Comparing

Comparing tv news programmes

A

framework

for

analysis

Analysis

A

descriptive

framework

to

describe

news

programmes

:

Framing

,

focusing

,

realising

,

closing

Linguistic

,

discursive

,

semantic

framing

the concept of frame is repeatedly invoked in media

research

the term is mainly used to represent some form of interpretative coding, or ‘schema

’

privileging one interpretation over another by a number of means

Verbal and visual

‘

through repetition, placement, and reinforcing associations with each other, the words and images that comprise the [news] frame render one basic interpretation more readily discernible, comprehensible and memorable than others’

(

Entman

1991

: 7)

reveal ‘critical textual choices’

choices

that seem natural and unremarkable unless

comparison

with other sets of textual choices exposes their central role in helping to establish what he calls ‘the

“

common sense” (i.e., widespread) interpretation of events’

(

Entman

1991

: 6).

Three levels

our analysis of framing involves attention to three levels of meaning

:

linguistic,

discursive,

and

visual

each

of which,

combines

to produce particular perspectives on, and conceptualisations

of the topic or issue through

the representation of the news event.

Linguistic

features

of the verbal text which tend to be sites of explicit or implicit evaluation (

Iedema

,

Feez

and White 1994)

These can be

potentially instrumental in the treatment of

related

issues/themes by individual broadcasters.

Linguistic 2

the use of personal pronouns, for example, the

newsworkers

’ use of

I

indicating personal involvement; the use of

us

and

we

,

they

and

them

to reference shared knowledge and to construct ‘the other’;

and the use of

you

as evidence of the positioning of the viewer/audience with respect to the news being reported.

Linguistic 3

the use of mental process verbs (e.g.

think, know

) and verbs of affect (e.g.

care, hope

) where the

newsworker

attributes ‘thoughts’ or ‘feelings’ to news subjects, thereby constructing an evaluation of a given situation.

Other relevant features in the expression of evaluation may include choices in modality, metaphor, deictic reference, and the selection of specific semantic fields and collocations.

Different frames

From a linguistic perspective, the analysis gives us some basis for claiming that in each broadcasting channel, different frames may be emerging in the conceptualisation of the topic, and in how they position themselves in relation to the issues

voices

in the realisation phases a difference between the realisations.

Presentation through voices of political and expert elites,

Or the voices of ordinary members of the public in

vox

sequences.

Discursive

At the discursive level, we focus on the organisation of the individual news items, basing our analysis partially on Hartley’s (1982) categories of news structure: the

framing

,

focusing

,

realising

and

closing

elements of a news report.

Framing and focusing

We treat the news presenters’ introduction as the opening frame,

the

discursive development of the central segment –

‘

focusing’ by the news reporter – is significant in terms of the choices made regarding

how

specific aspects and themes of the news presenters’ introduction are elaborated on.

Realising

the

selection of visual material and

voices

In

addition to the news presenters and reporters,

two

other categories of ‘voice’:

legitimated persons

(LPs) who are the named expert and elite participants speaking as public figures, usually on behalf of an organisation or institution

,

and

vox

– members of the general public who appear in news broadcasts speaking on their own behalf, and whose function is often to represent the views of the general public

Closing

the

way the report ends, its closing

segment

‘closing’ is the dominant meaning produced by item as a whole, or what is ‘left behind in the viewer after the story is over [...] the closure of various possible interpretations of the event and the preferring of just one reading’

(Hartley1982:119).

more

specifically,

the concluding sequence of a report, its coda, or ‘wrap-up’, which may contribute to a ‘preferred reading’ of the whole report (

Haarman

, 2009).

Verbal and visual

the

way verbal and visual texts are combined in the editing process, this synchrony

is

a prime meaning-bearing component of the television medium.

A

sense of immediacy and reality is conveyed by the combination of images and sound, which ‘enhances the credibility of news reports’ (Graber 1988).

Images

images

in television news clearly have a strong referential or descriptive function when in synchrony with the verbal text, commenting on, or illustrating it (Montgomery 2005,

2007)

images also play a major role in priming pre-existing interpretative schemas and stimulate viewers to relate the images to ‘similar information previously stored in memory’ (Graber 1990).

This

would suggest that viewers are led to interpret new events in terms of familiar ones.

televisual context

do we see participants:

speaking to camera while making statements?

in an interview?

out of doors, or in a studio?

or other interior setting?

Verbal/visual fit

the

analysis of the verbal/visual ‘fit’ may highlight previously unexplored aspects of

how issues

are framed.

the

typology of visuals, e.g. particular use of archive material or stills, recorded or live footage (and live sound),

graphics

any

relevant features of the visual representation of participant ‘voices’

Practice

Now

analyse

the

items

on the UN and Syria in

terms

of

Linguistic

features

framing

,

focussing

,

realising

and

closing

and in

terms

of

verbal

and

visual

fit

Voices

And

televisual

context