UNIT 1 Global news in English

1
UNIT 1 Global news in English

• TELEVISION (satellite and cable) e.g. BBC
  World, CNN
• RADIO NEWS e.g BBC Radio World Service
• NEWSPAPERS WITH A WORLD NEWS COVERAGE
• (e.g. The Financial Times, The New York
  Times)
• INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS OF NEWPAPERS AND MAGAZINES
  (e.g. The Herald Tribune, The Economist)
• NEWS AGENCIES (e.g. Reuters, Ansa)
• INTERNET ALTERNATIVE NEWS (e.g. personal blogs,
  forums, websites e.g. http//indymedia.org
• (for a longer list see Slides from Past
  courses 2007-8 in my website)

2
A brief history of the British press (Part
1)(see the Website of the British Library, A
concise history of British journalism and the
Britannica Encyclopaedia)

• The invention of the printing press (1447) opened
  the era of the modern newspaper
• In the 17th century newspapers began to appear
  regularly in European countries. They usually
  covered foreign rather than domestic issues
  because of censorship The first daily newspaper
  in England was The Daily Courant (1702).
• In the 18th century men of letters like Addison
  and Steele and dr. Johnson wrote essays
  addressed to the middle class in the magazines
  The Spectator or The Tatler. The novelist Daniel
  Defoe published the magazine The Review and is
  considered the father of the English editorial.
  1785-88 The Times was launched.

3
A brief history of the British Press (part II)

• In the 19th century the reduction of taxes and
  the development of technology ( the telegraph was
  invented in 1844) helped print media, allowing
  for timely report of events. The first penny
  paper, The Daily Telegraph, was founded in 1855.
  Most present-day newspapers were launched as well
  as the Sunday papers.
• The beginning of the 20th century was the golden
  age of print media, which became financial
  empires and had a major influence on events such
  as wars and elections
• In the 20th century newspapers were forced to
  compete, and come to terms, first with the radio
  (in the 20s), later with television (in the
  40s) and recently with the Internet. Popular or
  tabloid newspapers developed to suit the needs of
  a less educated readership.

4
The British Press in the Internet era(Part III)

• Almost every adult in Britain reads or sees a
  daily newspaper and many people remain loyal to a
  particular paper for life, OALD Ecyclopedic
  Edition, 1992 (Is it still true today?)
• The Economist has predicted that generalist
  newspapers will die by 2050

5
The British Press

• Types of newspapers
• National (11) or regional / local ( very many)
• Daily papers (11) versus Sunday editions (12)
• Quality (heavies/broadsheets,upmarket) The
  Times ( since 1785), The Guardian (since 1825),
  The Daily Telegraph (since 1855), The Financial
  Times (1888), The Independent (1986)
• popular (tabloids, gutter press) The Sun (since
  1964), The Daily Mirror ( since 1903), Daily Mail
  (since 1896), Daily Express ( since 1900), Daily
  Star (1978), Morning Star (since 1930)

6
The British Press recent developments (Part IV)

• THE MOST POPULAR NEWSPAPER IS THE SUN (more than
  3 million copies sold per day).
• NEWSPAPER READERSHIP HAS BEEN DECREASING SINCE
  THE MID 90S, ESPECIALLY AMONG THE YOUNG
• MANY BROADSHEETS HAVE RECENTLY GONE COMPACT
• MANY NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES HAVE AN ELECTRONIC
  VERSION
• FREES (FREE NEWSPAPERS DISTRIBUTED IN BIG
  CITIES OR IN THE UNDERGROUND e.g. Metro) ARE
  BECOMING VERY POPULAR
• THE SPECIALIST PRESS IS MORE POPULAR THAN THE
  GENERALIST PRESS

7
Some landmarks in the American Press (Part I)

• The birth of the modern newspaper is linked to
  the American Revolution, to the name of Benjamin
  Franklin and to the political debate after the
  Independence of the American colonies at the end
  of the I8th century.
• In the 19th century the freedom of the Press was
  guaranteed by a constitutional amendment. The
  popular and sensational yellow press coexisted
  with other newspapers committed to serious
  news-reporting ( Slogan of The New York Times,
  It will not soil the breakfast cloth)
• 1851 The New York Times was founded
• In the 20th century a very high number of
  newspapers has been launched, but very few have a
  national readership. Some newspapers have several
  national and international editions. After 1995
  all the most important ones have developed an
  online edition
• Growth of the ethnic press
• Customized/personal news

8
The American Press (part II)

• 1,452 dailies with a total of 51 million copies
  sold, but the readership has been steadily
  decreasing in the last 40 years ( see State of
  News Media 2007)
• Main quality newspapers
• The Wall Street Journal
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• The Herald Tribune
• Los Angeles Time
• USA Today
• Tabloid
• Daily News
• New York Post
• Alternative/radical/independent Press
• The Village Voice
• Mother Jones
• Ethnic Press
• Ebony
• Develoment of on-line news
• Global Voices, Moveone.org, Slate

9
TEXT 3 Fresh, Raw Milk on Tap in Turin, Italy

• Torino, Italia il latte fresco crudo esce dal
  rubinetto
• Latte crudo, fresco di giornata, (alla spina) a
  Torino
• Succede a Torino a Eataly si può comprare il
  latte fresco crudo
• Latte fresco crudo a gogo a Torino
• Torino, latte fresco crudo per i buongustai

10
Suggested translation of TEXT 3 from the New
York Times

• On a recent trip to Turin, I visited Eataly, a
  food lovers paradise that is part food hall,
  part classroom and part wine shop almost all of
  it local and artisanal. Situated in the former
  Carpano vermouth factory, Eataly is to Turin what
  Peck is to Milan and La Grande Epicerie is to
  Paris.

• Durante un recente viaggio a Torino, ho visitato
  Eataly, un paradiso dei buongustai, che è negozio
  ma anche scuola di prodotti di alta
  enogastronomia, quasi tutti locali e artigianali.
  Situato in quella che era un tempo la fabbrica
  del vermut Carpano, Eataly è per Torino quello
  che Beck è per Milano e La Grande Epicerie per
  Parigi.

pm
11
(follows)

• What really caught my attention wasnt the
  fresh-baked breads, the fish market next to the
  fish grill or the cheese stand near the cozy
  pizza and wine bar, but a large, unassuming box
  near the bread section. On it was a life-size
  photo of an adorable cow with a sign that read,
  Latte crudo 1 euro, and a newspaper article
  about the health benefits of raw milk. Every
  morning a local farmer delivers his cows milk to
  Eataly, where its pumped into the cooler. As
  with bulk filtered-water fixtures at many Whole
  Foods (sorry, New Yorkers, I havent seen any
  here yet), customers either bring their own
  bottle or buy a new one and fill it up. One euro
  for a liter of fresh raw milk? Incredible.

• La mia attenzione è stata attirata non tanto dai
  diversi tipi di pane fresco, dal mercatino del
  pesce vicino alla rosticceria o dal banco dei
  formaggi vicino allaccogliente locale per
  mangiarsi una pizza e bere un bicchiere di vino,
  ma un grosso contenitore senza pretese vicino al
  settore del pane. Mostrava la fotografia a
  grandezza naturale di una adorabile mucca con
  accanto una scritta che diceva Latte crudo, 1
  euro e un articolo di giornale sui vantaggi del
  latte crudo per la salute. Ogni mattina un
  agricoltore/contadino della zona porta/consegna
  a Eataly il latte delle sue mucche, che viene
  messo (pompato) dentro un refrigeratore. Come
  nel caso dei grandi distributori di acqua
  filtrata che si trovano in molti supermercati
  americani e britannici della catena Whole Foods
  (peccato che io non ne abbia ancora visti a New
  York!), i clienti portano la loro bottiglia o ne
  comprano una nuova e la riempiono. Un euro per un
  litro di latte fresco crudo? Incredibile!

12
(Follows)

• As far as I know, this country doesnt have
  anything like Eataly. And in New York, raw milk,
  a hot food topic these days, can only be bought
  at one of 19 dairy farms approved by the state.
• The exciting news plans are in the works for a
  New York City Eataly, possibly as early as this
  November. The raw milk station? Unlikely.

• Per quanto ne so io, lAmerica non ha niente di
  simile a Eataly. A New York, il latte crudo è un
  argomento molto discusso. Può essere acquistato
  solo presso 19 aziende agricole /caseifici
  certificate/i dallo stato.
• Una bella notizia è imminente lapertura di un
  negozio di Eataly a New York, forse già il
  prossimo novembre. Verrà anche venduto latte
  crudo? E poco probabile.

13
Some corpus collocations in English and in
Italian with milk/latte

• Skimmed
• Semi-skimmed
• Full-fat
• Creamy
• Fresh
• Raw
• Boiled
• Condensed
• Powdered
• Pasteurised
• Sour
• Long-life
• formula

• Scremato
• Parzialmente scremato
• Intero
• Cremoso
• Fresco
• Crudo
• Bollito
• Condensato
• In polvere
• Pastorizzato
• Acido/andato a male
• A lunga conservazione
• Per bambini piccoli

14
SOME POSITIVE ENGLISH /ITALIAN COLLOCATIONS
WITH FOOD/CIBO

• ORGANIC (farming)
• HOME-COOKED
• HEALTHY/ HEALTH
• WHOLESOME
• QUALITY
• FRESH
• ARTISANAL
• LOCAL
• NATURAL
• WHOLEFOOD (noun)

• BIOLOGICO agricoltura
• Fatto in casa
• SANO
• GENUINO
• DI QUALITA
• FRESCO
• ARTIGIANALE ( e.g. prodotti, panificazione,
• pasticceria)
• LOCALE
• NATURALE
• ALIMENTI INTEGRALI (noun)

15
Is newspaper discourse specialized discourse?

• A newspapers contains several genres
• information (e.g. weather forecast, sport
  results, statistics),
• opinion (e.g. editorial, op-ed, letters),
• news (the 5 main Wh words Who, what, where,
  when, why),
• feature articles (facts/events but usually
  including the authors explicit or implicit
  opinion, or stance)
• What is newsworthy?
• negativity, recency, proximity, relevance,
  personalization, facticity,
• continuity, competition, predictability
• clarity, brevity, colour, liveliness
• What is the source of the news?
• the journalists firsthand experience,
• data, specialised literature
• reported facts,
• news agencies

16
Some features of journalistic style

• Conciseness (e.g. headlines, nominalisations)
• Attention-getting devices (e.g. headlines,
  graphics, pictures, captions, puns, humour,
  clichés, metaphors and metonyms)
• How to report opinions ( e.g. direct or indirect
  speech, authors explicit or implicit
  stance/evaluation)
• Lexical choices, e.g. lexis in specialized areas,
  such as politics, sport, economy, food
• Naming /labelling of people or things
• Syntactic choices tenses, active or passive
  voice, modality, marked and unmarked word order

17
Main features of an online newspaper

• It is regularly updated
• It has no limit of space and gives the
  opportunity to consult the archives, retrace and
  download old articles through key word search
• It is multimodal, e.g. it includes photos, video
  and audio features
• It may provide background information and
  related materials through links
• It is interactive, e.g. it may allow readers to
  write comments and it may highlight the most
  popular articles
• It may be either totally or partially free, or
  require a subscription fee

18
From the THE ECONOMIST website

• first published in 1843
• It goes to press on Thursdays and, printed
  simultaneously in six countries, is available in
  most of the world's main cities the following day
  or soon after.
• it covers world business and current affairs,
  providing authoritative insight and opinion on
  international news, world politics, business,
  finance, science and technology, as well as
  overviews of cultural trends and regular
  industry, business and country special reports.
• What, besides free trade and free markets, does
  The Economist believe in? "It is to the Radicals
  that The Economist still likes to think of itself
  as belonging. The extreme centre is the paper's
  historical position. It considers itself the
  enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.
  It has backed conservatives such as Ronald Reagan
  and Margaret Thatcher. It has supported the
  Americans in Vietnam. But it has also endorsed
  Harold Wilson and Bill Clinton, and espoused a
  variety of liberal causes opposing capital
  punishment from its earliest days, while
  favouring penal reform and decolonisation, as
  well asmore recentlygun control and gay
  marriage.

19
The Financial Times

• British business and financial newspaper.
• It is now printed in Frankfurt.
• It has a UK, a European, a US and an Asian
  editions.
• Launched in 1888
• Published as a broadsheet in pink coloured pages
• In 1995 it launched its website