Journalistic Discourse and Modality

1. Journalistic Discourse and Modality Fundamentals of Media CommunicationWeek 6 2010

2. TASK Read the following text (handout). Consider and answer the questions: What are your initial reactions to this text? Where is the text from? Is the text written in a subjective or objective voice? What is the field, mode and tenor of this text? What other texts is this text related to, and how do you know that it is related to other texts? What genre is this text? What is the aim of this text?

3. Text 1 Excluded by language Thank you to Bernard Chan for bringing to light the situation faced by international students at Hong Kong’s universities (“Learning from foreign students”, September 29). As an international student at City University, I can confirm that we are sometimes treated with friendliness and sometimes with hostility. Some local students want to befriend us, and we treasure their friendship. However, most local students do not welcome us. Rather, we are made to feel that we have caused them inconvenience by forcing the lecturers to talk in English, rather than Cantonese. This is something that baffles virtually all international students I know. We were told that the medium of instruction is English, which is why we felt comfortable choosing to study here. But many classes are conducted in a combination of Cantonese and English, and some are entirely in Cantonese. Finding the right courses to enrol in at the beginning of a semester can be a most frustrating experience. Even when a course document says the medium of instruction is English, it often isn’t. Sometimes, the lecturers will switch to English when they notice the presence of international students. Many, however, simply suggest we drop their courses. Unless the universities enforce English as the language of instruction, they are just paying lip service to internationalization, and our experience will not encourage other foreign students to come here.

4. Today Section A: An account of some of the key argumentative or persuasive media genres (taken from a longer section on media genres). Notes taken from: Iedema, R., S. Feez & P.R.R. White. 1994. Media Literacy, Sydney, Disadvantaged Schools Program, NSW Department of School Education. Section B: Modality

5. Section A: Newspapers What are the different sections in a newspaper? How are these sections linked? How have newspapers changed?

6. The editorial page with letters to the editor and the comment and opinion articles normally follows the 'hard' news, the human interest stories, and the international news.

7. Newspapers no longer see their role as principally conveying the "hard" news of the day. Electronic media, and especially radio, usually beat them to it.

8. Newspapers have had to carve out a new niche for themselves. One strategy has been to foreground opinion by presenting comments in tandem with "hard" news on the front page. The structure of the newspaper has not been altered altogether however. The first pages are still dominated by "hard" news in terms of both presentation (layout and font size of the Headlines) and quantity.

9. Similarly, in the electronic media, news bulletins are followed up with current affairs programs which present discussions about issues or events. Often discussions involve people giving their opinion, or arguing a case. The texts which present arguments are often called 'commentaries' or 'comments', because they offer opinion.

10. The social purpose of argumentative texts is to argue a case in such a way that the audience is convinced of the truth of the viewpoint or the merits of the proposal. E.g. "Excluded by language" (SCMP, 2006) is clearly to bring the reader round to the author's view that there are problems with the notion of ‘international students’ studying at Hong Kong Universities. Argumentative Media

11. HeadlineExcluded by language (South China Morning Post, 12 Oct 06) OrientationThank you to Bernard Chan for bringing to light the situation faced by international students at Hong Kong’s universities (“Learning from foreign students”, September 29). ThesisAs an international student at City University, I can confirm that we are sometimes treated with friendliness and sometimes with hostility. Argument 1Some local students want to befriend us, and we treasure their friendship. However, most local students do not welcome us. Rather, we are made to feel that we have caused them inconvenience by forcing the lecturers to talk in English, rather than Cantonese. Argument 2This is something that baffles virtually all international students I know. We were told that the medium of instruction is English, which is why we felt comfortable choosing to study here. But many classes are conducted in a combination of Cantonese and English, and some are entirely in Cantonese. Argument 3Finding the right courses to enrol in at the beginning of a semester can be a most frustrating experience. Even when a course document says the medium of instruction is English, it often isn’t. Sometimes, the lecturers will switch to English when they notice the presence of international students. Many, however, simply suggest we drop their courses. Reiteration of thesisUnless the universities enforce English as the language of instruction, they are just paying lip service to internationalization, and our experience will not encourage other foreign students to come here.

12. Models of Argumentative Genres Exposition as the genre - is "used to put forward a point of view, or argument" (Iedema et al 1989, p.20). The structure of the Exposition is described as follows: Thesis ^Arguments 1-n^Reiteration

13. Comment versus Hard News Communicative Objectives - different How are these Media Expositions different from the News Stories we looked at above? News Stories are concerned with specific details about when and where and who, and this is why we find many time, place and people references, and many doing and saying processes. The “WH questions” – is commonly presented as a Mass Media language.

14. Textual structure: Expositions VS News stories

15. Expositions are concerned with why speakers or writers believe something is or should be the case, and that is why we find many instances of logical conjunction. We find many conditional conjunctions ("If..., then..."):

16. We also find many causal conjunctions, and conjunctions expressing contrast:

17. Exposition (Media) • Exposition in Media text ties all the arguments together in a Conclusion • A text type that has a clear ending. Unlike the News Story, the Media Exposition has "closure". • Its Conclusion brings the issues addressed in the Media Exposition together and sums them up. It is as if the text has reached a point of rest because it has achieved its aim: • Exposition - "stages" that each have clearly defined and differing roles to play in the overall text and which presume an internal ordering: Orientation^Thesis, ^Arguments1-n^Conclusion • Expositions play a very important role in the media.

18. Change in Media Genres • Historically newspapers consisted of little else than Expositions, especially the radical pamphlets of the previous two centuries, which specifically aimed at converting the masses to the cause of the worker. • Only in the late 19th century that newspapers began to see their role as not to argue and persuade, but as to provide "objective" information about recent events.

19. Media Challenges Depending on how controversial or important a particular issue or event is judged to be, the kinds of texts which argue or attack points of view It may be moved forward into the news pages, or may be given more prominence in broadcast programming. Frequently a news story - is accompanied by a 'comment' piece by a senior writer or commentator. It is especially in the field of politics where in addition to arguing a point, people often take opportunity to publicly attack or discredit the views of others Others: Educational context, particularly in the humanities and social sciences Position challenged^Rebuttal 1-n^Anti-thesis

20. Media Discussions Another type of text we often find at this stage of factual media reporting – texts which consider and discuss different viewpoints in relation to a particular issue, and which may or may not come to a conclusion in favour of one of the views discussed. Media Discussions play a major role in current affairs programs where the views of different people or political factions are presented, or where the different sides to an issue are reviewed. Media Discussions may be 'objective' and 'factual' reports about an issue and the various views associated with it, e.g. on a Sunday, ‘The Pearl Report’, on TVB Pearl which is linked directly to discussion points here in HK.

21. The (Media) Discussion starts out with an issue, and proceeds to give two (or more) views on the issue. Each view, or argument for or against, comprises a point and an elaboration of that point. The point provides an opinion and the elaboration provides reasons for that opinion. In the text above, Statement of Issue^Arguments for^Arguments against^(Recommendation) The last stage, where the author (or discussion leader) comes to a recommendation on the basis of the information received, is optional.

22. The generic structure of argumentative texts - conclusions All the texts are unified by a common social purpose, that of arguing for the truth of authors' propositions or the merits of their proposals. We have seen that there are at least three sub-types of journalistic argument genres, those of Media Exposition - simply argues for a proposition Media Challenge - argue by refuting a counter position Media Discussion. - differ from both in that they merely tell us about the different views available; they do not always aim to convince us of a point of view.

23. We identified the three genres by looking at their textual structure, their patterns of 'textual development', and their social purpose.

24. Section B: Modality The Concept of Modality – Modality is the social semiotic approach to the question of truth issues of representation – fact versus fiction, reality versus fantasy, real versus artificial, authentic versus fake– and to questions of social interaction– what is regarded as true in one social context is not necessarily regarded as true in others the truth as speakers and writers and other sign produces see it, and with the semiotic resources they use to express it

25. The text below comes from the ENCARTA interactive multimedia encyclopedia (Microsoft, 1995) Most Native Americans believe that in the universe there exists a spiritual force that is the source of all life. The Almighty of Native American belief is notpictured as man in the sky; rather it is believedto be formless and to exist throughout the universe. The sun is viewed as a manifestation of the power of the Almighty, and the Europeans oftenthought Native Americans were worshipping the sun, when in fact, they were addressing prayers to the Almighty, of which the sun was a sign and symbol.

26. How true is the voice of the Native Americans represented here? First: their version of reality is called a belief and a view – ‘there exists a spiritual force that is the source of all life’, ‘the sun manifests the power of the Almighty’ ‘belief’ has been opposed to proven fact and the dominant truth of Western societies have had to be grounded in science

27. Second a sign and symbol of the Almighty lowers truth value the ‘sign’ of a thing is not the thing itself Finally beliefs are represented as not shared by all – ‘most Native Americans believe …’ ‘they were addressing prayers’ – and are not necessarily valid in the here and now

28. The voice of the ‘Europeans’ Low modality ‘they often thought …’ – because ‘thinking’ suggests that their view is no longer tenable today

29. Compare the two below God ‘is pictured as a man in the sky’ God ‘is a man in the sky’ Lower modality

30. e.g. high modality: ‘In fact, they were addressing prayers’ Christian vocabulary to interpret the beliefs – ‘the Almighty’, ‘addressing prayers’ – while ‘worship’

31. Using the modality resources of English to assign … different modalities, different degrees of truth to those different versions of reality e.g. frequency terms like often, many; cognition verbs such as believe, picture as, view as; modality adjuncts such as in fact; tense, and so on

32. Linguistic resources allow people to: create the shared truths they need in order to be able to form groups which believe the same things and can therefore act cohesively and effectively in and on the world and they also allow people to downgrade the truths of others, with all the potential consequences that may have, from freezing people out of a group of friends to religious and ideological wars

33. Linguistic Modality a specific grammatical system, that of the modal auxiliaries – may, will and must express three degrees of modality: low, medium, and high Truth is not an ‘either-or’ mater (true or false), but a matter of degree She may use another name (low modality) She will use another name (medium modality) She must use another name (high modality)

34. expressed by related nouns – e.g. certainty, probability, possibility adjectives – e.g. certain, likely, possible adverbs – e.g. certainty, probably, maybe The idea of probability. (the above example) They represent values on a scale that runs from ‘Yes, true’ to ‘No, false’

35. Frequency modality a scale that runs from ‘Yes, always’ and ‘No, never’ – or ‘Yes, everybody’ to ‘No, nobody’ the more often what-is-asserted happens, or the more people think or say or do it, the higher the modality of that assertion She sometimes uses another name (low frequency modality) She often uses another name (medium frequency modality) She always uses another name (high frequency modality)

36. subjective modality and objective modality subjective modality the stronger my inner conviction about the truth of an assertion, the higher the modality of that assertion subjective modality this frame has a person as the subject and uses a ‘verb of cognition’ it is these verbs which then express the degrees of modality, for example, know-believe-guess I have a feeling that she uses another name (low subjective modality) I am fairly confident that she uses another name (medium subjective modality) I am convinced that she uses another name (high subjective modality)

37. objective modality the idea of objective truth is explicitly expressed (this does not mean that the assertion actually is objectively true, merely that it is represented as such) objective modality, the frame begins with ‘it is’ or ‘there is’, and it is this which explicitly expresses impersonal objectivity the frame then uses nouns or adjectives to indicate the degree of modality, for example: It is possible that she uses another name (low objective modality) There is a good likelihood that she uses another name (medium objective modality) It is a fact that she uses another name (high objective modality)

38. Subjective modality is used in fields that are considered personal, such as romantic love, psychotherapy, art, certain kinds of religion. An objectivity is the most highly valued kind of truth in the dominant institutions of Western societies Subjective modality tends to be used in connection with people who have comparatively little social power, for example, women, children, consumers, patients, or as we have seen, native peoples.

39. Martin, J. R. and White, P. R. R. (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave

40. In media interviews the expert is usually asked questions which seek to elicit objective modality – ‘What IS the case?’ the ordinary person-in-the-street is usually asked questions which seek to elicit subjective modality – ‘What do you FEEL about it?’

41. Let’s summarise the analysis of the ‘Native American beliefs’ text more fully in the table below:

42. According to social semioticians modality is not restricted to language but is a Multimodal concept. All means of expression have modality resources. The question of truth emerges in all of them, even if the kinds of truth they allow and the ways in which they express degrees of truth will be different.