standards in the press, and which hears complaints from the public about behavior of journalists and the stories newspapers sometimes print.

4.2.

NATIONAL PRESS

As it has been stated before, there is a wide variety of newspapers published in the UK. Because of the small geographical area of the UK, and the good travel infrastructures, there are many national papers. Actually, national papers altogether sell more copies than all the provincial papers combined. The national press is dominated by large companies, since a national newspaper needs a strong financial base. In one sense, its total daily sales in England amount to 13 million, or three papers sold for every four households. Yet, the financial position was not always successful and their financial difficulties were not solved until the 1980s. So, attempts to cut their costs by using more efficient production processes have caused several strikes. Therefore, from 1976 to 1984 all the London national papers had some periods when they were not published.

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4.2.1. QUALITY VS. POPULAR PAPERS The most remarkable difference between the press in the UK and the press in many other countries in Europe is the distinction between quality papers and popular papers, which can be further extent to a threefold distinction, were there can be found: o Quality papers also called broadsheets because of their size. These papers are characterized by an aura of dignity which is shown in their semi-academic style and their serious tone, which tends to assume the intelligence of the readers. Quality papers show several features which make them unique, such as:  a wide range of international news about culture, economy, science and education  lack of sensationalism  excellent printing  an analytical and deep approach to news  lack of hysteria  high cultural standard;  unbiased and factual approach  imagination, decency and general awareness of the problems of human beings  excellent editorial pages; and a detached orientation from sensationalism and provincialism. In short, quality papers are famous for being serious, intellectual and cosmopolitan. For instance, The Times is the clearest example of a quality paper. Regarding quality papers, it has to be said that not all of them still have the format of a broadsheet and that recently some of these newspapers have changed their format into a Berliner format (for instance, The Guardian) or into a compact format (as in the case of The Independent). o Semi-popular papers are papers that were traditionally regarded as tabloids, but they have a very different readership. Clear examples of this type of papers are: the Daily Mail and The Express. o Popular papers are also called tabloids and are defined as “yellow journalism” or “sensationalism”. They show particular features, such as the use of enormous banner headlines, coloured comics and copious illustrations to thrive on the excitement of the reader. Their usual tools are the unbalanced layout of the pages, the exaggeration of the news, a treatment of news which pays little attention to the truth, illogic design, and an unclear division between information and opinion.

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Once these differences in the press in the UK have been explained, it is important to distinguish the daily from the Sunday papers. In order to do so, the main features within each type of paper will be analyzed. Regarding quality papers, there are five daily morning papers published in the UK. -

The Times, which is the oldest national paper (founded in 1785) although it is not the most popular paper in the UK. Politically speaking, though it is said to be independent, it is sympathetic to the Conservative Party. Yet, it has a big minority of non- conservative readers.

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The Guardian was originally called “the Manchester Guardian” up to 1959, until it developed into a modern national paper and moved its base to London. Politically speaking, though it is said to be non-committed, it has been described as “radical” since it has been related to the Liberal Party and humanitarian attitudes.

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The Daily Telegraph (founded in 1855) is bought by the majority of conservative middle-class readers. Its circulation is said to be greater than that of The Times or The Guardian because of its low price. It is commonly known as the “The Daily Tory”.

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The Financial Times (founded in 1888) is a financial newspaper, which is not related to The Times. Its circulation though small has grown enormously.

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The Independent (1986) is the newest of the broadsheet and has rapidly acquired a reputation for its excellent news coverage, intelligent reports, informal commentaries and a good balanced sense of humour.

On the other hand, there are four quality papers that are only published on Sundays: -

The Sunday Times was founded in 1822 and it is known for its excellent reporting in eight separate sections: a main news section and other devoted to sports, business, the arts, job advertisements, fashion and travel as well as book reviews.

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The Sunday Telegraph was founded in 1961 and it is a more right-wing paper and its circulation has been steadily declining.

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The Observer is one of the oldest Sunday papers. It was founded in 1791 and today has a circulation of around half a million and is politically moderate in views.

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Independent on Sunday is the Sunday’s version of The Independent.

Regarding popular papers, there are six daily morning papers published in the UK. -

The Sun appeared in the mid 1970s and it is regarded as the successor of the old Daily Herald, which was a quasi-official organ of the Labour Party until de 1960s. With similar features to the daily popular press, it keeps minimum contents such as politics and maximum about sports and pictures and girls built on nudity and bigger headlines. It has a circulation of around four million and outsells all other popular papers.

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The Daily Mirror was founded in 1903 and has always traditionally supported the Labour Party. 6/11

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The Daily Express (1896) and The Daily Mail (1900) are the papers that can be considered semipopular papers, or middle-market papers.

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The Morning Star was founded in 1930 as the Daily Worker, the organ of the Communist Party. It was relaunched as the Morning Star in 1966. It is a left wing daily tabloid newspaper with a focus on social and trade union issues. It has an arts page, TV page and sports pages but has more limited advertising and fewer pages than other national dailies.

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The Sport is a Manchester-based newspaper first launched in 1991. It deals with sport news and keeps the same format and style as the other tabloids.

On the other hand, there are five popular papers that are only published on Sundays that are the most famous ones on the UK: -

News of the World, which is the most best-selling Sunday popular paper in the UK.It is the Sunday version of The Sun. Its circulation is over five million, and it has a reputation for its detailed reports of crime and sex stories but also for its sports coverage.

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The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday edition of the newspaper The Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and changed to become the Sunday Mirror in 1963. It offers a lot of photographs and much gossip.

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The People, previously known as the Sunday People, was founded in 1881.

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The Sunday Express was launched in 1918 and it is the Sunday edition of the Daily Express.

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The Mail on Sunday is a conservative newspaper. First published in 1982, it is Britain's second biggest-selling Sunday newspaper after The News of the World. It is the Sunday version of the Daily Mail, although the editorial staff is entirely separated.

It is important to mention that currently, there has been an increase in the circulation of free morning papers, which are supported by advertising and carrying little in the way of editorial. Metro is the most popular free newspaper, which is distributed in the morning in London and other urban areas in the UK. 4.2.2. JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES Journals are commonly known as Weekly press, whereas magazines are often referred to as periodical press. According to Bromhead (1962), good English writing is often to be found in the weekly political and literary journals, all based in London, all with nationwide circulations in the tens of thousands. One of the most famous journals in the UK is The Economist, founded in 1841. It covers the world’s affairs, and even its American section is more informative about America than its American equivalents. Although by no means ‘popular’, it is vigorous in its comments, and deserves the respect in which it is universally held.

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The New Statesman and Spectator are weekly journals of opinion, one left, one right. They regularly contain well-written articles, often politically prejudiced. Both devote nearly half their space to literature and the arts. The Times has three weekly ‘Supplements’ all published separately. The Literary Supplement is devoted almost entirely to book reviews and covers all kinds of new literature. It makes good use of academic contributors, and has at last, unlike the Economist, abandoned its old tradition of anonymous reviews. The Times Educational and Higher Education Supplements are obviously specialist, and useful sources for any serious student of these fields of interest. New Society and New Scientist, both published by the company which owns the Daily Mirror, sometimes have good and serious articles about sociological and scientific research, often written by academics yet useful for the general reader. Weekly or monthly picture magazines cater either for women or for any of a thousand special interests. Almost all are based in London, with national circulations, and the women’s magazines sell millions of copies. For every activity with any human following, there is a magazine, supported mainly by its advertisers. There are also other types of magazines which are addressed to young people. For instance, 15-year-old magazines are Just Seventeen, Smash Hits, Shout, TV Hits, and More, among the best sold. Other magazines are linked to the radio and, actually, the best-selling magazine is the Radio Times which, as well as listing all the television and radio programmes for the coming week, contains some fifty pages of articles. Other publications include computer magazines (PCWeekly), other TV listing magazines, and women’s magazines. 4.3.

REGIONAL AND LOCAL PAPERS

Following Bromhead (1962) local morning papers have suffered from the universal penetration of the London-based national press. Among local and regional daily papers, those published in the evenings are much more important and they even publish about four editions between about midday and 5 p.m. The two London evening papers, the News and the Standard, together sold two million copies in 1980, but they could not both survive, and merged into one, now called The Standard. All these evening papers are semi-popular, but none has a circulation approaching that of any popular national paper. Most local daily papers belong to one or other of the big press empires, which leave their local editors to decide editorial policy. Mostly they try to avoid any appearance of regular partisanship, giving equal weight to each major political party. They give heavy weight to local news and defend local interests and local industries.

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The total circulation of all the provincial daily newspapers, morning and evening together, is around 8 million: about half as great as that of the eight national papers. In spite of this, some provincial papers are quite prosperous. They do not need their own foreign correspondents; they receive massive local advertising, particularly of things for sale. However, most of the daily and weekly newspapers are owned by large companies which also own national papers, as well as large shares in the regional commercial television companies. The dominance of these few big firms in the whole world of public information is often criticised, but they have become sensitive to the criticism and take care to avoid giving cause for complaint. 5. THE PRESS OUTSIDE THE UK: USA AND OTHER ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES The most outstanding example of the press out of the United Kingdom is to be found in the United States. It is important to highlight the fact that there are hardly any truly national newspapers since competition with broadcast media and restrictions for most dailies to their local or regional areas due to nationwide distribution issues, determine some of the features of the American newspapers. However, they also distinguish three main types of publications: daily, tabloids and magazines. The most famous daily newspapers in the United States include: -

The New York Times, which tells news with integrity and completeness and has a virtually nation-wide distribution due to its high prestige.

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The Washington Post, which covers national and foreign news, has won recognition as one of the most influential of the liberal, intellectual newspapers in the country thanks to its editorial page.

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The Los Angeles Times is one of the oldest newspapers and is acknowledge as an independent-minded publication for his high-regarding editorial position.

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The Wall Street Journal is a financial daily newspaper, which has been solidly edited since its foundation in the late nineteenth century.

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USA Today, which is the first attempt at a serious national daily newspaper of general interest.

One of the most well-known tabloids is The New York Daily News, which is known for its often colourful and blunt front page headlines. Regarding the publication of journals and magazines, there is a wide range of topics that they may include. The best-selling types include: mass magazines (TVGuide, Reader’s Digest), women’s general magazines (Cosmopolitan, Working Woman), news and opinion (Time), and business (Business Week, Fortune), among others. Regarding the press in Canada, there are two newspapers that are national The Globe and Mail and the National Post. There are a great number of newspapers in this English-speaking country, and they can be classified as: local daily, local weekly, alternative weekly, ethnic and multicultural newspapers and

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local monthly, apart from the two national papers commented above. The most famous ones by circulation are: Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and La Presse, which is written in French, as many of the other French papers in the Quebec’s region. In the case of Australia, there are two national newspapers that are published daily: The Australian, which is a very conservative broadsheet, and The Australian Financial Review, which is a business newspaper also conservative. There are also a great number of national newspapers that are published weekly or even monthly, such as: Lloyd’s List DCN, The Australian Senior, Green Left Weekly, The Guardian Weekly, The Monthly and The Trading Post. Australia has also a wide range of regional newspapers and a lot of them are published in other languages. On the other hand, in New Zealand there are no truly national newspapers. However, there are some daily newspapers that have a national scope, for instance, The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion Post, The Press and The Otago Daily Times. There are also several weekly newspapers with a national scope, including two tabloids, the Daily Chronicles and The New Zealand Truth. It is important to notice that the corporation Fairfax New Zealand controls almost the fifty percent of the daily newspaper circulation, and that in New Zealand the publication of magazines and newspapers in other languages is very common. In the case of South Africa, its history of newspapers dates back to 1800, when the governor of the Cape Colony initiated the publishing of the government-controlled Cape Town Gazette and African Advertiser. The current newspaper industry is in a fairly healthy state. The most important daily national papers in South Africa, regarding circulation, are: Beeld, Business Day, Daily Sun and Mail and Guardian. Moreover, there are Sunday national papers as well. In the case of regional newspapers, it is important to bear in mind that they have a small circulation and there are more than one hundred of them in several different languages. There are also a large number of free (advertising-funded) local and community newspapers, student newspapers and magazines in different languages. Finally, it is important to make reference to the press in India, since it is one of the largest print media of the world. The press in India started back in 1780 with the printing of Bengal Gazette in Calcutta. The current press in India is divided in eighteen different languages, including English and Hindi, which are the most common languages in the country. Therefore, it is important to mention that there are fourteen national dailies in English, such as The Times of India, Hindustan Times or The Telegraph, and ten national dailies in Hindi, for instance Dainik Jagran and Dainik Bhaskar¸ which are the most famous ones. The newspapers can be classified into daily, evening daily and weekly. The three most important papers in English are The Times of India, The Hindu and Deccan Chronicles.

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6. CONCLUSION: APPLIANCE TO THE ESL CLASSROOM The mass media in English, that is to say, press, radio and television, or the journalistic style is one of the most outstanding aspects of educational activity and the press and the distinction between quality and popular papers. In the classroom setting, all kinds of social and linguistic aspects of language may be brought to students in terms of means of communication so as to bring them closer to the world’s reality. This issue must be linked to the students through educational activity, both in and out the classroom. It is important that the teachers handle in class news from the British press, but also from other Englishspeaking countries, which make relevant the analysis of it in comparison to the students’ mother tongue press regarding the outstanding differences. Hence, it makes sense to examine the historical background of the press in English and check whether the distinction between quality and popular papers has always been present. Thus, in all years of E.S.O. one of the main objectives is the comprehension of oral, written and audiovisual texts whether they genuine or semi-genuine, according to DOGC núm. 4915- Decret 143/2007. Moreover, Batxillerat students are supposed to be able to understand and interpret the press headlines of news that may be interesting for them, as it appears in the DOGC núm. 5183- Decret 142/2008. Furthermore, in both E.S.O. and Batxillerat objectives there is the idea that the students must know the cultural dimension of the English language, as well as recognize the value of the foreign language in terms of means of communication between people belonging to different cultures. Actually, the success of these objectives partially lies in the way this issue becomes real for the users, since theory about the press only becomes relevant when the students may check by themselves the differences between the main types of press. This is to be achieved within the framework of the European Council (1998), and, in particular, the Educational system of the country, which should establish a common reference framework for the teaching of foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several communication tasks with specific communicative goals. To sum up, the final aim is for students to be aware of their current social, political and cultural reality through the use of the media in the English language, that is to say, the press in this particular context. 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY Britannica Concise Encyclopedia (www.britannica.com). Last accessed: October, 2010. Bromhead, P. (1962) Life in Modern Britain. Longman DOGC núm. 4915- Decret 143/2007 Currículum Educació Secundària Obligatòria DOGC núm. 5183- Decret 142/2008 - Currículum Batxillerat

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