Teodora Sintion Chapter 2 [628859]

Chapter II
2.1. Newspapers

NEWS can be defined as information about recent events happening in the world. Nowadays
newspapers are different from the past newspapers. NEWS stands for North, East, West, South.
News means new. When somebody says news usually refers to the latest events happening in
the world or to events happening in their personal life.

As Danuta Reah states in her book, The language of newspaper (1998: 4) news can be defined
as information about recent events. But this definition is vague mostly because recent events
can cover the last 24 hours and it has different meaning for different peopl e. Danuta Reah states
that the ‘definition is not satisfactory ’. Yes, this definition does not cover everything that NEWS
means. The author tries to give another definition , a more complete one, namely: ‘information
about recent events that are of interest to a sufficiently large group, or that may affect the life
of a suffic iently large group ’ (Reah, 1998: 4).
Nowadays News has different forms, from gossip to stories, from written reports to TV
broadcasts . Everything that is said about recent events is consider ed news. We all use the phrase
‘I have news! ’ when somethin g important happens. This means that everybody knows the
concept of NEWS , but it cannot be explained in words.

As I already stated , NEWS has different forms. Lately news has been defined in relation to with
journalism. in the introduction of his book ‘Good News, Bad News ’ Jerremy Iggers ( 1999 )
comments on the opinion of ‘Robert MacNeil, former co -anchor of the MacNeiE -Lehrer News
Hour ’. The la tter explains the evolution of ‘news produced by ins titutions practicing journalism ’
(Robert MacNeil, 1996) . From th is we can understand the fact that not everything is the product
of journalism. Most of the so-called news is focused on the sensational and a large part of the
printed press can be categorized as tabloids. Robert MacNeil is afraid that the real value of t he
news will disappear and the only way this can be stopped is by means of competition. By means

of competition, the values will change and will make journa lists focus on progress and on ‘good
news ’.
‘By news as we know it I mean news produced by instituti ons practicing journalism, more or
less observant of standard codes of good journalistic: behavior . . . journalism treated if not as
a learned profession at least as an honorable and respected craft with an important role to play
in the democracy. I'm pes simistic . . . because all the trends in television journalism are toward
the sensational, the hype, the hyperactive, the tabloid values to drive out the serious, in these
treads, I see the end of news as a commodity of service to people and its conversion to an
amusement, and I’m afraid that the values driving news in that direction wilt only increase w ith
competition ’ (Iggers, 1999: 2)

Newspapers are one of the many mass -media forms. As the name indicates newspapers give us
news in physical form, news on the paper. Today’s newspaper news coexists with other forms
of content: photos, graphics, features, television guides, motoring information, columns, fashion
pages, lifestyle articles, cartoons, crosswords, sport and so on and are placed besides
advertisem ents. All this combines to ensure that today’s newspapers are anything but papers
solel y about news. ’(Franklin, 2008: 37). One of the facts about them is that they do not present
events from an objective perspective; they give the readers what they want, n ot necessarily the
truth. The discourse of newspapers often takes the form of argumentation. So, the language of
newspapers uses logos, ethos, and pathos to manipulate. After the information was gathered, by
means of reading, interviewing, or commenting it can be rephrased such that the reader will
adopt the journalist’s perspective. Some of the persuasive devices used are ambiguity,
intertextuality, phonology or loaded words.

News and Newspapers target the public. In other words, they need to be successfu l for them to
not disappear. The articles appearing in newspapers are selected from a large number. The
chosen articles are not just news, there are also advertising, TV listing and tabloids. Newspapers
contain everything because they need to become succes sful. ‘The free -market operate s on one
major premise: profit. ’ (Reah, 1998: 8). The newspaper market is a free market as well. There

exists competition, so the staff of every newspaper will look for articles of interest for the large
public.
‘The reader of newspapers, then is not entirely the recipient of new information on recent events.
He or she is the recipient of selected information on recent events, and this information may
well be presented with ideological ‘spin’ that makes it very difficult for the reader to make an
independent decision on what his/her actual view -point of these events actually is. ’ (Reah,
1998: 9).
The articles are written in such way that it will not only inform the public, but also influence it
to adopt the author’s point of view. How? By just rephrasing one phrase a journalist may make
the other think that what he/she is saying represents danger o r it is one in a lifetime opportunity.
Besides words, pictures can also manipulate. As we are living in a world of visual culture, strong
images are highly influential. A headline written in large characters and containing a well –
positioned title followed by a strong image will make the public believe everything, most of the
time without even reading the whole story. As an example, Photos 1 and 2 (see Appendices 1
and 2) are an example – they were used in the articles that appeared in the American newspaper s
after Trump’s victory of the presidency in USA in 2016. Media has built a shocking image of
the president elected. As can be seen in the photograph in Appendix 1 above Donald Trump’s
victorious image is attached to a headline that announces a revolution. This can make the readers
think that their chosen president is a future threat to the country. The same can be said about the
second picture (See Appendix 2). A highly suggestive modified picture of The Statue of Liberty
and a title saying, ‘What have the y done? ’ announces a dark future for the country. Also, the
colors in both pictures are darker.
“Newspapers are experiencing the fallout of a larger crisis in the culture, a period of
cultural upheaval that is sometimes described as the end of the modern era. There is a
growing acceptance of the idea that reality is socially constructed and that the
competing versions of reality presented to us via the news media are not and indeed
cannot be unbiased representati ons of reality.” (Iggers, 1999: 4)
Iggers sta tes that the information presented in newspapers are constructed realities,
representations of what can be real. People have begun to not accept this reality, and they no

longer question the news. The readers believe the reality presented by journalist. St ill, the
sensational stories attract readers. This opinion is confirmed nowadays as well.

But what about the objectivity? Are the newspapers telling us the truth ? Jeremy Iggers tries to
give an answer to these questions in his book Good News, Bad News (1999:91) He states that
“objectivity may be dead, but it isn’t dead enough” (Iggers, 1999:91). There still is some space
for objectivity in journalism and some journalists try to defend “the idea of objectivity”, but the
latter began to become an obstacle for the writer’s public life. In regards with the facts, this
becomes problematic when talking about the growth of propaganda and about public industries.
(Iggers, 1999). I agree with his statement about the facts: “Facts, it quickly became clear, could
be manipulated to convey the meanings that any interested party wished to attach them. It was
at this point that the problem of truthfulness began to be framed in terms of the vocabulary of
objectivity and pictorial representation” (Iggers, 1999:94). Parts of the facts can be hidden,
pictures can be modified. An article can be written in such way that is of interest to one group
and attack another one.
“In order to keep reports both simple and short, it is difficult for these media to give the
watcher or re ader enough background information to fully understand what is happening
around the world today.” (Benson, 2001:x)
As Sonia G. Benson states, there is too much background information for each story and it is
difficult to provide it all in just one article and media prefers to keep stories simple and to
offer the audience “simple and short reports”.

A brief survey I conducted (I asked the question “What do you think about newspapers and
about the stories in the newspapers?”) indicates that people do not re ad too many newspapers
lately and they think that the media and newspapers are focused on crimes and on sensational
stories. Everything is focused on the consumers. Even though people be selective, the headlines
still will attract them and finally they wil l read one or two articles. Nowadays most of the articles
are advertisements and newspapers have become one of the main sources of advertising of
persuasion.

2.2. Language of Newspapers

As Bob Franklin states (2008), newspapers are an endangered species. This type of printed
journalism is about to disappear. Most of the people prefer the virtual news or the television,
the videos. Newspapers are trying to adapt to the visual and to the vi rtual world and culture. As
time passes there are increasingly news websites, some of them being an extended platform for
the actual printed work.
In the case of virtual newspapers, the publishers have no expenses and no profit, but a lot of
advertising is included on those webpages. These websites use the same techniques a traditional
newspaper, but they have the possibility to advertise themselves and attract more attention from
the younger generation. But fortunately, there still are 'classical' readers. Even if they buy
newspapers because they like to read on a physical support, or they do not have access to the
virtual world, the fact is that the newspapers are making profits and they still exist.

The newspapers have their language meaning that the ne wspapers resort to words to transmit
the message. Words can be used to define some groups or they can be used to create meaning
and convey the journalist’s point of view. They can characterize the subjects of the story just
by associating some words with t hem. Each newspaper has its audience, whom they know very
well. The final purpose is to sell and therefore the audience must be kept. The language can be
direct or indirect depending on the story and on the people who are going to read it. The same
thing h appens with the social groups. For example, the term ‘colored’ or ‘black’ is used in
American Newspapers when speaking about homogenous groups.

What a person knows is that a newspaper aims to offer information about events happening
lately in the world. Each newspaper has a wide range of readers with many interests and who
select their articles. The readers are not interested necessarily in all the details present in that
newspaper. The majority skips articles depending on their own interests. But for an article to be
read, it needs to attract by something. And what else can create a stronger first impact than a

headline? “Headlines are a necessary part of any story – can you imagine a newspaper without
them? ” (Franklin, 2008:213). Headlines are a specific type of text. It is the beginning of each
article; short texts, most of the time written in bold and in big fonts. They have an important
place and they contain the title of the story. One of the most important part in understanding a
newspaper is the ana lysis of the headline because it represents the summary of the story. “The
headline has the capacity to encapsulate a story, and the headlines in particular edition give the
reader the overall picture of the current news” (Reah, 1999: 14). In the case of hea dlines, words
have the most important role. It depends on how they are combined and in what order and in
which combination they are put. As Bob Franklin states in his book Pulling Newspapers Apart
(2008:213) , the “the headlines will have certain ‘trigger’ or ‘key’ words to signify ‘who’ or
‘what’ the story is about” . This first piece of information sets up some high expectation for the
reader. Putting the word ‘WAR’ in a headline at a time when a war crises arise will make the
audience think that a dark fu ture is about to come and that the article will provide further
information about what is going on and if they will need to be prepared for the worse. The word
‘WAR’ itself announced the fact that the worse is coming. However, the article might be about
something else and that word can be used with a metaphorical meaning. For example, the article
can be about a contest that will take place next week.

“Therefore, the headlines will have certain ‘trigger’ or ‘key’ words to signify ‘who’ or ‘what’
the story i s about. Words such as ‘PM’, ‘No. 10’, ‘Brown’, etc. easily denote a political story.
‘Iraq’ and ‘Iran’ invariably signify a ‘bad news’ report of some sort. Though this wasn’t always
the case. Headline words tend to ‘evolve’ with the story, and at a certai n point, trigger some
sort of expectation in the reader as to what the report is about” (Franklin, 2008:213)

There are several techniques used when writing a headline; from position that creates a visual
impact to linguistic devices like intertextuality and loaded words. The editors decide to use a
selection of the information present in the article and it oscillates between direct or indirect
address to readers or to participants in the story. When speaking about the position of the
headline, there are times when the headline itself occupies more space than the written story,
meaning that it is constructed to shock, to attract the attention; in other words, to create visual
impact. Colors, fonts, and a central position on the page will make a person read at least the

headline, if not the entire article. It created interest. For example, the headline in the Appendix
e 3, resorts to large fonts all written in capitals. As it is written on the entire upper page it makes
the story shock even more. It feels like somebody is screaming “HEADLESS BODY IN
TOPLESS BAR”. The headline takes a lot of space and the colors suggest a darker type of story .
Moving from the visual impact to the linguistic one, it can be noticed that a pun is used in the
headline – the similarity between “headless” and “topless” is immediately noticed. The
information provided is not direct and its meaning is explained right below, in the sub headline.
Many articles include pictures and not any type of pictu res, but shocking ones. Journalists also
prefe r to include in the articles specific images. For example, usually in articles about war there
are present pictures of dead bodies . The same is valid for natural tragedies. Bob Franklin state
that “ tragedies ne ed bodies ” (Franklin,2008:185). The pictures will prove that something
disastrous happened and they will rise the interest simply by having the label of a shocking
event that became a shocking story.
“Every time there is a big domestic tragedy or a war, an outcry always follows about why
newspapers choose to publish photographs of dead bodies. (…) And yet tragedies need bodies.
(…) Somehow the photographs of dead bodies prove something had happened, it brings closure
to an event and helps people grieve.” (Franklin, 2008: 185)

Another example can be the articles presenting the issue of immigr ation. Here we are
encountering pictures with people fighting who are having banners in their hand s. Also, there
are angry people, but the most important thing is that the focus is usually on the facial
expressions; but only on people laughing or having fun, everything else being blurry. Also,
sometimes we can see the pictures, but the story described is different from the real one.

2.3. Analysis of Newsp apers

An analysis, as the Merriam Webster Dictionary states, is a detailed examination of anything
complex to understand its nature or to determine its essential features: a thorough study.

Linking this definition with the newspapers we can extract the d efinition for the analysis of
newspapers: a detailed examination of a newspaper to understand its nature or to determine its
essential features: a study of articles containing different details. So, when analyzing
newspapers, we are going to look at what i t is said, on how it is presented and on the effect, it
is expected to have on the readers. And most importantly, there should be carefully taken care
of the fee fact that a certain percentage each article is opinion and a small amount is facts. There
are some steps to be followed when analyzing newspapers. First a closer look at what attracts
the attention should be taken. For example, the pictures or the colors and fonts, the most visual
part of the article.
The analysis of the headline is one of the most important parts because it tells the summary and
it includes linguistic devices. The place and the space the headline occupies can shock, or have
an important role; it tells the story and it contains a selection of words and some key information
which can stand out. The direct or indirect tone also shows the writer’s style and it triggers a set
of expectations; sometimes specific linguistic devices are used. At times, headlines do not give
any important detail, having the mere function of grabbing the read ers’ attention. After reading
the story the conclusion reached is that there is nothing sensational as the headline announced.
I would consider those types of news fake news.

The other part of the analysis is that of the texts. A closer look at the struct ure is needed: Does
the article has introduction, body, and conclusion? If yes, the analysis of the introduction and
of the conclusion has an important role. It can show if the story kept up to the end to the point
of view presented at the beginning the bo dy shows the consistency of the arguments. The tone
of communication, the repetition of some words or the stressed words can be analyzed. The
persuasive words and techniques as well have a major contribution to achieving the intended
effect on the reader.

Another important part of the analysis is the context and the current issues the article focuses
on. For example, during the refugee wave in Europe has been an importa nt and widely discussed
topic. The articles include photos regarding the story. The co lors, the size and the place are

chosen according to the text next to it. A closer look at those images will help us to understand
the process of persuasion used. They can represent important arguments and can make the
readers adopt the journalist's point of view without questioning it.

The images have been studied widely recently. As we advance into the technological era many
applications and programs have made their way into the world. Modifying an image and
covering the truth is easy nowadays. Adding so me effects and changing the color tones only
can create d ramatic effects. There were cases when the entire picture was modified to create a
shocking story. Bob Franklin give s the following examples:
“There was a case in which a photographer altered a pho tograph being sent from Beirut. It
was a picture of a war scene but the sky was a bit insipid. With Photoshop, the photographer
added some more smoke to make the picture look more authentic and dangerous. (…) On a
lighter note there was a case of a monk wh o was photographed with a 17 -yearold girl. The
Sun had the photograph, except that the monk was in civvies (and it didn’t look right). The
picture editor got the biggest photographer out of the rest room and photographed him in a
hired monk’s habit. They t hen stuck the face of the real monk on the photographer’s body,
complete with habit, and published the picture. The moral of this story is that the readers of
the Sun saw a picture of the monk and a girlfriend and believed it to be true, because it looked
right! ” (Franklin, 2008:186)

By taking a closer look at the examples above we can quickly see how the photography is
clearly use d to manipulate (in the case of the monk) or to create propaganda (in the case of the
war)
At the end the following questions can be put: Was the article effective? Was it persuasive?
Will the article influence any reader?

2.4. Representation of group s

Stereotypes involve categorizing and evaluation of groups and they often insist on the negative
characteristics. The groups de scribed are usually seen as a cause of some issues faced at that
specific moment. “This imagining can have material effects on how people expect the world to
be, and then experience it, and how they in turn get understood, or legislated for, or called
names, or not given employment.” (Branston and Stafford)
“The media gives us ways of imagining particular groups, identities and situations. When these
relate to people they are sometimes called stereo types or types” (Franklin, 2008: 37). In
stereotyping the t erms used do no t describe the actual groups or the actual individuals. They are
just assumptions.

One of the major stereotyped groups are the groups of immigrants. Immigration, as McMillan
Dictionary defines, is the process in which people enter a country in order to live there
permanently. Those people are called immigrants. There are several reasons for the migration
of people. Some of them are the following: education (important, top -rated universities and
high-schools and also the variety of international scholarships attract students to enroll in
different countries’ schools ), financial background (more people prefer to work in other country
than their native one simply for the need of money; the salaries dif fer from one country to
another, so many people prefer to migrate in a country where a job is paid better than in their
own), lifestyle (many families chose to start a new life in different country because they consider
it much better in terms of living st andards), etc.
But the migration attracts racial tensions and stereotypes. Each person brings with him/her a
cultural identity, a behavior and different believes than in the new country. In other words, an
immigrant brings difference and this usually star ts conflicts.

Most of the issues dealing with immigration are visible in the USA society. John Higley and
John Nieuwenhuysen in the introduction of Nations of Immigrants (2009:9) where Australia
and USA are compared, state that even if USA is a multicultu ral society, here there are more
“racial divisions and tensions”, mainly because a big percent of the population (13 per cent) are

African – Americans, whereas in Australia ‘indigenous Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders
comprise only 2 per cent of the p opulation’ (Higley and Nieuwenhuysen , 2009:2). Africans are
subjects of the forced migration. They were brought by force in USA with the title of slaves.
There are two important periods that have contributed the immigration being undesrstood asit
is : the Civil War and 9/11 . John Higley and John Nieuwenhuysen explain why the civil war
had this impact on the US society:
‘Other than in war times, social cohesion in the US has always been fragile. The bloody
civil war between north and south showed this in sp ades. Wide and deep economic
inequalities and racial tensions, to mention but two longstanding features of American
society, have stood in the way of a social cohesion ’ (Higley and Nieuwenhuysen ,
2009:11)

The other event is 9/11. After 9/11 the visa procedures became tightened, the number of students
coming to USA decreased and the public opposition to immigrants and border controls
increased. Higley and Nieuwenhuysen , 2009:4). Also after this event many of the Muslim
people and even Arab people are being categorized as terrorists.
There might be also a third event that creates another image for th e immigrants, namely
president Trump ’s call for the Muslim immigration ban which later on became Executive Order
13769 and has huge impact on the USA population. The president claimed that he did this in
order to stop the terrorism. So the Muslim immigrants were stereotyped as being terrorists.

The press usually presents migration as an” uncomfortable truth” (www.opendemocracy.net),
as a real problem of our times. In newspapers, the immigrants are presented as a cause for lack
of jobs or bad economy , also as a cause for terrorism . Sometimes in articles there appear
fictional numbers of immigrants, refugees, or asylum seekers. The language used to describe
them is very strong and hostile, terms such as “illegal” or “criminal” being very common. Other
words that appear in such articles are “wave”, “violence” and “invading”. This imagining
convinces the masses an d the population starts to stereotype and talk about the negative effects,
even if most of the studies on this domain show that the immigrants have positive effects.

Even if lower in number , there are also newspapers articles presenting immigration as a g ood
thing. In those articles immigrants are people who can take the jobs which the natives do not
want, being sometimes better trained than the citizens of that particular country, contributing to
the country’s economy and increases cultural diversity in a favorable way.

2.5. Conclusions

Newspapers changed. The newspapers are not as they used to be (news on paper; new
information in physical form). As the technology is using resources to develop itself
increasingly with time, the traditional ways need to improve for them to be kept alive.
Nowadays a new information can be found in a very short period of time. The Internet offers
the possibility to access any detail in a few minutes. Newspapers needs to keep up with the
virtual world and they don’t have th e opportunity to offer to the readers, the new information.
What happens is that the newspapers take the new information and transforms it into a debate,
a form of argumentation trying to convince the readership about a certain point of view. We
tend to cr eate our opinion in regarding with an event, according to the news and we are more
affected by the visual part (headlines and pictures).
“Yesterday’s newspaper is a useful metaphor for some thing that has lost its value. Newspaper s
provide a series of snapshots of our life and our culture, often from a very specific viewpoint.”
(Reah, 1999: 9). If this is right then we can agree on the fact that newspapers have offered a
specific representation of human society over time. They provide historical documen tation,
showing how the society has developed and what people have been interested in, and which
have been the main issues people have considered. This because the NEWS not only
manipulates, but it also provides information most the public is interested i n.
Usually the groups are represented through stereotypes . Their image is constructed without real
proofs. One of the many affected groups are the immigrants. The image of immigrants in the
newspapers is most of the time a negative one. This rises the prob lem of racial tensions and
society conflicts. Even if different researches show the benefits of a country having i mmigrants,

the population tend s to see only the negative part: source of bad economy, source of terrorism
and society conflicts. As the newsp apers cater for their readers’ ideas , most of the articles are
based on the negative stereotyping of the immigrants. The articles presenting the benefits, the
positive stereotypes are fewer, shorter and cannot convince the audience as much.
Danuta Reah adv ises the readers to become more critical and selective in what con cerns the
newspapers articles: “In the meantime, it is important that readers of newspapers become critical
readers, who are aware of, and can identify, gaps and swings in the information they are given.”
(Reah, 1999: 11)