Sumários

Popular vs quality press: comparing and contrasting language features.

2 Novembro 2016, 08:00 Isabel Maria Ferro Mealha

Popular vs quality press: comparing and contrasting the language features and overall style of two news stories reporting on the same event - Text 7 "Pride of Britain Awards 2011 ...", Daily Mirror; Text 8 - "Pensioner prevented jewellery raid ...", The Guardian. Reading and discussion of the article "Life in the global gutter: The popular press" (The Economist). HOMEWORK: Please read Texts 18, 19, and 20 and the Guardian article sent by email and look up any unknown references in preparation for a group reading discussion on Monday 7th.


Superinjunctions and Censorship

31 Outubro 2016, 14:00 David Alan Prescott

Analysis of passages in the anthology about the use and abuse of so-called superinjunctions, the Streisand Effect and the uses and abuses of censorship, particularly in the entertainment media.


News reports vs news features continued. The 'human-interest' story.

31 Outubro 2016, 08:00 Isabel Maria Ferro Mealha

The week in review: A student's oral presentation. Working with British papers: looking for examples of both straight news reports and news features and analysing the structure of the two kinds of article including the kind of lead they display - direct lead or delayed lead.

The 'human-interest' story: "Supergran unmasked: Pensioner who saw off hammer raiders speaks out ..." (Mail online). HOMEWORK: Read Text 7 and Text 8 reporting on the same story and compare and contrast the particular language features of each article. Use the questions on page 26 of the Workbook (Popular press versus quality press) as guidelines for your analysis.


Headlinese and Journalese

26 Outubro 2016, 14:00 David Alan Prescott

Explanation of the style of headlines and the particular language of printed newspapers and the way this may interfere with development of the English language due to excessive use of the "nouns in groups" style, such as "Car Crash Hero Mum in Tax Scandal".
Explanation of close relationship between media and politics with reference to the use of non-elected spin doctors, as shown in the TV series "The Thick of It" (UK) and "Veep" USA in which the (fictional) spin doctors are more important than the politicians for whom they work.


"How journalists write". Journalism genres: news reports vs features.

26 Outubro 2016, 08:00 Isabel Maria Ferro Mealha

The week in review: A student's oral presentation. Reading and discussion of the article "How journalists write" (The Guardian). Journalism genres: news reports vs feature articles. News terminology: journalistic ledes/leads, nut graphs, direct and delayed leads. Comparing and contrasting two news stories ("Reclaim our streets: hoodies and baddies" and "Under that hoodie is a child like yours"): how choice of vocabulary can affect the slant of a newspaper article.