Introducing the Language of the News: A Student's Guide

Chapter 3

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Sourcing news

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Exercises

Exercise 1: Use of attribution in news reporting

In soft news (also called feature stories), the focus is on people, arts, entertainment, lifestyle, etc. Because soft news stories deals with less immediate, life-changing events than hard news stories, quotes and attributions may be used differently in soft news than in hard news.

The following story deals with Lunar New Year – popularly known in the United States as Chinese New Year, but also synonymous with Solnal, the Korean New Year, and Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. The article also covers how the Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese Americans will commemorate these celebrations.

Read the article below and study:

• Whether the information is presented as easily verifiable or known to the audience, or unknown to the audience and therefore needing to be attributed to a source.
• Who are the sources of the quotes? Where do the quotes appear? How long are the quotes?

Lunar New Year a multicultural celebration

Cicero A. Estrella, Chronicle Staff Writer, Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 22, 2004 (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Lunar-New-Year-a-multicultural-celebration-2828941.php#ixzz2GknRb5vs)

Now compare the above article with the one below on the same subject. How do the two differ in their use of quotes? In particular, do the sources used in this article differ from the ones used in the previous article? Do quotes used in this article have a different function from those in the previous article?

Lunar New Year celebrants get no rest after Western holidays

By Anh Do, Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2012, 4:55 p.m. (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lunar-new-year-20121231,0,2778945.story?track=lat-email-topofthetimes)

Exercise 2: Attribution in news reporting

In the article below, dealing with speculation about a possible attack in Northern Ireland, attributions are left vague or unspecified, as they were in section 3.4.2 of Chapter 3.

Study the article and examine how information is reported, which information is attributed and which not, who are the sources of attribution and whether they are anonymous or not.

Finally, look at the effect of the use of attribution on the presentation of the story (i.e., what is the level of likelihood of the event, according to the article?). ¹

Terrorist attack in the North ‘highly likely’

By Tom Brady, Security Editor, Thursday October 25 2012, http://www.independent.ie/national-news/terrorist-attack-in-the-north-highly-likely-3271979.html)

¹ This article will also be used to reflect on expressions of modality in Exercise 2, Chapter 8.

Exercise 3: Reporting verbs

In English, many verbs can be used to report information. They all have slightly different meanings. Some verbs may simply report what the writer wants to say; some others may convey a value judgement, and express the writer’s hesitation to fully believe in what he/she is reporting; other verbs may indicate that the writer is absolutely positive about what he/she’s reporting or wants to put forward an argument. We may call these different types of reporting verbs ‘neutral’, tentative’ and ‘strong’, respectively.

The three sentences below are examples of these types of verbs:

• The economy ministry says that the economy will pick up in the next year [neutral]
• The economy ministry suggests that the economy will pick up in the next year [tentative]
• The economy ministry argues that the economy will pick up in the next year [strong]

You can find a table with a list of verbs classified in terms of their function and strength at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/learning_english/leap/grammar/reportingverbs/#Q1

The story below is about the South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, an athlete famous worldwide because he competes in events for single-below-knee amputees and for able-bodied athletes, even though both his legs were amputated below the knee when he was a baby. On 14 February 2013 Pistorius was charged with the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, who was fatally shot at his home in the early morning. Pistorius claimed he shot her unintentionally, but the prosecutors claimed he might have done it intentionally.

The 10 most shocking facts of Oscar Pistorius' murder case

http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2013/02/21/oscar-pistorius-shocking-10-things/1935791/

Read the story and analyse the reporting verbs used in the article. What is the angle conveyed in the story?

Exercise 4 : Reporting verbs: constructions

The following is a list of verbs that can be used to refer to what someone else has said or written:

1. Many verbs that refer to what someone else has written are immediately followed by noun clauses (clauses beginning with that). Some of the most common are: say, argue, claim.
2. Other verbs require different grammatical structures.

• verb + infinitive with to (agree, offer, refuse): He agreed to go home
• verb + object + infinitive with to (advise, ask, forbid): He asked her to go home
• verb + gerund (admit, suggest): He suggested going home
• verb + preposition + gerund (boast of, insist on): He insisted on going home
• verb + object + preposition + gerund (congratulate someone on): He congratulated her on her prize
• verb + that + should-clause (insist, suggest) He suggested that she go home

Using a dictionary, check which constructions are used with the verbs above.

Exercise 5: Reporting a story

Look at the following conversation. Rewrite it using reporting verbs.

In a police station

A lady was travelling by car. The car was waylaid by a group of young men, who snatched her wallet and her jewellery. She reported the matter to the police. The inspector made an enquiry.

Inspector: What time was it when this happened?

Lady: I was coming home from work, it was around 7 pm.

Inspector: Who stopped the car?

Lady: It was a group of people, I don’t remember how many. ... Four? Five?

Inspector: How did they ask you to stop?

Lady: One of the guys had a gun, he was pointing it at me. I didn’t know what to do. I was afraid. I slowed down the car.

Inspector: And then what happened?

Lady: Another guy came out, he also had a gun and threatened to kill me, if I didn’t stop the car.

Inspector: So you stopped the car?

Lady: Yes, I stopped the car, and one of them put the gun to my head and told me to give him my wallet, my engagement ring and my earrings. Another one punctured my wheel tyre with a knife.Then they ran away, but I couldn’t follow them because of my flat tyre.

Inspector: Any witnesses? Did anyone see anything?

Lady: Not that I know of.

Inspector: Could you identify any of the people who attacked you?

Lady: I don’t know, it was dark ... I was so scared ... but I know that the first guy was very tall and kind of heavy; the second was much shorter and slimmer. ... A third guy was wearing a cap, and his face was not very visible…

Inspector: OK, you can go now, but you may have to come back here for further interrogations.

Lady: Thank you, Sir.