language of newspaper

7/30/2019 Language of Newspaper

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L Hng Vn, Nguyn Th Bo Ngc, Tng Tr My, Nguyn Th Thy

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Contents

I. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1

II. Literature Review ............................................................................................ 2III. Practical Analysis ............................................................................................. 6

IV. Conclusion .......................................................................................................10

V. Appendices .......................................................................................................11

I. IntroductionNews comes to us from several sources including word of mouth, newspaper,

television and radio broadcast and increasingly via the Internet. Each medium has its own

style, but we can also identify a journalistic register, of which newspapers are the most

significant users. It is easy to tell by the size and the shape of British newspaper what

kinds of readers they are aimed at and there are two main types of newspapers

broadsheets and tabloids. However, having different purposes in delivering information

make they have different ways to provide their news. This essay will concentrate on a

particular news item as covered in two different British newspapers, namely The

Telegraph, one of famous broadsheets newspapers, and The Daily Star, which is called a

tabloid newspaper. The news which is being covered is that David Cameron threatens to

veto EU budget.

This essay will analysis how different the news provide in a selection of

newspapers, the types of sign system and how they affect meaning in broadsheets and

tabloids. However, the theory of some criteria would be referred. Therefore, this essay

has Literature Review which shows the theory of criteria to compare two articles of

broadsheet and tabloid. Practical Analysis is the practice of comparing the two articles

with specific criteria and analysis of their effects.


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II. Literature Review The Headline

The headline is a unique type of text. It has a range of functions that specifically dictate

its shape, content and structure, and it operates within a range of restrictions that limit the

freedom of the writer. For example, the space that the headline will occupy is almost

always dictated by the layout of the page, and the size of the typeface will similarly be

restricted. The headline will rarely, if ever, be written by the reporter who wrote the news

story. It should, in theory, encapsulate the story in a minimum number of words, attractthe reader to the story and, if it appears on the front page, attracting the reader to the

paper. The headline has the capacity to encapsulate a story and the headlines in a

particular edition give the reader the overall picture of the current news, its relative

importance, and its classification.

The language and structure of headline is variable. There are rapping, slamming, probing

or blasting in a headline. We also have some of the forms of language and techniques and

linguistic devices often used by headline writers, such as:

Rhetorical question: a question to which no answer is expected.

Personalization: things or animals have actions like human.

Metonymy: where the name of a specific object or idea stands for something else to

which it is related or a part of.

Headline writers have developed a vocabulary that fulfills the requirements of the

headline, using words that are short, attention getting and effective. The headline writer

has a range of linguistics devices available to create headlines that will attract the readers

interest.

The Lead


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The most important structural element of a story is the lead (or "intro" in the UK) the

story's first, or leading, sentence. The lead is usually the first sentence, or in some cases the

first two sentences, and is ideally 20-25 words in length. The top-loading principle applies

especially to leads, but the unread ability of long sentences constrains the lead's size. Thismakes writing a lead an optimization problem, in which the goal is to articulate the most

encompassing and interesting statement that a writer can make in one sentence, given the

material with which he or she has to work. While a rule of thumb says the lead should

answer most or all of the five Ws, few leads can fit all of these. Article leads are sometimes

categorized into hard leads and soft leads. A hard lead aims to provide a comprehensive

thesis which tells the reader what the article will cover. A soft lead introduces the topic in a

more creative, attention-seeking fashion, and is usually followed by a nut graph (a brief

summary of facts).

Straight lead (or Summary lead)

A good lead incorporates the inverted pyramid style with the most important facts first. It

tells readers what they want to know in a creative manner. If the reader only read the lead,

he or she would have a solid grasp of the story. The above accident report can be written in

a straight lead. Journalists often resort to summary leads pressed for time.

Descriptive lead

A descriptive lead describes how an event happened rather than simply telling what the

event is about.

Quotation lead

Quotes frequently are the essential documentation for a lead and should be used

immediately after a paraphrase that summarizes them. Here paraphrasing the verbatim

quotation permits the removal of unnecessary words. But if a verbatim quotation itself isvery important or interesting, it can be the lead itself. This lead would add an element of

interest such as drama, pathos, humor, astonishment, or some other factor that will reach

out to the reader. The brief statement by U.S. President Johnson in 1968 that he would not

be a candidate for reelection was widely used as a lead.


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Question lead

Many editors dislike question lead on the basis that people read newspapers to get answers,

and not to be asked questions. But if the question is provocative, it may be used as a lead.

Personal lead

It involves the use of the first person singular in the lead. Normally such a use is

discouraged except for a columnist or such privileged writers.

'You' lead (or Direct Address lead)

The `You' lead is intended to make a personal appeal to the reader involved in a

complicated situation. The second-person approach reaches out to involve the reader and

capture his/her attention. Here is an example, fairly typical of a trend toward consumerism

in the news:

Contrast lead

To vary monotony, a saga can be split into two sentences -- the first of which refers to the

humble beginning and the second to the hero's latest triumph.

Delayed lead (or suspended interest lead)

A situation can be exploited in an interesting way so that an ordinary item stands out. Thereporter delves in several paragraphs to find out what had happened. The reader must get

the story by reading to the end of the story.

Blind identification lead

If the person concerned is not well known in the community, his/her name is less important

than other salient facts that identify the person. For example "a 80-year-old woman"

instead of her name.

Anecdotal lead

The anecdotal lead is used when the anecdote is bright and applicable and not too wasteful

of space. It brings the reader quickly into a news situation that might not attract his

attention if it were routinely written. Here is one that began a series on divorce in the U.S.

Gag (or funny) lead


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A journalist who writes a funny story put up the saddest face in a newsroom. Journalistic

humor requires the skilled and practice.

Literary allusion lead

Paralleling the construction of a nursery rhyme or part of a well-known literary creationcan add to variety.

The visual signs

The visual signs consist of pictures or images and their captions.

The visual effect is always important in transferring the information. The bigger the

image size, the more emotional impact it carries. Most of print media use a combination

of pictures and words to convey the information, but some use words only. In fact, the

first thing that attracts the reader concentration is the images. For example, if you look at

an article without any pictures, you will feel naturally that it is not really interesting to

read. It seems hard to read a text which is full of words. Therefore, the same situation

happens to the readers. The pictures help the articles to become more graphic, to enhance

the readers imagination and strengthen the ability to get the information by the audience.

Caption:Very few pictures used in newspapers, magazines or web pages can stand alone without at

least some short description about them. Caption help the reader understand more about the

pictures. For example: where did the picture take? , who was in the picture? ..etc. We call

these descriptions captions. Due to the fact that not every picture is easily to describe, the

captions cannot tell us all. Shortly, the duty of the caption is to help the readers to clarify

the message of the pictures.

The News Structure:Majority of broadsheets offer information with facts, images, figures or acknowledged

by experts. The tabloids have a different format by putting information together with the


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assumptions inferred from the combination of some of the information and not be

authenticated.

In newspaper, stories or news is informed by classical coherent structure and time

sequence. We have basic parts of an article's structure are below: Title

Introduction

Body with supporting facts

Ending/ closing

Resource box

III. Practical Analysis The Headline

On the front page of The Telegraph, they wrote David Cameron threatens to veto EU

budget unless Brussels sacks staff. That was a lengthy headline which does not impress

audience. However, short, simple and concrete words are applied in this headline to create

vividness and accuracy. The Telegraph used a straightforward, factual headline which is

simple and yet still dramatic. It was a compound sentence in structure. The tense used inthe headline is the simple present in order to add to its freshness and immediacy. It did not

use capitalization.

On the page of Daily Star Sunday, the headline PM TRIGGERS WAR OF WORDS ON

EU PAY made the readers curious. It was typed in bold print and uses capitalization,

which aims to attract attention. It pervaded more information than The Telegraph aiming to

catch the readers interest. The headline was a simple sentence in structure. The use of the

present tense created a sense of immediacy, adding to the dramatic impact. Moreover, this

headline used a strong word trigger (means activate) and the idiom war of words to be

more attractive to the audience. In addition, it showed the informality when using the

abbreviation PM instead of Prime Minister and did not mention his full name.


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Through two headlines, we could find that the broadsheet provided an interesting headline

and showed the main information, while the tabloid had a headline that is very catchy and

attractive. The seriousness of the broadsheet was more than the tabloid because of the types

of readers each newspaper wants to attract. Obviously, The Telegraph wanted to provideformal information. It was different from Daily Star Sunday which wanted to express

popular press to please the majority of the public. Two headlines with two styles attracted

readers by two different ways but the effects of linguistic devices and word choices could

not be denied.

The LeadDavid Cameron has triggered a war of words after challenging Eurocrats to cut their own

pay instead of seeking more money from national exchequers

Only the Daily Star Sunday used lead, and it was the summary lead. A good lead told

readers what they wanted to know in a creative manner. If the readers only read the lead, he

or she would have a solid grasp of the story. In this lead, writer remained the content of the

headline and adds more information that EU should cut their pay instead of asking for more

money from Court of Exchequer.

Once again, the tabloid always had eye-catching devices to attract readers. However, the

broadsheet with the quality press always has success by brief and concise sentences.

Writing a successful lead needs a synthetic thinking and somehow one word could be

worth by a thousand of other words.

The visual Sign:As we can see, both of the two pictures in the two articles are placed in the top clearly. It

told the readers that the topic was about Mr. David Cameron.

First, now we focus on the picture in The Telegraph. Another thing that came together

with the image of Mr. David Cameron was the word EUROPEAN in the background.


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The headline told about an action of Mr. David Cameron which can affect directly to

European Union.

Meanwhile, the picture in The Daily Star was sealed as BREAKING NEWS. If thepicture appeared without any caption, readers may consider this situation took place in

some kind of active activity.

Secondly, we can see clearly that the attitude of Mr. David Cameron was rather different

in two pictures. In The Telegraph, his face looked serious with his forefinger is up. He

was having a assertive manner.

In The Daily Star, Mr. Cameron was walking outdoor. Although he was surrounded by

the reporters, his face seemed not annoyed at all. The audience can feel a neutral attitude

through his smile.

Additionally, the differences between The Telegraph and The Daily Star in visual

signs once again shows the differences between the ways broadsheets and tabloids

attract readers attention and how they impress readers at the first signs. The way which

the Telegraph gave the information was more precisely. Meanwhile, The Daily Star

focused on the ability to draw pictures and make use of the images had all effects, gave

a strong impression to the readers.

The success of visual signs depends on many complement. It is not just a beautiful,

eye-catching picture, it requires more than that, such as then _t

vi UTF-8 2 1appropriate size of the picture,

the right place on the page, a good caption and especially the creation of the writer.

Therefore, The Telegraphs visual sign was preferable.

The News Structure


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David Cameron threatens to veto EU budget unless Brussels sacks staff was an article

of a broadsheet newspaper. The structure of this article was close to the basic structure of

an article. With the clear title, summary, introduction and body with supporting facts, the

article had a sequence in a right order.This article provided the information what David Cameron said after the attending the

summit. Many quoting of David Cameron were in this article to demonstrate an object

view. For example: "If there isn't a deal that's good for Britain, there won't be a deal," he

said. "We can't have European spending go up and up and up when we have to make

difficult decisions in so many different areas." Explaining for the headline of this

newspaper, the body has many supporting facts with figures and other opinions of David

Cameron.

Meanwhile, The Daily Star is a tabloid with an articlePM TRIGGERS WAR OF

WORDS ON EU PAY reported the same information about Mr. Cameron would like to

veto US Budget. However, this newspaper attracted readers by the headline with a word

war. It provided an assumption which was emphasized and made the readers believe at

the beginning of the article.It could attract the readers more than just facts and

information in the broadsheet.

In the tabloid, the writer have shortened the opinion of David Cameron by quoting : :

"My favourite figure for the day... there is I think 16% of employees at the European

Commission earning over 100,000 euros (more than 80,000) instead of : the sentence

Mr. Cameron said his "favourite" fact about Brussels over-spending is that 16 per cent of

administrative staff at the European Commission earn more than 100,000 or more than

80,000 a year in a broadsheet. Shortening his idea made a big difference, the reader

who read a tabloid did not know the figures are about Brussels.

The structure of The Daily Stars article impressed and fascinated readers into the

story. With opinions, the article had clues to lead to conclusions. It did not present

many details as the broadsheet did. It also engaged the readers by presenting


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hypothetical, provocative and controversial, since the attractiveness of the more

advanced article.

The structure and sequence information contributes greatly to the success of an

article. With an attractive structure, content creation, giving a new perspectivewhether controversial or not, an article that can attract readers and make them share it

widely with others to reflect their views. The tabloids have advantages are making

such assumptions. However, the introduction of ideas, opinions has not been certified

in the paper may lose accuracy and authenticity of the media, affecting the ability to

provide information that affects the prestige of the newspaper. Therefore, the

assumptions should be clear evidence.

Broadsheets and tabloids have different ways of providing information. If

broadsheets focus to provide information correctly, the tabloids to prove that a paper

attracted readers not only information but also orient the reader to a certain point.

Tabloids attract most popular readers. In the other hand, the tabloids made the

comment if the lack of authenticity will lose accuracy and authenticity of the press.

Therefore, there arebroadsheets loyal readers, and prejudiced against the tabloids

still exist despite its appeal.

IV. ConclusionLastly from analyzing two articles, one from a broadsheet and the other from a

tabloid, we can recognize that the different techniques were used in two kind of

newspapers. Tabloids aim to mainly create emotion among readers, where as a

broadsheets aim to inform its readers. Besides the tabloid will enable a reader to acquire a

broad picture of the news stories of the day in a short time and in this area is more

effective than the broadsheet: "A reader with 20 minutes will be more likely get a basic


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outline of the news about a broader range of topics from the tabloids than the section

fronts of the broadsheets."

V. Appendices The Telegraphs full article:

David Cameron threatens to veto EU budget unless Brussels sacks staff

David Cameron threatens to veto the EU budget unless it sacks staff and cuts the pay of

6,000 officials on six-figure salaries. Photo: Reuters

By Rowena Mason, and Bruno Waterfield, in Brussels

3:07PM BST 19 Oct 2012

The Prime Minister said he is proud of his "pretty outspoken" reputation among

European leaders and stands ready to block any new spending plans that fail to tackle

Brussels waste


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Speaking after a two-day summit, Mr Cameron directly challenged the EU to take "more

rigorous" action to cut costs or face another veto from the UK.

"If there isn't a deal that's good for Britain, there won't be a deal," he said. "We can't have

European spending go up and up and up when we're having to make difficult decisions in

so many different areas."

Mr Cameron said his "favourite" fact about Brussels over-spending is that 16 per cent of

administrative staff at the European Commission earns more than 100,000 or more than

80,000 a year.

"What we've done in Britain is we have cracked down on central administration, the cost

of Whitehall, and on the numbers of people employed to release money for things that are

more important," he said. "We need to see in the budget proposals that sort of rigorous

approach. There is a deal that can be done but it can't be a deal that involves spending a

lot more money."

The European Commission has asked for a higher budget that would cost Britain an extra

10 billion over seven years and repeatedly ignored requests from member countries to

reduce staffing costs.

A commission spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: "We declined as it's a lot of work

and waste of time for our staff who busy with more urgent matters.

"Because of language requirements, we are better educated than national civil servants.

We're high fliers not burger flippers."

Mr Cameron will face pressure from many of his Conservative colleagues to secure

another budget freeze for Europe when leaders debate the issue more fully in November

The Prime Minister's defensive stance towards Europe and promise to re-negotiate the

relationship appeared to worry other leaders at the summit.

Francois Hollande, the French president, said Britain seems to be in "retreat" and a

Finnish foreign minister claimed the UK looks like it is waving "bye bye" to the EU.

Mr Cameron yesterday shrugged off these jibes, saying it does not matter "whateveryone's saying about you" as long as Britain gets a better deal from Europe.

The Prime Minister denied Britain is walking away from Europe but said he wants a

"realistic, gritty" debate about relationship.

He also confirmed he would decline to attend the EU's award ceremony for the Nobel

Peace Prize in December.


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At meeting itself, the heads of state focused on financial reforms, with Eurozone

countries agreeing to a banking union.

Mr Cameron managed to secure a crucial promise of "concrete" protection for Britain's

financial interests, which had previously been fiercely opposed by France.

He also faced a battle over the idea of a new Eurozone budget. He argued strongly that

this might help reduce the EU's budget but he met with resistance from poorer nations

such as Poland, which benefit from millions of pounds in funding.

The Daily Stars full article:PM TRIGGERS WAR OF WORDS ON EU PAY

(This is not the original picture in the tabloid newspaper. The picture in the Daily Star

adds a phrase BREAKING NEWS in red)

ABOVE: David Cameron is resuming talks with other European leaders at the EU

summit in Brussels (AP)

19th October 2012

David Cameron has triggered a war of words after challenging Eurocrats to cut their own

pay instead of seeking more money from national exchequers.

After a summit in Brussels the Prime Minister repeated warnings that Britain will block

an EU budget deal in negotiations next month unless Brussels shows the same restraint as


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national authorities.

Then he said: "My favourite figure for the day... there is I think 16% of employees at the

European Commission earning over 100,000 euros (more than 80,000).

"What we have done in Britain is we have cracked down on the central administration,the costs of Whitehall. There are things that are more important and we need to see that

kind of approach (from Brussels)."

EU officials said the 16% referred only to about 12,000 in senior-grade civil-service, not

the entire 35,000-strong Commission workforce, meaning only 2,000 eurocrats were

getting the high-end salaries instead of well over 5,000 on Mr Cameron's figures.

Government officials then claimed that the average salary across all 55,000 staff

employed by the three key EU bodies - European Commission, Council of Ministers and

European Parliament, worked out at 102,000 euros. That figure was dismissed soonafterwards by a Commission official who challenged the government to justify its

calculations.

Earlier in his post-summit press conference, Mr Cameron admitted: "I have a reputation

for being frank and plain speaking in Europe. If I don't like something I say so. What

matters is are we getting the best deal for Britain?"

The EU budget deal he and Germany will lead the fight for is a real-terms freeze in euro-

spending.

Setting the scene for a showdown on the issue at another summit next month, the Prime

Minister warned: "Yes, I'm going to be tough on the EU budget. It would be good to have

a deal but would not be acceptable to see a huge increase in EU spending at a time when

national budgets are being cut.

"The British public expect a tough and rigorous approach and that is exactly what they

will get. If we cannot get a deal, there's no point doing a deal that is a bad deal."

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