Steven Robinson

Introduction & Mythology

 

For my investigation I decided to view the differences between multiple news reports covering the same event. In greater detail, each news report is from a variety of countries. By analyzing multiple reports I am able to investigate the differences and similarities of linguistic and grammatical techniques used by a variety of news reporters covering the same event, which is presented to the public on a national scale. The event that is being covered by Fox, ITV and the BBC for my investigation is the 2011 Japan tsunami.

My data is collected from YouTube provides me with each report given at the time of Japans disaster. Each Broadcast will be transcribed into a script where I can then analyze all linguistic and grammatical techniques used within the broadcast by the reporters. Not only will I be able to analyze linguistic and grammatical techniques but I can also look at gender as well because all reports have both male and female speakers having debates and conversations with others which is where power theories will fall into.

All reports were done at the time of the crisis rather in the morning or afternoon the next day, there is a combination of both female and male speakers, spontaneous and planned speech which is quite useful for my investigation because it provides me with multiple areas of language to cover. Every report has similarities and differences to analyze in greater depth, which in the end would allow me to see if my hypothesis on my investigation is true or false.

Steven Robinson

Transcript of ITV News Coverage: Japans Natural Disaster  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYDT48bMj5A

Key:

(.) - Indication of a pause.

(2) - Indication of a two second pause etc.

<Interruption>

[Introduction to news on Japan natural disaster]

Alistair Stewart: Japans double disaster, its strongest earthquake on record creates a devastating thirty foot Tsunami (.) raging water surged across the land (.) tearing down building carrying debris and people at terrifying speed

Andrea Benfield: Early reports for the number killed in the hundreds but many, many more are missing (.) the true human cost of this disaster have yet to emerge (2). Britain and the rest of the world stand ready to help in the search and rescue operation that will follow. (Other stories introduced skipped to the news coverage at 1.28)

Alistair Stewart: Good evening, nature unleashed its fearsome power on the people of Japan today in a double disaster that has caused massive damage (.) early this morning a huge earthquake under the sea, the seventh most powerful earthquake every recorded caused destruction and panic across the country.

Andrea Benfield: But worst was to come, a devastating Tsunami trigger by the quake, that has obliterated communities washing away; homes, businesses and cars and taking an unknown number of lives. (.) The Earthquake eight thousand times more powerful than the recent one in Christchurch was centre off Japans northeast coast near the city of Sendai.

Steven Robinson
English Investigation

Transcript of BBC News broadcast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NfTlSXuvZQ

(.) Slight pause
(1) Pause over one second and up to two seconds

(2) Pause of over two seconds and up to three seconds

<Interrupted>

The duration of the broadcast is 13:38 minutes long. I Begin to transcribe into text at 3:32.

Female Reporter: Well here in Indonesia you only have to mention the word tsunami (.) and people immediately think back to what happened in two thousand and four, that huge Asian tsunami which devastated the provenience of Aceh here (.) killing about a hundred and seventy thousand people. (2) But, this time it seems that Indonesia has been spared the brunt of what’s happened in Japan. (1) There were some tsunami waves which hit the northeast of the country, but they were relatively small only about half a meter high and caused no damage (2) but some people still decided to spend several hours up in the mountains waiting it out (1) and that’s probably because (.) after what happened in Aceh people are fare more educated (.) about what tsunami are, and what to do when one happens (1) and the government has also put in place a tsunami warning system, which covers at least part of the country (2) and next week there was due to be a big international tsunami drill here in Indonesia (.) co-hosted with japan (1) the scenario was an earthquake which triggered a tsunami that fanned out across the region (2) for many people here since what’s happened in Japan (.) it’s a scenario which must seem frighteningly real.

Female Tourist: Well I’m in Hawaii, which is ugh, a small island west of the big island (.) and ugh we were evacuated ugh were on a south shore of Hawaii in ugh (.) a resort in a of town called Pawaypou umm right on the coastline and we were evacuated umm and told to go to higher ground (.) umm were about ten miles umm now, inland and…and north of Pawaypou umm (.) warnings ugh have been giving and umm to past the time when the first impact was scheduled to potentially arrive and ugh (.) and were still waiting to see if indeed umm a further, wave might come in and ugh and meanwhile the roads are closed ugh were in ugh a community college about ten miles umm north of the shoreline, and just sort of waiting and watching.

Male Reporter: The effects…were not…not expected to be particular dramatic here and seem to have passed largely without incident the, emergency management ugh officials here say some of there detectives they…they've barely registered ugh…ugh a blo…still people were told to keep away from beaches and were they were told that the waves (.) here could be over five and might for trouble knock you off your feet or damage boats in…in harbors and so on, so its that sort of a… that sort of a warning, but umm (.) tsunamis are taken seriously along the coast yeah particularly as…as you may well know the British Columbian coast is dotted with some very small and quite remote communities so getting word to some of them sometimes ugh has been a cause of concern so emergency plans kicked into effect, sirens went off, some people spent nights in…in school gymnasiums in ugh higher levels umm just to be on the safe side, umm because really the Falk line runs just off the coast here and ugh a major earthquake is always a possibility here and people want to be sure that they, they never take these thoughts of things to lightly.

Steven Robinson
English Investigation

Transcript of Fox news broadcast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxYnFONs 8c

Key:

(.) slight pause
(1) Pause over one second and up to two seconds

(2) Pause of over two seconds and up to three seconds

<Interrupted>

The duration of the broadcast lasts up 3:43 seconds, I begin to transcribe the report at 0:46 into it

Male Reporter: It’s a much different story in Sendai a lot of the videotape that we been rolling throughout the morning (.) when you see that water come across that farmland, Ugh…That is we believe the town of Sendai that what you see (.) ummm boats and homes and so much debris literally, washing to the side. Now we await the word (.) on what happens here in the US Bill Leaf is with me now, he is a Seismologist of the US Geological survey and Bill good morning to you, we are watching Hawaii..

Bill Leaf:                                           <Good morning…>

Male Reporter: Watching the west coast of the US (.) your reaction

Bill Leaf:                    <Brian…>

Male Reporter: to what has been an absolutely (.) horrific scene so far.

Bill Leaf: Oh I agree with you completely horrific… And duh and no doubt that this is gonna be historic, ummm (.) thee this is as you reported the (.) largest earthquake ummm (.) in, in modern history in Japan, its one of the five largest earthquakes, to have occurred in, in modern history, history ummm and its obviously produced a very large Tsunami ummm, on the coast of Japan and that’s that were finding out the impact of (.) across the pacific now…

Male Reporter: bill, bill you do this for a living (1)

Bill Leaf: <eh yes >

Male Reporter: Have you ever seen images like these? (2)

Bill Leaf: well, yes in fact in two thousand and four umm (.) the, the great earthquake in the Sumatra Undermaza Indonesia region that, ugh (.) that killed so many thousands, ten’s of hundreds of people ummm (.) ugh that was an earthquake actually even larger than this one (.) produced a Tsunami that propagated all the way across the India ocean there were similar scenes in Thailand and Sumatra ugh to the ones that were seen this morning in Japan.

Male Reporter: but to see it capture on tape like this I think is… is something the world is being introduced to (1) ugh…the fury of

Bill Leaf: <Yes>

Male Reporter:  Mother Nature and the power of mother nature bill…
Bill Leaf: yes it is quite remarkable.

Male Reporter: we are waiting for more word as to what happens in Hawaii, what happens on the west coast of US, up in Canada; down through Mexico and to South America, what is your expectation?

Bill Leaf: Its very difficult to predict (1) ummm…and the reason is that the local effect of a tsunami ummm (.) across the ocean, is dependent on the configuration of the land underground so (.) ummm if as you know ugh above ground we have rivers and we have mountains and the same situation is present underground and we call that befimatre and that befimatre, causes focusing or de-focusing of the wave so…so the wave can have locally (.) sometimes a very large amplitude because of a focusing affect on the coastline or it can ugh,  not amount to much, it could amount essentially being ugh very strong tide (2) umm…  and, and I do want to mention that these strong tides can have very significant effects we’ve seen that in, for…for example in Crescent City, ugh I understand that Crescent City California has been Evacuated and part…

Male Reporter:                        <In the (.) in the northern part of that state.>

Bill thank you, you’re a terrific guest.

Steven Robinson

English language 

My investigation consists of multiply news report covering the same event on a national scale, to compare the differences of lexical techniques, structure and presentation towards the public. To further understand the differences between each report I constructed two graphs; based on lexis and grammar on the Fox and BBC news broadcasts.

There’s strong evidence from each graph that show that the news reports each hold more differences than similarities for example: the BBC news report uses more complex sentences than simple in the broadcast, while the fox news report tends to use more simple sentences suggesting that the fox news report is more informal as compared to the BBC news which is more formal. This in turn also relates to the high use of conjunction in the BBC report and not so much in the Fox Cover, which suggests that the grammatical structure of the BBC report has a more formal approach than the Fox News Coverage. However the Fox news tends to use a lot more declaratives than the BBC coverage but also as a second note the fox report tend to use a more direct approach towards the audience as supposed the BBC who covers the topic with a more indirect approach.

However lexis plays an important role on the difference between each broadcast. The BBC news uses a lot more fillers, pauses, and hesitation than the Fox news, this maybe down to the informality of the BBC broadcast as they cover the topic in a more indirect way compared to the Fox news broadcast who use more direct approach. However the fox News broadcast uses a lot more lexical field choice than the BBC report does this suggests that the Fox news report wants to reinforce the Devastation of the tsunami in the mind of the viewers, this is supported by the fact that the Fox news report uses a lot more repetition than the BBC report to reinforce the issues that Japan face from this present disaster. However the BBC report uses a lot of Disjunction and jargon closely together to alter the more informative approach of the topic to a more serious discussion on the destruction it has caused.

Overall I do believe that both graphs support my hypothesis on the differences of lexical techniques, structure and presentation skills used by each news report in order to broadcast to the public in an effective way.

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