The Mass Media and Journalistic Genres
The Mass Media
The mass media disseminate public information to a massive audience through specialized communication systems. They influence public opinions and social behaviors, which gives them immense power in society.
Characteristics of Mass Media:
- It is a unidirectional process, from issuer to receptor.
- The issuer is a media outlet, while the receiver is anonymous and part of a mass audience.
- The media provides information about objective or subjective reality (context related to reporting or opinion).
- Communication is established through an artificial channel that requires complex technology.
- Linguistic code: Uses graphic codes, icons, and sounds that constitute the meaning of the message.
The aim is to provide information, therefore, the referential function dominates. However, interpretation and evaluation of information are also present. The difference between information and opinion lies in the degree of subjectivity.
The Press
The press is the oldest means of social communication. It employs written language, which allows for deeper processing of information compared to audiovisual media. Newspapers require costly infrastructure and rely on advertising, so the majority belong to large media companies.
Sources of Information for the Press:
- News agencies (sell news)
- Special correspondents (journalists sent to report on events)
- Editors (handle local information)
- Files and documentation
Classification of the Press:
- Periodicity: Daily, weekly, bi-weekly, etc.
- Content: General or specialized information
- Geographical area: Local, regional, national, or international
- Quality: Quality press or sensationalist/popular press
Journalistic Language
The language of the press is complex, combining verbal codes with other codes. The verbal language includes different types of texts and genres: informative, opinion, or mixed.
Content:
- Organizes the newspaper into sections, topics, and territorial sections.
- Criteria for organization vary: placement in the newspaper, length (indicating importance), fixed or variable content.
- Linguistic and iconic codes can be heterogeneous, forming a journalistic language.
Journalistic Genres:
- Informative: News and reportage transmit data of new or known facts, without including opinions.
- Opinion: Editorials, op-eds, and letters to the editor interpret and transmit a personal or group perspective.
- Mixed: Chronicles, interviews, and cultural criticism include both information and opinions.
Style:
- Seeks clarity, concision, and objectivity.
- Features short sentences, precise and denotative vocabulary, use of the third person, and nominal or passive constructions.
- Uses a style that avoids personal features.
- Elements that contradict the ideal of clarity and concision include: structures from other languages, learned words, neologisms, euphemisms, abuse of specialized language, frequent use of acronyms, metaphors, wordplay, and colloquial register.
Headlines
Headlines are brief announcements, typographically highlighted, that head a news item or any other journalistic genre. Their function is to summarize, define, prioritize, open, or select. Headlines can include an antetitle (which adds information or clarifies content) and a subtitle.
Headline Style:
- Brief, precise, and informative to attract attention.
- Neutral in news, but more subjective in business and sports.
- Sensationalist wording uses short, simple sentences, ellipsis, meaningful noun phrases, omission of the verb, or proverbial and literary phrases.
- In features, stories, interviews, and columns, creativity increases with the abundant use of rhetorical figures.
The News
The most characteristic genre of the media, news is an account of current events of interest. It is written with objectivity and an impersonal style.
Elements of News:
News should answer the questions: what, who, how, where, when, and why (the six Ws). Sometimes, a piece of information may be missing, but the most important element appears in the first paragraph to attract attention.
Structure of News:
- Inverted pyramid (anticlimactic): Starts with the most important information and ends with the least important.
- Headline
- Entry (intro or lead): Clear and concise summary of the news, not necessarily including all elements.
- Body: Information is presented from high to low interest, written in paragraphs with significant autonomy.
A news item of little extension is called a brief. When a brief is inserted to fill a page, it is called a wedge.
The Story
A news story that develops with spaciousness and depth. The story provides other sources: direct testimony, statements from actors, new data, detailed descriptions of the environment. It consists of an entry and an extended body. The extension is varied, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a developed news item from a story. In a story, narrative and descriptive text are provided, and even if the intention is to be objective, it has a more personal style than the news.
The story also deals with issues of interest. This genre is very common in weekly publications or supplements and can include interpretative elements.
The Editorial
An article that expresses the opinion of the newspaper on current events or issues. It can include appeals to authorities or public opinion to take action on any controversial matter. The issuer of the editorial is the newspaper itself, so it appears without a signature in a fixed location, next to the newspaper’s credits. The interpretation and elaboration betray the ideology of the media outlet. It is a text combining exposition and argumentation.
Structure of an Editorial:
- Introduction
- Development
- Conclusion
The style is attractive; objectivity predominates, the self does not appear, and the tone is serene.
The Opinion Article
Includes columns, open forums, and commentaries. It is an article that discusses a topic of interest for its relevance or transcendence. The opinion article is signed by the author. These are often occasional articles, and their views do not necessarily coincide with those of the media outlet. The issues are often very different and do not necessarily represent the media’s perspective. The focus is subjective. The texts are argumentative or explanatory, and the structure is flexible. Guest writers give their own style to the articles, which are considered small essays.
The Letter to the Editor
A letter of opinion on any topic that readers send to the newspaper director. The letter must be signed and accompanied by the reader’s ID. The topics are varied, and the style should be clear, precise, and correct.
The Chronicle
Shares elements with information: it differs from the news because it includes a personal vision, and from the story because its theme is a rigorously current event. The chronicle’s function is to frame and analyze events that the reporter witnesses directly.
Chronicle types are varied: local, cultural, events, sports. The author must be a professional in the relevant field. Narrative and descriptive styles predominate, along with explanatory comments.
The Interview
A conversation in which interventions alternate between the interviewer and the interviewee. There is a distinction between the informational interview, where the theme is important, and the personality or psychological interview, which focuses on the character. Currently, interpretative interviews, which include opinions, predominate. Closed questionnaires with short and varied questions are also frequent. The text type is dialogue and is divided into two sections: the presentation, where the framework and the reason for the interview are explained, and the question-answer section. The style varies according to the type of interview.
Cultural Criticism
A genre that reports on a current cultural event and evaluates it, that is, praises or censures it, either totally or partially. It is thus an opinion piece. The author of the critique is a specialist in the area or art form being evaluated. The text is predominantly descriptive and expository-argumentative. The structure and style are free, and the approach can be very subjective.