UNIT 67 THE MASS MEDIA IN ENGLISH: JOURNALISTIC STYLE.

THE PRESS:
QUALITY PAPERS AND POPULAR PAPERS.

1.INTRODUCTION
Unit 67 aims to provide an explanation to the mass media in English which comprises the main means
of communication: press, radio and television. We will concentrate on the former so as to analyse the
journalistic style and the press. It is within the field of journalism that we shall examine the main types
of newspapers in Great Britain, that is, quality papers and popular papers. In doing so, we shall also
approach other general features of journalism in terms of aims, style and language so as to better
understand its scope.

2. THE MASS MEDIA

The mass media comprises three types of modern communication, that is, the press, the radio, and the
television. In terms of percentage, the press is curiously much more demanded than the radio or television;
actually, according to Bromhead “the British people buy more newspapers than any others except the
Swedes and Japanese.”

The major papers, 12 national morning daily newspapers (5 qualities and 7 populars) and 9 Sunday papers
(4 qualities and 5 populars) are available in most parts of Britain. Newspapers are almost always
financially independent of any political party, but their political leanings are easily discerned.

The press reports the latest events around the world, from international to local level. That report
traditionally answers the set of wh- questions: what?,who?, when?, where?, why?, what for? and how.

On the other hand, how to transmit leads us to the question of objective and subjective information. This
bias can exist because Britain is a free country with an elected representative government, and the mass
media is free putting forward various points of view to be transmitted through different mediums with
their own structural features.

The earliest known journalistic product was a newssheet in ancient Rome called the Acta Diurna,
recording important political and social events and hung in prominent places.
The first English newspaper, the Weekly Newes, was published in 1622, at first hindered by
government censorship. Magazines, which had started in the 17 th century, began to feature opinion
articles on current affairs, such as those in the Tatler (1709-11) and the Spectator (1711-12). In the
1830s cheap, mass-circulation magazines aimed at a wider and less well-educated public appeared, as
well as illustrated and women´s magazines.
3. JOURNALISTIC STYLE
The concept ‘journalistic style’ must not be confused with ‘journalistic language’ since both of them
refer to mass media means, but in different ways. First of all, the journalistic language refers to the
particular way language is used by the press, radio and television whereas the journalistic style refers
to the ways of expression, that is, informative, literary, and that of public opinion.

3.2. Language.
Journalistic language makes reference to the particular rules and ways of expression each means of
communication uses. For instance, within the press, all the different types of newspapers (national vs.
regional/local; quality vs. popular) shall present common features. Hence there is a threefold formulae
called ‘the three c’s code’, that is, the journalistic language must be clear, concise and correct. This is
so for the item of news to be understood by any reader no matter what their cultural level is, and also
because in this type of communication the important thing is the content rather than the form.
3.3 Genres
Their contents divide journalistic style into the following genres:
1.Informative, whose purpose is to inform in an objective way by means of narrative and descriptive
styles. The information can come into two different styles: news story and feature story, being the
latter longer, containing more detailed information, commentaries, descriptions and quotes. News
stories are, in general, long enough to answer the five –WH questions.
2.Critical, in which the opinion of the journalist to evaluate facts is expressed by means of expository
and argumentative genres, under the label of editorials.

3.Hybrid, which combines both informative and critical information

3.4. Structure
An article can be divided into:
headline – plus, sometimes, foretitle and or subtitle- and body of the text, the latter being introduced
by the lead.
1.Headlines have three main functions:

 Set limits to the text, or signalling the beginning of it

 Bring forward the most relevant aspects of the text from the perspective of information or
interest, or summarizing it
 Calling the reader´s attention

Headlines usually show the follwings syntactic structures:

 Simple sentences
 Full-meaning noun phrases
 Sentences with omitted verbs
 Topicalizations, the thematic component or location of the news fronted to initial position
 Incomplete syntactic structures which are able to render or suggest full meaning, so as to catch
the reader´s attention.

2.The lead is the first module in an article. Its remarkable function is to provide the reader with a
wider summary than headlines facilitate. It introduces the main factors of the event. Leads are outside
from the rest of the text. In smaller-sized texts, leads coincide with the first paragraph.
3.The body of the text develops the content. Except for articles of opinion, whose composition is free,
the body of articles is organized into different modules. Each module deals with one topic or subtopic,
their constitution is quite autonomous, which is given by the fact that if the reading of one of them is
omitted, the rest of the text is perfectly comprehensible.
3.5. Main genres.
Within journalism there is a great variety of genres, which have particular features with regard to
content and expression. Among the most outstanding ones we include:

(1) reports-a vivid narration of what a journalist has seen and heard about something which must
interest public opinion. It may not be of immediate current affairs, which is what we expect from a
piece of news. Sometimes a report may be of denouncing character. Often, reports are illustrated with
photographs.
(2) Interviews, which include dialogues between the journalist and the person whose is being
interviewed.
(3) Chronicles, which tell a series of events that have taken place during a certain time
(daily, weekly) and which are interesting to considers (i.e. a session held in Parliament,
Royal events, car races). Like reports, they are usually signed.
(4) Editorials-a written piece without signature. They appear in a fixed and outstanding place. The
person in charge of the editorial is the newspaper director, radio manager, the editorial advisor, or TV
director.
(5) Articles are written by journalists or collaborators, where within certain length the author’s thought
is exposed about any topic which may interest people because it is up-to-date or for just historical,
artistic, scientific, or philosophical reasons. This is said to be the most subjective journalistic genre.
(6) Columns are a fixed space reserved to reporters or collaborators who, daily or very often,
comments on current matters in a rather subjective tone. There are column reporters considered as
greatly influential on public opinion.
(7) reviews are carried out by journalists or collaborators who judge books, films, plays, concerts,
sports, or any other show through oral or written texts.

4. THE PRESS
4.1.The origins of the press.
The origins of the press trace back to the invention of the printing press. Printing is defined as the
process of making multiple copies of a document by the use of movable characters or letters. Before
the invention of printing, multiple copies of a manuscript had to be made by hand; however, the arrival
of printing made possible to produce more copies in a shorter period of time. Invented by Johann
Gutenberg in 1450, the printing press made the mass publication and circulation of literature possible.

Printing spread rapidly and began to replace hand-printed texts for a wider audience. This impact
lasted for centuries, and eventually, the nineteenth century saw the emergence of periodicals and the
increase of newspapers.

4.2. The press: common features.

Though the press in Britain is aimed to guard its freedom to print, there are some rules that restrict its
scope of information. So, among these restricting features we include: (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 a harmful
untruth about someone; (2) the Official Secrets Act (OSA), a law whichrestricts the reporting of some
military and government matters;(3) legal restrictions on reporting certain court proceedings or
commenting on a trial in progress in case the publicity would be unfair to the people on trial. (5) the
influence of the Press Council, an official organisation which hears complaints from the public about
the behaviour of journalists and the stories newspapers sometimes print. The Council is intended to
safeguard the privacy of the individual as well as the freedom of the press.

5. THE PRESS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: QUALITY PAPERS AND POPULAR PAPERS.

There is a wide variety of newspapers at the level of national vs. regional/local press, which depend on
several variables, among which we shall focus on the distinction between daily vs. Sunday press,
weekly vs. periodical press and Quality vs. popular papers

UK papers are generally grouped into three types within the national scope:
1.quality papers (broadsheets),
2.middle-market tabloids (or semi-popular papers)
3.popular papers (also called tabloids or mass market tabloids).
5.1. Quality vs. Popular papers.
1. Quality papers.
They are also called ‘broadsheets’ because of its size. They contain an emphasis on news about
business, political relations, cultural tendencies, scientific, social and political matters at an
international level. They are also characterized by an aura of dignity and stability which is shown in
their semi-academic style and their serious tone.

Quality papers show several features such as: a wide range of international news; lack of
sensationalism; an analytical and deep approach to news; general awareness of the problems of human
beings.

Among quality papers’ main functions we include:

1.they are the ideal vehicle for political leaders, social institutions and national associations when they
address leading groups in the country; 2.they are very useful in embassies and diplomatic institutions
so as to know about the country’s situation.

An edition of quality papers might consist of forty pages, of which 20 might deal with foreign and
home news and opinion, 8 with business and sports news, and 12 with other features and
advertisements. Among these other features there will be theatre and film reviews, TV pages,
crosswords and advertisements.

The following characteristics can be found in the news published in Quality papers:
Objectivity: The mode of objectivity is manifested by:
The lack of personal references
The lack of expressive elements
The lack of connotative meaning
The provision of quantities and data
The justification of assertions by means of reference to authorities or witnesses
Clarity: Since the written language used is addressed to heterogeneous readers, it must be
characterized by clarity. The use of dialects is avoided, and the style adopted is a neutral one.
Colloquialisms, technicisms, and any other sort of terms difficult for an average reader to understand
are excluded.
Correctedness: They follow linguistic rules strictly.
2. Semi-popular papers.
Though traditionally regarded as tabloids, the Daily Mail and The Express, are concerned with a very
different readership - that of affluent women and, as a result, they are framed up within the category of
middle -market tabloids. Weekend supplements and carefully-placed sponsorship ensure that these
titles are a cheap alternative to a magazine, while sports supplements aimed at the husband aim to
broaden their readership.

3. Popular papers.
Popular papers, also known as mass-market tabloids and defined as yellow journalism. The phrase
was coined in the 1890s to describe the tactics employed in furious competition between two New
York City newspapers, the World and the Journal. Joseph Pulitzer had purchased the New York
World in 1883 and, using colourful, sensational reporting against political corruption and social
injustice, had won the largest newspaper circulation in the country, but his supremacy was challenged
in 1895 by Randolph Hearst son of a mining tycoon who had moved to New York City and had
bought the rival Journal. Hearst, who had already built the San Francisco Examiner into a hugely
successful, mass-circulation paper, intended to do the same in New York City by outdoing his
competitors in sensationalism, crusades, and Sunday features (the fictional character Jonah Jameson of
Stan Lee´s Spiderman series would be based on him). He brought some of his staff from San Francisco
and hired some away from Pulitzer´s paper, including Richard F. Outcault a cartoonist who had drawn
 immensely popular comic picture series, “The Yellow Kid”, for the Sunday World. After Outcault´s
defection, the comic was drawn for the World by George B. Luks, and the two rival picture series
excited so much attention that the competition between the two newspapers came to be described as
“yellow journalism”.

Popular Papers are characterized by the use of sensationalized news in newspaper publishing. Since
they respond to the reader’s interests, they show particular features such as the use of big banner
headlines, coloured comics and copious illustrations to thrive on the excitement of the readers.
Also, they include “leading items” of each day, which are one day political, another day to do with
crime, the next one sport and so on. They have pages of short political reports.

With respect to typographical resources we highlight the make-up of the first page, which aims to
heighten sensationalism by emphasizing human interest on fantasy and other unusual issues (i.e. The
so-called ‘Page Three girl’ in The Sun); The unbalanced lay-out of the pages (large headlines vs. little
text), exaggeration of the news, a treatment of news which pays little or no attention to the truth and an
unclear division between information and opinion.

With this background in mind, let us examine these main features within each type of paper,
both quality and popular within the further distinction of daily and Sunday press.

4. Daily vs. Sunday papers.

1. Daily papers: quality and popular.

At national level, regarding daily morning papers, five quality newspapers are distinguished:
The Times, though being the UK’s oldest national newspaper is not the most popular of all British
newspapers. Here we can find announcements of births, marriages and deaths. Politically speaking,
though it is said to be independent, it is sympathetic to the Conservative Party.
The Guardian, originally called ‘the Manchester Guardian’ up to 1959, developed into a modern
national paper when moved its base to London, and hence its change of name. It is said to be equal
with The Times in quality, style and reporting. Politically speaking, it has been related to the Liberal
Party and humanitarian attitudes.
The Daily Telegraph, known affectionately as the Daily Torygraph because of the support to the
Conservative Party, is bought by the majority of Conservative middle –class readers. Its circulation is
said to be greater than that of The Times and The Guardian because of its low price.
The Financial Times is a financial newspaper. Its circulation, though small, has grown enormously.
The Independent is the newest of the broadsheets and has quickly established a reputation for its
interesting reporting. It shows the similar large format of the previous newspapers, similar content,
though it pays little or no attention to the activities of the Royal Family.

Scotland has two important ‘quality’ papers, the Scotsman in Edinburgh and the Glasgow Herald.

Regarding popular papers, we can find 5 in UK:

The Sun- appeared in the mid 1970s, is regarded as the successor of the old Daily Herald,
which was a quasi-official organ of the Labour Party until the 1960s. It keeps minimum contents of
politics and maximum about football, sports, horseracing and naked girls using big headlines.
The Daily Mirror- appeared in the 1940s. It has always devoted more space to pictures. It was
also a pioneer with strip cartoons.
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977. The Daily Express has for
many decades been a rival of the Daily Mail, and each frequently attacks the other's journalistic integrity.
The Daily Mail- is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun
 The Morning Star- belongs to the Communist Party. It supports all strikes, condemns all the
social evils and sells more copies in Eastern Europe (where it is the only permitted British paper) than in
Britain.

2. Sunday papers: quality and popular.

Regarding the Sunday press, we include:

3 quality papers:
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Telegraph
The Observer

4 popular papers:
News of the World
the Sunday Mirror
the Sunday People,
the Sunday Express.

In general, the ‘quality’ Sunday papers devote large sections to literature and art so as to review new
books, the London theatre, new films and music. Also, they bring information and comments about
politics and business throughout the world. They have colour supplements. They largely depend on the
advertisements to finance them. They are famous for reporting scandals, sports, and legal matters
involving sex and violence.

5. Weekly vs. Periodical press.

Weekly and periodical press refers respectively to journals and magazines.

The Spectator is a weekly journal of opinion. It devotes half of its 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. The
Times Educational and Higher Education Supplements are useful sources for any student of these
fields of interest.

Almost all the magazines are based in London, with national circulations. There are several types of
magazines:
Those dedicated to women, encouraging people to buy carpets, equipment for the kitchens or
clothes. These, along with commercial
magazines addressed to young people. For instance, magazines for teenagers are Just Seventeen, TV
Hits
Other magazines are linked to the radio, 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 pages
for other articles.
computer magazines (PC Weekly)

6. Regional and local papers.

Among local and regional daily papers those published in the evenings are much more important. Each
of seventy town has one but they are not taken very seriously, being mostly bought for the useful
information contained in their advertisements.
6. THE PRESS OUT OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: THE U.S.
The most outstanding example of the press out of the United Kingdom is to be found in the United
States. The reason is that American’s newspapers have gained greater public and professional
recognition for offering a wide coverage of news, as well as editorial opinion in support of basic
principles of human freedom and social progress.

They also distinguish three main types of publications:

1.daily
The most famous daily newspapers include: The New York Times, which tells news with
integrity and has a nation-wide distribution due to its high prestige;
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
The Angeles Times, one of the oldest newspapers (founded in the late 19th.century), is acknowledged as
an independent-minded publication for his high-regarded editorial position
The Wall Street Journal, It includes summaries of important national and world news, as well as
articles interpreting trends in industry

2.tabloids
The New York Daily News is the one with the largest circulation

3. Magazines
They may be launched weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. We can find consumer magazines, trade and
business.

Among the best-selling types include: women’s general magazines (Cosmopolitan), news and opinion
(Time), and business (Fortune)

7. CONCLUSION

The journalistic style in Britain has traditionally followed the model we have already presented.
Throughout most of the Commonwealth, the media in English has its roots in the British version. As
we have stayed before, journalistic writing has a structure which differs from that of speech.

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 as it is
stayed in the current educational legislation: LOE 2/2006 on 3rd of May, BOE 106 on 4th May 2006.

LOE also stablishes that students must use the information and communication technologies to
acquire knowledge and transmit information, solve problems and facilitate interpersonal relations,
valuing its use critically. Furthermore, within the Foreign Language General Objectives, we find a
closer approach to the cultural dimension of English when saying that students are expected to “know
the sociocultural aspects of the target language as a means to improve communication in the foreign
language and for the critical knowledge of one’s own culture” and also, to “value the importance of the
study of foreign languages as an element of understanding and encouragement of respect and
consideration towards other cultures.”
The current Organic Law of Education also emphasizes in reading, writing and differentiating different
types of texts as it is stayed in Foreign Language Area Objectives number 3 and 4 where it is said that
students will 3. Read and understand different types of texts, related to the students´ experiences and
interests, extracting specific and global information and use the reading as a resource for pleasure and
personal enrichment. 4.Write varied texts with different purposes, about different topics using the adequate
resources of cohesion and coherence.
There is a need to create classrooms conditions in which we could practice these aims using as much real
life materials as possible. Actually, the success lies in the way this issue becomes real to the users since
theory about the press only becomes relevant when students may check by themselves the difference
between the main types of press (quality vs. Popular papers, daily vs. Sunday versions, national vs. Local,
journals vs. magazines) in and out the classroom setting. This is to be achieved within the framework of the
European Council and, in particular, the Spanish Educational System which establishes a common
reference framework for the teaching of foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several
communication tasks with specific communicative goals within specific contexts. Following this, present-
day approaches deal with a communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis on
significance over form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of new
technologies. Nowadays new technologies provide a new direction to language teaching as they set more
appropriate context for students to experience the target culture and practice both in oral and written form,
using different types of texts and registers.

8.NOTES ON BIBLIOGRAPHY

 COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR LANGUAGES: LEARNING,

TEACHING, ASSESMENT ,Council of Europe,2001 (CUP)
 THE CAMBRIDGE ENCICLOPAEDIA OF LANGUAGE,Crystal D., 1997 (CUP)
 A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, Quirk et alter, (Longman)
 PRACTICAL ENGLISH USAGE, M. Swan (OUP)
 www.wikipedia.com
 www.britannica.com
 www.mediauk.com