Annotated Bibliography

  

Pounds, G. (2010). Attitude and subjectivity in Italian and British hard-news reporting: The construction of a culture-specific ‘reporter’ voice. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 106-137. Retrieved from

http://dis.sagepub.com/content/12/1/106

 

The author, Dr Gabrina Pounds, the Lecturer in University of East Anglia, sophisticatedly crafted an in-depth investigation into the English hard news reporting culture. Her more than two decades investigation into news discourse enables her work to be accredited by Discourse Studies, an authoritative peer-reviewed Communication journal that is ranked as the world’s 35th best by the 2011 Journal Citation Reports. Dr Pounds’ article explores that though hard news is traditionally seem to be impersonal, news always contains subjectivity as it exists in a society whereas ideologies are always at work. Even though some argues that public media is more objective than commercial media, according to Dr Pounds, the difference within subjectivity between them is mainly just the level of ‘explicitness’. Dr Pounds argues that through the combination of appraisal choices (the attitude in news stories), specific ‘evaluative voice’ and authorial stance that are dependent on the context are constructed. Through the investigation of appraisal system, theories and the comparison between English hard news and foreign news, Dr Pounds emphasis that English hard news features avoiding direct indication, using mediated inscribed judgment, frequent reporting of observed affectual responses and specific selection of word choices. Through the extensive citation from various academic sources, diagrams and background information, the article perspicuously demonstrates the elements that construct hard news such as the story of Taliban’s attack on a schoolgirl. This story has been covered by ABC News (internet), Sky News (TV) and The Australian (print).

  

 

 

Khan, R., & Santana, R (2012). Shooting of Pakistan Girl Activist Sparks Outrage. Retrieved from

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/shooting-pakistan-girl-activist-sparks-outrage-17440167

 

The ABC website news article, written by Rebecca Santana and Rina Khan, delivered a relatively multi-angle coverage on Taliban’s attack on Malala Yousufzai. Beginning with the description of how Yousufzai, a 14-year-old school girl is shot by Taliban because she advocates girl’s educational right, the article then places heavy focus on various parties’ reactions to this matter. This article includes a lot of statements from Yousufzai’s supporting side, such as major power, U.S and Pakistani officials, and locals’ rallies and prayers for Yousufzai. Also, the article reports the opposition’s statement, such as the Taliban and some other Pakistanis. The article then wraps up by the analysis made by local political analyst and journalist; this enables the audience to view the overall situation at a relatively critical perspective. According to Dr Pounds’ appraisal model, the author’s stance of leaning towards supporting Yousufzai is revealed by the major focus on Yousufzai’s supporters’ observed affectual responses. However, when comparing with the news from Sky News and The Australian, this article is relatively neutral as it distances itself from partiality by evaluating the opposition’s statement. Such impartial stance of ABC may because of that it is a public media governed by its own branch without direct control from external forces. Thus, it is reputed as non-bias by 85% of Australians.

 

 

  

Sky News (Writer). (2012, October 11). Sky News [Television Broadcast].      Brisbane, Australia: Sky News Australia.

 

As a commercial media, Sky News’ ultimate purpose is to generate audience for advertisers. It has dramatized its TV’s coverage on Yousufzai’s story to create larger public interest. The story opens with the scene of mass Pakistanis protesting for Yousufazai, while the voice –over emotionally states “Shocked, but defiant. Women all over Pakistan have taken to the street in massive”. The video then follows by the emphasis on Yousufazai’s merits and achievements as a right advocator and its opposition Taliban’s militant outrage and shooting while images of the bloody van where Yousufzai is shot is shown. Subsequently, it can be seen that through the use of strong image, choice of words and authorial stance’s own interpretation of Pakistani public’s mental process, Sky news has strongly positions the audience to endorse its subjective view of “justice vs. evil”. In addition, the audio used to cover this story is serious and low, which creates a heavy atmosphere. Consequently, it can be observed that Sky News’ partiality stance is made apparent by the over-make up and personal-like narrative that demonstrates commercial media’s feature of creating interest over truth. Hence, in comparison with public media ABC, which is set to act as public service for information, Sky News’ credibility is relatively lower.

 

 

 

Hodge, A. (2012, October 11). If schoolgirl survives, we will get her again: Taliban. The Australian, p. 9.

Retrieved from Library.PressDispaly.

 

The Australian’s long-term establishment of half a century and its position as the best-selling national newspaper in the country has established itself as an authority in the field of journalism. Nonetheless, as part of the commercial media, its credibility of impartiality may be debatable. The Australian’s coverage on Yousufazai’s story emphasis on the critical medical condition of Yousufazai’s injury as it occupies most of the story with an enlarged image of Yousufazai lying on a hospital bed with blood while doctors are all surrounding her in the middle. This story has created a sense of serious condition as the author takes a quite explicit blaming stance towards Taliban via appraisal choices of emotional words and sarcasm which indicates personal judgment. For instance, the author uses descriptions like “brutal suppression”, “Malala was shot ‘point blank’ in the head” and sarcasm such as “thanks to the brutality of those same extremists, it was unclear whether she could ever return to her studies”. In comparison with the others’ coverage on this story, The Australian has delivered the most explicit subjectivity stance via unmasked appreciation and judgment. Additionally, its mere focus on Yousufazai’s medical condition is the narrowest among the three texts. Consequently, it indicates that The Australian’s story of Yousufazai is the most bias one as that only the perspective from Yousufazai’s side is reinforced in an emotional voice.