Communication
News Stories
Lead-in questions:
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Think of the paper or magazine you regularly read. What kinds of articles does it contain?
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Which section of the paper/magazine do you prefer to read? Why?
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What characterizes the structure of the articles in this section? What components does it have?
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Attribution |
Where the story came from |
| Abstract |
Lead sentence/introduction (central event + one/more secondary events, actors, setting), headline |
| Story proper | One/more events (actors, action, time place), with one/more episodes (clusters of events) |
Additional elements: |
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| Background |
Events prior to the current action |
| Commentary |
Journalists/news actors observations, assessment, comments on the events |
| Follow-up | Any action subsequent to the main action of an event (verbal reaction or non-verbal consequences) |
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Source: Bell, A. (1998). The discourse structure of news stories. In A. Bell, & P. Garrett (Eds.), Approaches to media discourse (pp. 64-104). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. |
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Task 1
Study the table that contains the core elements of news stories identified by Bell (1998). Write the name of the element next to its description.
Task 2
Write a short article in English, reporting on a current event you have heard of and including the following elements: