The Language of News Media Paperback - 1991 - 1st Edition

From the rear cover

Written by a linguist who is himself a journalist, this is a uniquely informed account of the language of the news media.

In Western countries we hear more language from the media than we do directly from others in conversation, and within the media, news is the primary language genre. The aim of this book is to explore this influential language, to ask what the patterns of media discourse tell us about wider linguistic issues and what they also reveal about news and the media.

Allan Bell emphasizes the importance of the processes which produce media language, as stories are moulded and modified by various hands. He stresses it is indeed stories that journalists and editors produce, not articles. These stories have viewpoint, values and structure that can be analysed. He is concerned too with the role of the audience in influencing media language styles, and in understanding, forgetting or misconceiving the news presented to it.

Based in the frameworks of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, this book draws together a growing research literature and informs it with the author's own immediate observations and experience as both journalist and researcher.