Download - Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
1/32
NEWS STORIES AS
NARRATIVES
ALLAN BELL
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
2/32
NEWS STORIES AS
NARRATIVES
Features of stories
- structure
Direction
Point
Viewpoint
Fairy tales, fables, parables, legends, epics,
sagas - the role of storyteller important in language
behaviour and society at large
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
3/32
NEWS STORIES AS
NARRATIVES
Once upon a time
Fifteen people were injured today when a
bus plunged
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
4/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Labov:
1. Abstractsummarized the central
action and main point of a narrative Why is
this story being told
2. Orientationsets the scenewho,
when, where and initial situation or activity
of the story
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
5/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
3. Complicating actionwhat happened
4. Evaluation so what? A directionlesssequence is not a narrative. Narrative has
points, it is the narrators intention to justifythe value of the story
5. Resolutionwhat happened finally
6. Codaand that was that it wraps upthe action, returns the conversation fromthe time of narrative to the present
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
6/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
- The structure of press stories longer and
more detailed
- For TV news the written text remains
paramount
- Few differences between printed and
broadcast news styles
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
7/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
US TROOPS AMBUSHED IN
HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa
United States troops in Honduras were put
on high alert after at least six American
soldiers were wounded, two seriously, in a
suspected leftist guerrilla ambush
yesterday, United States officials said
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
8/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Six or seven soldiers were wounded when
at least three men, believed to be leftist
guerrillas, used high-powered weapons in
am ambush of bus carrying 28 passengers20 kilometers north of the capital
Tegucigalpa, United States embassy
spokesman Terry Kneebone said.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
9/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
The bus was carrying the soldiers from apleasure trip at a beach on the AtlanticCoast.
It was a surprise attack. SouthernCommand spokesman Captain ArtHaubold said in Panama City.
The US forces did not return fire. Theykept going to get out of the area as quicklyas possible.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
10/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Tegucigalpa radio station said an
unidentified caller said the leftist group
Morazanista Patriotic Liberation Front
claimed responsibility for the attack.NZPA-Reuter
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
11/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
- Lead/first paragraph
the same function in the news as the abstract inpersonal narratives
The device by which the audience can get themain point of a story from reading a singleopening sentence, and on that basis decidewhether to continue
In the article? -In hard news the lead is obligatory, in personal
narratives optional
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
12/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Press news also has headlinesan
abstract of the abstract
The lead is the journalists primary
abstract of a story, the headlines the
subeditors
Broadcast newsno headlines, except in
so far as stories are summarized at the
beginning or end of a news bulletin
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
13/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Orientation - obligatory for journalists to
answer who, what, when and where
The article?
Deicticshere, today, yesterday
Where do they appear in the article?
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
14/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Evaluation
Establishes the significance of a story
Often the point is self-aggrandizement It pre-empties the story question so what
In newsto justify claiming the audiences
attention Article?
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
15/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
Evaluation
In stories often concentrated at the end
In the news in the leadnewsworthy ACTION
Narrativetemporal sequence of events
News storiesnot temporally presented The article?
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
16/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
A complex time structure
RESOLUTION
Personal narratives move to a resolution
In news storiesthe result is in the lead,and not always clear cut.
The news is more like a serial than a short
story They finish in mid air because articles are
cut
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
17/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
CODA
In personal narrativesan optional
conclusion; returns the tense from
narrative time to the present
In newspapers- no coda
Broadcast newsthis is the end of thenews
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
18/32
NEWS STORIES AND PERSONAL
NARRATIVES
In the article as opposed to personal
narratives
- relates the narrators personal
experience
- a range of sources is cited
- news gives accurate numbers - complex syntax
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
19/32
THE STRUCTURE OF A
POLITICAL NEWS STORY
Read the following article and identify thefollowing:
1. Abstract, headline and lead attribution
and the story proper. 2. Actors
3. Time
4. Place of action 5. Source of specific information (media or
non-media)
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
20/32
THE STRUCTURE OF A
POLITICAL NEWS STORY
6.The significance of events
7. 6 events.
7. What is the relations between thehappenings (chronology, cause-effect, etc)
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
21/32
TROOPS TAKE OVER
LITHUANIAN OFFICE
Moscow
Stepping up the pressure on rebel
Lithuania, Soviet troops sized a
government office in the capitaland
neighbouring Byelorussia threatened to
claim a slice of the republic if ir secedes
from the Soviet Union
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
22/32
The parliament in Lithuanias sister Balticrepublic of Estonia meanwhile announcedyesterday it wanted to break away with
Moscow too, declaring the beginning of atransitional period that would end in fullindependence.
Moscow has refused to recogniseLithuanias march 11 declaration ofindependece.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
23/32
Instead if has waged what Lithuanians call
a war of nerves, with soldiers occupying
public buildings and arresting Lithuanian
military deserters.
United States President George Bush sent
Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev a note
urging peaceful settlement of the dispute.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
24/32
A few hours later, Interior Ministry troopsmoved into the public prosecutors office inthe Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
It was the first Lithuanian building to beoccupied by Soviet troops sinceWednesday, when the Communist Partyheadquarters was sized.
It was also the first to be taken over fromthe government as opposed to the party.,
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
25/32
Lithuanian President Vytautas
Landsbergis went on television yesterday
to denounce the move, saying it would
bring shame on Moscow.
We have endured all these years we
sill this time as well he said.
What the USSR is doing now will bring
only shame in the eyes of all the world.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
26/32
Earlier yesterday, deputy Soviet prosecutor
Alexei Vasilyev told staff at the prosecutors
office that Moscow had relieved their boss,
Alturas Paulaskas from his post. In his place Mr Vasilyev announced Moscow had
appointed Antanas Petrauskas, who quickly told
journalists he did not recognise Lithuanian
independence.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
27/32
Control of the prosecutors office is
considered crucial for Moscow to enforce
Soviet Law which it says still holds sway in
Lithuania, including penalties for armydesertion.
Vilnius Radio said Interior Ministry troops
had also taken over the history institute ofthe Lithuanian Communist Party,.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
28/32
Chief military prosecutor Alexander
Katusev said yesterday that a defence
ministry amnesty announced on Friday for
any Lithuanian deserters who returned totheir units was invalid.
They would be considered on a case-by-
case basis.
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
29/32
Lithuanian was also set upon by its neighbour
Byelorussia, where the parliamentary leadership
said it would lay claim to Vilnius and six other
districts if Lithuania seceded. We shall be obliged to insist on the return of
Byelorussian land to the Byelorrussian Soviet
Socialist Republic the presidium of the
republics supreme soviet, or parliament said,according to the official news agency Tass -
NZA-Reuter
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
30/32
CONCLUSIONS
- Any news test consists of an abstract,
attribution and the story proper.
The attribution can include source of the
story, agency credit, journalists byline,
place and time
The abstractlead , a headline
The lead - the main event, the second
event, attribution and evaluation
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
31/32
CONCLUSIONS
The story one or more episodes, which in turns
consists of one or more events
Eventsactors, action, setting, attribution,
which perform the orientation Additional categoriesfollow-up (verbal or non-
verbal reaction), commentary (the journalists
observations on the action, explicit evaluation, or
expectations) and background (events prior to
the current action, previous episodes).
-
7/27/2019 Curs 12 News Stories as Narratives
32/32
CONCLUSIONS
Follow up reactions or consequences may
become full stories tomorrow.