Chapter 8 – News, institutional power and the crisis of democracy
Activities and comments/projects
Download All (PDF 93KB)Activity 51
In order to illustrate in detail how different characters in the news are represented and whose voices are heard you can use transitivity analysis on the following news report about a garment factory building collapsing in Bangladesh. (Numbering of sentences is included for your convenience).
Rescuers use massive strips of cloth as escape chutes after Primark factory in Bangladesh collapses killing at least 275 people (1)
- Around 2,000 workers were in the eight-storey building when it collapsed without warning yesterday morning (2)
- Police said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning after crack was detected on Tuesday (3)
By ELEANOR HARDING (4)
PUBLISHED: 10:30, 24 April 2013 (5) | UPDATED: 07:38, 26 April 2013 (6)
At least 275 people died yesterday when a factory building which supplies clothes to Primark collapsed in Bangladesh (7).
The clothing chain offered condolences to the dead and their families (8).
Matalan also took orders from one of the factories in the building until two months ago, while campaigners said the brands Benetton and Mango also used suppliers in the block – although this was denied by the retailers yesterday (9).
Around 2,000 workers were in the eight-storey building when it collapsed without warning yesterday morning (10). The Rana Plaza in Savar, near the capital Dhaka, housed five garment factories (11).
More than half of the 1,000 injured are understood to be women, while some are children as the building also housed a crèche (12).
Today the death toll stood at 275 (13). Doctors at local hospitals said they were unable to cope with the number of victims arriving from the disaster site (14).
Police said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected on Tuesday (15).
Survivor Shaheena Akhter, 23, said: ‘Some of us did not want to work fearing something might happen, but the garment factory people told us that we had to join our work otherwise we will lose our jobs’ (16). The tragedy highlights the unsafe conditions many endure in factories making clothes for Western companies (17).
Tessel Pauli, a spokesman for the Clean Clothes Campaign, said: ‘These accidents represent a failure of these brands to make safety a priority’ (18).
A Primark spokesman said: ‘Primark has been engaged to review the Bangladeshi industry’s approach to factory standards (19).
‘Primark will push for this to also include building integrity’ (20). Two factories in the building – New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms – were making clothing for Mango of Spain and Benetton of Italy, according to campaign group Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (21). But the companies denied their clothes were being made in the building (22).
Matalan received supplies from New Wave Style up until February (23). A spokesman said last night: ‘We are deeply saddened by the news’ (24).
Read the articleFollow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook (retrieved May 19th 2014)
Questions to ask yourself:
- Whose voices are represented here as sayers? The police, survivors/workers, NGOs, retail companies, factory owners? Is there bias in whose voices are represented? How do they assign responsibility for the accident? Is there significance in excluding some voices?
- In material process clauses, who or what is represented as most and least powerful, i.e. actors, especially in transitive clauses, or affecteds? Factory owners, the factory/building, survivors/workers, retail companies, rescuers, doctors, victims? Does this representation give a fair account of responsibility for the accident?
- In mental process clauses who are the main experiencers? Are the experiencers always specified, and if not is this significant?
- What kind of information do relational clauses convey? Is there any stereotyping (ageist/sexist) of victims here?
1. We have the voices of (a) the police, (b) a surviving worker, (c) a spokesman for the Clean Clothes Campaign, (d) the campaign group Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity, (e) Mango and Benetton, (f) a spokesman for Primark, and (g) a spokesman for Matalan.
The police as sayers (a) accuse the factory owners of having ‘ignored a warning not to allow workers into the building after a crack was detected on Tuesday’ (3, 15), an accusation elaborated by the survivor (b): ‘Some of us did not want to work fearing something might happen, but the garment factory people told us that we had to join our work otherwise we will lose our jobs’ (16). This telling, as reported by the survivor, is the only instance of factory owners as sayers, and the factory owners’ voice is otherwise absent. The spokesman for the Clean Clothes Campaign (c) accuses the Western retail companies – ‘These accidents represent a failure of these brands to make safety a priority’(18) – with the campaign group Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (d) claiming Mango and Benetton were supplied by these factories (21). Unlike the factory owners, the retailers are given a voice: Mango and Benetton (e) deny that the factory supplied them (22), Primark (f) offers condolences (8), and gives assurances it will push for improved safety standards (19, 20), while Matalan expresses sadness about the accident (24).
What is the significance of the virtual absence of the voice of the persons most directly responsible, the owners/managers of the factories/buildings? Possibly they did not wish to be interviewed. But as it stands the article does not give the right of reply. In fact, the main angle that the article takes through voices (a)–(d) is the (perhaps indirect) responsibility of the Western clothing retailers. The accused companies therefore are given the opportunity to either deny involvement or to convey their condolences/sadness, or give assurances about future improvements. We might suppose that this angle reflects Galtung and Ruge’s third news value – Primark, Matalan, Benetton and Mango are familiar names in the retail culture of the reader of the UK’s Daily Mail, much more than the problems of building safety in Bangladesh. Moreover, it is commendable that the Daily Mail should take an angle that might lead to consumer activism (however hypocritically, given its support for neo-conservative globalisation and the free unregulated market).
2. When we look at the material processes, the factory owners or builders of the factory are again curiously absent. Intransitive clauses have the building collapsing (four clauses: 1, 2, 7, 10) as if of its own accord, with or without warning (there is a contradiction in the article (2, 3, 10, 15)). Transitive clauses represent the factory building, not the owners or workers, as the most powerful actor – killing at least 275 people (1), making/supplying clothes (7, 17, 21), housing a crèche (12) and five garment factories (11). In step with the angle that retailers bear responsibility, we have Matalan taking orders (9) and receiving supplies (23), and Benetton and Mango supposedly using suppliers (9). Primark undertakes to review factory standards (19), though what exactly is meant by ‘Primark has been engaged…’ is unclear. Rescuers, only transitive actors once (1), are relatively powerless, and doctors are unable to cope with the casualties (14), while the victims are either affecteds – killed (1) – or actors in intransitive clauses, dying (7) or arriving (14), or compelled to be actors ‘we had to join our work’ (16).
3. Mental processes tend to focus on the survivors or victims – ‘some of us did not want to work, fearing something might happen’ (16). Or, more generally, workers in garment factories supplying the Western consumer – ‘the unsafe conditions (experience) many (experiencer) endure in factories making clothes for Western companies’ (17) – though Matalan claims to be an experiencer: ‘We are deeply saddened by the news.’ There are several mental processes where the experiencer is unspecified:
- more than half of the 1,000 injured are understood to be women;
- factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building;
- after a crack was detected on Tuesday (15).
The last two examples are significant – we neither know to whom it appeared the owners ignored a warning, nor whether this appearance was a reality – this is a non-factive construction. Nor, of course, do we know who detected the crack, though, if the owners did in fact ignore warnings it implies that they knew about it.
4. Relational clauses concentrate on the number of casualties (2, 10). It is worth noting that they highlight that many are women and children (12), reinforcing the notion that women are often victims. Are we supposed to feel more sympathy for women and children than for men, and to feel protective towards them? Or are they as children and child-bearers more important than men to the survival of the race? Is this in itself sexist/ageist stereotyping?
*Activity 52.*
Take another newspaper and collect the headlines for the first 15 or so pages. What people in what categories get mentioned in these articles? How does this reflect the power structures of society and the world? How many are women in each category?
It would be interesting to bring your collection of headlines to class for discussion purposes.
Project 4
A possible project is to write a news blog covering an event that you think may be of interest to your fellow students, and which is likely to give an alternative view of the news.
You should ask yourself the following questions about your blog:
- How are you going to gather the news – will this be the kind of scheduled event that an editor has in his press diary or are you going to aim for the rather trickier reporting of a surprising or unpredicted event? As a citizen journalist you could yourself attend an event that would not normally be covered by traditional news outlets, or one that is normally reported from the point of view of the powerful (e.g. a protest demonstration).
- What news values are you catering for in your selection of a news story – does your choice of news event conform to the stereotypes of what gets into the news, or are you going to attempt to cover usually neglected topics?
- Whose voices are going to be represented in the news – the usual rich, powerful and important or those whose voices are hardly ever heard? Who will you interview?
- How do your transitivity choices in the clause represent power and responsibility, and do your reporting clauses interfere with the voices represented? Can you use any of the tricks employed by Singapore journalists, as reported by Shieh, against those in power?
- Does your text conform to the norms of representation of women (and other countries) that were found in the surveys in this chapter? Do you try to avoid stereotyping?
In addition, you should revise the work we did on the generic structure of news reports in Chapter 1, where you rewrote the Red Riding Hood story. In the instructions for that rewriting activity, note the hints on how to incorporate the more local features of newspaper language. As this will be an online news blog, you should consider whether you should adopt the traditional style of generic structure for news, that is deductive, point first, or whether a personal account of a news event that you might be involved in, like a protest demonstration, might more appropriately adopt a narrative style. News blogs normally have a ‘Read More’ hyperlink, and your read more section might be more like a narrative, since the readers are more assured and an inductive structure could be more appropriate. Moreover, blogs tend to be human-interest focused, and a narrative could be more suitable for such a focus.
You might also incorporate other features of online news into your news story – hyperlinks, embedded videos/slide shows, or, if you have the skills, interactive graphics.
You will also have to decide which platform you are going to use for your news blog. An e-portfolio, if your course uses one, your personal internet page/site, if you have one, Facebook, or, perhaps one of the citizen journalists portals like Ushahidi, Demotix, You Witness News, All Voices or Wikinews. Also check out Cplash, Global Voices, and Online Journalism Blog for ideas and opportunities.
This writing will be most useful if, besides the actual report, you produce notes explaining and justifying the linguistic and discourse choices you have made.
Quiz
Further Reading
Further reading for Chapter 8
The language and production of traditional news
Bell’s The Language of News Media is a unique book, since it is written by a linguist who is also a journalist, giving an insider’s view of the context of news production. This is especially interesting for anyone considering a career in journalism as it shows the internal workings of news organisations, as well as performing linguistic analyses. Elaborate notes on the book are also available at: www2.media.uoa.gr/lectures/linguistic_archives/mda0405/notes/Bell_Media_and_Language.pdf.
- Bell, A. (1991). The language of news media. Oxford: Blackwell.
Fairclough’s Media Discourse is centrally within the critical discourse tradition in a way in which Bell’s book is not, and theorises, for example, the nature of mass communication and the mixing of public and private genres. Despite the theoretical framework, the analysis of Radio and TV shows is both riveting and revealing about discourse types and social relations.
- Fairclough, N. (1995). Media discourse. London: Arnold.
Roger Fowler’s Language in the News has already been referred to several times. It is an accessible, clear and accurate work of linguistic analysis of media texts, and illustrates how ideological consensus is achieved in order to maintain the power structures of society. Another must for would-be journalists.
- Fowler, R. (2013). Language in the news: Discourse and ideology in the press. London: Routledge.
David Tewksbury and Jason Rittenberg’s News on the Internet is an invaluable book that informs much of the content of this chapter. So are Allan’s and Natalie Fenton’s publications on the same topic.
- Allan, S. (2010). The Routledge companion to news and journalism. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Fenton, N. (2010). ‘News in the Digital Age.’ in Allan, S. The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. London: Routledge.
- Tewksbury, D. and Rittenberg, J. (2012). News on the Internet: Information and Citizenship in the 21st Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- John Knox’s work on online newspapers explores the conventions of online news design. ‘Visual–verbal communication on online newspaper home pages’ gives some insights on visual, verbal and visual–verbal communication on the home pages of three English-language online newspapers from different national cultures. ‘Punctuating the home page’ presents an analysis of images, specifically ‘thumbnails’, on home pages of online newspapers and how their positioning in news stories represents specific discursive practices.
- Knox, J. (2007). Visual-verbal communication on online newspaper home pages. Visual Communication, 6(1), 19-53.
- Knox, J. S. (2009). Punctuating the home page: Image as language in an online newspaper. Discourse & Communication, 3(2), 145-172.
- Anjan Sundaram’s article highlights the ways in which the number of journalists on the ground have been reduced in the age of digital news and the consequent deterioration of journalism. It also illustrates how lack of journalists reinforces the ways in which news values operate to exclude non-elite nations.
- Sundaram, A. (2014, August 17). I watched the western media turn away from explaining the world. The Guardian. Retrieved from www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/17/congo-reporting-media-war-anjan-sundaram, 19 October 2015.
- These three articles are good examples of how North Korea is depicted in the news. The articles can also be analysed in terms of news values.
- (2015, October 11). North Korea shows off 'long range' nukes, but experts divided over authenticity of claim. The Japan Times. Retrieved from www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/11/asia-pacific/north-korea-shows-off-long-range-nukes-experts-divided-authenticity-claim/#.WBv4YS197IW, 19 October 2015.
- Pearson, J. (2015, October 10). Isolated North Korea says it’s ready for war with U.S. as it marks anniversary. Retrieved from www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/10/us-northkorea-anniversary-idUSKCN0S404520151010, 19 October 2015.
- McCafferty, G. (2015, October 10). Anniversary parade provides rare glimpse into North Korea's military might. CNN. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/09/asia/north-korea-military-might/index.html, 19 October 2015.
- Current pressures on press freedom in Hong Kong are highlighted in the following articles:
- Lau, S. and T. Chong. (2014, February 13). Commercial Radio sacks host Li Wei-ling, a fierce government critic. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1426737/commercial-radio-sacks-host-li-wei-ling-fierce-government-critic, 19 October 2015.
- Lau, S. (2014, February 13). Beijing blamed as Hong Kong's press freedom declines. South China Morning Post. Retrieved from www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1426666/beijing-blamed-hong-kongs-press-freedom-declines, 19 October 2015.
- The Hong Kong Free Press website is an example of an independent online media centre that unites critical voices on local and national affairs. According to their website, ‘HKFP arrives amid rising concerns over declining press freedom in Hong Kong and during an important time in the city’s constitutional development.’
- (n.d.). About Hong Kong Free Press. Hong Kong Free Press. Retrieved from www.hongkongfp.com/about/, 19 October 2015.
- Bruns’ article describes the paradigm shift towards user-led forms of content production, which are proving to have an increasing impact on media, economy, law, social practices, and democracy itself.
- Bruns, A. (2009). News blogs and citizen journalism: New directions for e-journalism. e-Journalism: New media and news media, 101-126.
- Downing explores the possibility of alternative media challenging neo-liberalism.
- Downing, J. D. (2002). Independent media centres: A multi-local, multi-media challenge to global neoliberalism. In Raboy, M. Global media policy in the new millennium. Luton, U.K: University of Luton Press, pp. 215-232. Available at: Google Books
- This comprehensive list of citizen journalism websites illustrates some of the efforts underway to develop new forms of inclusive, participatory journalism.
- Sourcewatch.org (2015). List of citizen journalism websites - SourceWatch. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- Various participatory alternative news sites, besides those already mentioned, use blogs or social media. Some of the popular ones include:
- Global Voices: Over 200 bloggers around the world work together to provide translations and reports that normally are not heard in traditional media.
- Media Shift: PBS and host, Mark Glaser, deliver information to the “Digital Media Revolution,” including topics on legacy media, business, social media and more.
- Online Journalism Blog: This blog offers opinion and news on topics that range from citizen journalism to online journalism and focuses on Internet-published content.
- The article below is an example of how social media is deployed for raising awareness and breaking stereotypes in society.
- IBNLive, (2015). #ILookLikeAnEngineer: Women techies start Twitter campaign to break down gender stereotypes in tech industry. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- The videos are also examples of how a certain sort of dominance can be challenged through the Internet and its resources. They challenge the dominance of social media, consumer advertising, as well as mainstream news, through humour. The novel The Man who Forgot his Wife provides a similarly humorous take on citizen journalism and social media blogs.
- YouTube,. (2015). Facebook Plus Ad (Facebook Parody). Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- YouTube,. (2015). iPhone 7 Commercial Parody [FROM WTF NEWS]. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- YouTube,. (2015). EGE News Report (BBC News Parody). Retrieved 19 October 2015.
- O’Farrell, J. (2012) The man who forgot his wife. London: Doubleday.