Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Written by a former news reporter and editor, News Talk gives us an insider's view of the media, showing how journalists select and construct their news stories. Colleen Cotter goes behind the scenes, revealing how language is chosen and shaped by news staff into the stories we read and hear. Tracing news stories from start to finish, she shows how the actions of journalists and editors - and the limitations of news writing formulas - may distort a story that was prepared with the most determined effort to be fair and accurate. Using insights from both linguistics and journalism, News Talk is a remarkable picture of a hidden world and its working practices on both sides of the Atlantic. It will interest those involved in language study, media and communication studies and those who want to understand how media shape our language and our view of the world.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of figures and tables (p. x)
• Acknowledgements (p. xi)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part I The process and practice of everyday journalism (p. 13)
• 1 An interactional and ethnographic approach to news media language (p. 15)
• 1.1 Contradictory perceptions about news media behaviors (p. 17)
• 1.2 The ethnographic advantage (p. 19)
• 1.3 Exploring news and news language from the perspective of the practitioner (p. 23)
• 1.4 Influences on media language and discourse (p. 24)
• 1.5 Characteristics and tendencies of media language (p. 26)
• 1.6 Conclusion: process and practice - underexplored dimensions (p. 29)
• 2 Craft and community: Reading the ways of journalists (p. 30)
• 2.1 Articulating primary values (p. 31)
• 2.2 The craft ethos (p. 36)
• 2.3 The community factor (p. 43)
• 2.4 Conclusion: locating and understanding news priorities (p. 47)
• 3 The ways reporters learn to report and editors learn to edit (p. 49)
• 3.1 "Ways of speaking" (p. 50)
• 3.2 Socialization into news culture (p. 52)
• 3.3 Loci of learning (p. 61)
• 3.4 Conclusion: the apprentice model and journalistic practice (p. 63)
• Part II Conceptualizing the news (p. 65)
• 4 News values and their significance in text and practice (p. 67)
• 4.1 Determining "newsworthiness" (p. 68)
• 4.2 News values govern journalistic practice (p. 72)
• 4.3 News judgment and "instinct" (p. 77)
• 4.4 Similarity and variation (p. 82)
• 4.5 Conclusion: the role of news values (p. 85)
• 5 The "story meeting": Deciding what's fit to print (p. 88)
• 5.1 What happens at a story meeting: The Oakland Tribune (p. 90)
• 5.2 Role of news values in story meetings (p. 94)
• 5.3 Other news-community values (p. 97)
• 5.4 Boundaries and norms of professional behavior (p. 100)
• 5.5 Conclusion: news priorities in relation to practice (p. 106)
• 6 The interaction-based nature of journalism (p. 110)
• 6.1 Interaction through practice (p. 111)
• 6.2 The supremacy of the local (p. 119)
• 6.3 Loci of interaction (p. 125)
• 6.4 The pseudo-relationship between news media and community (p. 128)
• 6.5 Conclusion: identifying interaction in the journalistic context (p. 131)
• Part III Constructing the story: texts and contexts (p. 133)
• 7 Story design and the dictates of the "lead" (p. 135)
• 7.1 Principles of newswriting (p. 136)
• 7.2 Story design (p. 139)
• 7.3 The lead (p. 151)
• 7.4 Conclusion: the importance of craft (p. 169)
• 8 "Boilerplate": Simplifying stories, anchoring text, altering meaning (p. 171)
• 8.1 News discourse rules and boilerplate (p. 172)
• 8.2 Features of boilerplate (p. 176)
• 8.3 Implications of boilerplate (p. 180)
• 8.4 Conclusion: responsibility and "neutral" text production (p. 185)
• 9 Style and standardization in news language (p. 187)
• 9.1 Background: language standardization (p. 188)
• 9.2 Language standardization in the news context (p. 190)
• 9.3 Journalists and language: complaints, values, and injunctions (p. 194)
• 9.4 Changes and innovations in news style (p. 201)
• 9.5 Conclusion: language awareness and journalistic identity (p. 211)
• Part IV Decoding the discourse (p. 215)
• 10 The impact of the news process on media language (p. 217)
• 10.1 Delivering the news (p. 217)
• 10.2 Coherence of the text (p. 219)
• 10.3 Linguists as "experts" in news stories (p. 220)
• Conclusion and key points (p. 230)
• Epilogue (p. 235)
• Appendices (p. 237)
• Appendix 1 Story samples (p. 239)
• Appendix 2 Outline guide for the analysis of news media language (p. 247)
• Appendix 3 SPJ Code of Ethics (p. 251)
• Glossary of news and linguistic terms (p. 252)
• References (p. 259)
• Index (p. 272)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

News media are everywhere, hence the logic and importance of linguistic study of the language news reporters use. However, as Cotter (Queen Mary, Univ. of London, UK) notes, until recently such studies were few and treated primarily linguists in the UK. Cotter attempts to remedy this by looking at the language of US media, primarily print. She wisely includes examples from not only the major American newspapers but also smaller regional papers. Although at first glance this book may appear similar to others--for example, Norman Fairclough's Media Discourse (1995) and Roger Fowler's Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press (CH, Dec'91, 29-1923)--Cotter quickly sets her study apart from earlier works by examining in depth the process of creating news and how this process puts pressure on journalists to write a certain way. A former journalist herself, Cotter draws on both her experiences and interviews with working reporters, offering keen insights into the behind-the-scenes constraints that shape news stories. This critical scrutiny makes this book a valuable addition to any library and a must read for both linguists and journalists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. P. J. Kurtz Minot State University