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First Edition 2008 © HADINA HABIL & HANITA HASSAN 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, 81310 Johor Darul Tak'zim, Malaysia. Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data New perspectives in language and communication research / penyelenggara Hadina Habil, Hanita Hassan. Includes index ISBN 978-983-52-0691-7 1. Language and languages--Research. 2. Communication--Research. I. Hadina Habil. II. Hanita Hassan, 1971-. 407.2

Pereka Kulit: MOHD. NAZIR MD. BASRI

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Fakulti Pengurusan & Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

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CONTENTS

Preface vi

Chapter 1 Persuasive Strategies of Tourism Discourse Hanita Hassan Hadina HabilZaliza Mohd. Nasir

Language in the Workplace: Insights into Shared Practices in Organisations Hadina HabilShameem Rafik-Galea

Semiotic Analysis: Compositional Meaning of Corporate Web PagesHanita HassanTheo van Leeuwen

Advice Giving in a Health Emergency: A Case Study of the SARs WebsiteNoor Aireen Ibrahim

Reaching Out: A Corporate Portrayal of Telecommunication Companies on the WebHadina Habil

1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

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39

53

75

Cover and contents.indd 4 2/18/09 7:17:50 PM

v

95The Generic Structure of ‘About Us’ Web PagesHanita HassanTheo van Leeuwen

Weblogs in ESL ClassroomsMasdinah AlauyahHadina HabilGhazali Bunari

Reporting or Constructing “facts”: Childhood Obesity in the National PressNoor Aireen Ibrahim

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Index

Chapter 6

111

125


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PREFACE

Language and communication is evolving as a result of advancement in technology. Technology has changed life – the way we do things, the way we communicate and the way we perceive life. How does the change affect society, education and business? To answer this question, research into the ways in which language and communication affects life is necessary and crucial. Thus, this book presents new perspectives in language and communication research as a contribution to address the above question.

Persuasive Strategies in Tourism Discourse (Chapter 1) presents Malaysian Tourism Board strategies in promoting Malaysia to the world. Knowing how Malaysia entices the people of the world is important in realising the function of language in tourism promotion. Chapter 2 provides an insight into shared practices in organisations. The adoption of email as a communication medium in more organisations nowadays warrants a closer look at how people use language in emails. Besides, the increasing use of website to reach out to global readers has attracted language and communication practitioners to examine websites and their functions in the corporate environment. Thus, four chapters (Chapters 3-6) discuss different ways of using websites to disseminate information, to market products and services and to portray corporate identity. Realising the importance of websites, Chapter 6 discusses the generic structure of the web pages so that the design of the website is understood by both designers and readers. In addition, technology also has changed the


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teaching and learning practices. Chapter 7 looks at the use of weblogs in ESL classrooms so that teachers and learners would benefit from the use of weblogs.

Finally, Chapter 8 presents discursive practices of news reporting as a means of educating the public about health-related issues that are important to society. We hope the chapters in this book have presented views and issues of language and communication research from a new perspective.

EditorsHadina HabilHanita HassanFaculty of Management and Human ResourceDevelopment Universiti Teknologi Malaysia2008


1Persuasive Strategies of Tourism Discourse

1PERSUASIVE STRATEGIES OF

TOURISM DISCOURSE

HANITA HASSANHADINA HABIL

ZALIZA MOHD NASIR

1 INTRODUCTION

Tourism industry in Malaysia is fast growing and it has become an important agent for economic development that brings in huge revenues for the country. As Cara Aitchison said ‘tourism is frequently cited as ‘the world’s fastest growing industry’ or ‘the world largest business’ (2001: 133). It is therefore very crucial for this industry to carefully promote the country, and this thus suggests that the tourism industry should look into highly effective advertisements as tools for promoting the country. This is to say that only through advertisements, which focuses heavily on promoting the Malaysian culture and its unique identity, the Malaysian Tourism Board (MTB) is able to attract tourists to visit Malaysia.

Similar to many other countries, which have an agency that is responsible to promote their tourism industry, Malaysian Tourism Board is the government agency that is responsible in promoting Malaysia. Besides promoting Malaysia as an international tourist destination, MTB plays a significant role in the image building of Malaysia. In addition the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia has newly set up the Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB), which functions to help boost the country’s tourism industry via re-branding Malaysia as the top destination for various activities, for example, meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE).

English Book 7 Chapter 1.indd 1 2/18/09 7:18:36 PM

2 New Perspectives in Language and Communication Research

Malaysia has so many beautiful places that have been turned into tourism spots. The tourist attractions in Malaysia are not confined in one area, but they are well distributed across the country. Interestingly, each state has its own unique identity and cultures. Due to the fact that the thirteen states in Malaysia encompass a variety of cultures, this result in cultural diversity among Malaysians and the diversity has become the most important attraction in persuading tourists around the globe to visit Malaysia.

This paper thus aims to discuss the persuasive strategies of tourism discourse employed by MTB in promoting Malaysia. In doing so, this paper highlights the language styles and choice of words which are specifically used in tourism industry of Malaysia. For example, the latest news released on the website highlighted ‘Malaysia is the best international destination 2008’, in which this news indirectly portrays the self-presentation (Goffman 1957) of Malaysia that is the best globally tourism destination. Self-presentation is one of the important advertising strategies used by big industries in promoting corporate identities and brand image (Hassan 2006)

2 DISCOURSE

Discourse, according to Stubbs (1983:1), is language above the sentence or above the clause. The study of discourse is the study of any aspect of language use, no matter whether it is speech or writing, the discourse is seen as a type of social practice (Fasold 1990; Fairclough 1992). Similarly, Wodak (2006) recently relates discourse and society and suggests that there is an existence of a cognitive level in a model of text production. This thus clearly suggests that in analysing texts it is not sufficient to analyse the words literally per se, but the hidden meanings could be interpreted via the sharing of cognitive knowledge. Considering the relationships between discourse and society, language use is part of social practice, or, in other words, the language use which is beyond the literal meaning



of sentences, causes different people to infer significantly different meanings when confronted with the same information (Wodak 2006: 183). Following this, this study thus aims to investigate how the writers of tourism advertisements ensure that the intended meaning is grasped by readers from different parts of the world, who have different values and cultures.

Goodwin and Spittle claim that ‘discourse is shaped and constrained by social structure (i.e. by class, by norms and conventions, by systems of classifications and by institutions) as well as being socially constitutive’ (2002: 229) and this means that the origin of discourse depends so much on the society. Hatch (1992) and McCarty (1991) define discourse analysis as a study of language of communication. Discourse analysts are interested in the relationship between the language used and the context: written or spoken. In other words, discourse analysis focuses on the relationship between language and the contexts of its use. To ensure that the communication is successful, the interactants, for example, the speaker or writer should share the same schemata or context with their receptors.

It is important to note that Fairclough’s (1992) model has methodological implications for the ways in which the discourse analyst examines language use. He advocates a simultaneous analysis of discursive practice (the production and consumption of texts – conceived of as either spoken or written instances of language use) as a subset of the wider set of social practices to which discursive practice is interrelated – with particular emphasis on the relations of power and ideology within specific social institutions. The intertextual nature of the discursive production of text (the ways in which it either draws upon or challenges established ways of speaking about and seeing the world) is particularly important here. This wider set of concerns is combined with a detailed and systematic examination of text. This analysis ranges from analysing the macro structure of text; through an analysis of its major themes, the cohesion of its clauses and sentences; and down to a consideration of wording, word meaning, grammar and the use of metaphor. (Goodwin and Spittle 2002: 230)



An example of ‘homogenized syntax’ is the one found in the cookery book, where Enkvist posts that ‘cookery-book writers who make good use of structures such as into a large kettle put x, y and z. this is obviously short for first take a large kettle and then put it into x, y and z…. That cookery-book writers strive for conciseness can be seen not in their profiting from iconicity but also in the frequent object deletion, and of course in the traditionally formulaic disposition (Enkvist 1991: 11).

Most importantly, readers should share the basic conventions of a certain discourse so that they are able to understand the text read, for example, in order to understand a cookery book, one needs to know the styles in which it is written, the language and specific conventions used (Enkvist 1991). This thus means that different text types employ different syntactic conventions depending on the common social practices (Faircloug 1992).

3 TOURISM PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES

A tourist guide book could in principle be written with many strategies: a chronological strategy arranging sights by age; a biographical strategy arranging the sights by the persons they have associations with, an architectural strategy grouping sights by building styles: and so forth. Here the writer wanted to take his readers on a guided tour, and his strategy might be defined as “stop-look-see”: first the tourist should know where to go and stop, and next where to look. Only then can he be told what he is in fact seeing (Enkvist 1991: 9). Following this, in this study we were interested to determine the strategy or the style adopted by Malaysian Tourism Board in promoting Malaysia.

Interestingly, this stop-look-see strategy is reflected in the syntax that is ‘through fronting of locative adverbials: the pattern is in location x is y rather than y is in location x (Enkvist 1991: 9). The information flow, according to Enkvist, can be achieved in two ways, which are passivisation and nominalisation of the locative.



The locative is used as a subject and normally marks the start of a new text unit, for example:

On top of the hill is the X Palace. To the right of the main entrance is the Museum. The first room on the left contains a collection of armour. Facing the door is the armour worn by A in the battle of Y.

(Enkvist 1991: 9).

Following this, we were very much interested in determining the discourse features of the tourism brochures produced by MTB. In other words, this study aims to analyse the language style or the linguistic pattern used by Malaysian Tourism Board.

What is a strategy? Enkvist (1991) differentiates two corollaries of a strategy. The first has to do with views of strategies within such a decision-based model. A strategy can be seen as a goal-determined weighting-and–seeing pattern of decision parameters. The actual choice of expression, of words and syntagms, and their exponents in speech and writing, can then be seen as a hierarchic sequence of tactical solutions which carry out the strategy.

The second corollary states that in the text and discourse, only the consequences of the winning, that is, preferentially weighted parameters and their settings, are directly exposed to ear and eye. The weaker, losing forces have disappeared. …, the surface appearance of a piece of discourse may give clues to the conflicts and conspiracies that must have gone into its production (Enkvist 1991: 13).

Due to the fact that personal experience often shapes and directs visitor attention (Moscardo, 1999), it is therefore very crucial for the tourism advertisement to create personal connections to visitors. Personal connections can be a means of gearing tourists to match the interpretation with their needs and interests (Blahna & Roggenbuck, 1979; Christiansen, 1994). Having realised the importance of personal connections, Moscardo (1998) suggests several ways in which the advertisements can result in personal



connection to the visitors. The ways suggested are the use of examples of everyday lives, a conversational style in advertisement, and similes to explain facts in everyday terms.

Similar to other types of advertisement, which are meant to be persuasive, the tourism adverts are also believed to have the same aim. The question is how similar are the strategies adopted by product advertisements compared to tourism adverts. This has therefore led to this study of which the aims among others include to investigate the persuasive strategies used in the tourism advertisement. Previous studies have shown a variety of strategies that has been adopted for tourism promotion. Stamous and Paraskevopoulous (2004), for instance, in their textual corpus study highlight that the notions of pleasure, impressiveness and recreational shape the tourism and environmentalist discourse. In analysing the tourism and environmentalist images, they found that ‘there is a dominance of tourism over environmentalism’ (Stamous and Paraskevopoulous 2004: 110). They argue that even though the visitors believe that Dadia forest needs conservation, the real reason for conservation lies in the promising pleasure that will definitely be very impressive and in turn be the tourism commodity as a place for recreation. This study clearly shows the ways in which tourism is represented using environmentalist discourse.

Another study that results in intriguing findings is Fiji tourism discourse by White (2007). This study reveals the strategy adopted by Fiji tourism promoters in marketing Fiji as the destination for experiencing ‘genuine friendliness of indigenous Fijians as the native’ (White 2007: 25). Interestingly, by foregrounding the Fijians as indigenous people, it indirectly promotes ‘the primitiveness within which authenticity becomes the principal commodity’ (Mowforth, Martin and Munt 2003: 74). The primitiveness and genuine friendliness therefore form the unique features or the strength of Fiji, which are believed to be able to allure Western tourists, who very much fancy otherness.

Different countries will adopt different ways in promoting their tourism industry depending on the unique feature and the



strength of the country. Shepherd (2002) refers the unique features as potential commodities of a tourism industry. Besides culture, authenticity is another important element that has an influential role in tourism discourse. Authenticity, according to Shepherd, involves authentic things and places, in which he claims that it is very crucial for authentic things to be bound up with authentic places. For example, he argues that ‘Chinese food served by Chinese people in a Chinese restaurant decorated to look Chinese’ is remarkably more authentic compared to Chinese food served by non-Chinese and in an American fast food restaurant.

4 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF TOURISM PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

There are two approaches to discourse analysis, first the focus is on the textual environment of which includes lexical, grammatical, and rhetorical features are in the text. On the other hand, the analysis can also concentrate on the extra-textual communicative situation (Biber and Conrad 2003). In this study, however, we chose to employ the first method, by which the emphasis of the discourse analysis was given on the textual environment per se. This is to say that we did not take other elements, which are not included in the text, into account.

Following this, we employed the linguistic analysis as suggested by Fairclough (1995). Linguistic analysis is ‘an extended sense to cover not only the traditional levels of analysis within linguistics (…) but also analysis of textual organisation above the sentence’ (Fairclough 1995: 184). Besides the linguistic level, we also extended our analysis to the intertextual analysis, that is, to show the ways in which ‘texts selectively draw upon orders of discourse, … which are available to text producers and interpreters in particular social circumstances’ (Fairclough 1995: 184).

The focus of this study was on the persuasive strategies in the brochures of Malaysian Tourism Board. The common strategies



used in persuading tourists to visit Malaysia will be investigated using discourse analysis method. In addition, the language varieties and styles used in different media will also be highlighted. The aims of this study among others include determining the tourism or commodities highlighted by Malaysian Tourism Board (MTB), investigating the persuasive strategies employed by MTB in promoting Malaysia and finally analysing the ways in which the discourse is used by MTB in portraying Malaysian identity and its uniqueness to the world.

4 FINDINGS

4.1 Persuasive Strategies of Tourism Discourse

A logo of a company plays a remarkable role in introducing the company and portraying the identity and the brand image of the company, or, in other words a company’s logo acts as an identification marker to the company (Hassan 2006). Interestingly, in this study we found that a specially designed logo for promoting Visit Malaysia Year 2007 was displayed in all brochures produced by MTB. The logo was extensively used in all types of materials produced by MTB, as a significant identification marker that marks the most distinctive event of the country, that is, in conjunction with the celebration of 50 years of nationhood. Figure 1 illustrates the logo of Visit Malaysia Year 2007 which has been produced as a badge distributed by MTB.



Figure 1: The official logo badge of Malaysian Tourism Boardin celebrating Visit Malaysia Year 2007

The same logo has been used as car stickers (see Figure 2), and this car sticker is used to mark two events that took place concurrently, Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and the celebration of 50 years of nationhood in Malaysia.

Figure 2: The official logo of Visit Malaysia Year 2007introduced by Malaysian Tourism Board in conjunction

with the celebration of 50 Years of Nationhood

It is apparent that the logo constitutes of the hibiscus flower. Hibiscus is declared to be a Malaysian national flower and it is widely used in Malaysian tourism advertisement as a means of portraying Malaysian identity, and simultaneously it is strongly believed to be part of brand image building. The hibiscus in represented in five different colours, this is to signify that Malaysia is full of colours. This is true since one of the strategies in promoting Malaysia by MTB is to foreground the colourful events of Malaysia. Malaysia is



remarkably a fascinating tropical country and it has therefore always been imagined to be in bright sunny with colourful flowery shirts roaming sandy beaches.

In addition, the use of various colours is to signify the multiethnic nation of Malaysia. This is to say that Malaysia is multiracial country and each race preserves their ethnic culture, language and identity. Even though Malay is the official language, English and the mother tongues of other races are widely used. On top of that, due the fact that each race has their own festival celebrations, there are therefore various colourful celebrations in Malaysia and Tourism Malaysia clearly states on its official website that ‘multiculturalism has not only made Malaysia a gastronomical paradise, it has also made Malaysia home to hundreds of colourful festivals’ (Tourism Malaysia 2008). Malaysians celebrate all types of festivals as part of racial harmony process. The different languages spoken by Malaysian and diverse cultures and celebrations add to the colours of Malaysia.

The findings of this study show that there are six elements of the tourism discourse employed by MTB and the elements are Enticement, Places of Interest, Shopping, Dining, Entertainment and Getting There; and each element will be discussed in turn.

4.1.1 Enticement

In the element the prospective tourists are enticed with words that portray excitement, fascination, perfect and refreshing. This section is placed at the very top of tourism brochures designed by MTB (see Figures 3a and 3b).



Part of the text written in the Enticement Section (Figure 3b) is shown in Extract 1

Extract 1:

Malaysia is an exciting destination, a beautiful nationblessed with a fascinating diversity of cultures and naturalwonders. Explore Taman Negara, one of its world’s oldest rainforests; feel the exhilaration of Formula One Racing;dive into the heart of the Celebes Sea and swim among turtles; tee-off at breathtaking fairways; or sail into the island paradise of Langkawi.

Apparently, the words in bold indirectly signify the values mentioned above, which are excitement, fascination, perfect and refreshing. The words exciting destination and beautiful nation can cause excitement in readers or prospective tourists. Readers are believed to be fascinated by the cultural image portrayed that is a fascinating diversity of cultures. The holidays will definitely be the perfect one since there are various activities awaiting the tourists,

Figure 3a: The front cover of Exciting Holiday brochure

Figure 3b: The next page of Exciting Holiday brochure

Enticement Section



for example, exploring the world’s oldest rainforests, the feeling of Formula One racing must be a memorable one, swimming among turtles will surely be the most unforgettable moment and sailing into the island paradise of Langkawi promises breathtaking and refreshing activities.

It is crystal clear that words are carefully selected since this has an important implication for the success of the advertisement in creating an excitement feeling. In other words, discourse has the potential in creating the high impact feeling that will in turn result into actions, in which Goodwin and Spittle posit that ‘discourse is a mode of action as well as a mode of representation… people may act upon one another, as well as the world, by utilising discourse’ (2002: 229).

4.1.1 Places of Interest

The easiest way to loose visitor attention is to bore them with repetition (Pearce 2004). It is therefore very crucial for the tourism advertisement to avoid stereotype, this is, to be able to promote an endless variety of travel packages, in so doing, tourists are offered with a variety of experiences. Having realised the importance of diversity, Tourism Malaysia purposely foregrounds the extreme contrast features of the country, for instance, ranging from towering skyscrapers to humble wooden houses built on stilts and accommodation provided ranging from five-star hotels to ancient reefs (Tourism Malaysia 2008).

Having realised the needs to promote exciting holidays, MTB has therefore listed numerous tourism activities that are believed to be able to offer diverse experiences. Being able to offer distinctive and unforgettable experiences is one of the top criteria in tourism advertisement, as mentioned earlier, personal experience shapes and directs tourist attention (Moscardo 1999).

Tourism destinations are being depicted as ‘the wonders of Asia in one exciting destinations’ (Tourism Malaysia 2008). Below are the samples of various types of destinations for prospective tourists to explore.



The diversity of tourist attractions is also depicted through images. Figure 4 is taken from the Exciting Holidays brochure, in which different activities are represented by jungle trekking, kayaking, shopping, Formula One racing and diving. This is found to be one of the persuasive strategies of tourism discourse in promoting Malaysia by portraying diverse tourist destinations and/or activities to suit people of different needs or interest.

Figure 4: Diverse tourist attractions are depicted via images



Besides depicting different types of tourist attractions or activities, MTB is also responsible to set up the brand image of the attractions. Extract 2 below is taken from Tourism Malaysian Sarawak brochure, of which Sarawak is rendered as ‘Land of the Hornbills’. This slogan is functioning as the brand image of Sarawak, for instance, many Malaysians could easily identify ‘Land of the Hornbills’ as Sarawak, even though the word Sarawak is missing.

Extract 2

Sarawak Cultural Village - An award-winning attraction, Sarawak Cultural Village showcases the diverse lifestyles of the state’s ethnic groups. Visit the authentic dwellings and view their crafts, household items and musical instruments. The lively cultural performance is a major highlight here. Sarawak Cultural Village is the venue of the annual Rainforest World Music Festival.

Remarkably, the positive adjectives are extensively used in the tourism discourse as a means of promoting tourist destinations and this technique that is exaggerating facts, is known as intensifier (Dyer 1982). It is clear that the words award-winning and Rainforest World Music Festival are used to impress readers of its global recognition. Diverse lifestyles and authentic dwellings, on the other hand, promise the recreational experience for tourists. In addition, two events, lively cultural performance and Rainforest World Music Festival, have been planned for visitors’ pleasure. Similar to tourism and environmentalist discourse (Stamous and Paraskevopoulus 2004), MTB brochures apparently display the three criteria which are impressiveness, recreational and pleasure as a means of attracting tourists of different interest.

4.1.3 Shopping

Most people find shopping as exciting and relaxing. These shoppers



regard shopping is part of holiday activities. It is thus very essential for the tourism agency to consider highlighting shopping destinations and events. Extract 3, for instance, is taken from the Tourism Kuala Lumpur brochure that introduces the shopping centres to those who love shopping so that they will not feel being left out.

Extract 3

KL is a veritable shopping paradise in the region with awide range of shopping establishments catering to everytaste and budget. A large number of upscale malls are situated in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Jalan Ampang and Bangsar. For bargain-hunters, Petaling Street is not-to-be-missed shopping spot with a wide array of products and souvenirs. If you have an eye for novelty items, visit Pasar Seni or Central Market, a bazaar-styled arts and crafts centre. Popular souvenirs include batik, pewterware and woodcarvings.

Apparently, similar to Extracts 1 and 2, the words used to describe the shopping element are carefully chosen. The phrases like veritable shopping paradise, a wide range of shopping establishments, every taste and budget, a large number of upscale malls, bargain-hunters, not-to-be-missed shopping spot, a wide array of products and souvenirs, and novelty items are strongly believed to be able to endure shoppers. Simultaneously, the phrases are to portray the wide range of shopping facilities (from local to international level) provided by the country and no doubt that these phrases play a significant role in brand building.

4.1.4 Dining

Besides getting information on where to go and where to shop via tourism brochures, prospective tourists are also equipped with information on where and what to eat. Having realised that the information on places to eat is extremely crucial, MTB therefore



includes the Dining section, in which necessary information pertaining meals is provided. Extract 4 below illustrates a variety of food available and different types of places, for example, hawker centres, restaurants, cafes and hotels mentioned in the brochures.

Extract 4

Alternatively, you can embark on a gastronomic adventureand sample local delicacies such as laksa Perlis, a seafood noodle soup with rice, spicy and creamy fish gravy, ikan bakar or spicy grilled fish and Chinese seafood steamboat. The choice of eating places in Perlis range from hawker centres and air-conditioned restaurants to cafes and hotels, where western fare if also available.

The main reason for having various types of food and dining places is that to accommodate tourists of different needs. In return this information will be part of persuasive strategies used by MTB in appealing tourists to Malaysia.

4.1.5 Entertainment

It was found that the same goes to the Entertainment section, by which different types of entertainment are displayed as a means of persuading tourists to visit Malaysia. Extract 5, for example, highlights different entertainment modes available in the country.

Extract 5

An exciting choice of entertainment including concerts, dramas, cultural performances as well as sports and recreational activities are available throughout the state.

Interestingly, there are exciting choices of entertainment made available, for example, concerts, dramas, cultural performances and recreational activities.



4.1.6 Getting There

Flights are available from Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu (Sabah), Miri (Sarawak) and Kuching (Sarawak) to Labuan. Labuan is a 20-minute boat ride from Menumbok, a small fishing town on the mainland Sabah. High-speed air-conditioned ferries travel daily from Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei.

4.2 Functions of Malaysian Tourism Brochures

The study found that there are three main functions of the brochures prepared by the Malaysian Tourism Board. The functions are:

Disseminating information on the places of interests in Malaysia

Promoting Malaysia by the following techniques:– Foregrounding the uniqueness – Portraying the alluring image – Portraying cultural identities

Attracting tourists with the use of visuals such as pictures and drawings of the places and cultural attractions of the country

Thus the aims of Malaysian Tourism Board advertisement among others include attracting tourists to Malaysia by foregrounding the uniqueness and the alluring image of Malaysia, for example, a fascinating diversity of Malaysian cultures. It is undoubtedly that in most countries tourism has been part of ‘the most powerful agent of economic drive’ (Irena Ateljevic and Stephen Doorne 2003: 123)



5 CONCLUSION

The findings of this study unfold the persuasive strategies used by the Malaysian Tourism Board in promoting Malaysia. These strategies are very useful for other small tourism industries, for example, hotels and owners of private tourism destinations. In addition, the findings highlight the language styles and choice of words which are specifically used in tourism discourse such as employing certain discourse strategies as a means of portraying self-presentation and distancing ‘Us’ from ‘Others’. Most importantly, this study provides a model or guidelines for advertisement purposes for other tourism industries in helping them attract tourists.

REFERENCES

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Blahna, D., and Roggenbuck, J.W. 1979. Planning interpretation which is ‘in tune’ with visitor expectations. Journal of Interpretation, 4(2), 16-19.

Christiansen, J. 1994. Capture your entire audience. Legacy. 5(4), 17-19.

Dyer, G. 1982. Advertising as Communication. London: Routledge.

Enkvist, Nils Erik. 1991. Discourse strategies and discourse types. In Ventola, Eija (Ed.). Functional and Systemic Linguistics: Approaches and Uses. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Fairclough, N. 1995. Media Discourse. London: ArnoldGoodwin, I. and Spittle, S., 2002. The European Union and the

Information society: Discourse, power and policy. London: Sage Publications.

Hassan, H. 2006. Generic Structures of Corporate Websites and



Web Pages. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. Cardiff University.Hatch, 1992. Discourse and Language Education. USA:

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Functions, examples and principles. Journal of Tourism Studies, 9(1), 2-13.

Moscardo, G. 1999. Making visitors mindful: Principles for creating sustainable visitor experiences through effective communication, Champaign, Illinois: Sagamore Publishing.

Mowforth, Martin and Munt, I. 2003. Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World. New York: Routledge.

Pearce P.L. 2004, The Functions and Planning of Visitor Centres in Regional Tourism. The Journal of Tourism Studies Vol. 15(1). Pp. 8-17.

Shepherd, R., 2002. Commodification, culture and tourism. Tourist Studies. Vol.2, 183-201.

Sperber, Dan and Wilson, Deirdre. 1986. RelevanceCommunication and Cognition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Stamous, A.G. and Paraskevopoulous, S. 2004. Images of nature by tourism and environmentalist discourses in visitor books: a critical discourse analysis of ecotourism. Discourse and Society. Vol. 15(1). Pp105-129.

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White, C.M. 2007. More authentic than thou: Authenticity and othering in Fiji tourism discourse. Tourist Studies. Vol. 7(25). Pp. 25-49.

Wodak, Ruth. 2006. Mediation between discourse and society: assessing cognitive approaches in CDA. Discourse Studies. New York: Sage Publications.


21Language In The Workplace: Insights Into Shared Practices In Organisations

2LANGUAGE IN THE WORKPLACE:

INSIGHTS INTO SHARED PRACTICES IN ORGANISATIONS

HADINA HABIL SHAMEEM RAFIK-GALEA

INTRODUCTION

Organisation is a place where people work together to achieve a common purpose. Language is used as a means of communication where people with different skills, expectations and likings are bonded together to meet specific communicative needs in the workplace. The different individuals within the group often have different ways of doing things and such situations would indirectly affect the way these people communicate in the pursuance of their jobs. Hence, the workplace provides a ‘common purpose’ for the different individuals within it and language is used as means of achieving this purpose.

THE STUDY

This study focused on one premier manufacturing organisation in Malaysia. This company manufactures, assembles and sells motor vehicles and related products. Email communication dominates its communications and at least half of the total communications in the company is conducted through email.

The organisation is made up of a three-level structure: the upper, middle, and lower level. The upper level is represented by the



upper management comprising the board of directors and the chief executive officer (CEO) and/or chief operating officer (COO). They are assisted by the vice presidents of divisions. The middle level is represented by the managers or head of departments/divisions while the lower level refers to the rank and file or the members of the organisation who are not part of the management. The organisation consists of a three level structure.

THE DATA

A total of 110 email messages were collected from Company A and the messages can be further divided into sixty folders in which one folder carries one subject. One email folder can represent a one-way email or a chain of emails. There are thirty-one folders that characterise the one-way email while the remaining twenty-nine folders characterise the chain of emails. The chains of emails are labelled according to the folder and numbered according to the sequence of interaction.

The emails collected represent both the internal and external communication of the organisations although there were only a few that represent external communication compared to the internal communication. Internal communication refers to the communication within the organisation while external communication refers to the communication between the organisation and its external contacts such as its clients, vendors, and suppliers. The emails also represented the upward, downward and horizontal (or lateral) flow of information within the organisations. The upward flow refers to the email sent to superiors; the downward flow refers to the email sent to subordinates; and the horizontal flow refers to the email sent to people at the same level. This is usually denoted by people having functional authority that is, senders and receivers of email are from the same level of authority but they are from different departments or different areas of expertise.



FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

1. Language style

The language style adopted in both organisations in most emails is formal. This is because of the workplace nature of the email communication. There are also instances of conversational and formal/conversational style where writers combine elements of informal/formal discourse (Rice, 1997). Gains (1999: 86) reported that his findings identified writers using “semi-formal tone of cooperative business colleagues”.

This point is also highlighted by Hadina and Rafik-Galea (2002) who maintain that in the context of workplace communication, the language style used is mostly formal although the language in some emails carried conversational tones. This is because people regard email communication as resembling spoken communication because of the interactivity nature of emails and thus, writers tend to write in the way that they speak.

As an electronic medium, email is known for its spontaneity and speed and because of that, email offers the option of greater levels of informality than any other forms of writing. Hence, abbreviations are one of the features often found in email messages. The findings of the two organisations also reported that common abbreviations are used although the tone of the message is formal. So, the convention of electronic medium is present even in the context of workplace communication. Besides abbreviations, contractions, informal spellings (thru for through, cud for could), clippings (e.g. info for information), the use of symbols for words (‘a.m.’ for morning, ‘p.m.’ for afternoon, ‘#’ for number) were also identified in the data. The presence of these features is also reported in Ferrara et.al’s (1991) article.

2. Conversation structure

The conversational structure that depicts the five steps that take



place in a conversation is adapted for analysis. This is because email communication is the closest to interpersonal communication among all the forms of internet communication (DeVito, 1999). Furthermore, writers of email indicate that they regard email as closely resembling spoken interaction than written interaction. Besides, the nature of the interactivity of email that transcend both written and spoken medium as opposed to other traditional written medium influences the writers of email to be more ‘informal’ or to use more spoken-like features in their writing.

The analysis of the conversational structure of the email messages showed that both the organisations adopt the opening-business-closing sequence the most, followed by business only, opening-business and business-closing sequence. The following table summarises the findings for the two organisations.

Table 1: Summary of the conversational structure found in email messages of Company A

1. Opening sequence

The opening sequence is characterised by mainly the use of declarative mood or the use of statements, followed by the imperative (or directive), interrogative and exclamative mood (refer table 2).

Conversational structure Company A

Opening-business-closing 34 (30.9%) Business 29 (26.4%) Opening-business 12 (10.9%) Business-closing 12 (10.9%)



Table 2: The types of mood in the opening sequence in emails of Company A

The reason for this is that the opening sequence signals the starting point of the exchanges. Thus, writers will use statements to provide an introduction, to recapture previous exchanges or provide background information on a new topic.

The imperative mood which is realised by a directive or offer is used in the opening sequence when the sender refers to a previous communication. This usually takes place in a chain consisting of two or more messages or a one-off message checking on a specific issue or subject. This is illustrated in the following AA1 chain (email #55).

We would like to seek your cooperation to release the attached Purchase requisition Number (PR). For your information, the parts ordering is for Merdeka Race car preparation and we need to replace all safety parts due to FIA standard andFIA standard and vehicle safety requirements. (AAl#55 email)

The interrogative mood in the opening sequence is adopted when the sender wants to confirm the information in the previous email. This is illustrated in 12#19 when the receiver of the previous email (J1#17/18) asks if the sender actually needs just one list. In another mail (P2#31), the sender asks if the statement discussed in the previous discussion is ready. For example,

Example (12#19 email): good morning! ...

Are you sure you need only packing list for LKT@61 shipment.

Declarative Imperative Interrogative ExclamationOpeningsequence 38 (76%) 6 (12%) 3 (6%) 3 (6%)



Anyway I don’t have it yet C02 other doc. prepared by motor pool side. At the moment I what I have is the invoice!!!!! ...

Example (P2#31) email:

Bob,Is the statement ready? I think we should list as follows: a. amtpaid b. amt with invoice but not paid By the way, do you have a copy of the Agreement with Alfa?

The exclamative mood that consists of greetings and exclamation are found in the opening sequence whereby the sender greets everybody before giving details (T1#39 email). In addition, the exclamation mood is used in (AI3#69 email) and (A W7#95 email) when the senders just write a one-line message of thank you.

Example (Tl#39) email:

Good evening everybody,

Attachment below is the approved Calendar for the year 2000

Example (AI3#69) email: Thanks, Sani-san.

Example (A W7#95) email: Thanks.

2. Business sequence

DeVito (1999) describes this sequence as the substance and the focus of a conversation. It is usually the longest part of the conversation. This is where the gist of the information is disseminated. Hence, the declarative mood is mostly used and this can be seen in 58.7% of the emails. A combination of the declarative - imperative mood could



be found in 14% of the mails. The imperative mood is used in 9.8% of the mails whereas a combination of the imperative - declarative mood is evident in 7.6% of the mails (refer table 3).

Table 3: The mood identified in the business sequence in emails of Company A

The declarative mood is used to inform procedure, to explain situation, to notify company’s activities and to justify action taken by managers, among others. As for the declarative-imperative mood, it is used in emails where the sender explains the situation and asks the receiver to carry out the tasks as in email n#17 (refer appendix 2A-l). In (ADl#60) email, the sender reports action taken and asks the receiver to follow up.

Table 4: Conversational sequence of ADI#60 email.

On the other hand, the imperative mood is used in the business

Mood Declarative Imperative Declarative-Imperative

Imperative-declarative Exclamation

Frequency 54 (58.7%) 9 (9.8%) 14 (14%) 7 (7.6%) 2 (2.2%)

Conversational sequence Email messages

Opening Thank you for the air-cond mix given this morning

Business- declarative mood

- imperative mood

However, I checked with costing/stock section (Mr. S), some costing of the air-cond models are not available (updated cost).Could you please update us the cost and forward to Mr. S to do necessary job.



sequence of the emails to request/direct the receiver to take appropriate action (Wl#45) email or to carry out an order (AC1#59) email.

Table 5: Conversational sequence of W1#45 email

3. Closing sequence

This is the last sequence in the conversation process according to DeVito (1999) and it is the opposite of the opening sequence. Thus, it usually consists of a combination of both verbal and nonverbal elements of communication. The closing sequence signals the intention to end the conversation and it also signals the end of accessibility. Thus, the closing usually show some “degree of supportiveness” (DeVito, 1999:57) in which the sender expresses pleasure in interacting. In addition, DeVito states that the closing may also summarise the interaction or sums up the conversation.

Conversational sequence Email messages

Opening ENCLOSED HEREWITH ARE THE FILESFOR YOUR ATTENTION AND ACTION.

Business- imperative mood

PLEASE CIRCULATE AMONG YOUR STAFF WITHIN YOUR DEPARTMENT/SECTION BY EMAIL OR HARD COPY.

- to request and direct action IF YOU UNABLE TO PRINT, PLEASEGET A HARD COPY FROM ME.



Table 6: The mood identified in the closing sequence in emails of Company A

The declarative mood is once again used very widely in the closing sequence followed by the imperative and a few instances of the imperative-declarative and interrogative moods are used.

The declarative mood in the closing sequence is used when the sender wants to make a promise that action will be taken, to show expectation, to express gratitude by thanking, to apologise and to emphasise points made earlier. For example, G2#13 and 12#19 emails (refer appendix 21 and 2A-2 respectively). Meanwhile, the imperative mood is used when the sender wants to give order or to issue directive. It is also used to offer assistance pertaining to the topic discussed in the mail.

Example (G2#13) emai1:

Once I have this infor I can then confirm your other details you requested, many thanks.

SUMMARY OF ANALYSIS

The opening sequence in the emails of Company A uses the declarative mood because the opening signals a stage of access and this is the sequence where the writers of email provide background information as a precursor to the business sequence. An imperative mood is usually used in the opening sequence when the writers start immediately with a directive and this takes place mostly when referring to previous

Mood Declarative Imperative Imperative-declarative Interrogative

Declarative-Imperative

Frequency 28 (54.9%) 18 (35.3%) 2 (3.92%) 1 (1.96%) 1 (1.96%)



communication.The business sequence is characterised by the use of the

declarative mood in more than half of the emails analysed. Since it is the substance of the conversation, this sequence provides explanation or details of the subject discussed in the email. The declarative-imperative mood is used when the emails do not have a closing and therefore, the business sequence marks the last sequence in the email. Thus, the writers of emails use imperative mood to get the receivers to carry out some actions.

The declarative mood is again used significantly in the closing sequence since the closing signals the end of the conversation. In email messages of Company A, the declarative mood is used when writers promise action or emphasise points made earlier. The imperative mood, on the other hand, is used when the writers are being reminded of action to be taken or when issuing directives.

SHARED PRACTICES

An alternative way of explaining shared knowledge is by identifying shared understanding of things and this can be traced in the referencing practice used in email messages. There are two types of referencing: inside the text and outside the text (McCarthy, 1991). Referring inside the text comprises looking backward and/or forward (anaphoric and/or cataphoric reference) while looking outward or outside the text is called exophoric reference. McCarthy explains that exophoric reference points to the immediate context where readers and writers are assumed to have shared understanding of the world.

Making reference to events outside the text is known as intertextuality. Johns (1997) states that intertextuality is a feature that is present in almost all texts because readers and writers of texts draw their meaning interpretation from their past experiences of all kinds. They draw the resources from texts of the same genre as well as from texts of different genres. Briggs and Baumann (1992) cited in



Johns (1997:36) note that “structure, form, function and meaning are ... seen as products of an ongoing process of producing and receiving discourse”.

In addition to intertextuality, shared knowledge is also expressed through code switching from English to BM and BM to English. Code switching from English to BM is used when the writer wants to rephrase or summarise what has been said earlier in BM to facilitate accurate/better understanding. Code switching from BM to English on the other hand, is adopted when the writer feels that the English words or phrases can capture the meaning better than if the words or phrases are written in BM. Besides, the English words used are generally understood as the correct and appropriate words to carry the intended meaning.

Values serve as guides and standards which shape any managerial practices and they act as an informal control system that informs employees of what is expected of them to effectively function in the organisation. Hence, values make employees conform to the business ideals and work to achieve the mission and vision of the organisation. Values are not often written down but employees know of their existence.

According to Asma (1996), common values that are inherent in business corporations are profits, quality and excellence and those values are embedded in corporate brochures and documents, training programmes and other public relation activities. The values are expressed through various symbols and rituals of the organisation. Rituals include writing and speaking styles that members adapt in their daily work while example of symbols include the language and vocabulary used in communication at the workplace, ways of addressing other members in the organisation and beliefs about the use and the distribution of power and privileges.

The classification schemes are drawn upon the values that accompany forces of change and they can be divided into those that are task related, people related and values that characterise globalization adapted from Asma (1996).

In expressing the sense of belonging, writers of email



use expressions that associate them with the activities within the organisation, other members in the organisation or accepting themselves as part of the organisation. For example, this is a company event; our departmental activities; we will try to complete our tasks; we propose for our meeting; we should feel proud of our work..

System orientation is a task related value and it is one of the characteristics inherent in modernization. This category is characterised by expressions such as the new junctionalities are ready to be used, we have local stocks that we wish to use up, let’s try to adopt the new process; we now have the opportunity to get ver 2.2 with additional enhancement.

The next category is the sense of authority. The use of personal pronoun ‘F and ‘we’, the use of ‘Please’ + imperative, passive constructions, performative verbs, and modal verbs portray the authoritative tone in the force of utterances. Some examples of the expressions are any excuses must obtain written approval, please come prepared, please attend the meeting to discuss the urgent issue,to name a few.

The conscious use of the expressions to get the expected outcome shows that writers from both organisations are well-aware of the strategies available to them if they need to get the desired outcome.

Quality is characterised by the following values that are present in the data: promptness, proactivity, conformity, precision, objectivity and efficiency. There are quite a number of expressions from both organisations that display/ portray the quality values such as ‘we have taken a proactive action, advance notice allows sufficient time for preparation, kindly ensure all units & documents in order prior to vessels arrival and our requirement is minimal.

Common understanding refers to a category where writers of emails made reference to a common knowledge among them. This could be a reference to a common practice, previous events or an expected action. This cross reference to another event outside the content of the text highlights the existence of intertextuality aspect of email communication. These include references to previous meetings,



telephone conversation or face to face meeting and discussion. Common practice is characterised by expressions that indicates

the day to day way of doing things by members in the organisation. For example, ‘PIs. double click file’. This expression shows that it is understood that information can be accessed in the internet by clicking the file attached in the message. At the same time, it is also understood that attaching information in email messages is acceptable and expected as it represents a faster and speedier transmission of information. A summary of the shared practices identified is presented in appendix 1.

The values discussed above are present in the organisations studied and they are manifested in the text produced by members of the organisations. Thus, text is a product of social interaction and at the same time, text is also a process. The creation of text is a social process in that the people involved in the interaction influence the form and function that the text is going to assume. For example, the role relationship assumed by both interactants will affect the choice of language, style, the mood and the choice of words, to name a few. The situation that gives rise to the interaction such as the urgency of subject matter influences the construction of messages. The discourse that takes place, that is, the interaction between text and context is regulated by a bigger, more influential force, namely culture, specifically organisational culture. The organisational culture of an organisation controls the norms and behaviours of people within it.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the study indicated that language was used creatively by the interactants and this was achieved by adopting formal and conversational language accordingly. The emails written show a combination of formal and informal discourse. Elements of shared practices can also be traced and these are present in the choice of words used that reflect the referencing practice, code switching and



values reflected in the expressions used has a few implications.The findings also have implications for the Language for

Specific Purposes (LSP) classroom depicted as follows:

Understanding organisational culture and structure is a valuable start to any LSP courses because culture and structure determines/influences communicative practices in the organisation. Thus, the communicative practices could be identified and taught in the classroom.

Understanding the conversational structure of email helps to familiarise students with the genre of the written documents in the workplace. So students are taught what they need to know about their intended discourse community.

Understanding the linguistic features of email - how certain features highlight shared practices in terms of shared understanding of how things are communicated such as referencing practice - intertextuality, anaphoric & cataphoric references; code-switching; the moods in terms of the speech acts theory - declarative, imperative, interrogative etc. - could prepare students linguistically for the workplace.

Understanding values of organisations through various symbols and rituals - ways of speaking & writing, for example ways of addressing (dear.., name only, nickname), and politeness among other things creates awareness among students about the need to be aware of the culture of the place they are going to work.

In developing courses such as ESBP (English for Specific Business Purposes), attention must be given to features which strongly indicate shared practices in organisational email communication. In addition, contrasting features of shared practices in the cross cultural context should also be

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.



highlighted

REFERENCE

Asma Abdullah. 1996. Going glocal. Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Institute of Management.

Briggs, c., and Baumann, R., 1992. Genre, intertextuality, and social power. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2: 131-172.

DeVito, 1.,1999. Essentials of Human Communication 3rd

Edition, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. -. Ferrara, K., Brunner, H., and Whittemore, G., 1991, Interactive

written discourse as an emergent register. WrittenCommunication 8(1): 8-34.

Gains, 1. 1999. Electronic Mail-A New Style of Communication or Just a New Medium: An Investigation into the Text Features of E-mail. Englishfor Specific Purposes. Vol. 18, No.1: 81-101.

Hadina, H., and Rafik-Galea, S., 2002. The Dynamics of Electronic Mail as a Communication Medium. Paper presented at the IT & Universities in Asia 2002 International Conference, 3-5 April, 2002. Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Johns, A.M. 1997. Text, Role and Context. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

McCarthy, MJ., 1991. Discourse Analysisfor Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rice, R.P. 1997. An Analysis of Stylistic Variables inElectronic Mail. Journal of Business and Technical Communication. 11/1.



Appendix 1

Shared practices

Referencing practice - inside the text & outside the text (mccarthy, 1991)

Code switching - to rephrase or summarise to facilitate better understanding of subject

Values reflected in expressions used

1. Sense of belonging

THIS IS A COMPANY EVENT; OUR DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES; WE WILL TRY TO COMPLETE OUR TASKS; WE PROPOSE FOR OUR MEETING ... ; WE SHOULD FEEL PROUD OF OUR WORK

2. System orientation

TASK RELATED VALUE - THE NEW FUNCTIONALITIES ARE READY TO BE USED; WE HA VE LOCAL STOCKS THAT WE WISH TO USE UP; LET’S TRY TO ADOPT THE NEW PROCESS;

3. Sense of authority

The use of power markers - ‘please’ + imperative; the use of personal pronouns

‘i’, ‘we’;

Passive constructions

‘any excuses must obtain written approval; please come prepared; please attend the meeting to discuss



the urgent issue’

4. Quality

Promptness, pro activity, conformity, precision, objectivity and efficiency

‘WE HAVE TAKEN A PROACTIVE ACTION; ADVANCE NOTICE ALLOWS SUFFICIENT TIME FOR PREPARATION, KINDLY ENSURE ALL UNITS & DOCUMENTS IN ORDER PRIOR TO VESSELS ARRIVAL..’


39Semiotic Analysis: Compositional Meanings of Corporate Web Pages

3SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS:

COMPOSITIONAL MEANINGS OF CORPORATE WEB PAGES

HANITA HASSANTHEO VAN LEEUWEN

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Web page layouts are fascinating because there are different kinds of elements loaded on a single page. The arrangement of the elements therefore plays an important role in the effective delivery of the intended message to Web readers. Web readers, unfortunately, rarely take notice of the layout and the arrangements of the elements on Web pages, until it is time for them to write a Web page themselves. This suggests that a Web page is usually written using common features and organisation, and is based on copying others. The aim of this paper is therefore to unfold the potential meanings of the Web page designs, which are derived from their composition.

In analyzing multimodal texts, that is, the texts that have a multiplicity of semiotic modes of which language may be one (Kress 2001), one might want to consider using semiotics. Even though multimodal texts are commonly encountered everywhere at all times, not many analysts are familiar with semiotics. Semiotics does not only focus on language per se (even though language is the dominant mode), but on other modes as well, for example, visual images and sound. Hence, semiotics fits the multimodal text analysis very well. Semiotics, as described by its founder Ferdinand de Saussure, is ‘a science that studies the life of signs within society’ (1916) and a sign



is derived from two concepts: signifier and signified. The signifier is said to have a potential meaning but not an actual meaning, while the signified is the meaning which the signifier refers to.

Peirce (1985), who is the co-founder of semiotics, classified signs into three major types: icon, index, and symbol. An icon is a sign that refers to a direct or photographic representation, in other words, the depicted object and its representation look alike. An Index, on the other hand, is a sign which had some common quality with the intended signified, for example, the Eiffel Tower is the index of Paris (Dyer 1982). In symbols, the relation between signifier and signified is arbitrary, in which the meaning, according to Peirce (1985), is derived by ‘the virtue of law’. The examples of symbols given by Dyer (1982), include a rose as a symbol for love or passion, and a pair of scales as a symbol for justice.

The recent semiotic approach, which is known as ‘visual grammar’, is introduced by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996). Following Halliday’s metafunctional theory (1994), ‘visual grammar’ is divided into three elements: Representation, Process and Composition (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; 2002). Representation which resembles ideational can either be people, places or things. Processes, on the other hand, are divided into two types: conceptual and narrative. Conceptual process, borrowing from Halliday’s notion on transitivity (1994), is the attributive process, i.e. the ‘process of being’, while the narrative proves is the material process: the ‘process of happening or doing’ (Halliday 1994; Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996). Composition, an analogy to textual metafunction, comprises three crucial criteria such as Information value, Salience and Framing. Composition, as a whole, is the means by which ‘elements are integrated into a meaningful whole’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996: 181). The discussion of this paper is however limited to the third element of semiotics, that is, composition.



3.2 COMPOSITION

Composition is one of the visual grammar resources introduced by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996) to realize textual meanings using three interrelated systems: information value, salience and framing.

3.2.1 Information Value

According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996: 183), information value is looking at ‘the specific informational values attached to the various zones’. Each ‘zone’, in other words, carries its own specific value or significant meaning. Three kinds of positions have meanings: left or right; top or bottom: centre or margin. We will discuss each position in turn.

The first position is left or right. Following Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (1985/94), Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996; 1998), in visual grammar, suggest that items on the left are presented as Given while items on the right are New. Given means something that viewers already know, and New, on the other hand, means that the item is important and not yet known, ‘to which the viewer must pay special attention’ (1996: 187). Semiotics is believed to apply the notion of linguistics to the non-linguistic interpretation (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; Berger 1998; Jewitt and Oyama 2001).

Beside Given and New, elements can also be arranged ‘along the vertical axis’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996: 193), in which the elements can be placed at the top or at the bottom. The elements at the top simple connote Ideal, and on the other hand, elements at the bottom connote Real. Kress and van Leeuwen propose that ‘for something to be Ideal means that it is presented as the idealised or generalised essence of the information’, while Real is said to present ‘more specific information … or more practical information’ (1996: 193), with which the details are added to the message.

The third, and final, position is the distinction between centre and margin. Elements in the centre are commonly considered



as salient, in which they function as ‘the nucleus of the information’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996) and keep other elements together. Elements in the margin, which are pulled together by the central elements, are usually identical or belong to the same category.

3.2.2 Salience

Salience, as defined by Kress and van Leeywen, creates ‘a hierarchy of importance among the elements, selecting some as more important, more worthy of attention than others’ (1996: 212) no matter where the placements are. There are many possible ways to highlight salience, as suggested by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996; 1998), the ways are through the use of colours (for instance, colour contrast and tonal contrast), different kinds of perspective (for instance, either in the foreground or background and an item on the right is more likely to gain attention than one on the left), different in sharpness, and size (the bigger the size the more salient it is, for instance).

What remains obscure is the degree of salience, because ‘salience is not objectively measurable’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 1998: 200). There is no definite yardstick to measure the degree of salience. It is indeed very subjective to say that one element is more salient than the other. The degree of salience however depends on the reader, in which the important elements to readers might differ from one reader to another. Measuring the value of salience is therefore intuitive work.

3.2.3 Framing

The use of framing is either to connect or disconnect elements by framelines or dividing lines, and ‘the stronger the framing of an element, the more it is presented as a separate unit of information’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 1996: 214). The weak frameline, on the other hand, is used to signal continuity from one element to another, or in other words, the elements are presented as belonging to the same entity.



Like salience, there are several methods for the realisation of framing. Some of the techniques used are strong or weak framelines, discontinuities of colour or shape and empty space between elements (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; 1998).

3.3 COMPOSITION ANALYSIS

In this study, that is, to investigate the generic structure of corporate Web pages, we started off with composition analysis. The purpose of this analysis was twofold: first, to identify the verbal and non-verbal elements found in the corporate Web pages and secondly, to determine the placements of the elements and their meanings. The data for this study were taken from a wide-ranging multinational worldwide Corporate Web pages: corporate homepages and Web pages titles ‘About Us’ or ‘Our Company’. The aim of these Web pages, in general, is to introduce the corporations to Web readers and they are functioning as self-presentation, by which the companies attempting to present themselves in a most appealing manner.

All elements, either verbal or non-verbal, found in the web pages were analysed based on three crucial elements of composition: informational value, salience and framing (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; 11998). The purpose was to determine the placements, the function(s) and the meaning(s) of the elements. Firstly, all elements found were listed and their placements were then carefully noted.

Using composition analysis, as introduced by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996), the meaning of the placement for each element was then determined, and the analysis then proceeded to identifying salient elements and ways in which the elements are made salient, for example, by the choice of colour schemes, images, typography, size and/or framing. The last step of the analysis was investigating the styles of framing and how framing is used to separate different sets of elements found in a single page.



3.4 THEMEANINGSOFCOMPOSITIONOFCORPORATE WEB PAGES

3.4.1 Information Value

The findings show that logo is always placed on the left to represent given. Readers are likely to already be familiar with the corporate logo and it is assumed that the logo does not contain any new information and it is thus placed on the left to signify Given. The logo, following Peirce (1985), is a symbolic representation of a corporation and is commonly used in advertising as a corporate identification marker (Goddard 1998). It is, in other words, a form of identity, which is a tool for consumers or readers to recognize the corporation. Thus, the logo comes first, at the top and in the left right hand corner, to indicate the Web page belongs to the corporation.

However, in some cases, the logo can also appear in the right to mean New. For instance, on the Yamaha homepage (Figure 1), there is a repeated logo on the right. Interestingly, the repeated logo on the right comes with its vision-statement ‘Creating Kando Together’ at the bottom. Presumably, the new element here is the vision that Yamaha Corporation would like to share with its readers or customers.

Figure 3.1 The Yamaha Homepage



Elements that usually (but not always) appear on the right and represent New are images and verbal texts. Besides signifying new elements, the right position also signifies the importance of the elements. The images of different types of products of musical instruments, for example, are found on the right hand side of Yamaha Web page (Figure 3.1). Even though we personally feel that the products are not new (in other words, readers could easily identify or recognize them), the products might be new versions or new model from Yamaha that readers are not familiar with and need to be introduced.

The images and verbal texts, however, can also appear on the left, to represent Given. This kind of composition apparently signifies different kinds of meaning. For instance, the Toyota Web page (Figure 3.2) has images and a verbal text on the left. The reason for the images and the verbal texts being placed on the left Given, maybe Toyota Corporation believes these two elements do not constitute any new information. The function of these elements is thus restricted to reminding readers of what Toyota is. The meaning of this composition however coincides with the meaning of its verbal text that starts off with the sentence ‘You probably already know our vehicles’.

Figure 3.2 The Toyota Web page titled ‘About Us’



It is worth noting that a remarkable feature of corporate Web pages is non-fixed placement, or to put it another way, the elements found in the Web pages and homepages are mobile. The elements can either be on the right or on the left. This is perhaps due to non-standardisation of Web page design or the flexibility practiced by Web designers.

In the second position, that is, vertical arrangement, elements at the top simply connote Ideal while elements at the bottom connote Real. An example of this kind of arrangement is Mercedes-Benz Web page (Figure 3.3). On this page, the image of Daimler Chrysler’s building is placed at the top to represent Ideal. The image of the building, which is taken from below, signifies the power that the corporation has over its readers. It could also connote that the corporation is a powerful company and thus the products are of high quality. The meaning is thus ideal and is meant to be persuasive. The verbal text, with the title ‘Mercedes-Benz-the Brand’, is placed at the bottom to signify Real. Both the verbal text and the image portray the same meaning, and simultaneously, the placements of both elements can also be construed in the same way. The text aims to inform readers about who they are and what they do that makes them powerful.

The discussion will now turn to the third position, that is, Centre and Margin. The Yamaha Web page (Figure 3.1), for example,

Figure 3.3 The Mercedes Web page titled ‘About Us’



has its logo in the centre and surrounded by the images of its products (that fall into the same category), that form a circular margin on the right of the page. This apparently signifies that the Yamaha Corporation is the nucleus, pulling its product together. The ultimate meaning to be interpreted from the visual image and its arrangement is that the products are all from Yamaha Corporation.

3.4.2 Salience

One way of making an element salient is to have the right placement, most likely in the centre, although it is not always the case. The image of a car from Toyota that is claimed to have won an award is placed in the centre of the Toyota homepage (Figure 3.4). Additionally, the size of the image is enlarged and it takes up the biggest space of all to make it profound. The main purpose is apparently to capture the reader’s attention and to signify its salience (Goddard 1998). By carefully selecting an eye catching image to be placed in the centre and to make it profound suggests that the company believes that it is important to highlight their award-winning vehicle to increase confidence in their products and eventually increase their sales.

Figure 3.4 The Toyota Homepage with an Enlarged Image in the Centre of the Web page to Signify Salience



It was found that colours play a crucial role in the Web page layout. Colours are carefully selected to portray meaning, however, as mentioned previously, the interpretation of colours is not straightforward. The meaning can be direct and apparent, however, it can also be ‘idiosyncratic, unpredictable and anarchic’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 2002: 343). A lot of factors, such as culture, must be taken into consideration when interpreting the meanings of colours. The significant colour schemes used for background, typology or frame-lines are remarkably meant for ‘identification’. The colour schemes used are commonly the trademarks of corporations, with which the same colours also being used in offline media like corporate brochures, packaging boxes, television adverts, newspapers and so forth. Figure 3.5 illustrates how the corporate colours are used for identification. Readers who are familiar with IBM Corporation would not find it difficult to identify that the Web page belongs to IBM’s site. The blue background colour, on the left column, and the mixture of different kinds of blue and black as framelines are the trademark colours of IBM. Colour schemes can therefore be used to signal ‘corporate unique indentities’ (Kress and van Leeuwen 2002: 347).

Figure 3.5 A Web page, taken from IBM Web site, with which corporate colour schemes are used for background and framelines



Besides that, distinct colours are frequently used to distinguish link buttons or to form the foreground of certain link buttons so as to mark their salience. Examples of distinctive coloured link buttons are found on the Mercedes-Benz Web page (see Figure 3.3), with which blue is the colour for the dialogue button and orange is used for the help button. The use of distinct colours for these buttons is to make them stand out and thus to signify that they are salient. Readers are thus made aware of the useful and important button links. The importance of colours might be taken lightly by readers (but absolutely not from the point of the production), ‘even though it is, undoubtedly, a very important resource of visual communication’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen 2002: 347).

Interestingly, some verbal texts are written in different colours, bold and/or underlined. These three features are used to signify the salience of the texts and/or to signify that they are links provided to other linked Web pages (Crystal 2001). For example, the Toyota Web page (Figure 3.4) and IBM Web page (Figure 3.5) above have words underlined and written in distinct colours to signify salience and/or they are the links provided. This type of typographic feature guides readers to skim for gist and eventually assists them in their navigation.

As mentioned earlier, it is not viable to measure the degree of salience however the salient element can be noted from the production point of view. The Web provider will use different methods, as discussed above, to signify salience. There is a common agreement between readers and designers that these specific features are the indications of salience, for example, in spoken language the ‘stress; used in a word is the marker for its salience. Likewise, Web readers can easily sense the existence of salient elements because these elements are made stand out via many ways, for example, the use of colours, images, movement, flashing and graphics (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1998; Crystal 2001). Our argument, however, is that the degree of salience depends on readers, it is entirely up to them to decide which is important by knowing what their needs are. This is from the reader’s point of view, but from the production point of view, the degree of



salience is definite and the Web providers aim to create an awareness of salient elements. Salience is therefore signaled by ‘user’s interest and the designer’s skill’ (Crystal 2001: 196).

3.4.3 Framing

Remarkably, strong framing is not widely used in the Web page layout. This suggests that different kinds of information given in different sections are interrelated. Weak framing, in the form of thin lines and different background colours, is commonly used to separate the different sections but not the message.

Thick framelines or string framing, if used, have three different purposes. Firstly, they serve to disconnect images from a text or other elements (Toyota and Mercedes-Benz Web pages, for instance). Besides separating the images from other elements, the second aim is to indicate that the images are the salience. The readers’ attention is therefore geared towards the salient images, which are placed in a very noticeable frame. Secondly, thick framelines are used to separate one set of links from another. Ford Motor Company homepage, for instance, has three different sets of links titles “Our Vehicles”, “Our Services” and “Our Company”. Each title is superimposed on a very thick frameline, and placed in the centre on the page. These thick framelines are used to separate the three sets of links but not to indicate that they are of different entities, in other words, even though they are separated, all three sets of link are interrelated.

3.4 CONCLUSION

Most importantly, unlike other media, Web page designs are not bound by rules. There are lots of possibilities or different ways how a web page can be designed. Flexibility and lack of rigidity in designing a Web page (for example, choice of elements and placements) result in wide variations in Web page designs. The placement of corporate



logo is one example, even though it is always at the top on the left hand side, the logo can also appear on the right. However, the logo will less likely appear at the bottom, unlike some printed adverts, in which the logo is found to be on the bottom right.

Web designers are responsible for directing readers’ attention to the salient elements. In doing so, several methods (for example, the use of distinct colour as background, thick framelines, and eye-catching images) are employed by Web designers to signal salience. Background colour and thick framelines are also part of framing methods. Framing plays an important role due to heavy loaded elements on a Web page. The framing is used to separate different sets of elements (which are usually set of links), but not to signify that the elements are of different entities.

REFERENCES

Berger, A.A. 1998. Media Analysis Techniques (2nd Edition). London: Sage.

Crystal, D. 2001. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Figure 3.6 The New Modified Version of Yamaha Global Homepage.



De Saussure, F. 1966. Course in General Linguistics. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Dyer, G. 1982. Advertising as Communication. London: Routledge.

Goddard, A. 1998. The Language of Advertising: Written Texts. London: Routledge.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1994 [1985]. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd Edition). London: Arnold.

Jewitt, C. and Oyama, R. 2001. Visual Meaning: a Social Semiotic Approach. In van Leeuwen, T. and Jewitt, C. (eds.). Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage. Pp. 134-156.

Kress, G. 2001. Sociolinguistics and Social Semiotics. In Cobley, P. (ed.). Semiotics and Linguistics. London: Routledge. Pp. 66-82.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1998. Front Pages: (The Critical) Analysis of Newspaper Layout. In Bell, A. and Garrett, P. (eds.). Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 186-219.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 2002. Colour as a Semiotic Mode: Notes for a Grammar of Colour. Visual Communication.Vol. 1(3). London: Sage. Pp. 343-368.

Peirce, C.S. 1985. Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs. In Innis, R.E. (ed.). Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pp. 4-23.


53Advice Giving In A Health Emergency: A Case Study of the SARS Webpage

4ADVICE GIVING IN A

HEALTH EMERGENCY: A CASE STUDY OF THE

SARS WEBPAGE

NOOR AIREEN IBRAHIM

1 INTRODUCTION

In the midst of the internet boom, there has been a growing interest in the use of the information communication technology (ICT) for the advancement of health. This led to IHC or ‘interactive health communication‘the interaction of an individual – consumer, patient, caregiver or professional with or through an electronic or communication technology devise to access or transmit health information, or to receive or provide guidance and support on health-related issue’.

There is no denying the continued dramatic growth of the internet for health-related purposes. The general use of e-health sites grew 176% in 1999 much faster than the growth in general internet usage (Media Matrix 2000). Given the popularity and the relative infancy of the e-health technology, it is vital to ensure that the quality, effectiveness, affordability and accessibility of the e-health sites will have a positive impact on both the individual and public as a whole. The global outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 provided an opportunity to study how e-health sites offer advice and information during a global health emergency. Thus, this study focuses on health webpages from three countries: China, Singapore and Canada which were worst hit by the disease.



Advice giving has always been a central part of various health and medical settings. There is also ample evidence from previous research to show the problematic nature of offering and managing advice. The many implications of advice giving are at the heart of this

even more problematic when dealing with a disease like SARS. This disease threatens not only the health and well being of people but also the economic and social stability of the nation. The speed in which the disease had spread as well as the rapid rise in the death tolls posed a serious threat to a possibility of a global epidemic (CSR/WHO 2003). Such serious threats to the global public health makes it even more crucial for health professionals to provide information and advice to the public in order to reassure people that something is being done and can be done to control the situation.

2.0 THE SARS OUTBREAK: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), “SARS is the

21st century” (CSR/WHO 2003:1) which has caught the attention of

occurred in the Guangdong Province of China in mid November 2002.

Health on 11 February 2003. At that time, the outbreak had affected

out of the Guangdong province by an infected doctor who had been treating patients with SARS at his hometown. The doctor travelled to Hong Kong and brought the SARS virus to the 4 star hotel he was staying at that time. Through the guests and visitors at the hotel, the SARS virus travelled to the hospital system in Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore. As the infected hotel guests and visitors travelled to other parts of the world, the SARS virus began spreading along international air travel routes. Singapore for example had to deploy



military forces to assist in contact tracing and to enforce quarantine measures.

On March 12, 2003, the World Health Organisation (WHO)

March where the level of the previous alert was increased with a rare emergency travel advisory to international travellers, health care professionals and authorities. In April 2003, WHO formally launched the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) to establish in real time the 112 existing networks to gather data, expertise and skills needed to seal off any opportunity for SARS to establish an endemic status. Countries which were seriously hit by SARS were under pressure to provide swift and necessary response to combat SARS for health as well as economic reasons. One of the many responses taken by the affected governments, ministries of health and

it to rapidly disseminate information, health warnings and advice

Pub Med lists 881 articles containing the search words “severe acute respiratory syndrome” or “SARS” while search via the search engine Google produced 358000 pages. (Eysenbach 2003).

2.0 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

SARS outbreak have demonstrated another capability of e-health in the three issues related to telehealth application as outlined by Ratzan (1994) which is the role in the prevention of a global epidemic. The internet played a pivotal role not only in providing information but in fostering the global collaboration to stamp out possibility of further spread of the disease. Thus, researchers and health professionals must study the impact and application of e-health on epidemiological issue for example detection and prevention of a disease. The SARS outbreak provides an opportunity for such study.



In line with the above, one of the aims set out by this study is to be able to contribute an understanding of the complexities of e-health. Realising the potential of the internet in disseminating widespread information with incomparable speed and currency, it is then important to seek to understand how health information and advice is designed and structured during a health emergency and widespread anxiety at a global level. Although the threat of SARS has passed, critical questions must still be asked in preparation for the possibility of another future public health emergency. Hence, this study will address the following questions:

What advice is available on SARS in the health webpages from China, Singapore and Canada?

Is there a difference between advice offered in these three webpages, and if so, what are the similarities and differences?

3.0 CONCEPTUAL ISSUES: ACHIEVING INTEGRATION

Advice and information giving in the e-health webpages like advice giving in any other setting, for example in the typical clinical /medical encounters, counselling sessions or during home visits can be problematic. People who provide advice have always been seen as the “expert” and the recipient of the advice see themselves as being under the focus of evaluation, judgement and scrutiny. The many implications carried by advice and information giving and reception are at the heart of the dilemma experienced by health professionals when faced with this issue. However, the research by Celio et al. (2000) demonstrated that the acceptance of online help,

face meeting in their comparative study of an internet and classroom delivered information regarding eating disorders. Important issues involved in face to face interaction such as issues related to eliciting client’s acknowledgement and acknowledgement tokens from client



are among the issues which may all contribute a great deal in other

Kinnell & Maynard 1996, Silverman 1997) but do not surface as issues in this study. However, issues related to advice and information giving in the context of e-health is an important area of research as consumer use of the internet for health information continues to grow with more than 70 000 websites providing health related information and advice (Cline & Haynes 2000).

There is still limited literature on qualitative web based

Previous web based research (e.g. Baehring et al. 1997, Grunwald & Busse 2003) have predominantly employed quantitative research methods where respondents for the study answer online questionnaires or email questionnaires sent to them. However, many e-health researches (e.g. Pandey et al. 2003, Rozmovits & Ziebland 2003) supplement their quantitative analysis with some form of qualitative

issues of advice and information giving and secondly is by integrating theoretical methods of discourse analysis and the communication perspective into the web based research to provide a robust analysis and clearer understanding of the data.

4 ANALYTICAL TOOLS AND CODING PROCEDURES

Trying to differentiate between advice and information giving has always posed problems to previous researchers. In order to overcome

or forwards a preferred course of action” (pg. 368). Based on this



which do not were classified as information. For example the

indicates deleted text]:

The main clinical symptoms are fever, headache,

cases (…) (China/lines5-7)

spread to other countries (Canada/lines10-11)

While the following statements were coded as advice:

Give accurate information to your doctor regarding your recent travel and contact… (Singapore/lines60-63)Balance your diet, wear proper clothes according to climate change, do exercise regularly (…) (China/lines27-28)

From this categorisation, the two different categories of users or recipients of advice emerged from the data. This observation formed the basis for categorising the advice as follows:

Advice 1: Advice for the Low Risk Group (AD1/LRG)

Advice 2: Advice for the High Risk Group (AD2/ HRG)

For ease of reference, the following types of advice will be

examples of these two different types of advice found in the data sites:



Seek immediate medical advice if you feel you have

5.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

characteristics of this type of advice lies in who is the targeted advice recipient: the low risk group or the general public. The advice given includes preventive measures that may be taken by this target group.

the and the generic form of advice.

proximal or directly related to the disease. Advice that fall under this category includes the following coded example:

Know the SARS symptoms…Monitor your temperature daily(Singapore/lines42-44)

distal advice or advice which is not directly related to the prevention or treatment of the disease. Instead the advice offered is more about improving an individual’s overall or general health. The most common advice under the generic sub-category is those which promote or advocate basic personal hygiene practices. For example:

Wash your hand after sneezing and coughingUse clean towels and paper to dry your hands



(China/lines24-25)

(Singapore/lines66, 78)

There is also advice on how to improve health and cleanliness in general, for example:

Reduce your pressure and quit smoking

in (China/lines29-30)

Drink plenty of waterExercise regularly, at least 20 minutes, 3 to 5 times every week (Singapore/lines71-74)

The following table illustrates the typology of the sub-categories of the advice directed at the low risk groups across the three data.

Table 1 Sub-categories of the AD1/LRG

From the table above, one of the most interesting features of

or advice for the low risk group is found in all three data sites, the

China Singapore Canada Total lines

0 12 2 14Generic 9 16 2 27

Total lines 9 28 4 41



quantity in terms of the number of lines and the types of subcategories

the Chinese webpage only offer the generic subcategory of the

Extending on the previous point, the generic subcategory of

some extent in the Singapore data as opposed to the Canadian data. It is also important to note that not only does the generic subcategory

Singapore data, the advice offered are also quite detailed. A clear example of this detail can be found below:

Wash Your HandsRegularly and thoroughly with soap and waterBefore and after preparing foodAfter going to the toiletBefore and after eating

After coughing or sneezing (Singapore/lines65-70)

to hand washing and how the list of advice outlines the detail of when hand washing should take place. A possible explanation to explain this may be found in the data source themselves. This may actually be an example of how cultural differences between developing and

practices such as basic personal hygiene practices for example the ‘how’ and ‘when’ of hand washing as still necessary and important health advice to be given to the public. In comparison, such advice



is taken for granted in developed countries such as Canada and webpage developers/ health professionals assume that such basic advice concerning personal hygiene is no longer required or is no longer a priority in public health promotion.

Having discussed in detail the characteristics and topology of

low risk group during the SARS outbreak. The section that follows will offer some possible explanations as to why this is the case.

SARS: a critical moment for offering the AD1/LRG advice

Perhaps the most plausible explanation as to why more generic advice

may come from the sheer fear and panic generated by the SARS outbreak. This feeling of fear and panic created by SARS fostered an overwhelming sense of apprehension and concern in people for their health and well-being. For the health professionals, this is seen as a critical moment for advice giving. Pandey et al. (2003) have already demonstrated in their study that because the internet has become an integral part of the people’s daily lives, the need to stay healthy will drive people especially women to turn to the internet to search for health information. In short, with the undivided attention and the overwhelming concern of the majority of people focused on their own health and well-being brought about by the SARS outbreak, health professionals see it as a critical moment for disseminating advice on how to improve health in general. The SARS outbreak had created a suitable and conducive period to offer health advice, whatever that advice may be.

Silverman 1997) have shown that there is a relationship between advice given at the most favourable environment with the uptake of advice. These researches have shown how the favourable environment can be “created” through the establishment of an agreed problem



Such favourable environment cannot be created in a web page and need not be created in the case of SARS. Here, the favourable environment lies in the timing of the advice giving and this “timing” is already created by the very nature of the disease. According to

crucial information on disease prevention and risk factors from the internet. Patients view such information as crucial knowledge that can help save the eventual cost of treatment. In the case of SARS, such knowledge becomes even more crucial and goes beyond

risk factors were regarded as knowledge that could save them from a life threatening and fatal disease. Hence, the poorly understood and highly dangerous nature of SARS created fear and panic in people that they welcome advice and to a certain extent any advice from the health professionals on ways to protect themselves from SARS.

Even more interesting would be to consider the reason why generic or distal advice was so commonly offered. An obvious reason

for this phenomenon.

AD1/LRG advice: a strategy to control an epidemic of fear

The prevalence of the generic advice offered and the length and detail of the advice given may be seen as the manifestation of the way health professionals carry out their responsibility in the face of a health emergency. With all eyes and focus turned on the medical and health professionals, they face mounting pressure to inject a sense of control over a health emergency which seems to be getting out of control (Brashers, 2001). This pressure increased as the panic and

fear for SARS has spread faster than the virus, causing great social unease, economic losses, and some political changes.” As the SARS epidemic grew so did the epidemic of fear. This sense of fear is also



implicated in the data sites. For example:

(Canada/line67)

improvise a strategy to control both the disease and the fear it caused.

offered is framed as a defence against SARS. People now believe that they have a sense of control over this dangerous disease by practising basic and simple cleanliness routine. The advice offered to the low risk group gave the general public a line of defence that they themselves could put up against SARS without visiting the hospital or clinic.

(a term borrowed from Brashers 2001) to the hospital which were already under considerable strain for caring for SARS patients who required special care (CSR/WHO2003). Thus, the health professionals

hands of lay people through basic and simple health practices. This helps to empower the users and is inline with the research by Reeves (2000) who investigated how HIV positive patients used the internet

“internet use promotes empowerment, augment social support and facilitate helping others” (pg.51). This can also be seen as transferring the problem of dealing with the disease from the hands’ of health professionals into the hands of the lay people. The second is to alleviate some of the strain health professionals have in dealing with the worried-wells. The third is by advocating and promoting trivial and simple advice to combat the disease, the health professionals are able to down play the whole global epidemic that is being portrayed in the media and covered by the newspaper across the globe. This is clearly illustrated in the following news headlines:

WHO fear epidemic may recur at the end of year



(Straits Times 2003)Drug companies say SARS vaccine may take at least 5 years to produce (Channel News Asia 2003)

By framing trivial and simple advice as a way to combat the SARS disease helps to trivialise and downgrade it. The health professionals seem to be reassuring the public that this is a disease, which does not require major surgery, a course of antibiotics intake or a series of scheduled injections to be prevented. Instead the widespread

be fought if only all of us would practice and exercise basic hygiene practices.

Apart from the obvious health threat, there is also mounting anxiety and concern regarding the social and economic consequences of the disease. The overview of the SARS outbreak explored in Section 2 highlights how for various reasons, the respond to SARS became a government responsibility sparked by health and economic reasons. Health-wise, the potential threat of SARS became a priority at both the national and global level. Government of countries

SARS at the national level while WHO took on the leadership at the international level. The implication that a sense of national and global

the data sites analysed by this research and will be the focus of the following discussion.

the nation’s war

which provides a unique illustration of how in the face of such a

and governments of countries that were seriously hit by SARS were making an appeal for unity through an appeal to people’s sense of



in the health webpages analysed in this research. The advice seems to advocate not only personal responsible for their own health but also to show concern and responsibility towards the health of others around them. In other words, it was an appeal to people’s social responsibility to stand together in the battle against SARS. This is also in agreement

Project, 2000) on how consumers use the internet to improve their

consumers or users seek health information for consultation with their physician and as many as 54% of the respondents seek information for others especially close family members and friends. Indeed, e-health does provide a suitable medium for fostering a sense of responsibility at the personal and social level.

This appeal to social responsibility does not stop there, whole nations were called to unite as a member of a country to wage their war against SARS. This appeal to individual and social responsibility suggests itself in all three data sites. For example, the Canadian webpage begins early on with advice giving which is anchored to health responsibility at the personal level signalled by

(…) it is important to know the symptoms and risk factors of SARS, so you can minimize your (Canada/lines2-3)

In the middle of the webpage, notice how the personal pronoun shifts simultaneously as the move from responsibility at a personal level to responsibility at the social level takes place:

Our society depends on everyone working together(…)The you and

your family others. (Canada/lines50-52)

This is also evident in the other two webpages, however, the pattern of sequence varies form one data to the other. The Singapore webpage, for example, begins with an appeal to the user’s social



all of us are socially (Singapore/lines38-39)

Then shifts to responsibility at a personal level:

your nose and mouth with tissue when you (…) (Singapore/line64)

But ends the webpage by returning to an even stronger and rather dramatic appeal to social responsibility:

(Singapore/line80)

low risk group seems to be trying to accomplish many goals through the advice given; from advocating general health improvement to an appeal to people’s personal and social responsibilities. In many ways,

their responsibility of “controlling what seems to be out of control” (Brashers, 2001:482) in the face of a health emergency through advice giving and through advocating personal and social responsibility in the face of such crisis. Having explored advice directed at the low risk group, the discussion will now shift to the second type of advice,

AD2/HRG: Accomplishing categorisation and avoiding ambiguity

to have a higher risk of being infected based on the symptoms they may have or/and recent travel to SARS infected area. The categorisation of the advice in the SARS data sites which is primarily based on the recipient’s assumed risk is indeed noteworthy. This helps



to illustrate how the internet can be used to support early detection

research carried out by Baehring et al. (1997) where users assess their risk factors using an online questionnaire. This helps to identify the risk factors of undiagnosed diabetes mellitus with high accuracy. Consequently, this led to the reduction in the number of individuals advised to undergo further check-ups or examination which helped to

which can be applied not only at the level of broad community health education but also for epidemiological studies world-wide.

In the data sites analysed in this study, the categorisation of the advice recipient or users into the high risk group is achieved through a

carries the hypothetical “if” statement or question. The hypothetical “if” statement clearly signals to the users that the following advice

indicates deleted texts]:

What should I do if I have fever and cough? (China/para 5)What shall I do ifinfected with the disease? (China/para10)If you are unwell and have no contact history (…),If you developed these symptoms and have travelled to any

(Singapore/lines43, 8)If you have recently travelled to Asia or have had close contact with someone who has SARS (…) (Canada/line61)

1992, Kinnell & Maynard 1996, Silverman 1997). Unsurprisingly,



categorisation in their talk or advice giving as clients often meet it with minimal response or overt resistance. Interestingly, categorisation

what is relevant or irrelevant to them. When users read only what is relevant to them the second aim is simultaneously achieved as the

or are the actual targets of the advice. In other words, categorisation

the advice offered reaches the target recipient.

what has been argued by Silverman (1997) about questioning in advice giving which can imply some form of categorisation through which

he argues “that you imply that the question uses categories which are relevant to the person at whom such a question is directed” (pg.

statement roughly corresponds to the hypothetical situation discussed

researches, hypothetical situation allows for some form of ambiguity

clearly categorise the clients into two separate groups which is the high risk and the low risk group. To conclude, the clear demarcation



helps to ascertain that the advice given reaches the targeted users or recipient.

AD2/HRG: Advice for More Information

disease which the WHO referred to as “disease” (CSR/WHO 2003:1), it is not surprising that the advice

health professionals in giving advice. This may also help to explain

Table 2: ADI/LRG and AD2/HRG Advice

is not advice about seeking treatment for SARS for the obvious reasons that there is no vaccine or treatment for the disease. Instead the advice offered under this category is actually an advice to obtain further information and advice from health authorities either at the clinic or the hospital. For example;

If you are unwell and … go to a polyclinic or a General Practitioner (GP)If you develop these symptoms… please seek medical attention(Singapore/lines9-12)

China Singapore Canada Total lines9 28 4 41

7 21 9 37

Total lines 16 49 13 78



Seek immediate medical advice if you feel you have the(Canada/lines59-60)

6.0 CONCLUSION

The discussions have focused mainly on advice and advice giving while many previous works on advice have often been discussed with close reference to information giving. For example, previous researches have shown how information plays an important role in the

study reveals that, in the case of SARS, there is little evidence to indicate that information has any strong direct relationship with the way advice is packaged and structured. I believe that this is unique to the SARS data sites analysed in this study. Faced with the lack

advice becomes the central issue for health professionals. What advice can be given about a disease which is so poorly understood and seems puzzling even to the health professionals themselves? Ironically, the mysterious nature of the SARS disease helps to put many observations into perspective. The non-existence of treatment or screening test helps to explain why advice to the high risk group

or information about the disease from the health authorities and

advice or advice directly related to the prevention of the disease compared to the generic advice offered in the SARS web pages.



REFERENCES

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Baehring, Thomas U., et al. “Using the World Wide Web - a New

International Journal of Medical informatics 46 (1997): 31-39.

Journal of Communication.September (2001).

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Cline, R.J.W., and K.M. Haynes. “Consumer Health Information Seeking on the Internet: The State of the Art.” HealthEducation Research 16.6 (2001): 671-92.

Eysenbach, Gunther. “Sars and Population Health Technology.” Journal of Medical Internet Research 5.2 (2003).

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care of themselves.Available: http://pewinternet.org.19/08/03.

Ratzan, Scott. “Putting Sars in Perspective: A Communication Challenge.” Journal of Health Communication 8 (2003): 297-98.

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75Reaching Out: A Corporate Potrayal of Telecommunication Companies on the Web

5REACHING OUT: A CORPORATE

PORTRAYAL OF TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES

ON THE WEB

HADINA HABIL

INTRODUCTION

The advancement of technology has changed the way people communicate and the way organisations reach out to their customers. The technological development has resulted in information travelling with lightning speed from one side of the world to another. The notion of ‘borderless world’ requires organisations to keep track of the development taking place around them and recognise the changing environment The changing environment for business requires the organisations to communicate strategically with its customers. One of the options is through the use of web sites. A website, according to Boardman (2005) is a collection of interlinked web pages that are maintained at the same website address known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A website can be regarded as a hypertext-based system for sharing and storing information.

FEATURES OF WEB PAGES

A web page will consists of a large quantities of linear text – that is text which follows the unidimensional flow of speech, as well as non-linear texts – texts which can be read in a multidimentional way (Crystal,



2001). He further explains that some pages on the Web have areas allocated to particular kinds of information and designed to attract the attention of readers through the use of colour, flashing, movement and other devices. These elements disturb process of predictable reading through the screen in a conventional way. The combination of linear and non-linear texts or images on a website provides challenge to linear viewing. Other kinds of graphic organisation of a webpage, according to Crystal (2001) include the following:

Lists – sequences of pieces of information, ordered according to some principle, which have a clear starting point and a finishing point

Matrices – arrangements of linguistic, numerical, or other information in rows and columns, designed to be scanned vertically and horizontally

Branching structures – structures used whenever two or more alternatives need to be clearly identified or when the history of a set of related alternatives needs to be displayed.

(page 197)

Another important feature of a web page is the hypertext links – the jumps that users can make if they want to move from one page to another. The links can be both internal (within a page or between pages at the same site) and/or external (between sites). The links enable users or readers of the webpage to find related information easily by following the links. This provides a dynamic interactivity between different web pages having similar information. Another feature of the Web is that it is graphically more eclectic than any domain of written language in the real world (Crystal, 2001). The combination of different semiotic modalities in a website including photographs, visual imagery, video and language is what makes it an effective and attractive medium to disseminate information or to



persuade its audience or readers.Duda et al. (2007) stated that a website can be examined from

the syntactic arrangement and distribution of its sign, the semantic format of its contents and the pragmatic embedment of a context of action. This is done by studying syntax – looking at text as an image; semantic – examining meaning and understanding it; and pragmatic – assessing meaning in use. In addition, they recommended that narrative is used in the website because narrative tells a story which deals with primary conflicts and their solutions and addresses fundamental psychological needs. This would enable one to address website audience at an emotional level that would directly appeal to them. Thus, they proposed a model of ideal language on a website illustrated below:

Figure 1: Model of ideal language on a website (S. Duda et al. 2007)

NarrativeAdd ressing of Psychological Needs

Use of Me taphors

PragmaticsConcrete Call to Action

SemanticsPrecise Description of Facts

Emotional Appeal

SyntaxScannable Appearance



Moreover, Laine (2003) examined the contribution of verbally coded information to the interactivity of webpages. He defined interactive language as the extent and type of language that encourages users to interact. Laine summarised the key characteristics of interactive language in the following diagram:

Figure 2: Characteristics of interactivity (Laine, 2003)

The diagram suggests that a sufficient amount of explicit information is assumed to increase the user’s confidence in the product and services offered in the website. This is achieved when the system is able to inform the user of the function he/she is going to perform or the target he/she is aiming to access.

Web site

The user is encouragedto interact by meansof:- Interactive elements- Visual effects- Appropriate

windowing- Functional website

architecture

Interaction

Which is reflected inthe language ofinteractive labels that:- Assigns the user an

active role- Challenges the

user to interact- Provides the user

with sufficientinformation aboutthe consequencesof the interactiveoperation

User

The user feels:EmpoweredActiveInvolvedConfident,unhesitant



THE GENERIC STRUCTURE OF CORPORATE WEBPAGES

Several studies on corporate websites have been conducted and it was found that there was a generic structure of corporate websites. Hassan and Van Leeuwen (2004) reported that corporate websites consist of obligatory and optional elements arranged in layers. Optional elements are ‘must have’ elements whereas optional elements are those not necessarily present and if they are, the optional elements will cause variations to the websites. Both obligatory and optional elements can have fixed position or they can be mobile. Boardman (2005: 63) stated that pop-ups which are one of the features in websites, are one form of “enforced hypertextual narrative”. The generic structure of corporate web pages is expandable since the elements that made up the website are flexible and dynamics.

According to Hassan and Van Leeuwen (2004), the information that can be found in corporate websites falls into the following categories: Products, Online Services, Corporation, Social Responsibilities and Global Network. The information is arranged over many pages that made up the websites.

METHODOLOGY

This is an exploratory study of corporate websites in Malaysia, focussing on three telecommunication companies in Malaysia. The study attempts to identify the purpose and audience, and how those aspects are used as communication strategies with audiences/customers. The websites are analysed for their features qualitatively using genre approach. This paper will discuss features of the front page and the corporate information in the websites.



FINDINGS

Generally, the three corporate webpages analysed consist of obligatory and optional elements arranged in layers with each layer having a fixed and/or optional element. Those elements can either have fixed or mobile placements on the page.

COMPANY A – MAXIS

Company A – Maxis, is Malaysia’s leading telecommunications company and the market leader with a total mobile phone subscriber base of more than seven million as at 31 December 2006. The front page of Company A’s website has a combination of graphic and texts. There are four different graphics and animation that changes every few seconds and the graphics and animation were updated regularly.

Figure 3: Front page of Company A (top half view)



The obligatory elements found on the front page are logo, search function, visual images, primary index, copyright, sitemap and disclaimer buttons, and subscription button. The optional elements are banner, audio-video text, and secondary index.

The company’s logo is placed at the top left corner of the page. The banner highlights festival greeting while the animated visual images change every few seconds. The texts are arranged in 5 columns with each column representing a different category with links to specific pages.

Access to corporate page can be found in the About Maxis column (refer to Figure 2). There is a link to the Corporate Profile page. The information about Maxis Corporate Profile is organised in the following way:

About Maxis ---- Corporate Profile -- Who we are - Our vision & values

Figure 4: Front page of Company A (bottom half view)



Word choice

In order to win over its readers, Maxis portrays the company as having partnership with its customers and readers. This is exemplified in the following example:

Who we are

‘with Maxis, you can be sure of services and technology that help you stay ahead in your life, whether at work, at home or at play’

We’d like to share our achievements, our partnersand our vision for the future with you

The use of inclusive language ‘we’, and ‘our’ show that the company would like to appear reliable to its customers by including them as part of the company.

When introducing its vision and values, the company portrays its aspiration: To be a regional communications leader of choice. It also used action words to describe its values: …we are driven by a set of values that serves, unifies, provides and defines…

Short description is provided for each value.

COMPANY B – DiGi

Company B - DiGi is another leading mobile telecommunications company which provides a comprehensive range of affordable, convenient and easy to use wireless services. DiGi has a partnership with Maxis to offer a cross-tracing mobile services to subscribers of both companies.



The front page of Company B’s website consists of audio visual component which plays the commercials for Company B’s product and these commercials are aired on national television. This audio visual component takes central position on the webpage. It reflects its purpose that is to get audience attention. Other components available as buttons on top of the page are What’s Hot, Prepaid, Postpaid, International Services, and Data Services. Meanwhile, the sidebars comprise buttons for further services provided by DiGi. Logo is placed at the top left corner of the page while its banner carries festival greetings. Primary index buttons can be found on top of the page at the same line as the logo for easy navigation. For other services or topics that readers would like to have access to, six

Figure 5: DiGi’s front page (top half view)



icons represented by pictures and texts are provided on the left side of the page.

The page also has ‘Quick Links’ and ‘Change Display’ buttons. ‘Hello, ;)’ greetings can be found at the bottom left corner of the front page and its presence adds an air of informality of the webpage. The Copyright, sitemap and disclaimer are placed outside the page frame.

Access to DiGi’s corporate page can be found in the Quick Links, under About DiGi category. The corporate information is organised in the following ways:

Quick Links - About DiGi -- Corporate Overview -- Introduction -- Aspiration & Key Principles -- Corporate Milestones -- Board of Directors -- Lines of Business -- Access Reference

Figure 6: DiGi’s front page (bottom half view)



Looking at the access to corporate information, readers/audience of DiGi’s website has to spend time trying out the icons or buttons available on the front page before they could find the About DiGi button which is located under Quick Links button. So access to corporate information is not immediate.

Word Choice

In trying to convince its readers/audience, DiGi uses assertions to remind their audience of what the company is about. This is exemplified in the following examples taken from its Corporate overview write up:

Corporate overview – Introduction

DiGi is a leading mobile communications company…

We have an established presence as a leader in voice and data…

To show that the company is ready to serve its customers and that their services are customer focused, DiGi claims;

At DiGi, your needs are at the centre of everythingwe do

Whoever you are, wherever you go and whatever your needs are, we’re there for you!-

Contact information is also provided at the bottom right corner of the page, next to the above paragraph.

The company portrays itself as an industry leader with the use of adjectives to indicate positive image: Be the Industry Shaper by taking leadership positions through series of innovative value



proposition, simplicity and excellent execution. In order to emphasise its achievement, DiGi lists its

achievements over the years starting from its inception in 1995 under the heading Corporate Milestones.

COMPANY C - TMNet

Company C, TMNet was established in 1995 to provide Internet and multimedia services as a subsidiary of TM, a former government-owned company. It has over the years introduced a few Internet related products and services.

Figure 7: TMNet’s front page



The front page of Company C’s website shows a smiling lady besides a ‘welcome’ message. The top right column gives announcement of the company’s maintenance service. The side bars on the left consist of buttons that represent products and services, customer services, online services, and corporate information. The main buttons in the middle of the page provides access to personal or business information.

TMNet logo is placed at the top left corner of the page. The main category links can be found at the left side buttons while the service announcement column is positioned at the right side of the page and the Need Help column is placed beneath it.

Access to corporate information can be found on the front page via a Corporate Information link button on the left column. The information is organised under the following headings:

Corporate Information -- Company profile -- Vision & mission -- Board of Directors -- The Management -- Career Opportunity-- Newsroom

Word choice

The front page of TMNet’s website is presented in such a way that readers/audience who are interested to find out more about its corporate information would be able to do that easily because a button that provide easy access to the link for Corporate Information is provided on the front page. Contact information is also provided at the bottom of the page for easy access. Under the Company Profile, TMNet portrays itself as filling in the gap in the industry. It can be seen as positioning itself in the industry as shown here: Bridging the gap between now and the future. The company also asserts its success beyond Malaysia as exemplified in this example: Today, we’ve not only become a leading ISP, but also one of SEA’s largest

In writing out its vision and mission, TMNet promises its customers:



Vision

TM Net is committed to…

TM Net will lead the way…with a commitment focused on…

Mission

We will continue to provide…

Our aim is to enrich our customers’ experience…

An interesting finding in its Corporate Information is the different way the company describes its Board of Directors and its Management team. This is illustrated in the following examples:

Board of Directors

T h e p e o p l e w h o m a k e i t a l l h a p p e n – acknowledging key people in organization

Here are the drivers who make it all happen – senseof organizational effort leader-follower; lists all the Acting CEO, GMs and CFO

The Management

Key leaders that make a difference –

Thanks to our dynamic leaders; Here are the people we are proud to call our leaders;

The company acknowledged key people in the organisation and showed a sense of organisational effort of having leader-follower. It lists all the Acting CEO, General Managers and Chief Financial



Officer. In addition, when introducing its management team, the company shows distinction between leaders and managers by careful choice of words leaders versus drivers and managers.

THE ‘PRODUCT’ COMPONENT

The Product component introduces company products to the audience. This component is usually placed on the front page or the cover page. Any information considered relevant to the audience is included in this category. All the three companies use Product and Services as one category since the services are also directly related to their products. Company A places the information about its products and services under the category Consumer which is the first category offered on the front page. The buttons for the related links are provided under 4 different headings. Company B provides links to its telecommunication services in two different locations: the sidebars and the right column links. The right column links uses ‘What’s Hot’ label to introduce audience to the 8 buttons which provide links to its telecommunication services. Company C lists its telecommunication services in 10 buttons under the Personal category. Beside this, the front page also lists its Products and Services in the side bars.

THE ‘CORPORATION’ COMPONENT

The Corporation component is one of the important components in corporate web sites. This component introduces the organisation by presenting the corporate profile, its mission and vision, research and development programmes, news as well as company’s events. The information in this component often serves as ideology that the corporation would like to propagate to its audience or customers.

Company A’s corporate information is listed under the ‘About AA’ category with buttons that have links to Corporate Profile,



Investor Relations, AA Scholarship for Excellence, AA International Ventures, Media Centre, and Careers at AA. The sidebar titled Corporate Profiles provides a link to the Vision and Values page of the website. The information here explains more about the values that are embedded by members of the organisation.

Company B’s corporate information is presented in the ‘About BB’ component under the Corporate Overview section which introduces the company, claimed as the leader in the telecommunication industry. Other information presented under Corporate Overview is linked to 5 buttons labelled Aspiration & Key Principles, Corporate Milestone, Board of Directors, Lines of Business, and Access Reference. Other components placed in the About BB page are BB Stock Info, Latest, Media Room, Corporate Social Responsibility, Investor Relations, Careers, and Contact BB.

For Company C, Corporate Information button is placed at the bottom of the front page. Under this category, 6 different links are provided to give further information on Company Profile, Vision & Mission, Board of Directors, The Management, Career Opportunities, and Newsroom. For each of the pages, the left side bar provides other links that will enable audience to get a look at the CEO’s Blog and to learn more about the Internet connection available for businesses as well as for households.

One important feature of the front page of the three websites is the company logo which is placed at the top left corner of the page. The logo serves as corporate identity which is, according to Berstein (1984), a set of distinct features in which the public can recognise and differentiate one company from the other.

THE FUNCTIONS OF CORPORATE WEB SITES

The different components identified on the front page of the three corporate websites represent different kinds of information. The



components form a hexagonal structure where the corporate homepage is in the centre and acts as a nucleus, pulling other components together (Hassan and Van Leeuwen, 2004). Thus, the homepage which is the front page of the websites is a gateway to corporate information where audience can access all types of information as needed.

One interesting feature of the generic structure of the websites is expansion. Each component on the front page can be expanded via the buttons that provide links to subcomponents and possible expansion to more subcomponents. The expansion of information can be likened to the crystal lattice structure (Hassan and Van Leewen, 2004) where the same structure is regenerated again and again and arranged into a regular pattern.

The availability of links makes the structure of the websites flexible and dynamic where the audience can continuously change directions of their reading to suit their needs. There is no one-way of accessing the information on the websites. The generic structure of the websites is also not sequential or non-linear. There is no fixed direction of reception and production of information. This makes the structure ‘open’ in nature where there is no ‘end’ to it. The nature of the dynamicity of the websites does not comply with Van Leeuwen’s description of generic structure that says that ‘generic structure is the syntagmatic structure of discourse which has beginning-middle-end’ (1993: 194).

The analysis of the websites revealed that the main purpose of corporate websites is to disseminate information to the audience consisting of customers, shareholders, public organisations, jobseekers, competitors and other users. In the process of doing that, the websites promote the organisations corporate identity as well as advertise their products and services to enhance their image in the eyes of their audiences. This is supported by Schwartz’s explanations that a website has several goals besides providing information, that are to enhance brand image, to spur sales and to attract prospective customers.



CONCLUSION

The study has found that corporate websites have their generic structure and the most important information is provided on the front page of the websites. The information provided used a combination of multimedia content and texts to attract audience. Buttons for different links are provided either as sidebars on the left or on the right of the page. These buttons provide a quick link to specific information required by audience. The components that can be found on the front page are Product and Services, Corporate Information, Customer Service and About the Company. Different strategies were adopted for different customers – young ones were tackled with the use of catchy terms and incorporation of animation. In addition, different communicative purposes were served with different ways of accessing the information. The purpose of the websites is mainly to disseminate information to the audience besides advertising the companies’ products and promoting the companies’ images and corporate identity. The use of websites to promote the organisations is crucial as the way of doing business changes to suit the changing way people communicate.

REFERENCES

Boardman, Mark, 2005. The Language of Websites. London: Taylor and Francis.

Bernstein, D., 1984. Company Image & Reality: A Critique of Corporate Communications. UK: Holt, Rinehart andWinston.

Crystal, David, 2001. Language and the Internet. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Duda, S., Schiessl, M., Wildgruber, G., Rohrer, C., and Fu, P.,2007. Linguistic analysis of websites: a new method of analysing language, the poor cousin of usability. In N.



Aykin (Ed.): Usability and Internationalization, Part II, HCII 2007. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Retrieved from http://eye-square.com/documents/LinguisticAnalysis_eyesquare.pdf on 20 December 2008

Hassan, H. and Van Leeuwen, T., 2004. Web Site Design: The Generic Structure of Corporate Web Sites. Paper presented at the Document Design Conference, The Netherland. June 2004.

Laine, P., 2003. Invited workshop on digital interaction: Explicitness and interactivity. In Proceedings of the 1st

International symposium on Information and communication technologies ISICT ’03. Retrieved from http://portal.acm.org/10.1145/970000/963683/p421-laine.pdf on 20 December 2008

Van Leeuwen, T., 1993. Genre and field in critical discourse analysis: a synopsis. Discourse and Society. Vol.4 (2). London: Sage. Pp.193-223.

APPENDIX



Company AMaxis

Company BDiGi

Company CTM

1. Banner / / No banner

2. Logo Top left Top left Top left

3. Primary index button

Same line as banner and logo

Below banner, same line as logo

Main category – products & services divided into 2 buttons. Other primary index buttons are placed at bottom half of page

4. Search / / /5. Video picture / / X6. Still picture / / /7. Main category links

Take up 2/3 of page width under 5 different categories

X (hidden under Quick Links)

Left side buttons

8. Internet & mobile products & services buttons

Right side, bottom half of page width

Left side, 1/3 of page width

Left side, top half of page width

9. Subscription button

Bottom left of page Right, top half of page

X

10. Secondary index buttons

Bottom left Bottom right X

11. Copyright , sitemap & disclaimerbuttons

Bottom left - inside frame

Bottom right – outside frame

Bottom right – no frame

Front Page Features of Telecommunication Websites in Malaysia


95The Generic Structure of ‘About Us’ Web Pages

6THE GENERIC STRUCTURE OF

‘ABOUT US’ WEB PAGES

HANITA HASSAN, PH.DTHEO VAN LEEUWEN, PROFESSOR

6.1 INTRODUCTION

The Web is now becoming a very profound media for advertising. One distinctive feature of Web advertising compared to other media (television and radio, for instance) is that the role of advertising is not limited to advertise products but simultaneously to advertise a corporation. In so doing, a linked Web page that informs readers about the corporation is allocated on the website, and this page allows the corporation to include necessary information regarding them. This special linked Web page is known as ‘About Us’ Web page, it might come with different names like ‘About the company’, ‘Learn about the company’, ‘About Toyota’ and so on, but whatever the name is, the main function is to tell readers or customers about them. This linked Web page is carefully designed with the intention to portray the alluring identity of corporations.

Realising the importance of this Web page to a corporate website, we decided to investigate the generic structure of corporate websites and to notify the function of each element of the generic elements. In this study we adopted multimodal analysis which combines both: systemic functional linguistics and semiotic analysis.



6.2 SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

This section discusses the two types of analysis done, which were compositional and image analyses. The discussion starts off with the compositional analysis and followed by image analysis.

6.2.1 Compositional Analysis

Compositional analysis was conducted at the beginning of this study and the purpose of this analysis was twofold: firstly identifying verbal and non-verbal elements that constitute the genre of corporate Web pages and secondly determining the placement of each element. Following this, the non-verbal elements identified in this study were then analysed based on three crucial criteria of multimodality: information value, salience and framing (Kress and van Leeuwen (1996).

Firstly the information value, in this stage the meanings; left or right, and, top or down. We will discuss both positions in turn. The first position if left or right. Following Kress dan van Leeuwen (1996), items on left mean Given while items on the right mean New. Logo is usually placed on the left, Given. Perhaps readers are already familiar with the corporate logo and it is thus placed on the left to signify Given because there is no new information to deliver.

In contrast, items that usually (but not at all times) appear on the right represent New are images and verbal texts. When these items appear on the right, it signifies that they contain new information and also signifying the importance of the elements. Canon ‘About Us’ Web page, for instance, has three images depicting its products on the right. This indicates that the products are new products ‘something which is not yet known to the reader’ and hence readers ‘must pay special attention’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996; 1999). However, the products (computers, a camera and photocopy machine) might not be new to readers and they are easily recognized, perhaps it could also mean the latest modified versions of technology products from Canon.



Meanwhile, the elements can also be arranged ‘along the vertical axis’ (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996: 193), that is, the elements can be placed at the top or at the bottom. The elements at the top simply connote Ideal while elements at the bottom connote Real. An example of this arrangement is Mercedes-Benz ‘About Us’ Web page (Figure 6.2). On this Web page, the image of Daimler Chrysler’s building is placed at the top to represent Ideal. The image of the building, which is taken from below, signifies the power that the corporation has over its readers. It could also connote that the corporation is a powerful company and thus the products are of high quality. The meaning is so ideal and is meant to be persuasive. On the other hand, the verbal text with the title ‘Mercedes-Benz – The Brand’ is placed at the bottom to signify Real. The text aims to inform readers who they are, what they do and eventually why they are powerful.

Figure 6.1 The Canon ‘About Us’ Web page which has a set of ‘About Us’ links on the left and its product images on the right



Once the placements and their meanings were determined, we moved on to identifying the salient features and analysing the ways in which they were made salient (for example, through the choice of colours, typography or framing). It is apparent that colour is the profound feature of salience of corporate Web pages. Colours represent corporations and resemble the ones used in other printed media. Canon, for instance, has red to represent the corporation and the same colour is used in packaging, printed or screen advertising.

Besides that, distinctive colurs are used to distinguish link buttons or to foreground certain link buttons as to mark the salience. The examples of distinctive coloured link buttons are found on Mercedes-Benz Web page, by which blue is used for the dialogue button and orange is for the help button. The use of different colours for these buttons makes them stand out and thus signify that the links are salient. Readers are made aware of the button links that are useful to them.

In addition, images embedded on Web pages are made salient via different strategic locations. As mentioned earlier, the obvious characteristics of Web page layout is that most of its elements are not fixed. The images are normally placed in the second layer, however, they can be on the right, on the left, at the top or in the centre but never at the bottom. The Toyota Web page shown in Figure 6.3, for example, has an image placed in the centre of the page and the image has been enlarged to cover half of the page. This is absolutely to portray the salience of the image and meant to capture readers’ attention.

Figure 6.2 The Mercedes-Benz Web page with the Image of its Building Placed at the Top to Signify Ideal



A strong frame line around the image specifies that the image is the salient feature of the Web page. Not only frame lines, framing the image can also be done through distinctive background colours. Yamaha ‘About Us’ Web page, for example, has a very strong frame line plus a distinctive colour around its ‘About Us’ links. This apparently indicates that the links are the salience and due to that the links are made foreground through a strong frame line and distinctive background colour.

6.2 IMAGE ANALYSIS

Embedded images were however analysed further in terms of representation, interaction and processes (Kress and Van Leeuwen 1996). The main purpose of image analysis was to determine the function(s) of images by interpreting the potential intended meanings either they are meant to be explicit or implicit.

The representation is identifying the represented participants that can either be people, places or things. Interestingly we found that the represented participants, on the Web pages, are not restricted to things which are depicted as products. People are depicted as team

Figure 6.3 The Toyota ‘About Us’ Web page with the Image in the Centre



workers and customers while corporate buildings are portrayed as premises to inform readers where they can be found.

The findings show that the images of people depicted as workers or customers have different significant interactional meanings. Two types of relationships between represented participants identified are offering and demanding. For instance, the image of a man on the Honda ‘About Us’ Web page (Figure 6.4), who is looking directly to readers, connotes that demanding. The verbal text that accompanies the image tells the

MISSING TEXT

In the process analysis, the kind of process involved between images and readers was determined, that is, either narrative or conceptual. Narrative process is the process of happening or doing whilst conceptual is the process of being which Halliday (1994) calls relational or attributive process.

Images found on the Canon Web page (Figure 6.1), for

Figure 6.4 An Image of a Man Signifies Demanding



instance, have two types of processes simultaneously. Firstly, the image of a man with a camera. The man is either looking at the camera or doing something to the camera, by which ‘is looking ‘and ‘doing’ are transactional reactions. Both are narrative processes, by which the man is the actor and the camera is the goal. On the other hand, the image can be interpreted as ‘the camera is the product of Canon’ and thus the process is a symbolic attributive. In the latter interpretation, the man does not play a role but the camera, which is in the foreground, is the salience.

Similarly, the image of the photocopy machine is in the foreground signifying that this is another product of Canon. Hence, the process is again conceptual or a symbolic attributive. But at the same time, it can also mean that the photocopy machine will do the job for you so that you can save your time for other matters. The process is now narrative, of which it informs readers that the machine can help (doing) people at work.

6.2 SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS (SFL)

Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) analysis, on the other hand, aimed to investigate the function(s) of verbal texts found on Web pages. Following Halliday (1994), the analysis was carried out using three important elements of SFL: Theme, Transitivity and Mood.

6.2.1 Theme

Theme, according to Halliday (1994: 37), is ‘the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that with which the clause is concerned’. There are three categories of Themes: (i) textual, (ii) interpersonal and (iii) topical.

The first category is textual. Textual Theme consists of continuative (for instance, oh, well, yes and now) structural (can either be a conjunctive like and, or, but, or WH-relative) and conjunctive (Adjunct) (Halliday 1994). Theme helps us to identify either the text



takes written or spoken mode.Interpersonal Theme (can either be a vocative, modal or

mood-marking), on the other hand, results in more informal texts but uncertain. The example of interpersonal Theme is given in Extract 1 which is taken from the Toyota ‘About Us’ Web page. The interpersonal Theme probably already increases the level of friendliness in the text however decreases the level of certainty.

Extract 6.1

You probably already know our vehicles.

Topical Theme (that can either be a participant, circumstance or process) notifies the focus of the text. The extensive use of first person and third person pronouns, for example, suggests that the main concern of the main texts is ‘Us’ (the corporations). When the third person pronoun is used (the Toyota team members, Daimler Chrysler, Microsoft, and Harris, for instance), it makes the texts to appear in a careful written mode. However, by having both first and third pronouns will result in more informal tone, that is, there is a balance between written and spoken modes.

Besides the three categories, Themes are divided into two types: marked and unmarked (Halliday 1985/1994). Marked Theme is when the Theme is either an adverbial group, a prepositional phrase or a complement and not the subject in a declarative clause. The use of circumstantial elements, for example, the word ‘at’ (in at IBM, at Ford Motor Company and at Daimler Chrysler), as a topical Theme is marked Theme. Circumstantial elements, that function as Marked Themes, acts like ‘Given’ information (Halliday 1985/1994) and the marked Themes make texts to be more of a written mode than spoken.

On the other hand, when ‘the Theme is conflated with Subject in declarative and with Predicator in imperative’ (Halliday 1992: 328), it is called unmarked Theme. For example, the use of first person



and third person pronouns as topical Themes will result in unmarked Themes. The unmarked Theme is found in Extract 6.2, by which the imperative, Get, is used as the predicator as well as the Theme.

Extract 6.2

Get the latest Intel News straight from the source.

6.2.2 Transitivity

In this part of analysis, we were interested in identifying the participants and processes involved. Based on Halliday’s (1992, 1994) method, there are different types of processes but only three were used in this study: Material, Relational and Mental.

Material process is the process of doing or happening, with which the doers are the corporations. This it to signify what they do. The clause in Extract 6.3 taken from the Ford Motor Company Web page, for example, emphasises the material process work and the doer we which refers to the corporation.

Extract 6.3

We work to approach every challenge with ingenuity and caring…

If the material process tells readers what corporations do, the relational process, on the other hand, informs readers what they have and eventually to signify who they are. The function of the relational process has, in Extract 6.4, is clearly to notify readers of the attributes of the corporation which eventually turn the company into a global player an automobile industry.

Extract 6.4

A real global player, Daimler Chrysler has more than 50 productions as assembly plants as well as 6,300 service and



sales support outlet cars…

Remarkably, material and relational processes are more apparent on Web pages but not a mental process. However, in some circumstances, mental processes are metaphorically used as relational processes. For example, Extract 6.5 below illustrates the ways in which the mental process are committed with we as the senser and continuous improvement, looking forward to new tomorrows as phenomenon can be interpreted as a relational attributive process.

Extract 6.5

As the fourth-largest automaker in America, we are committed to continuous improvement, looking forward to new tomorrows.

The phenomenon can alternatively be considered as ‘the vision’ of the company and acts as an attribute. Whilst the senser we is now the Carrier and the mental process are committed can be interpreted as a relational process has. In other words, the clause can mean ‘we (the corporation) have vision’.

6.2.1 Mood

Two kinds of moods were observed: firstly it was declarative that is to give statement or information and secondly was imperative with the purpose is to give command or to request (Halliday 1994). The example of declarative clause is given in Extract 6.6, with HarrisCorporation as a topical Theme and it clearly shows that the function of this clause is to inform readers about Harris Corporation.

Extract 6.6

Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) is an international communications equipment company...



Unlike declarative, imperative clause is used with the aim to command or to advise readers on what to do and requesting readers to comply with the corporation (see Extract 6.7). However, it is remarkable that the main aim is still to inform readers about the corporation.

Extract 6.7

Explore opportunities for doing business with us.

Although the predicative Explore is commanding, it is to advise readers to read up more about the company, how they can do business with the company. The declarative clause and imperative clause used on the Web page are thus having the same function, that is, to disseminate information.

6.3 THE GENERIC STRUCTURE OF ‘ABOUT US’ WEBPAGES

The findings show that there three obligatory and seven optional elements arranged either in two or three layers. Each zone has fixed obligatory and/or optional elements. However, the placements of the elements in each zone are not fixed, which means the elements can either be at the centre, on the right, or on the left.

Two remarkable features of corporate Web pages are: (1) the optional elements outnumber obligatory elements and (2) the movable elements. As a result, the generic structure of ‘About Us’ Web pages is complex and its representation is dynamic since there are many different ways of designing Web pages. In other words, the optional and the movable elements allow the generic structure of ‘About Us’ Web pages to generate a large variety of different unique designs, and yet the designs are of the same genre.

Figure 6.5 illustrates the generic structure of ‘About Us’ Web



pages. There are three zones and each zone contains different kinds of elements. The first zone consists of two obligatory elements: Logo and Primary Links. We found that there is only one obligatory element (Sub-Links) and four optional elements (Main Text, Blurb, Illustration, and Additional Links) in the second zone. Lastly, the third zone consists of two optional elements (Secondary Links and Contact Info) and no obligatory element, due to this the third layer is automatically optional. Unlike printed materials, the copyright statement, which is optional, is always placed at the bottom or end of the page.

Figure 6.5 The Generic Structure of corporate Web pages



6.3.1 Realisation of Structural Elements

The first element in Logo and it is usually placed on the top left, Given. Its main function is to indicate that the Web page belongs to a certain corporation. Besides indicating the ownership of a respected Web page, logo is also used to indicate the brand. Branding is the technique used to distinguish several products of the same kind produced by different companies (MacRury 2002).

The second obligatory element in the first layer is labeled as Primary Links. They are commonly found on the right, New and their function is similar to the table of contents of a printed material, that is, an index of the overall contents of the corporate website.

In the second layer, the function of Sub-Links and Blurb is to help readers to access the needed information quickly. The position of Sub-Links is not fixed, meaning that they can appear on the left, right or at the centre. Unlike Primary Links, the Sub-Links are an index of the contents of ‘About Us’ Web pages. On the other hand, the Blurb is a brief explanatory note that follows each Sub-Link and its function is to inform readers what they link is about. If the Sub-Links are obligatory, the Blurb is however optional.

The other three elements in the second layer (Main Text, Illustration and Additional-links) are however optional. From the Systemic Functional Linguistic analyses done, we found that the purpose of the Main Text is to disseminate information about the corporation to readers. This is clearly seen from the Theme (with which the focus is so much on the corporation itself), from the mood used (which is more declarative and imperative is used when the corporation wants readers to find out more about them) and lastly from the transitivity (which show that the text aims to tell readers what they have and who they are). It is remarkable that unmarked Theme is more favourable compared to marked Theme. The extensive use of unmarked Themes thus suggests that the texts are written with a simple language. Perhaps the target readers are the public and thus it is very crucial for the corporations to keep their text as simple as possible to ensure that it is readable and understandable to a wide



range of readers. Another reason for keeping the text short and simple is to suit the screen of reading activity.

As mentioned earlier in the image analysis section, whereby the represented participants can be people, things and places. We found that people ca be depicted as customers or team workers, things can be depicted as the company product while places can be depicted as corporate premises. These three represented participants portray who they are/or who their customers are, what they do or what they have and where they are. It is more on telling readers about the corporation than anything else, or in other words, this is ‘Us’. For instance, the image of the building is always taken from below to indicate the power that the corporation has over its customers, readers or competitors. Illustration is thus used for the self-presentation purposes, how the corporations want their identity to be portrayed.

The illustration and Main Text are related, which means both carry the same meaning but being delivered in different modes. The main function of the Main Text and illustration, besides disseminating information, is to persuade or to allure readers into buying the products through fascinating identity. That is what the communication between corporations and customers about in the first place, that is, to influence and meant to be persuasive. The portraying of positive image or identity in the corporate self-presentation will eventually give credits to its products.

Now let’s turn the discussion to the position of Illustration and Main Text. We found that there are two types of position used: right and left, and, top and down. In the first position, it is either the Illustration or Main Text is on the right or left. The element with the new information is however placed on the right, New. By contrast, the Illustration is always at the top, Real, in the second position, and followed by the Main Text at the bottom, Ideal.

Additional links are usually news or updated financial information of the corporation. They commonly appear on the right, New. These additional links are optional and these links can also appear in a different linked Web page, for example, a corporate homepage.



In the third zone, there are two optional elements which are Secondary Links and Contact Information. Secondary Links are the continuation of the Primary Links at the top. Both, Secondary Links and Primary Links are indices to the corporate website as a whole. They are thus more likely to appear on every linked Web page, not restricted to ‘About Us’ Web page only, while the corporate address and telephone number are the component of the Contact Information element. This element is to allow readers to communicate with the corporation perhaps to request further information which is not provided on the website. These two elements, Secondary Links and Contact Information, signify the end of the Web page and they act as a bottom border.

6.4 CONCLUSION

The main aim of Web advertising is not limited to selling products, but corporate identity and ideology are also part of the commodities. In other words, consumers nowadays are not only paying for the products but for the identity as well. Perhaps this is the reason for the emergence of ‘About Us’ Web pages, with which the corporation could deliver the intended message about them, besides products, to readers.

The model for ‘About Us’ Web pages was generated using Semiotic and Systemic Functional Linguistic analyses. The representation of ‘About Us’ Web page generic structure combines composition and genre. It is very dynamic due to the outnumbered optional elements and the movable features. In other words, there are many possibilities in designing the Web pages and no matter whatever the design is, it still belongs to the same genre.

The most important elements of the generic structure of ‘About Us’ Web pages are Main Text, Illustration and Sub-Links. Readers are able to guess the kind of information, about the corporation, that is made available by scanning the Sub-Links. The Illustration,



juxtaposed with the Main Text, portray the alluring identity of the corporation with the ultimate aim is to persuade readers to buy their products.

REFERENCE

Halliday, M.A.K. 1992. Some Lexicogrammatical Features of the Zero Population Growth Text. In Mann, W.C. and Thompson, S.A. (eds.). Discourse Description: Diverse Linguistic Analyses of a Fund-Raising Text. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Pp. 327-358.

Halliday, M.A.K. 1994 [1985]. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd Edition). London: Arnold.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.

Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. 1999. Representation and Interaction:Designing the Position of the Viewer. In Jaworski, A. and Coupland, N. (eds.). The Discourse Reader. Pp. 377-404

MacRury, I. 2002. Advertising and the New Media Environment. InBriggs, A. and Cobley, P. (eds.). The Media: An Introduction (2nd Edition). London: Longman. Pp. 39-56


111Weblogs in ESL Classrooms

7WEBLOGS IN ESL CLASSROOMS

MASDINAH ALAUYAH MD YUSOF HADINA HABIL

GHAZALI BUNARI

1 INTRODUCTION

‘It is difficult to write’ – a remark we often hear from students, both undergraduates and post-graduates. Many of them sighed as they urged their language lecturers to help them write. Lecturers, too, after giving a numerous inputs on writing skills, would sometime groan and feel annoyed with this same request from students. Why can’t the students write? They have learnt the skill ever since they were in primary school. What else can be done to help them improve their writing? We are aware that the skill of writing needs to be carefully developed and constantly polished if one wants to be a good writer. Some of us also believe that a person with good writing skills can eventually make money by just writing – expressing his ideas on just anything. A writer, Jeniri Amir, has actually published a book on ‘Buat duit dengan menulis – Make money by writing’ with the hope that others would take up his suggestion or should we say ‘challenge’.Though lecturers like us could not really spend time to write and make money as much as much we want to, we believe that by helping our students to master the skills of writing, they could at least write a good project report and thesis. We also believe that our students need to experience the joy of expressing their thoughts without having to worry too much about forms - if they can write about things around them and give their views and comments on other people’s written work; they have actually overcome one of the hurdles to becoming a



good writer. Hence, with these beliefs, we dared ourselves to embark on the weblog journal writing project.

For this paper, we will focus our discussion on our experiences using the weblog as a writing tool to help our students express their thoughts and views on things around them. Hence, to ease understanding of the discussion, this paper will first define the concepts of journal writing and weblog journal writing, then followed by an explanation on the undertaken weblog journal writing project, the benefits of using weblogs in English language classrooms and the challenges in implementing the weblog. Finally, suggestions on the logistic requirements for successful implementation of the weblog project will be given.

JOURNAL WRITING

Different people may define journal writing differently. To some, it could mean writing a daily life story while to others, it could mean writing their experience of a journey. Some write to record memories while others write for the public to understand and to experience the same experience they have journeyed without really going through the journey. No matter how it is being defined and what the purpose is, a journal could be a tool for writers to express emotions, ideas, and views of events that he would like to keep to himself or share with others.

Language teachers, for this matter, have long used this journal writing activity in their language classrooms. However, the focus and implementation process of the journal writing activity differ from one lecturer to another. Though many may focus on helping students improve their expressions of thoughts, there are some who would focus on both content and forms. Likewise, the implementation process is often not the same as some lecturers felt that it is better for the journal writing activity to be a communication device between students and their lecturers. In contrast, others might feel that the scope



of communications should be widened to allow students gain more feedback on their writings and to respond to any inquiries. Williams (2003) tended to agree with the latter as he believed that besides broadening the communication scope, journal writing should also be more than just a place for learners to write freely without undue concern for grammaticality.

Ways of keeping journals also vary from one person to the other. Some like to have a small notebook to record their words while others prefer to use the computer as they believe they could keep a clean record of their thoughts without any messy scribbles here and there. There are also some who favour the more innovative method, i.e. the online journal, to record and publish their written notions. In supporting these differences, Brown (2001) agreed that students should be allowed to choose the mode of writing journals – entries to journals could be in the form of language learning logs, grammar discussions, reading logs and reflective notes of oneself.

But why journal writing? Kerka (1996) argued that journal writing could actually lends itself well to a heuristic learning approach. Several benefits of journal writing for teaching and learning were listed by Kerka in her article ‘Journal writing and adult learning’,such as:

Writing journal entries is less formal and less threatening, thus students can write without self-consciousness or inhibition

Journal entries can provide tangible evidence of mental processes. They make thoughts visible and concrete, giving a way to interact with, elaborate on, and expand ideas.

Journals are tools for growth through critical reflection, for it is not enough to observe and record experiences, but equally significant is to make meaning out of them.

Maloney and Campbell-Evans (2002) who investigated how interactive journals were used also agreed that journal writing

1.

2.

3.



promotes reflective learning. Interactivity in their research meant an ongoing pen-and-paper written dialogue between a teacher and his or her students. They found out that students used the journals to get direction on practice and planning, as a tool for analysis, as an emotional release and as a way of ‘sorting things out.’ Through journal writing, one can revisit his or her experience and reap lessons from the experience. Nevertheless due to time constraint in a normal educational setting, the primary audience of a student’s journal is restricted to the instructor. Due to this, it would be beneficial for the learning process if journal entries can be published and received feedback from the public. Comments on ideas written by others would mature students’ critical thinking and enhance argumentative writing skills. The degree of interactivity will increase as more people participate in a communication process and this will provide opportunities for language learning. Computer-mediated communication provides wider opportunities for interactivity to flourish.

WEBLOG JOURNAL WRITING

The concept of weblogs is almost similar to web-based e-mail applications except writings in weblogs become public because they are posted as a webpage. In a language learning environment, weblogs might be a better choice of technology for a journal writing task. It can promote a high degree of interactivity by supplying writers with more readers.

As defined by Pyra Labs (2000), a weblog is:

“… a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what’s new page or a journal. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly—from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry,



mini-essays, project updates, even fiction.”

On the other hand, Blood (2002), in the introduction to We’ve Got Blog, describes blogs (short for weblogs) as:

“… a training ground for writers--and there is fine writing being produced daily on hundreds of sites. They are platforms of intelligent reaction to current events and ubiquitous pundits.”

The advancement of technology has now allowed journal writing to be published on the web at a very low cost. Users just need a web browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape) and a computer that is linked to the Internet to write and read entries. Currently, there are thousand of weblogs in cyberspace - many free weblog services are available and most of them are user-friendly. Weblog services such as Blogger.com and Livejournal.com, for instance, have made it easier for non-IT savvy individuals to publish journal entries and archive old ones on the Internet. Weblogs may become a “killer app” because of their ability to engage writers in collaborative activity, knowledge sharing, reflection and debate (Hiller, 2003). Most weblogs are in a form of personal journal type in which writers report their lives, thoughts and feelings (Herring, 2004). Besides writers writing their entries, these weblogs also allow visitors or readers to respond to the entries by providing a comment. Due to this, Kairosnews (cited in Richardson, 2006) believed that blog posting can make students become active participants of a conversation.

THE UNDERTAKEN WEBLOG JOURNAL WRTINGPROJECT

This project was carried out with 48 first year students at a university in Johor, Malaysia. These students were from the Faculty



of Education who took the UHB1412 course - English for Academic Communication. It was one of the mandatory English courses which these students have to take at the university. The students were selected on the basis that they were available, prepared to participate, and convenient to access. The action research project was executed to help students express their thoughts and views in addition to gaining marks for class participation which was part of the coursework assessment. Due to the lack of opportunity for students to participate in class, we believe that this weblog journal writing project could provide the students a channel to do so.

As this blogging project was done outside of the class hours in duration of 15 weeks or one semester, students had to wait for our invitation before they could register into the assigned weblog (mynewscorner.blogspot.com, see appendix 1) and start posting their entries. The students had to post a minimum of five one-hundred-words entries in the specially assigned weblog. Their entries had to reflect on the events that had happened to them or around Johor Bahru. Initially, it was intended that marks were to be given based on the completion of task and the amount of comments made by their course mates on their entries. The original requirement of the task was as follows:

TASKS FOR UHB1412

Write 5 entries. Each entry should be more than 100 words. Entries should be about real local events (especially around UTM).

Collect 5 comments for the entries you have written. Each comment should be more than 50 words.

* Make sure you indicate the number of words you use and your real name after each entry and comment.

1.

2.



CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING THE WEBLOG

At the beginning of the implementation of the weblog, several problems arose. There were frequent problems with the students’ registration into the assigned blog. Although we had invited the students to join the weblog several times, they still could not register. To solve the problem, we had to ask students to send an email to us so that we could cut and paste their email addresses to the invitation list. By doing so, it had helped reduce the error made due to incorrect email addresses.

Later in the semester, several students had complained that they could not get the required amount of comments for each of their postings. This was straightened out by modifying the requirement in relation to comments. Instead of collecting comments, students had to give comments to their peers’ postings and the amount is still the same.

Up to the date of this presentation, there are 161 entries written by the students. Although the assignment requirement was only 5 entries, some students wrote more than that. The deadline for the project has been extended due to problems related to network connection in campus.

BENEFITS OF WEBLOGS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGECLASSROOMS

Blogging everyday, he will become a more confident writer.” (Blood 2000). Is it true? Can bloggers really express their ideas, articulate their views to others in writing and gain confident of doing so?

To investigate students’ perspective on the impact of weblog as a tool for the journal writing assignment in a language learning environment, a survey was carried out just before students completed the task at the end of the semester. The following three open-ended survey questions were posted on the blog:



Q1. What do you like most about this weblog task?From the analysis of the first survey question, it was found that students enjoyed doing the weblog task. The main reason given was weblog empowered them to share their views outside of the class environment. Here are some of the responses collected:

Student A said:

“Personally, there are two things that i love about this weblog task. First, i can give comments to anybody in the blog. Everyone can have their own views in the topic. Next, we can write whatever topic that we want and we can share it with everyone in the class.”

Student B said:

“For my answer,i think that what most i like about this weblog task is in this weblog i free to give my own personally comments and give my opinions about about the topic that my friends write.I also can share my experience in this weblog taht cannot be share in the formal class.”

Student C said:

“i like this weblog task because i know many information from this weblog and teach me to give response and change opinion to other people.”

Student D said:

“For me, it is good for using webblog as a way for us to post our idea and is a great class participation activity. Blogging requires us to brainstorm so that to give unique and valuable ideas.



I found that after this activity I have learnt how to create my own blog and use it to post my comments and many stuff more, including uploading message and many more....

I used to become a forum administrator and website designer, but still, blogging seems fresh stuff for me, I am thankful because I have learnt it... “

Q2. What do you hate most about this weblog task?Students were confronted with need to think of something to write and transfer it in the form of writing spontaneously. They are not used to this kind of challenge. Due to their belief that a piece of writing has to be grammatically correct, they were apprehensive about their entries. When they have to write on the spot they were not satisfied and confident with their sentence structure.

Here are responses collected for question 2:

Student A said:

“I just don’t like doing writing. The articles that i post are all written on the spot. I don’t do drafting or the outline.”

Student B said:

“But,the most i hate about this weblog task is everyone must think first and get the idea before we enter and write something in weblog..So that for somebody who does not have any idea to write,they have to take time to think what they want to write

And one more think we always fear that that have a spelling or grammar mistake in our writing.”



Another popular lament was the problem of slow connection rate of the Internet access in campus.

Student C said:

“i hate this blog when the server so slow to enter this weblog.But currently thing.Our speed Lan in UTM support just 10Mbps and i heard from my friend system of LAn in singapore is 100Mbps.”

Q3. Do you think you have become a confident writer by blogging?

Responses to the third survey question revealed that students felt their writing skills have improved. They claimed that they are now able express their thoughts and support their arguments. Some have even stated that they are now able to give comments

Student A said:

”But after joining blogging, i think that i have improve a little bit on writing as i tend to think about the fact that i want to include in my writing in a short while.”

Student B said:

“For me that have less confidence to communicate in class i think that this weblog give me a chance to give my opinions and comments as well as i can...”

The above responses revealed that weblogs empowered students to publish their thoughts for the whole world to read. Although their writings were not perfect, the students felt that the weblog journal writing task was good for the development of



their writing skills. This is corresponds to Blood’s (2002) claim that weblog creates better writers. It was also found that students loved the facts that others can read their entries and in most cases they valued the opportunity to give and receive comments.

CONCLUSION

Teaching methodology such as journal writing via weblog fits the sociocognitive approach to network-based language teaching. It can promote negotiation of meaning through interaction and create a discourse community with authentic communicative tasks. Perhaps by promoting a well established tool like weblog for language learning purpose, students will be motivated to continue to write beyond the requirement of the classroom assignment. Nevertheless, the logistics requirements for successful implementation for the weblog journal writing project need to be ensured. For the adaptation of the weblog in the classroom, we have to make sure there is sufficient ICT infrastructure on-site especially a sound Internet connection.

REFERENCES

Blood, R. (2000). Weblog: A history and Perspective. Rebecca’s Pocket.http://www.rebeccablood.net/essay/weblog_history.html

Blood, R. (2002). Introduction. In J. Rodzvilla, J. (Ed.), We’ve gotblog (p. xii). Cambridge: Perseus Publishing.

Blood, R. (2002). The weblog handbook. Cambridge: PerseusPublishing.

Brown, H.D. (2001). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.



Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. (2004).Bridging the gap: A genre analysis of weblogs. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-37). Los Alamitos: IEEE Computer Society Press.

Hiller, J. (2002). Blogs as disruptive tech: How weblogs are flying under the radar of content management giants. http://www.webcrimson.com/ourstories/blogdistruptvetech. htm [19/06/2005]

Kerka, Sandra (1996). Journal writing and adult learning. ERICDigests No. 174. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career andVocational Education. Columbus Ohio.

Maloney, C. and Campbell-Evans, G. (2002) Using interactivejournal writing as a strategy for professional growth. Asia- Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. Vol. 30. No. 1. 2002. p. 39-50

Pyra Labs (2000). ‘About’ : http://www.blogger.com/about.pyra[19/02/2002.]

Richardson, w. (2006). The Weblogg-ed: The Read/Write Web In The Classroom – Why Weblogs? http://www.weblogg-ed.com/why_weblogs

Williams, J. (2003). Preparing to teach writing: Research, Theory and Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: New Jersey



Appendix 1:

Screen capture of the class weblog: my newscorner.blogspot.com


125Reporting or Constructing “Facts”: Childhood Obesity in the National Press

8REPORTING OR CONSTRUCTING

“FACTS”:CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN THE

NATIONAL PRESS

NOOR AIREEN IBRAHIM

1.0 INTRODUCTION

On the 31 August 1998, the first International Congress on Obesity was held in Paris to caution governments around the world about the threats of obesity. The International Obesity Task Force (IOTF 2004) outlined the need to take urgent and decisive action to curb the obesity problem which threatened to lead to soaring medical costs and a range of weight-related illnesses burdening and crippling health care systems around the globe. The IOTF team of experts also predicted that obesity could affect nearly half of the population in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom within one generation. Obesity is not only a major problem in the adult population, but is fast becoming a serious issue in children’s health as well. An estimated 17.6 million children under the age of five are estimated to be overweight worldwide. Taking into consideration the health and financial implications of obesity on the healthcare system, it is unsurprising to observe the trends in obesity-related media reports. According to figures from the International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC 2003), there appears to be a significant increase in mass media attention on obesity-related media reports.



The above figure illustrates the dramatic rise in obesity-related media coverage since 1999. For example, between October 1999 and September 2000, there were 395 obesity-related media reports; this grew to 4767 between October 2002 and September 2003. There appears to be almost a ten fold increase within the space of 5 years. There is, however, relatively little research on obesity in the media. One study is by Lawrence (2004) who examined how obesity is framed in news coverage in the United States. Lawrence carried out a content analysis of obesity in the front-page stories in the New York Times from selected years between 1985 and 2003. Lawrence identified three prevalent frames: the biological, the individual and the environmental frames. Her findings strongly suggest that there has been a vigorous frame contest between the individual frame which focuses on obesity as a personal responsibility issue and the environmental frame which emphasises the social environmental aspect including public policy and the food industry. The analysis of media reports discussed in this chapter runs parallel to the analysis carried out by Lawrence (2004).

Figure 1: Trends in obesity–related media coverage (IFIC 2003)



When reporting on health or medical issues, it is common practice for journalists to gather the “facts” from scientific and medical literature. This practice is evident in how journalists, usually science correspondents, attribute their claims to scientific sources. Studies on the media (e.g. Oxman et al. 1993, Freimuth et al.1984) have shown that media reports on health issues acquire the status of “facts” from medical or scientific articles published in the scientific/medical literature. If this is the case, do media reports of health issues reflect what is documented in the scientific journals? Thus, this is one of the questions which will be addressed in this study. Hence, research into health issues in the media such as this one must be consolidated with an examination of what is available in the scientific/medical literature. Most importantly, this will provide some indication as to what the “experts” perceive as the potential causes of obesity in children.

In what follows, I provide i) an overview of childhood obesity reports published in six British national newspapers between October 2002 and October 2004 - a period in which obesity-related media reports increased dramatically (see Figure 1, IFIC 2003) and ii) a systematic review of childhood obesity articles obtained in the scientific/medical literature during the same period. This comparison will provide us with some interesting insights into what is documented in these two key sites with regard to childhood obesity during that critical period.

2.0 AIMS OF THE STUDY

This study sets out firstly, to describe the different ways in which the cause of childhood obesity is framed in the British press during a time when press reports of the issue saw the most dramatic escalation. Secondly, this study will offer a description of the different information available on childhood obesity documented in the scientific/medical literature. Finally, I aim to link the findings of the content analysis of



the media data with the content analysis carried out on the medical/scientific literature. In short, the aim of this study would be to answer the following research questions:

What are the different causes of childhood obesity and how often are they articulated across the media reports?

What information with regard to childhood obesity is available in the medical and scientific literature?

Do the causes of childhood obesity found in the medical/scientific literature get reported in the media?

Do some of the factors get played down or become altogether silenced in the reports?

3.0 CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN THE MEDIA

The analysis of media reports are carried out in two stages. In the first stage, 159 media reports from six British national newspapers were analysed. Three broadsheet (The Times & Sunday Times, The Guardian & the Observer, The Telegraph & the Sunday Telegraph)and three tabloid (Daily Mail & The Mail on Sunday, Mirror & Sunday Mirror, The Sun) newspapers published between October 2002 and October 2004 were coded for any mention or no mention of cause. Any instance of causal talk, claim or explanation of cause in the headlines and lead paragraphs was coded. This means that causal links are realised through linguistic features and are explicitly marked via the lexical choices used in the form of individual words, phrases and clauses in a given text. The lexical choices include the use of phrasal verbs that signal causal relation as indicated in the data examples below:

(1) Childhood obesity caused by poor nutrition and lack of exercise is creating a looming health crisis in Britain, with average life expectancy expected to drop for the first time in more than a century. (BS-Grd60/L)



(2) ONE in three kids is FAT because they spend too long in front of the TELLY, a new report says. (TB-Sun13/L)

Using the qualitative research software NVivo, news reports were coded for their topical focus on childhood obesity in the headline and in the lead paragraph. Out of the total 159 reports (80 broadsheet and 79 tabloid reports) coded, 114 of them (64 broadsheet and 50 tabloid reports) had some mention of the cause of childhood obesity. The remaining 45 reports (16 broadsheet and 29 tabloid reports) did not include any explanation of cause. In other words, more than 50 percent of the coded reports had some mention of the cause. Through this initial coding of the data, it is clear that media reports have a tendency to focus on the cause of an issue, in this case childhood obesity.

It is important to note at this point that not every report coded in this analysis made reference to just one type of cause. Many mentioned more than one type and thus the number of causal explanations reported will not be equal to the number of reports analysed as will become apparent later. As I have previously outlined, the analysis aims to establish the occurrence of each type of causal claim across the six newspapers: therefore the numbers reported here do not reflect the strength of each type of cause, but rather how often they occur throughout the data corpus.

In the second stage of coding, the remaining 114 reports that had some mention of childhood obesity causation were coded for the different types of causal explanation. The analysis revealed that the explanation of cause can be divided into two types of accounts. Here, I have adopted Van Dijk’s (1988) term “explanatory framework” to describe the two main explanation of cause. These frameworks will be referred to as:

i) The Individual is ing Explanatory ( INDex) framework



ii) The Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework

The difference between these two types of frameworks can be understood in terms of the internal or external source of causality as will be further explained in the following section.

3.1 INDIVIDUALISING EXPLANATORY (INDEX) FRAMEWORK

In the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework, the explanation of cause is located within the individual or internally. The cause is made to appear as though it does not come from any external source but from the individuals themselves. These may stem from the individual’s behaviour, lifestyle and/or genes which may include their eating habits, their choice of leisure time activities and their predisposition to put on weight based on the weight of their parents. The individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework can be further classified into the following two sub-categories: Biological (INDex-Bio) and Behavioural/Lifestyle (INDex-Behav/LStyle).

Under the first sub-category, the Biological (INDex-Bio), the cause of childhood obesity is located within the individual but focus specifically on biological aspects of the problem. This may include both the genetic predisposition of the individual or any biological disorder and condition. For example:

(3) Children whose parents are overweight are more likely to grow up to be obese because they share the same ‘fat gene’,scientists said yesterday. (TB-Dlm12/L)

(4) Some children are born with a genetic defect that means leptin does not work properly. As a result, their bodies believe they are permanently starving. A more common



childhood obesity disease is Prader-Willi Syndrome, which leads to an insatiable appetite. (BS-Tgh14/L)

The explanations in the second sub-category in the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework make reference to the behaviour and actions of the individual as the source of the problem. The INDex-Behav/LStyle sub-category includes the following types of action or behaviour: food/drink consumption, unhealthy eating habit, physical activity or exercise, television and video games, and (general) parental role and responsibility (see Fig 2). For example:

(5) PARENTS were urged last night to limit children’s exposure to television after a study found excessive viewing could damage long-term health. Children aged between five and 15 who sat in front of a television for more than two hours a day tended to be fatter as adults, have higher cholesterol and smoke more. Scientists say it is the first study to suggest that “couch potato” viewing habits in childhood could leave lasting health damage. (BS-Tgh01/L)

(6) One in three kids is FAT because they spend too long in front of the telly, a new report says. The study of ten-year-olds found more than half had a TV in their bedrooms. (TB-Sun13/L)



Taking a closer look at the difference between these two categories under the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework, it is obvious that a significant number of the coded reports made reference to the behaviour and actions of the individual as the cause of the problem. The frequency count shown in Figure 2 suggests that the Behavioural/Lifestyle (INDex-Behav/LStyle) framework occurs more often than the Biological (INDex-Bio) framework. Out of the total occurrence of 160 for the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework, the Behavioural/Lifestyle (INDex-Behav/LStyle) subtype

Broadsheet(The Times, The Guardian & The

Telegraph)

Tabloid(The Mail, Mirror &

The Sun)Total

Food Consumed 17 28 45

Exercise/PhysicalActivity

16 24 40

Parental Role and Responsibility

17 20 37

Television, PC and Video Games

3 13 16

Unhealthy Eating Habit 1 6 7

Other 3 4 7

Total Behavioural/Lifestyle

57 95 152

Biological 5 3 8

Total INDex 62 98 160

Table 2: Individualising Explanatory (INDex) Framework in the British broadsheet and tabloid press (October 2002 – October 2004)



occurs as many as 152 times, 57 in the broadsheet press and 95 in the tabloid press. In contrast, the Biological (INDex-Bio) subtype occurs a mere eight times, five in the broadsheet and only three times in the tabloid press.

3.2 S Y S T E M I C E X P L A N AT O R Y ( S Y S T E X ) FRAMEWORK

In contrast to the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework, the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework refers to the explanation of cause that appears to be outside the (control of) individuals. In other words, the source of the cause is located within the community and other larger forces of society. The two main subtypes of SYSTex identified from the data corpus are the Government (SYSTex-Gov) and the Food Industry (SYSTex-FI).

The first subtype of the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework refers to the explanation of cause which focuses on the government and government bodies as contributing to the growing number of childhood obesity in the UK. Subcategories that fall under this type of explanatory framework include Government policy, Government action, School dinner and School system. Here are two coded examples:

(7) SPORTS stars yesterday blamed the Government for the growing number of overweight children. England rugby player Jason Leonard and athlete Colin Jackson said there had been years of under-investment in school sports and PE. (TB-Mir04/L)

(8) A lack of “joined-up” thinking by Government has allowed obesity rates in Britain almost to double in the past decade, according to the Commons Select Committee on Health’s report on obesity. (BS-Tms30/L)



The second subtype of the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework refers to explanation of cause which points to the food industry as the source of the problem. This may include marketing strategies employed by the food industry, food labeling and food advertisement as follows:

(9) FAST FOOD FIRMS ACCUSED OF USING SPORTS TO ATTRACT CHILDREN: Health campaigners fear that obesity in the young is being encouraged by multimillion pound sponsorships of celebrities and events. (BS-Obs14/L)

(10) FOOD ADS ‘MAKING KIDS FAT’ (TB-Sun16/L)

Broadsheet(The Times, The Guardian &

The Telegraph)

Tabloid(The Mail, The Mirror

& The Sun)Government (SYSTex-Gov)

The Government 4 1Government Action 4 3Government Policy 2 1School Dinner and Food 5 3School System and Curriculum 4 1Total SYSTex-Gov 19 9Food Industry (SYSTex-FI)

Food Label 2 2Food Advertisement 11 7Marketing Strategy 6 2Food Content 6 2Other 1 1Total SYSTex-FI 26 14TOTAL SYSTex 45 23



An analysis of the two different categories under the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework shows that there is a slight difference between them. It is evident from Figure 3 that the Food Industry (SYST/FI) subcategory in both the sub-corpora occurs more regularly than the first sub-category: Government (SYSTex-Gov). For example, in the broadsheet press, the Food Industry (SYSTex /FI) sub-category occurs as many as 26 times whilst the Government (SYSTex-Gov) sub-category occurs only 19 times. Similarly, in the tabloid press, the Government (SYSTex-Gov) sub-category occurs only nine times, whilst the Food Industry (SYSTex-FI) subtype occurs as many as 14 times, almost twice as often. The Food advertisement subcategory of the Systemic Explanatory (SYST/FI) framework is the subtype most often cited as the cause of childhood obesity occurring seven times in the tabloid press and as many as 11 times in the broadsheet press.

More importantly, the analysis carried out revealed that in framing the cause of childhood obesity, the Individualising

Figure 3: Systemic Explanatory Framework (SYSTex) and the sub-categories across the British broadsheet and tabloid press (October 2002 – October 2004).

Framework Broadsheet Press(The Times, the Guardian

& The Telegraph)

Tabloid Press(The Mail, The Mirror &

The Sun)

Total

INDex 62 98 160SYSTex 45 23 68

Figure 4: Individualising and Systemic frames in the British national newspapers (Broadsheet and Tabloid Press)



Explanatory (INDex) framework is more recurrent than the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework. In Figure 4, I have provided a breakdown of the number of times both types of explanatory frameworks occur in both the broadsheet the tabloid press (see Fig. 4). As can be seen, the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework occurs a total of 160 times, more than two times higher than the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework which occurs 68 times in both the broadsheet and tabloid press. This clearly suggests that it is more common to locate the cause of childhood obesity within the control of the individual rather than positioning the cause externally or outside the individual’s control.

3.3 THE EXPLANATION OF CAUSE IN THE MEDIA REPORTS

It can be seen that the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework – which locates the cause of the problem within the individual – is the most frequently mentioned across the data corpus. What this suggests is that the media appears to be framing the childhood obesity issue as a health problem inflicted by the behaviour and lifestyle of the individuals. Selective explanation, such as this, is concerned about constructing a particular version of the world (Potter 1996). This selective explanation also suggests that individuals, or in this case the overweight or obese children and their parents, are responsible for the health problem. In fact, the reference to parental responsibility is one of the top three categories of causes mentioned in the broadsheet and tabloid press (see Fig. 2).

If indeed the focus on the individual’s behaviour and lifestyle is supported by facts, then such a focus must be encouraged as a way to provide guidance to the public as to the solution to their health problems. However, many scientists have expressed concerned about the inadequacy and misinformed nature of health and medical reporting in the media. Journalists have the tendency to overstate



scientific findings which may lead to sensationalised or dramatised reporting of the findings (Cohn 1989, Wiltse 1992, Wilkes & Kravitz 1992, Oxman et.al 1993, Schuhman & Wilkes 1997). Thus, the analysis in this study looks at what is documented in the scientific journals with regard to childhood obesity to provide key insights into the comparative similarities and differences between the source and the mediated material.

4.0 CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN THE SCIENTIFIC /MEDICAL LITERATURE

In order to carry out the search for scientific/medical articles written on childhood obesity, I utilised one of the most popular medical databases – PubMed which provides an index of more than 4,000 medical journals with over 16 million citations from life science journals for biomedical articles (http://libdatabase.uche.edu). A search was carried out for articles by entering the following keywords: overweight, obesity, children and aetiology. It is important to mention that although my initial aim was to utilise similar terms for the searches carried out in both the scientific/medical literature and the media reports, this plan proved unworkable. Using the keyword “cause” in the search for the scientific/medical articles resulted in a zero search return. Alternatively, the keyword “aetiology” was entered to replace the word “cause” in the search which yielded 202 hits. The total number of articles eligible for further analysis is 150. The other 52 articles were excluded for various reasons. As with the media data, the search for scientific/medical articles is also limited to those published between October 2002 and October 2004.

My examination of the key research themes found in the scientific/medical articles on childhood obesity was primarily focused on a content analysis of the abstract section of the articles. Abstracts written for scientific and medical journals often adhere to a standard format in which the following headings are explicitly laid out:



Background, Aims and Objectives, Methods, Results/Discussions and Conclusions/Interpretations. These sections present the focal point of the research. From the abstract, I coded relevant texts, phrases or clauses which indicate the focus of the reported research which often signalled by common words or phrases such as “to examine”, “to evaluate”, “to quantify” and “to identify”.

4.1 KEY RESEARCH FOCUS IN THE SCIENTIFIC/MEDICAL LITERATURE

Six broad categories of research focus have emerged from the analysis of 150 articles generated from the PubMed database search. A summary of the overall frequency count of all six categories of research focus is shown in Figure 5. At this stage, it is important to note that the total number of categories coded is not equal to the number of articles analysed as some articles have focused on more than one category of research theme. The most frequently researched theme in the scientific/medical literature is the Obesity Risk Factor (ObesRP) occuring as many as 79 times. The are two sub-categories under the Obesity Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP) are: (i) the Individual Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Ind) and (ii) the Systemic Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Sys).

Category 1: Obesity Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP). Under this category, I have coded articles that locate possible risk factors/predictors for developing obesity internally or within the individuals themselves. These include behavioural or lifestyle factors such as physical and sedentary activity, dietary or calorie intake. Under the second sub-category, the Systemic Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Sys), I have coded articles that identify risk factors/predictors for developing obesity, which fall outside the control of the individual. These include socio-cultural factors such as ethnicity and socioeconomic factors such as income status.

1.



This sub-category occurs four times in the frequency count. Out of the three sub-category under the Obesity Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP) category, the first one, Individual Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Ind) is the most prevalent sub-category occurring as many as 43 times in the frequency count, whilst the Systemic Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Sys) occurs only 18 times.

It is clear that under the Individual Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Ind) sub-category, the Behavioural/Lifestyle Factor (ObesRP-Ind/Behav) is the most frequent category focused on, occurring as many as 26 times in the frequency count (see Fig 5). Under this sub-category, I have included articles which focused on examining the effects or association of behavioural and lifestyle factors with childhood obesity. Examples include studies into childhood obesity and its relationship with physical activity and dietary habits. The second category under the Individual Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Ind) is the Biological Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRF-Ind/Bio). Articles coded include those which focus on biological risk factors for developing obesity. The factors that I have identified include adiposity rebound,1 weight at birth, breast and bottle

Categories Number of occurrencesCategory 1: Obesity Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP)

79

Category 2: Obesity Health Consequences (ObesHC)

64

Category 3: Obesity Prevention (ObesPrev) 31Category 4: Obesity Trend (ObesT) 14Category 5: Causes of Obesity (ObesCaus) 07Category 6: Other (ObesOth) 03Total 198

Figure 5: Categories of key research focus and number of occurrences



feeding period in infancy, parental BMI and genetics. The third and final sub-category, Psychological Factors (ObesRP-Ind/Psycho), is the least common – occurring only three times in the frequency count. Under this sub-category, I have included studies that investigate the possible role and impact of psychological factors which include behavioural problems such as unhealthy eating habits and binge or comfort eating.

There are two sub-categories under the Systemic Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesRP-Sys) as shown in Figure 7. There is only a slight difference between the occurrences of these two sub-categories. Articles that focus on examining possible risk factors associated with socio-economic issues occur 10 times. Under this theme, I have coded articles which focus on examining the relationship between socio-economic factors and overweight or obesity in children. Coded articles include studies concerning social deprivation and income status as predictors or risk factors for developing overweight and obesity in children. The second sub-category is the Socio-cultural Risk Factor/Predictor (Sys/ObesRP-sociocul) which occur eight times as a research focus in the frequency count.

Sub-categories Number of occurrencesBehavioural/Lifestyle Factor (ObesRP-Ind/behav)

26

Biological Factors (ObesRP-Ind/Bio) 14Psychological Factor (ObesRP-Ind/Psycho) 3Total ObesRP-Individual 43

Table 6: The Individual Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesityRP-Individual) sub-categories and number of occurrences



Category 2: Obesity health consequences (ObesHC). The possible health implications of childhood obesity and the steps that need to be taken to deal with the consequences are also featured in the scientific/medical articles. This category is the second most common focus of research during the period analysed. The articles coded under this category are those examining obesity as a predictor or risk factor for other health complications such as Cardiovascular Diseases (CAD) and Diabetes faced by children who are overweight or obese. Health consequences of childhood obesity appear as many as 64 times as a study focus in the coding. The two chronic diseases that have been identified as the main health consequences of being overweight or obese in children are coronary heart disease – e.g. chronic heart diseases (CHD) or cardiovascular diseases (CVD) – and diabetes, which occurred 18 and 11 times respectively.

Category 3: Obesity Prevention (ObesPrev). Articles which focus on obesity prevention and intervention (ObesPrev) are the third highest in the frequency count (31 times). Articles under this category focus on examining issues surrounding strategies and efforts to prevent and/or reduce obesity in children including treatments for obesity. Here, the most frequent prevention strategies discussed focus on the modification in dietary habits and physical activity directed at overweight/obese children, parents and the whole family.

Category 4: Obesity Trends (ObesT).Under the fourth category, Obesity Trends (ObesT), the articles coded focused on examining the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity, or more precisely the BMI trends in children. This category occurred 13

Sub-category Number of occurrencesSocioeconomic Factor (ObesRP-Sys/socioecon) 10Sociocultural Factor (ObesRP-Sys/sociocul) 8Total ObesRP-Systemic 18

Figure 7: The Systemic Risk Factor/Predictor (ObesityRP-Systemic) sub-categories and number of occurrence



times as the central research focus in the articles analysed.Category 5: Causes of Obesity (ObesCaus).The fifth

category which occurs seven times as a research focus is a particularly important category as it identifies studies which look into the causation of childhood obesity or those which suggest explicit causal association between obesity and a particular factor or several interrelated ones. It is interesting to note that establishing causal association is a rare sighting in the scientific/medical literature analysed appearing a mere seven times as the research focus. It is interesting to note that out of these seven occurrences, four provided a review of the different causes. It is only the remaining three articles that focused on a specific factor as the cause of childhood obesity. This clearly demonstrates that the medical perspective on this issue is not made apparent in media reports of childhood obesity. The multifactorial and complex nature of childhood obesity appears to be lost in the media reports.

5.0 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The initial analysis of the 159 press reports revealed that most of the reports analysed in the data corpus include some kind of explanation of cause which substantiates the tendency of media reports to focus on the cause of a particular health issue. These explanations could be further categorised into two broad explanatory frameworks based on the source of causality. The Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework places the source of the problem internally or within the (control of) individual while the Systemic Explanatory (SYSTex) framework points to some external source, which is beyond the individual’s control as the cause of the problem e.g. the environment, the government or the food industry. The frequency counts reveal that the Individualising Explanatory (INDex) framework occurs more regularly than the latter, which suggests that the cause of the childhood obesity problem lies with the obese or overweight children and their parents.



The comparative analysis of the causal explanation found in the media reports and the scientific/medical literature suggests that there appears to be a discrepancy between what is documented in the scientific/medical journals and what gets reported in the media. The review of the scientific and medical literature suggests that the cause of overweight and obesity in children are multivariate and complex. It has already been established from previous research that the interpretation of cause entails some form of judgment on agency and the assignment of blame and responsibility. Similarly, selective and biased explanation becomes an effective way of attributing blame. In addition, rarely do media reports point out the complexity and the multifactorial nature which surrounds the aetiology of childhood obesity. The discriminating nature of media reports along with the propensity to single out specific groups of people in the explanation of cause all contribute in framing the childhood obesity issue as a health problem caused by the actions and lifestyle choices of the overweight and obese children and their parents. What this appears to imply is that responsibility to curb and resolve this health problem also falls on these individuals.

This is consistent with the findings of the study on media framing of obesity carried out by Lawrence (2004) highlighted earlier in the chapter. In her study of obesity reports in the American press, obesity causation is prevalently framed as located in the behaviour and lifestyle choices of the individual. This includes high calorie consumption and the lack of exercise. Lawrence also notes that in 1996, the behavioural frame was the default explanation for the cause of obesity. Her analysis also suggests that although obesity has been reframed in the past two decades from an individual and biological frame toward the realm of environmental causation, the role of personal responsibility for one’s health has been strongly articulated in response.

According to Iyengar (1991), one of the most important consequences of the way a public health issue is framed is the solution to the problem that the frame implies. The analysis shows that childhood obesity is framed as a health problem which is caused



by the behaviour and lifestyle choices of the individual. If this is so, then, according to Iyengar, it would also imply that the solution to this health problem also lies with the individual. The findings of the content analysis suggest that childhood obesity is caused by too much eating, a lack of physical exercise due to sedentary lifestyle brought upon by excessive time spent watching TV and playing PC/video games, or the lack of parental responsibility. What this entails is that the solution also lies with the individual or parents themselves to begin to curb overeating and control TV viewing whist encouraging physical play and exercise. However, if the problem lies in the lack of suitable infrastructure to encourage play or as a result of consuming unhealthy food that is so readily available, then the solution would be for the government to make allocations to ensure that safe play areas are accessible to all and initiate a policy which regulates the salt and sugar content allowed in food sold in fast food restaurants and supermarkets. Instead, the recurrent focus on the individual’s behaviour and lifestyle choices as the cause of childhood obesity is significantly juxtaposed by the apparent lack of reference to other social forces or institutions such as the government and the food industry, which has implications for who is responsible for the cause and the solution of the problem.

REFERENCE

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Freimuth, V., Greenberg, R.H and Dewitt, J. 1984. Covering cancer: newspapers and the public interest. Journal of Communication 34(62-73).

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[Accessed: 11/3/2004].International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) 2004. Childhood Obesity

Report. London, United Kingdom. Iyengar, S. 1991. Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames

Political Issues. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

Lawrence, R. G. 2004. Framing obesity. The evolution of news discourse on a public health issue. Press Politics 9(3), pp. 56-75.

Oxman, A. D., Guyatt, G.H., Cook, D.J., Jaeschke, R., Heddle, N. and Keller, J. 1993. An Index of scientific quality for health reports in the lay press. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology46.

Potter, J. 1996. Representing Reality. Discourse, Rhetoric and Social Construction. London: Sage Publications

Schuhman, M. and Wilkes, M. S. 1997. Medical scientists and health news reporting: a case of miscommunication. Annalsof Internal Medicine 126(12), pp. 976-982.

van Dijk, T. 1988. News Analysis. Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Wiltse, D. W. 1992. Poor reporting of medical studies is dangerous. Bulletin of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. pp. 28-31.

Wilkes, M. S. and Kravitz, R. L. 1992. Medical researchers and the media. Attitudes toward public dissemination of research. JAMA 268, pp. 999-1003.


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