Journalistic Communication: Genres, Styles, and Linguistic Features
ITEM 11. Journalistic Communication
1. Mass Media
We understand communication as any process that uses a transmitter to establish a rapport with a receiver. The “Mass Media” are those media directed towards a collective audience. All these have some common characteristics: communication channels, a receiver group, and the presence of unilateral communication professionals. The main ones are radio, television, and print media. The media promote the dissemination of culture and information but have negative aspects such as the simplification of content, great power to impose a particular ideology, and neglect of the existence of a heterogeneous society.
In the evolution of journalism, we can distinguish several stages: the first, before the First World War, uses service journalism or religious ideas prevailing in the article and the column; the second, since 1920, predominantly features news journalism; and the third, in the decade of the 50s, sees the rise of explanatory journalism that comes with the function of assessing and interpreting events.
Apart from that, the main characteristics of journalism are the informative function (novelty, timeliness, and diversity of issues), the review function (depth in the contents), and the use of extralinguistic codes (graphics, use of bold).
2. Journalese
This is influenced by various factors such as technical progress, the influence of foreign languages, contact with other texts, etc.
Linguistic Features:
Morphosyntactic Level:
- Using paraphrases, explanatory phrases, and appositions to lengthen the sentences.
- Lots of passive voice.
- Tendency to place the subject at the end of the sentence.
- A mixture of direct and indirect style.
- Use of imperfect indicative and subjunctive.
- Using mostly adjectival subordination.
- Frequent use of the conditional.
Lexical Level:
- Use of jargon.
- Use of loans and copies.
- Use of euphemisms.
- Formation of new words by composition and derivation.
- Using phrases.
- Use of abbreviations and acronyms.
Literal Level:
- Use of literary figures, the most commonly used being metaphor, personification, and hyperbole.
3. Journalistic Genres
News:
Linguistic Features:
Morphosyntactic Level:
- Prevalence of demonstrative and possessive determiners.
- Use of impersonal passive sentences.
- Use of coordinating conjunctions.
Lexical Level:
- Representation function, expository text, vocabulary denoting concrete nouns.
News: A short story that presents an actual fact. Its features are present, novelty, and interest. The news must have the “6Ws”. Its structure has holders (top title, title, and subtitle) that should pick up the gist of the story and draw the attention of the reader. They are distinguished by their size and use of bold. Headlines appear in the present tense; there is the ellipsis of verbs, nominal style, sentence limitation, direct speech, preemption of coordinating conjunctions, and limited punctuation (,) and (:). The lead paragraph or entry is below the large headlines and brings together the key “Ws”. The body is the development of information, expanding on the details.
Feature: An informational text that presents a relevant and recent fact, but is longer and with a more open structure than the news. Although objectivity predominates, the author’s opinion may appear. There are several types: human interest, social, and opinions.
Interview: Focusing on the interest that a person or character generates. Usually emphasizes the dialogic form. In the structure, there is usually a brief presentation of the character and then a series of questions and answers. The interviewer can add their subjective judgments.
Opinion Articles:
These are expository-argumentative texts with an appealing and expressive function as the author makes value judgments about the facts provided.
Linguistic Features:
Morphosyntactic Level:
- Personal pronouns, possessives, and verbs in the first person.
- Causal, consecutive, and conditional subordination.
- Joint use of indicative and subjunctive.
- Use of attributive structures.
Lexical Level:
- Connotative lexicon.
- Abstract nouns.
- Evaluative adjectives.
- Verbs of language, will, and thought.
Editorial: Reflects the opinion of the newspaper on an event. Its structure consists of an initial exposition, analysis of facts, and conclusion.
Article: A text in which the author expresses their personal opinion on an issue that need not be current.
Column: A text shorter than the article that occupies a vertical space in which the columnist gives their own subjective view on a topic.
Letters to the Editor: In these, a reader writes to the Director assessing and arguing about a fact.
Mixed Genres:
These texts are a combination of information and opinion.
Chronicle: Addresses a topical question in which the reporter adds their interpretation of the facts.
Review: Its purpose is the dissemination and evaluation of any event through a series of judgments and opinions issued by the critic.