прагматика и медиа дискурс / Teun A van Dijk - News Analysis

coverage between newspapers, countries or regions in First and Third World countries. First World countries are defined as all countries of Europe (including those of Eastern Europe), the United States and Canada, Israel, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. All other countries are classified as Third World. For several practical reasons, all African countries are considered Third World, including South Africa, represented here by two newspapers with 10 items. Since the notions of First World and Third World are not well defined, these lists are somewhat arbitrary.

QUANTITATIVE RESULTS

Coverage Frequencies and Size

From 138 newspapers listed in Appendix 2, 729 articles were analyzed, that is, about five articles on average for each paper, although the issues of the newspapers contained 896 articles about the events in Lebanon. The newspapers came from 72 different countries, including 29 First World countries with 84 newspapers, and 43 Third World countries with 61 newspapers. The number of articles analyzed were nearly the same for each major region, 366 from the First World and 363 from the Third World.

Frequencies

The Lebanese daily, Le Réveil, which is close to the Falangist party, contributed 54 items to the study, the most for any single paper. For several days, practically the whole newspaper was dedicated to the death of their leader. The New York Times was second, with 18 items. In general, the U. S. quality press published much about the events in Lebanon: 41 articles in four newspapers analyzed (which is consistent with earlier findings; see Hopple, 1982). England, France, The Netherlands, West Germany, Venezuela, Spain, and Indonesia were represented with more than 20 items each, with Venezuela and France having the highest averages per newspaper (see Appendix 2 for details). Most articles (366) analyzed were dated September

were dated September 15, and 227 September 17.

Table 2.8 lists the various regions of the world and the size of their coverage of the events in L,ebanon on the three target days. Western Europe, which also is represented with the most newspapers, leads the list with 245 items, followed by the Middle East, and Central and South America (which together have 142 items analyzed). As may be expected, the Middle East has the highest average number of articles per newspaper, followed by

Donohue, 1973; and Rugh,

( ) Number of newspapers.

1979 for relevant background about the amount and nature of foreign news in the Arab press.) Only a few newspapers were represented from Africa and South Asia, but the mean number of articles per newspaper is not much different from that in other regions. Approximately the same number of articles from First and Third world countries have been analyzed, however, so that comparisons between First and Third world news items could be made (Table 2.9).

Size

Frequencies of articles in newspapers, countries, or regions only tell half the stoiy about the amount of coverage. Also relevant are the size of articles and total coverage per newspaper, measured in centimeters. Some newspapers,

TABLE 2.9

Number of Scored and Actually Published Articles in First and

Third World Newspapers

( ) Number of newspapers.

such as those of Eastern Europe, only print a short item, whereas others have long stories. Table 2.10 shows that, except for Le Réveil, the New York

Times leads the list, with more than twice the coverage of its immediate successors, such as the Los Angeles Times, Dutch NRC-Handelsblad, and

Le Monde. Note that apart from the world's leading quality newspapers from northwestern countries, a number of Third World newspapers are represented in the list of papers that have more than 2500 cm 2 of coverage, including The Daily Journal and El Universal from Venezuela, El Día from Uruguay, and El Moudjahid from Algeria. In general, Latin-American coverage is substantial and comparable with the major newspapers in North America and Western Europe. Across First and Third World boundaries, this similarity may be the result of the prevailing influences of common history and culture, on the one hand, and direct dependence of European and especially U. S. news media formats, on the other hand.

Table 2.11 compares the sizes of coverage from various world regions. Western Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East have the largest volume of news about the events. Yet, when we take mean article size, the United States, closely followed by Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), has the highest score. The Middle East has the highest total coverage size per newspaper. Article size is smallest in Africa and South Asia. Eastern Europe has the smallest overall coverage per newspaper. If we compare newspapers, it appears that on average newspapers in Portuguese are rather long: more than 500 cm2. A Capital, for instante, has one article of 1325 cm2. There seem to be different news formats, partlydue to cultural differences.

TABLE 2.10

Newspapers That Have the Largest Coverage of the Events in Lebanon

Dccimals rounded; size a- 2,500 cm 2.

Note that the tabloids in general have only very small items, usually shorter than 100 cm2.

Headlines

The size of the headlines or the mean width of the articles were also compared. There were no significant differences between First and Third World countries. Articles, and hence headlines, usually occupy between two and three columns. Only a minority of the newspapers (109) had a separately, often boldly printed lead. Many newspapers in English use the first sentence as a lead sentence summarizing the topics of the news stoty.

Photographs

There were 387 photographs of Gemayel, mostly portraits or pictures taken alter his election a few weeks earlier, about one photograph for each two articles. Again, there was no difference between First and Third World papers (196 and 190 respectively). Regions with less coverage (Africa, South Asia, and Eastern Europe) also have comparatively few photographs. East Asia however carried many: 26 accompanying 10 items. Lebanese

had scores of photographs. This somewhat inflates the Third World average number, especially the mean size of photo per article, which is tvvice as high (83 cm2) in the Third World.

Type of Article

Finally, when type of article (news, background feature, editorial, or other) was compared, the only difference was in the proportion of background articles, 21.4% in First World newspapers and 14.7% in the Third World press. Proper news articles occur in the same proportion (about 66%) in both cases; this also holds for commentaries (about 11%). Third World newspapers have more other kinds of items, including poems (in Le Réveil). Quantitatively, the smaller amount of background articles is one of the more remarkable differences found in this first round of analysis and can be related to the difference between sources, viz. dependency or nondependency on agencies.

Comparing First and Third World

With somewhat fewer items in more newspapers, the total size of the coverage in the First World press is only slightly higher than Third World newspapers. This was also true for mean article length. Yet, the Third World press has higher coverage per newspaper. Since the variance in both groups is considerable, it can be provisionally concluded that there are no significant differences in coverage size between First and Third World papers that were analyzed. Stories in both groups had papers with many or long articles, but both also had papers with just a few small items. The Western popular or tabloid press, as well as the Eastern European party press, had very modest coverage, albeit for quite different reasons. The overall balance in news coverage between the First and the Third World did not extend to individual countries or regions, however. In many sub-Saharan countries in Africa, there are very few, sometimes modest, newspapers, and press coverage here simply can not be compared to that in Western Europe, the Americas, or Australia (Barton, 1979). Also, from Asia we had to select mainly Asian newspapers that were primarily in English and often shaped after the example of newspapers of colonial Great Britain. And although the coverage in the English press of Asia is rather similar to that of the quality English press elsewhere, details about the account of events in Lebanon in most other newspapers of Asia not written in languages accessible to the study were ignored. Yet, the analysis of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean press shows that differences are rather marginal.

Conclusion

In general, then, we proceed with the assumption that quantitatively the overál differences between the First and the Third World press are only minimal regarding the amount of articles, article size, or total coverage size. The same holds for the amount of photographs or the sizes of headlines or the layout of the articles. Variation is substantial only among regions, countries, and newspapers. At first glance, it seems that the quality press in both the Third and the First World has similar coverage and differs mainly with the popular press (tabloids) or the smaller local press. This suggests that the elite anywhere in the world (except perhaps in Africa and, from a different point of view, also in Eastern Europe, see Lendvai, 1981) has access to more or less the same amount of news about an important international event. Remembering that the Third World press has few reports from its own correspondents and must take most news from the international agencies, similar coverage in First and Third World must imply that on average the Third World press depends more on the agencies. This assumption is partly confirmed by a somewhat smaller amount of background articles in the Third World press.

THEMATIC STRUCTURES

Introduction

Against the background of the quantitative results discussed in the previous section, we may now proceed to a qualitative analysis of the news data. We start with a description of the thematic structures of the news articles about the assassination of Gemayel. Recall that by thematic structure we understand the hierarchical organization of themes or topics of a text, theoretically accounted for in terms of semantic macrostructures. The thematic structure, thus, defines what is the most important information of a text. It contains the respective topics and their mutual relations. The story about the assassination of Bechir Gemayel presents topics such as the following:

1.Gemayel held a meeting with Falangist officials in his party headquarters in East Beirut.

2.A heavy bomb exploded.

3.Many people were killed or injured, and the building was destroyed.

4.At first there were rumors that Gemayel had survived the bomb attack.

5.But hours later his mutilated body was found in the rubble.

titative data about the occurrence of topics in different newspapers, countries, or regions is presented.

The following newspapers were analyzed:

1.The New York Times (USA) Sept. 15, 1982.

2.Granma (Cuba) Sept. 15, 1982.

3.Excelsior (Mexico) Sept. 15, 1982.

4.El Universal (Venezuela) Sept. 15, 1982.

5.El País (Spain) Sept. 15, 1982.

6.Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden) Sept. 15, 1982.

7.Renmin Ribao (China) Sept. 16, 1982.

8.Indonesian Times (Indonesia) Sept. 16, 1982.

Although several of these well-known newspapers have more than one story about the assassination and its aftermath, this study uses the first story in each case. In the Asian press, where the reports were published later due to the time difference with Beirut, the story about the invasion of West Beirut by the Israeli army is also part of the news report. Only the topics about the assassination itself, however, are included in the study.

New York Times

We have noticed before that the coverage in the New York Times is the most extensive outside of Lebanon itself. In three days, 18 articles were dedicated to the events in Lebanon. On September 15, there are several items. Besides the items presented in this discussion, there was another article about the U. S. government's reaction to the assassination, a background article about the situation in Lebanon, an obituary about Gemayel, and an editorial comment. Note that in many newspapers such personal and political background information about Gemayel or Lebanon may appear as special topics in the main news item about the assassination.

Headlines. The Times has a multiple headline, which in part also covers an item on president Reagan's earlier Mideast plan and the reactions of the administration to the assassination. Such a treatment of the U. S. relevance of news events in the world is routine in the U. S. press, as well as in much of the world's press, especially in Northwestern countries. For each event in which the United States is involved, the extent to which the event furthers or frustrates U. S. policies is reported. The liberal press in the United States is no exception, and a separate article about the fate of Reagan's mideast plan, providing for some kind of Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank under the supervision of Jordan, formulates the possible consequences of

the death of the Falangist leader for this plan. After all, Israel and the United States were the first to have welcomed the election of their Lebanese ally, Bechir Gemayel, who was seen as the major opponent of the PLO and the Syrians in Lebanon (for details and analysis, see Chomsicy, 1983). The headlines express the major topics:

a.CEMAYEL UF LEBANON IS KILLED IN BOMB BLAST AT PARTY OFFICES

b.Hussein praises Reagan's Mid-East plan

c.8 reported slain

d.President-elect was 34

e.—No group reports making the attack

The main headline is the expression of the highest topic of this news item, and most of the headlines in the world's press are variations on this type of headline. The subheadlines are more specific. Subheadline b. was discussed previously and summarizes part of another front page article. Subheadline c. mentions a major consequence of the attack, the number of other victims, whereas d. identifies Gemayel both in terrns of his function (president-elect) and his age. Finally, e. answers the implicit question about the agents of the attack. The total headlines, thus, answer the well-lmown questions: what happened, where did it happen, to whom did it happen, who did it, what were the results, and in what context did it happen. The lead, which runs as follows:

1.Gemayel was killed on Tuesday.

2.A bomb shattered the headquarters of the Falangist Party.

3.The government said that Gemayel would be buried today (Wednesday, September 15).

basically repeats the summary of the main themes, while at the same time adding details and a new subtopic, namely the announcement of Gemayers burial.

The Derivation of repica From the Text. Next, the text was examined and the respective topics were identified intuitively by sentences or paragraphs. A purely formal derivation cannot be given here. It would require dozens of pages and involve many technicalities that are not relevant for this discussion. The reader is referred to van Dijk Kintsch (1983) where a semiforrnal macroanalysis of a news report is given. As a criterion, discussed

76 THEMATIC STRUCTURE S

in the previous chapter, each topic or macroproposition must semantically subsume several propositions expressed in the text (possibly with the help of implicit frames or scripts). At the same time, each topic thus identified is associated with a hypothetical semantic function, such as cause, consequence, or actor. These indicate the semantic structure defining the relations between macropropositions, as well as the functions of specific elements of macropropositions.

Table 2.12 lists twenty topics and a few subtopics. The topics involved can be seen as global semantic answers given to various major questions about the assassination: the circumstances of the event, including time and location, the results, the major participants and their characteristics, results (victims), reactions and consequences, previous events and historical background, etc. These categories are also the major categories that define a cognitive situational model. That is, the thematic structure of the Times item provides the framework for the construction of a new situation model, while at the same time script information 1 1- complex event of a political assassination. Even when no information is available about one of the model and script categories, such as the identity of the agents of the attack, the newspaper will routinely mention the fact that the agents are still unknown.

The list of topics in Table 2.12 is merely a list, and not yet a thematic structure. It indicates in which order the topics are presented in the text. This means that the first topics are high-level topics about the main events, followed by topics about context and background. Later, main event topics are specified with a number of subtopics. The order of topics, as we know from our theoretical analyses given in Chapter 1, need not represent a natural order, e.g., defined in terms of causality or chronology. Rather, the order is defined in terms of relevance, and embedded in the news schema, to which we tum in the next main section.

Figure 2.1 organizes the topics listed in Table 2.12 into a hierarchical thematic structure. The main topic dominating the thematic structure is expressed first and in the main headline of the New York

the position of the other topics need not be reflected directly in the textual organization of the topics. Causes, history, and context do not occur first in a news item, as they might in a natural story or a political science analysis of the events. That is, theoretically speaking, the structure displayed in Figure 2.1 needs to be transformed into a linear sequence of main and subtopics under the constraints of relevance criteria and the categories of the news schema. This means, for instance, that main event topics must come first, before historical background, context, or consequences. Yet, the hierarchy of topics and subtopics is clear from Figure 2.1. This means that the information that Gemayel was killed by a bomb is more important (more general) than the information about time, location, and other circumstances. This