Assessment 3: Annotated Bibliography

Bell, A. (1991). Telling stories. The language of news media (pp. 245-268). Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell

Allan Bell, is currently working as the Director of the Institute of Culture, Discourse & Communication and is a Professor of Language & Communication at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, combining his research there with work as a freelance journalist and media consultant. Based in the frameworks of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, this book draws together a growing research literature and informs it with the author’s own immediate observations and experience as both journalist and researcher. Allan Bell emphasizes the importance of the processes which create media language, as news stories are molded and modified by various hands. He stresses it is indeed stories that journalists and editors produce, not articles. These stories have viewpoint, news values and structure that can be analyzed. Citing research figures of the degree of determiner deletion in American and British prestige media, such as Guardian and ABC news, Bell says that this show journalist would like to make considerable changes for their news styles to suit their audience. The author points out that it is hard to separate news form and news content. The values of news drive the way in which news is presented. Bell uses points form and diagrams to explain different values in the news process/events and the structure of news stories. Three different mediums of journalism and communication relating ‘September 11’ are cited below, which deepens the understanding of the author’s arguments, and the ideas of news values presented in the journalism profession.

Pilkington, Ed. & McVeigh, K. & McGreal, C. (2011, September 11). America remembers the victims of 9/11 with tributes and tears. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/11/america-remembers-911-victims

Ed Pilkington is the Guardian's New York correspondent, and a former national and foreign editor of the paper. Karen McVeigh has been a senior news reporter for the Guardian since December 2006. Chris McGreal is the Guardian's Washington correspondent and is also a former BBC journalist in Central America and merchant seaman. The article brings a message that America will never forget the victims of September 11 with tributes and tears even after ten years. Beginning with a reminder of the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001, three authors, quoting the words from an American girl's T-shirt: "Never forgotten" to restate the main spirit of America. Three authors continues by describing the saddening scenes of 9/11 anniversary when the victims' relatives struggled to keep their composure, as they read out the name of their own loved-one, including plenty of victims' stories. Although the events of September 11 have been in the public eye for 10 years already, they are deemed valuable, which called ‘Currency’ in the news value. Since the Guardian is an authoritative and prestigious British national daily newspaper, the information and content is trustworthy; it had a certified average daily circulation of 248,775 in paper form in July 2011 and has the second largest online readership of any English-language newspaper in the world, after the New York Times. Besides, in order to report the circumstance in 9/11 anniversary in detail, the article was wrote by three authors instead of one author which lowered the possibility of subjective standpoints.

Liddy, M. (2011, September 10). The day before the storm: Photos of Sept 10, 2001. ABC News. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-05/the-day-before-the-storm-september-10-2001-photos/2870854

The author, Matthew Liddy, started his career in journalism with ABC News Online in 1997 and is now executive producer of special coverage. Also, he has covered three federal elections for ABC News and has helped lead online coverage of major events, which lends credibility to his interviews of September 11. The ABC news website article, interviewed eight people before 9/11 anniversary sharing the photos they took of New York City and Washington DC the day before the infamous terrorist attacks, and answer three questions about their experiences at the time. Liddy's questions of the interviews, for example, interviewees’ experiences on September 11, 2001, are effective in demonstrating the news values to attract readers- 'Proximity' and 'Continuity'. The source of the article is as credible as The Guardian who won the prestigious Newspaper of the Year Award in both 1997 and 1998. The ABC has grown remarkably since 1932 and the ABC Board is responsible for the ABC's operations, which up to seven Directors are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Government. The ABC Act requires that Directors must be experienced in broadcasting, communications or management. Moreover, to maintain the independence and integrity of the Corporation, the Board is also responsible for ensuring that the gathering and presentation of news and information is accurate and impartial, according to recognized standards of journalism, and that the ABC complies with legislative and legal requirements.

9/11: The Reckoning. (2011, September 8). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/08/us/sept-11-reckoning/towers.html#1

The New York Times made a photos slideshow of September 11 before 9/11 anniversary. The New York Times, is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The slideshow is made up with 76 photos and some texts slides, which shows the process of World Trade centers' rise and fall. Since The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization, its source is more credible than the guardian and the ABC in a certain extent. In addition, its website is the most popular American online newspaper website, receiving more than 30 million unique visitors per month. This reported approach is different from the traditional news reports, namely online news and video discussed above, this news slideshow is presented in a way that is interesting and fresh for all the audience. Also, the content is more understandable because presenting by visual languages (photos) sometimes is much powerful than words and can easily drive audiences' emotions. Both the New York Times and the ABC news interviews by Matthew Liddy, would like to attract readers' attention before 9/11 anniversary, the ABC news interviews is more successful in terms of the news value 'Proximity' as the records of interviewees' answers and experiences make the story much meaningful to their audience. Rather than review the happening of 9/11 like the New York Times and the ABC news interviews, the Guardian reports in both texts and video form, which clearly describes the situation of 9/11 anniversary at that time. For example, in the video, it shows the US president Obama met families of victims before the ceremony. For this reason, the public would be more likely to prefer the Guardian within three news reports as it includes both visual forms and words.