News programmes have a very specific structure (Hartley 1982) and they usually contain “accessed voices” such as legitimated persons (LPs) – experts and public figures – together with ordinary people (VOXs). These voices play different roles in the reports (Montgomery 2007) mutually affecting the news reception by the audience.The study of “accessed voices” in TV news reports can shed light on the perception of EU institutions by citizens, since they still regard TV as the most important source of information (Eurobarometer 55 2001). Our belief is that the role of LPs and VOXs differently affects the audience consumption and re-interpretation of news stories. LPs are authoritative sources (Montgomery 2007), but they convey a message which may be regarded as distant from the layperson, while VOXs are recognised as “one of us” and may lead to a more direct identification.The present study investigates the role of LPs and VOXs in British, Italian and Polish TV news reports through the analysis of a comparable multilingual corpus consisting of transcripts of TV news programmes (both public and commercial channels). All news stories included in the corpus have been divided into items related to ‘EU affairs’ and ‘European countries’ on the one hand, and ‘other’(both domestic news and international non-European stories) on the other. We will focus on the role of attribution, mainly drawing on the Appraisal System (Martin & White 2005), in utterances by LPs and VOXs, and the rhetorical effects deriving from such positioning. In order to carry out the comparison, the corpus will be queried exploiting the XML annotation which allows for detailed comparisons between countries and voices.A quantitative analysis will make it possible to compare different uses of sources in TV news programmes when news items deal with the EU and European Countries vis-à-vis other topics in order to describe the way different forms of attribution are used when Europe related topics are dealt with, providing insights on the representation of Europe in TV news programmes in the three Countries. The quantitative analysis will be complemented with a more qualitative one of a news item available in all TV news programmes which will help shed light on the differences in attitude towards Europe across the three countries and between state/commercial broadcasters.
Talking about Europe in British, Italian and Polish TV News Programmes
VENUTI, MARCO;
2012-01-01
Abstract
News programmes have a very specific structure (Hartley 1982) and they usually contain “accessed voices” such as legitimated persons (LPs) – experts and public figures – together with ordinary people (VOXs). These voices play different roles in the reports (Montgomery 2007) mutually affecting the news reception by the audience.The study of “accessed voices” in TV news reports can shed light on the perception of EU institutions by citizens, since they still regard TV as the most important source of information (Eurobarometer 55 2001). Our belief is that the role of LPs and VOXs differently affects the audience consumption and re-interpretation of news stories. LPs are authoritative sources (Montgomery 2007), but they convey a message which may be regarded as distant from the layperson, while VOXs are recognised as “one of us” and may lead to a more direct identification.The present study investigates the role of LPs and VOXs in British, Italian and Polish TV news reports through the analysis of a comparable multilingual corpus consisting of transcripts of TV news programmes (both public and commercial channels). All news stories included in the corpus have been divided into items related to ‘EU affairs’ and ‘European countries’ on the one hand, and ‘other’(both domestic news and international non-European stories) on the other. We will focus on the role of attribution, mainly drawing on the Appraisal System (Martin & White 2005), in utterances by LPs and VOXs, and the rhetorical effects deriving from such positioning. In order to carry out the comparison, the corpus will be queried exploiting the XML annotation which allows for detailed comparisons between countries and voices.A quantitative analysis will make it possible to compare different uses of sources in TV news programmes when news items deal with the EU and European Countries vis-à-vis other topics in order to describe the way different forms of attribution are used when Europe related topics are dealt with, providing insights on the representation of Europe in TV news programmes in the three Countries. The quantitative analysis will be complemented with a more qualitative one of a news item available in all TV news programmes which will help shed light on the differences in attitude towards Europe across the three countries and between state/commercial broadcasters.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
