language of the media - BBC booklet.pdf - Communication - sinderella

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THE LANGUAGE

OF THE MEDIA

NEWS REPORTS, SPORTS COMMENTARIES,

ARTS REVIEWS, AND MORE.

LEARNING

Welcome

Welcome to The Language of the Media , a booklet designed to introduce you to some of the

styles of English you will hear when listening to BBC World Service.

The aim of this booklet is to help you become a more effective listener in English. So we have

identified eight types of programmes or parts of programmes and have created tasks to help you

recognise and understand them more easily.

The types of broadcasts we look at are:

1. News headlines

2. News reports

3. Sports commentaries

4. Holiday programmes

5. Arts reviews

6. Interviews

7. Financial reports

8. Internet

How to use this booklet

Each page relates to a different type of broadcast. On each page you will find a short explanation of the type of

broadcast, along with extracts taken from BBC World Service programmes.

After reading the extracts, you will find tasks designed to help you identify the key features of this type of programme

or broadcast. You may be asked to look at the grammar or vocabulary of the extracts, or at how information is

organised in the text. Answers to these exercises can be found at the back of the booklet.

Following the exercises, you will find an explanation of the key features of the language of this type of programme,

along with a follow-up exercise.

On the inside back cover, to help you expand your vocabulary, you will find a glossary of the words which are

underlined in the text.

We hope you enjoy The Language of the Media

and find that the extracts and exercises help improve

your listening skills.

1.The language of headlines

What is a headline?

The headline of a news story is the short summary which introduces the story at the beginning of a

TV or radio news broadcast, or which appears above articles in a newspaper or on a website.

The following headlines all appeared on the BBC World News website on 4th December 2000. Match the headline

with the news stories.

1. Gore pins hopes on Florida court 2. University attacked over ‘tobacco money’

3. Space station hit by hitch

4. Beckham to reject £80,000-a-week

a) Cancer care and research charities have attacked a university's decision to accept £4m sponsorship from

British American Tobacco.

b) Democrat Al Gore appeals to the Florida Supreme Court in what his lawyers say is likely to be the last stand

in his battle for the presidency.

c) David Beckham is to reject Manchester United's new and improved contract offer, according to Sunday

newspaper reports.

d) Astronauts from the American space shuttle Endeavour have had some difficulties in installing a new solar

power system on the International Space Station (ISS).

Headlines are not full sentences, but short summaries designed to attract attention. As a result, some words are

omitted. Look at the headlines again. Try to write the headlines as complete sentences.

The grammar of headlines

Which types of words do you need to add to make the headlines full sentences?

Parts of speech: The aim of a news headline is to grab your attention. Therefore, any ‘unnecessary’ words are often

left out. These include:

Articles:

The space station has been hit by a hitch.

Auxiliary verbs:

The space station has been hit by a hitch.

Possessive adjectives:

Gore has pinned his hopes on the Florida Court.

What do you notice about the forms of the verbs used in the headlines?

Verb forms: News broadcasts and newspapers are designed to make you think that news stories are happening

NOW. Try changing the forms of the verbs they use to indicate that something happened very recently.

Present simple: Gore pins hopes…

The present simple tense in the headline replaces the present perfect simple or the past simple tense in the news

story. The effect is to say that the story is happening NOW rather than in the very recent past.

Past participles: University attacked over tobacco money.

The full form of this headline should read: The University was attacked over the tobacco money.

When the passive voice is used in a headline, it is usually just the past participle form which appears. Auxiliaries

verbs make the headline long and detract from the immediacy.

Infinitives: Beckham to reject £80,000 a week.

When the story refers to the future plans of the subject, the headline usually uses a verb in the infinitive form.

The headline above is a shortened from of the sentence: David Beckham is going to reject the new, improved

contract which has been offered to him.

Language task

Here are some titles for news articles – but the sentences are too long to be headlines. Can you shorten them?

a) A victim of a car crash has learned to walk again.

b) A new drug will cure ’flu this winter.

c) The police questioned a suspect in a robbery yesterday .

2.The language of news reports

What is a report?

A news report gives you details of a news story. The reporter needs to choose the words he or

she uses very carefully to make the story clear and unbiased.

The two news reports below come from BBC Radio News. Do they contain good news or bad news?

a) Five men have been arrested in connection with the theft last month of three masterpieces from the National

Museum in Stockholm. The Swedish nationals were detained in the Stockholm area just days after police

received several photos of the paintings, along with a demand for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The works

of art, including one by the Dutch master, Rembrandt, are estimated to be worth up to $30m in total.

b) The crew of the world’s biggest ocean-racing yacht, the Team Philips catamaran, have been rescued after the

boat was badly damaged in storms. They had been preparing for a race 800 miles off the west coast of Ireland.

Look at the verbs in bold print. Why are they similar?

In report a) , find two words or phrases with a similar meaning to ‘paintings’.

In report b) , find two words with a similar meaning to ‘boat’.

The language of news reports

The purpose of a news report is usually to give the listener information in an interesting but objective way. To do this, they

often use the passive voice and words which are near synonyms, that is words which have nearly the same meaning.

Passive voice: Using the passive voice makes the report sound more formal. By putting the object of the verb at

the beginning of the sentence, they take our attention away from the subject. So, although ‘ Five men were

arrested ’ and ‘ Police arrested five men ’ have the same meaning, the reporter is focusing on the result of the

action instead of the people doing the action. News reports often use the passive voice to avoid saying directly that

someone has done something. In this way, they try to remain impartial.

Synonyms: Using words with similar meanings in a news report keeps it interesting. As there is a lot of information in

a very short time, it is important that the listener pays attention. If we hear the same word being repeated more than

once or twice we might get bored and stop listening. By using near-synonyms (e.g. yacht and boat), the reporter can

keep us interested in the whole story.

Language task

Read the extract below about how police in the Thames Valley area are trying to reduce burglaries.

Find out what happens ...

a) if someone is burgled once

b) if someone is burgled twice

c) if someone is burgled three times.

For the past two years, the Thames Valley Police have been combating repeat burglaries with an increasing green, amber, or red

police response. First-time victims of burglary are warned of the possibility of repeat attacks and are advised on security. A

second break-in triggers an ‘amber’ response.This is when the property is code-marked and their neighbours are asked to keep

watch. After a third robbery, alarms are fitted – free of charge in some cases.When the approach was reviewed last year, it

was found to have dramatically reduced offences.

Find three words or phrases which the reporter uses to mean burglary .

Find six examples of verbs being used in the passive voice.

3.The language of sports commentaries

What is a commentary?

A commentary is a description of an event as it is happening. The commentator describes for

the listener all of the important points of the event so that she or he can visualise what is

happening. The most common type of commentary is of sporting events.

Read the commentaries below. Which sport is being commentated on in each extract?

a) Away they go. Lewis sprints into the lead. Bradley is going well too for the United States but it’s

going to be Lewis. Lewis gets the gold. I think it was Gradi the silver and a photo for the bronze.

Lewis dances his way along the track. He’s done what he came to do. And look at the time –

9.99 seconds. Fantastic! Carl Lewis has won the gold and a nation celebrates.

b) And as we enter the closing moments of extra time it looks like this match could end with a draw.

And that really would be a tragedy after the brilliance we’ve seen from both teams tonight. Both

sides played the best kind of attacking game and yet despite numerous shots at goal neither side

has won. And yes! That’s it.The referee blows his whistle…

c) As the tension builds on court, Hardy serves straight down the line.That’s a fantastic shot! It puts

him at 40-15. And Hardy serves again. But it’s a good return by Janocek, the backhand shot

whistles past Hardy. But Hardy still has the advantage. He serves again and ... yes, that’s it!

Game, set and match to Hardy.

Identify the words in each extract which tell you what the sport is.

The grammar of commentaries

Extract b) begins near the end of the game. Read the extracts again and identify the main differences between

commentaries which happen at the end of a game and those which give details of the game as it is happening.

Think about tenses and the length of the sentences . Then continue reading below.

Because commentaries are descriptions of events as they are happening, they normally use the present simple and

present continuous tenses . However, when the commentary is coming to a close, the commentator will often

describe the game in present perfect tenses, showing that the event has taken place in the very recent past.

While the action is happening, the commentators tend to use very short sentences. This helps convey a feeling of

excitement to the audience. Finally, and unusually in radio and television broadcasting, you will often hear

exclamations of excitement. In extracts b) and c) , the commentators say ‘That’s it!’ to show that the game is over.

Language task

Read the following extract from a newspaper report on a football match between two English clubs, Everton and

Sunderland. How might it sound if a commentator was describing the match?

‘...in the 65th minute Sunderland took the lead. Alex Rae smashed an unstoppable

shot past the Everton goalkeeper… .Then the Sunderland team attacked their

opponents’ goal and Philips missed, hitting the ball against the post… .

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