Halmari and Ostman (2001)

[Debra MAYRHOFER]

Hi fellow CDA-ers, the discussion about headlines is interesting in terms of analysis. I don't know anything about your various backgrounds, so excuse me if this is telling you what you already know, but as a journalist it often infuriated me to find that the headline that appeared on my story sometimes not only trivialised the substance, but was diametrically opposed to the content of the piece! The headlines are written by the subs and the journalist doesn't see them until they are printed. The subs work under huge pressure of time and space and I don't envy them, moreover I think sometimes it is the issue of space, rather than ideological inclination, that makes them choose one word over another, so that for example, words with "i"s or "t"s or "l"s will be more popular than those with "w"s in a headline. In the body of a story, the journalist has more leeway to describe an event as a protest rather than a riot, and their choice of word may have ideological underpinnings, but a subeditor trying to headline the same story, may  go with "riot" because it is the only word they can think of that will fit. Of course in terms of public perception of events constructed in the news, the ideological work is still being done by the headline, regardless of the subeditor's intent. Hope this is not off topic
cheers
deb

________________________________

From: CDA-DISCUSS Discussion List on behalf of John E Richardson
Sent: Wed 1/06/2005 8:47 PM
To: CDA-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Halmari and Ostman (2001)



Hi Linnea (and everyone else),

thanks for these thoughts. Unfortunately I couldn't get round to reading
the articles this month (so many things to do...) so I have nothing
useful to add. Sorry
I was very interested in your point about headlines though - and the
suggested article from the J of Pragmatics that I'll definitely look up.
I say this because I am currently completing a mini-project looking at
transitivity in newspaper headlines reporting the invasion of Iraq.
Specifically the 6 weeks of UK coverage (eight national newspapers)
until Bush declared 'mission accomplished'. While this is not what I
would call a large corpora (2100-ish articles) I certainly agree that
headline analysis is a interesting approach to newspaper analysis. In
this case, I think that it is a useful starting point to studying the
ways that the sampled newspapers re/presented the war, and I think that
it has produced some interesting findings. For instance (relating to
your points about social/economic influence on discourse) the ratio of
NP to VP headlines correlates with the social class of the target
audience; 'red top' tabloids use NP headlines the most, broadsheets the
least, with the mid-market tabloids in the middle. There are also
differences between transitive, intransitive, relational verbs, etc. I
could send my findings/arguments out to those interested, once this is
written up.

These are some of my thoughts relating to your questions about future
readings. I think that, as you suggest, for the next few months we could
read the articles that have been suggested. Following this, list members
can suggest other articles to read and lead discussion (which, to be
honest, I thought already occurred!). These articles may be published
stuff or work in progress from list members. Speaking personally, I
found it very helpful when members read & commented on my chapter on CDA
& 'Islamophobic' discourse. If Linnea gets too many suggestions from the
expanding membership, then perhaps in the future we could think about a
voting system. But, as I understand it, there isn't a pressing need for
this at the moment (please, correct me if I'm wrong).

Many thanks to Linnea & Noriko for their continuing work for the list.

all the best
John


> Hi everyone,
>
> Noriko, thanks for your thoughts on the last articles.  For some reason, I
> am never able to get to these things so far ahead of time!! I would be
quite
> interested in hearing your thoughts on "On newspaper headlines as
relevance
> optimizers" Journal of Pragmatics 35 (2003). I've been doing some work
with
> large corpora, and it strikes me that analysing headlines only may be
a good
> approach for covering salient text presented to readers over a long period
> of time.
>
> I agree with your thoughts about the social/economic influence on
discourse.
>  I think that was implicit in the article, since the authors mentioned
that
> the economy of the town, and thus the newspaper, depended on the execution
> business.  Understanding economic factors controlling the media certainly
> help put analyses in context.
>
> I thought that most of the analysis was well-done and convincing.  The
> authors made good use of a large number of examples, which I believe is
> important since it supports their argument that there is an implicit bias.
> (A small number of examples could be passed off as anomalies.) I would,
> however, have liked an explanation or at least some examples of the
> "implicit or explicit anchoring" that they referred to so often, to help
> people like me who haven't read Ostman's dissertation.
>
> Linnea
>
>
> On Thu, 12 May 2005 11:51:22 +0900,
> =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCP3k/ORsoQiAbJEJFNTtSGyhC?=
<n_sugimori at YAHOO.CO.JP> wrote:
>
> >Hi everyone,
> >
> >In the following, I would like to write my thoughts on Teo
> >(2000) and Halmari and Ostman (2001). I also would like to
> >introduce a book on ESL and politics.
> >
> >On Teo (2000)
> >Teo (2000) wrote,  $B!H (B. . . how the active choices made n
> >the way newspaper headlines, leads and captions are
> >couched can have a very powerful ideological effect on
> >readers
> > $B!G (B perception and interpretation of people and events. $B!I (B
> >Linnea pointed out that Teo had written so without
> >reporting any actual perceptions of any readers.
> >Investigating readers
> > $B!G (B own perception and linguists $B!G (B language ideology is a
> >promising next step because linguists are neutral.
> >
> >I have also encountered discrepancies between headlines
> >and the contents of newspaper articles. I have found an
> >articles,
> > $B!H (BOn newspaper headlines as relevance optimizers $B!I (B in
> >Journal of Pragmatics 35 (2003). I hope that reading this
> >article is helpful in understanding this issue. Although I
> >have not read it, I will let you know if I find something
> >interesting.
> >
> >On Halmari and Ostman (2001)
> >Our new reading  $B!H (BThe soft-spoken, angelic pick ax killer:
> >The notion of discourse pattern in controversial news
> >reporting
> > $B!I (B by Helena Halmari and Jan-Ola Ostman (Journal of
> >Pragmatics 33:805-823) was an interesting read. Karla Faye
> >Tucker, who had killed two people in the 1980s, was
> >executed in Texas in 1998. The authors examined the local
> >newspaper (The Huntsville Item) before and after the
> >execution. In Huntsville, the prison was the main
> >employer. Because Karla Faye Tucker became the first woman
> >executed in the 20th century and she was a born-again
> >Christian, this case was widely reported. At the surface
> >level this local newspaper appeared to be neutral by
> >printing both pro- and anti- opinions about the execution.
> >But these authors uncovered that The Huntsville Item
> >supported the pro-execution view. The authors
> > $B!G (B focus was the relationship among discourse pattern,
> >genre, and text types, etc.
> >
> >However, I was more intrigued by surrounding social
> >issues. Why did this pro-execution discourse come into
> >being and persists in the town in Texas? Why does the
> >newspaper support execution over life imprisonment?  It is
> >known that execution actually costs more than life
> >imprisonment. Spending more can be interpreted as more
> >economic gain for the town because more government
> >spending benefits the local economy. Nowadays many
> >researchers try to explain the change in the direction of
> >discourse in terms of economy. Some researchers criticize
> >this trend by arguing that the emphasis on economy has
> >always been the case.  I wonder if it is interesting to
> >examine the newspaper reports on this topic
> >longitudinally, paying more attention to the changing
> >economic influence of the prison on the town.
> >
> >A book on ESL and politics
> >Some member mentioned that she was interested in political
> >aspects of ESL. I have just read an extremely interesting
> >book on this topic. Christine Pearson Casanave & Stephanie
> >Vandrick (eds.) Writing for Scholarly Publication: Behind
> >the Scenes in Language Education. Lawrence Erlbaum. 2003
> >
> >Regards,
> >
> >Noriko
> >
> >
> >
> >Noriko Sugimori
> >20 Chestnut Street #204, Cambridge, MA 02139
> >tel & fax 617-494-6497
> > $B?y?9E5;R (B
> > $B") (B939-8051  $BIY;3;TBg at tCfIt#1#2#3!!=)K\J} (B
> >tel & fax 076-421-1337
>
>

John E Richardson
Dept of Journalism Studies
Sheffield University