Joseph Pulitzer

• Why can J. Pulitzer be considered the innovator of print journalism of his time? Name his innovations.

• Why is ‘yellow journalism’ called ‘yellow’?

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Joseph Pulitzer is famous due to some interesting facts. It is known, that he has created “new journalism”. So, the meaning of this expression consists of several points. And it depends not only on the catching, attractive headlines.

When Joseph Pulitzer worked at the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch”, he developed his role as a champion of the common man with exposés and a hard-hitting populist approach. He crusaded against big business and corruption.

When Pulitzer worked at the “New York World”, he recruited the famous investigative journalist Nellie Bly, who is famous for her record-breaking trip around the world in emulation of Jules Verne's character.

One more specific quality of the Pulitzer’s editing is that in his “New York World” introduced the immensely popular The Yellow Kid comic, the first newspaper comic printed with color.

In such way under Pulitzer's leadership circulation of the newspaper grew from 15,000 to 600,000, making it the largest newspaper in the country.

In 1895 a circulation was between the Hearst’s “New York Journal” and Pulitzer's “New York World” began. They followed the next principle: “In the war all means are good”. This competition with Hearst, particularly the coverage before and during the Spanish-American War, linked Pulitzer's name with yellow journalism.

Yellow journalism is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism.

The term was coined by Erwin Wardman, the editor of the “New York Press”. But he has never defined the term exactly. Possibly it was a mutation from earlier slander where Wardman twisted "new journalism" into "nude journalism". Wardman had also used the expression "yellow kid journalism" referring to the then-popular comic strip which was published by both Pulitzer and Hearst during a circulation war. In 1898 the paper simply elaborated: "We called them Yellow because they are Yellow".

But, of course, Joseph Pulitzer is the best known for posthumously establishing the Pulitzer Prize, a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. According to his will, he donated 2 million dollars to Columbia University for the setting up of the first school of journalism — Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism — and establishing the prizes for American journalists. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917. Since that time they are awarded yearly in twenty-one categories (Public Service, Breaking News Reporting, Investigative Reporting, National Reporting, International Reporting, Commentary, Criticism, Feature Photography, Fiction, Drama, History, Poetry, Pulitzer Prize for Music etc.).

11. Media and Beauty

How do Mass Media influence the formation of a beauty image?

Is beauty stereotyped by Mass Media? Prove your point.

How do fashion and style reality shows influence the society? (“What Not To Wear” “The Cut”, “Stylista”)

What beauty image is promoted by glossies?

It is well known that the media affect people. Glossy magazines and youth channels influence the formation and style. The popularity of skinny girls, comes from the glossy magazines. They actively promote leanness, advertise cosmetics popular brands of clothing designers. In addition to forming the image, glossy magazines take great care

The look a of perfect girl from the cover of the magazine is typical. They all are tall, skinny models with big lips and well-defined cheekbones. Women and men all over the world see these girls on the covers of fashion magazines and TV programs about fashion and beauty every day, so we can say, that this image is popular, and imposed by modern media. Advertisers believe that thin models sell products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models. But maybe in the near future the situation may change and the media will promote a different images. 

Also, now there are many reality shows about beauty and style. They help people look. They help people look good. Certainly appearance helps achieve success in business and private life. But often these reality shows impose the formula of success, which depends only on fashion and beauty. In real life everything is not so.People should remember that it is difficult to find a good job without higher education.

12. Media and Beauty

How do Mass Media influence the formation of a beauty image?

Is beauty stereotyped by Mass Media? Prove your point.

Characterize media portrayal of men and masculinity in men’s magazines (Playboy, Esquire, GQ, Maxim)

Who are metrosexuals and ubersexuals?

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm

It is well known that the media affect people. Glossy magazines and youth channels influence the formation and style. The popularity of skinny girls, comes from the glossy magazines. They actively promote leanness, advertise cosmetics popular brands of clothing designers. In addition to forming the image, glossy magazines take great care

Looks of perfect girl from the cover of the magazine is typical. They all are tall, skinny models with big lips and a well-defined cheekbones. Women and men all over the world see these girls on the covers of fashion magazines and TV programs about fashion and beauty every day, so we can say, that this image is popular, and imposed by the modern media. Advertisers believe that thin models sell products. When the Australian magazine New Woman recently included a picture of a heavy-set model on its cover, it received a truckload of letters from grateful readers praising the move. But its advertisers complained and the magazine returned to featuring bone-thin models. But maybe in the near future the situation may change and the media will promote a different images. 

For several decades now, media critics and feminists alike have been examining the role of the media in creating and reinforcing stereotypical representations of women and femininity. But only recently have they expanded the research to consider how the media also construct, inform and reinforce prevalent ideas about men and masculinity

In most media portrayals, male characters are rewarded for self-control and the control of others, aggression and violence, financial independence, and physical desirability

Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man (especially one living in an urban, post-industrial, capitalist culture) who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance. 

The word "Ubersexual" (from German Uber = above, superior and Latin sexus = gender) is a neologism for a patriarchal conception of masculinity. It is a variant of metrosexual, in that the male is "refined", but contains more of an implication of confidence and traditional notions of manhood than the former term

Ubersexuals are the most attractive (not just physically), most dynamic, and most compelling men of their generations. They are confident, masculine, stylish, and committed to uncompromising quality in all areas of life

13. Media bias

1.What is media bias? ( +3. Can mass media be completely objective or neutral?)

Media have tremendous power in setting cultural guidelines and in shaping political discourse. It is essential that news media, along with other institutions, are challenged to be fair and accurate. Here are some questions to ask yourself about newspaper, TV and radio news.

Media bias is the bias of journalists and news producers within the mass media in the selection of events and stories that are reported and how they are covered. The term "media bias" implies a pervasive or widespread bias contravening the standards of journalism, rather than the perspective of an individual journalist or article. The direction and degree of media bias in various countries is widely disputed.

Can mass media be completely objective or neutral?

In my opinion, they must try to be as accurate with the facts as it’s possible.

No matter how much we may try to ignore it, human communication always takes place in a context, through a medium, and among individuals and groups who are situated historically, politically, economically, and socially. This state of affairs is neither bad nor good. It simply is. Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message.

Politicians are certainly biased and overtly so. They belong to parties and espouse policies and ideologies. And while they may think their individual ideologies are simply common sense, they understand that they speak from political positions.

Journalists, too, speak from political positions but usually not overtly so. The journalistic ethics of objectivity and fairness are strong influences on the profession. But journalistic objectivity is not the pristine objectivity of philosophy. Instead, a journalist attempts to be objective by two methods: 1) fairness to those concerned with the news and 2) a professional process of information gathering that seeks fairness, completeness, and accuracy. As we all know, the ethical heights journalists set for themselves are not always reached. But, all in all, like politics, it is an honorable profession practiced, for the most part, by people trying to do the right thing.

It’s important to emphasize that presentation of information by journalist is also highly dependant on channels of information channels( TV, newspapers, New Media, Radio) and on

A genre of journalism ( ex analytical article, news, column, a program etc).

Because when we talk about news , like news about accidents journalists just have to give only facts without any opininion, but when it comes to a column, then in that case the whole material is made of author’s point of view. And because in some countries some mass media are more free than others.

For example in Russia,

the government controls the TV media, but news papers and new media are much more free an liberal. Do newspapers in Russia have a clear political slant? There are a lot of different political oriented newspapers and journals in Russia (“Novaya gazeta”,” Izestia” в общем все разные)

• 5. Do newspapers in the UK have a clear political slant?

The politics of UK newspapers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8282189.stm - 1 событие и 8 газет

It is quite interesting to watch news reports from other countries, now widely available on different cable networks that report news concerning US international issues. These stories tend to differ greatly from those presented by traditional US media. They may also have some media bias. An Irish news station might examine US decisions in relationship to how this affects Ireland. Often British news stations take a more global view, but media bias may still exist.

One of the advantages to global communication as we now have it, is that we do have access in this country to global views of our politics. One can read blogs from Sweden, listen to Al-Jazeera, read Chinese newspapers, or watch television that critiques our society. This access has a way of counteracting media bias because it allows for people to examine news themselves, in greater context. However, some prefer media bias because it presents information to them which reinforces their own opinions

2.Different types of media bias

Types of bias

The most commonly discussed forms of bias occur when the media support or attack a particular political party, candidate, or ideology, but other common forms of bias include

• Advertising bias, when stories are selected or slanted to please advertisers.

• Corporate bias, when stories are selected or slanted to please corporate owners of media.

• Mainstream bias, a tendency to report what everyone else is reporting, and to avoid stories that will offend anyone.

• Sensationalism, bias in favor of the exceptional over the ordinary, giving the impression that rare events, such as airplane crashes, are more common than common events, such as automobile crashes.

Other forms of bias including reporting that favors or attacks a particular race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, or ethnic group.

For example, in China, certain programs are allowed, while others may not be. Certain stories may be written while others must be ignored. This is an attempt to control thinking about the world in certain ways, which helps to sustain the government’s control of the people. Other countries also present news in ways slanted toward a particular set of ideals. Several Islamic countries, for example, control media and slant media to glorify religious ideals. This is especially the case in theocracies.

Another example of media bias, that tends to occur in Islamic countries, and in the US as well, is the presentation of facts that shows a national versus international bias. In most cases, when key world issues are discussed in presentation of the news in the US, these issues are discussed in terms of how they are perceived by Americans. They are not discussed in terms of how they are perceived by the world, in most cases.

Critical questions for detecting bias

1. What is the author's / speaker's socio-political position? With what social, political, or professional groups is the speaker identified?

2. Does the speaker have anything to gain personally from delivering the message?

3. Who is paying for the message? Where does the message appear? What is the bias of the medium? Who stands to gain?

4. What sources does the speaker use, and how credible are they? Does the speaker cite statistics? If so, how were the data gathered, who gathered the data, and are the data being presented fully?

5. How does the speaker present arguments? Is the message one-sided, or does it include alternative points of view? Does the speaker fairly present alternative arguments? Does the speaker ignore obviously conflicting arguments?

6. If the message includes alternative points of view, how are those views characterized? Does the speaker use positive words and images to describe his/her point of view and negative words and images to describe other points of view? Does the speaker ascribe positive motivations to his/her point of view and negative motivations to alternative points of view?

Дополнительные материалы по теме( чем больше вы болтаете - тем лучше):

How to detect media bias?- http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=121

CNN’s political slant - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090225115100AAXXMpY

Media Bias in USA - http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/02/16/how-biased-is-your-media/

http://rhetorica.net/bias.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_bias

http://www.nber.org/digest/jul07/w12707.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-media-bias-and-where-does-it-come-from.htm

14. СМ. 13

15. Девочки, в моих билетах очень много информации. В любом случае, каждый будет подстраивать ответы под себя, поэтому я всегда исхожу из принципа «чем больше информации, тем лучше», так что лучше вы выкинете то, что вам не нужно, чем будете сами что-то доискивать. (Настя Редкостная)

Билет 15. Newspapers

• What are the rules of writing headlines in English?

First of all, I’d like to say, that headlines are very important part of an article. Sometimes it can be one of the main point according to which a person decide to read the article or not. And that’s why people must be given a powerful reason to read your article. So, the headline should be eye-catching but also it should reflect the main idea of the article.

Well-written headlines grab the reader’s attention, convey clear, concise thoughts, and dress up the publication. Poorly written headlines can mislead, confuse, and even embarrass the newspaper staff. Headlines must be free of libelous statements and must not contain violations of security, accuracy, policy, and propriety. A reader often decides whether to read a story based on what the headline says. A headline tempts the reader to dig into the story. To do this, you, as a headline writer, must have a sense of what will attract the reader. You must have a broad vocabulary and enough versatility to say the same thing several ways to make sure the headline will fit the space allotted for it on the page. You can display headlines in several ways. For style variation, your headlines can be set in all-caps, caps and lowercase or down-style:

ALL-CAPS HEADS - The all-capital letter headline style is almost extinct. All-caps heads, while they are easier to write than others, are the most difficult to read. Even the most patient, attentive and skilled reader will be blinded by the onslaught of all those capital letters.

CAPS AND LOWERCASE HEADS - A widely used headline style is the uppercase and lowercase head In this headline style, all words, other than articles, conjunctions, and prepositions of fewer than four (and sometimes five) letters, are set with the first letter in caps and the others in lowercase.

DOWN-STYLE HEADS - The down-style head usage has increased in popularity in recent years. In down-style heads, the first letter of the first word – and the first letter of any proper noun – is set as a cap, and all other letters are lowercase. Down-style is presented in the way persons are taught to read and write. The style is visually attractive and enhances the readability of the line. By design, it lacks the numerous capital letters in a headline, which serve as “eye stoppers”.

There is one problem with headlines in foreign languages, because they can be difficult to understand. Sometimes you don’t know how to translate some idioms or what the meaning of metaphors the author would like to show. So, it’s better to avoid writing unclear, “hard-to-understand” headlines. People will generally not take the time to figure out what it all means.

• What languages devices can be used to make headlines more appealing? (provide examples) – примеры выписаны из учебника, если хотите, можете себе другие найти

There are some languages devices, which can be used for making your headline more attractive:

• Play on words – using words with more than one meaning – US cool on climate change (cool=not warm; to be cool on = to not be keen on)

• Cultural references – when in your headline you use metaphors or allegories which connected with some literature or art names or events and so on – Love’s Labour’s Lost (the name of a play by Shakespeare

• Alliteration – the use of the same sound or sounds, especially consonants, at the beginning of several words that are close together - Paris probe proves palace innocent

• Emphatic language – words, which have a stronger effect – Weeping mum damns teenage killer thug

• Allusion – is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication

• Metaphor - A metaphor is a figurative language device that represents one thing as if it were another, or compares two things not normally viewed as similar, such as "time is a thief." This comparison draws attention to the way time is quick and stealthy

• simile - A simile is similar to a metaphor in that it compares two unlike things; however, a simile compares using "like" or "as." For example, "she ran like the wind."

• Hyperbole - is an overstatement or exaggeration of speech for an effect. In the example "the ball bounced to the sky," the ball did not literally reach the sky, but the hyperbolic expression suggests the ball bounced extremely high, so it seemed as though it touched the sky.

• An oxymoron - is an example of figurative language that contains two seemingly contradictory elements, such as "wise fool," "jumbo shrimp" or "icy hot."

• metonymy - Using a physical object to indicate a larger idea is named metonymy. For instance, the word "crown" can refer to a king or a monarchical system, or even an entire royal family

• What is ‘tabloidese’ language? Provide examples.

‘tabloidese’ – is a neologism. It’s a writing style of tabloid journalism.

 Tabloid it’s a newspaper having pages half the dimensions of the standard format, especially one that favours stories of a sensational nature over more serious news. Sometimes the world tabloid is used for the naming some yellow newspapers.

The tabloid press sometimes uses words that are not common in everyday English – it’s tabloidese. Colorful adjectives and words are defiantly used in tabloids. Every article uses a wide variety of different adjectives to make the reader more interested in the topic.

Examples:

Anger => fury Annoyance => outrage Attempt => bid Avoid => shun Cancel => axe, scrap Confiscate => grab Controversy => row, turmoil Criticize => slam, blast Difficulty => snag, hurdle Disagreement => clash Dismissed => dumped, axed Division => split Encourage => boost Exclude => bar, ban Fail to attend => snub Fatal fall => death plunge Mystery => riddle Possibility => threat Promise => vow, pledge Proposal => plan Question => quiz Quarrel => feud Raid => swoop Reform => shake-up Replace => oust Reprove => rap Request => call for Resign => quit Restrict => curb Rise => soar Setback => blow Sex => sex romps Vital => key