English newspaper style

I. General Notes

1.1. Formation of the British Press and the influence of its specific conditions on the newspaper English. Newspaper style was the last of all the functional varieties of written literary English to be recognized as a specific form of writing standing apart from other forms.

English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. At the close of the 16th century short news pamphlets began to appear. Any such publication either presented news from only one source or dealt with one specific subject. News pamphlets appeared only from time to time and can not be classed as newspapers, though they were unquestionably the immediate forerunners of the British press.

The first of any regular series of English newspapers was the Weekly Newes which first appeared on May 23, 1622. It lasted for some twenty years till in 1641 it ceased publication. The 17th century saw the rise of a number of other news sheets which, with varying success, struggled on in the teeth of discouragement and restrictions imposed by the Crown. With the introduction of a strict licensing system many such sheets were suppressed, and the Government, in its turn, set before public a paper of its own – The London Gazzette, first published on February 5, 1666. The paper was a semi-weekly and carried official information, royal decrees, news from abroad and advertisements.

The first English daily newspaper – the Daily Courant – was brought out on March 11, 1702. The paper carried news, largely foreign, and no comment, the latter being against the principles of the publisher, as was stated in the first issue of his paper. Thus the early English newspaper was principally a vehicle of information. Commentary as a regular feature found its way into the newspaper later. But as far back as the middle of the 18th century the British newspaper was very much like what it is today, carrying on its pages news, both foreign and domestic, advertisements, announcements and articles containing comments.

The rise of American newspaper, which was brought onto American soil by British settlers, dates back to the late 17th, early 18th centuries.

It took the English newspaper more than a century to establish a style and a standard of its own. And it is only by the 19th century that newspaper English may be said to have developed into a system of language media, forming a separate functional style.

The specific conditions of newspaper publication, the restrictions of time and space, left an indelible mark on newspaper English. For more than a century writers and linguists had been vigorously attacking “the slipshod construction and the vulgar vocabulary” of newspaper English. The term newspaper English carried a shade of disparagement. Yet, for all the defect of newspaper English, serious though they may be, this form of the English literary language cannot be reduced – as some purists have claimed – merely to careless slovenly writing or to a distorted literary English. This is one of the forms of the English literary language characterized – as any other style – by a definite communicative aim and its own system of language means.

Thus, English newspaper style may be defined as a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means which is perceived by the speaking community as a separate linguistic unity that serves the purpose of informing and instructing the reader.

1.2. Main newspaper genres. Information and evaluation co-exist in the modern English newspaper. In fact, all kinds of newspaper writing are to a lesser or greater degree, both informative and evaluative. But, of course, it is obvious that in most of the basic newspaper genres one of the two functions prevails. Since the primary function of newspaper is to impart information the English newspaper mainly conveys it through the medium of the following newspaper genres:

1) news reports,

2) brief news items and communiqué s,

3) press reports (parliamentary, of court proceedings, etc.),

4) advertisements and announcements.

The newspaper also seeks to influence public opinion on political and other matters, so, apart from providing information about the subject-matter, certain newspaper genres carry a considerable amount of appraisal, assessment, evaluation, thus demonstrating a subjective handling of facts and events. The principal vehicle of interpretation and appraisal are the following newspaper genres:

1) feature articles,

2) editorials,

3) leading articles, or leaders

4) newspaper articles in opinion columns.

1.3. Quality and popular newspapers in the British Press. There exist two main streams in the British press: big media which aims at keeping the readers informed of the state of affairs on the economic and political fronts and providing news and political opinions, and opinion media which has the function of manipulating public opinion, preventing public passions from running too high and obscuring the causes of the problems and difficulties besetting the readers. The national press of Great Britain falls into two categories known as popular press and quality press.

The popular newspapers, also called tabloids or yellow press, are mass-sale publications with huge circulations, mainly of a small page format. They concentrate upon sensational news, accounts of crimes, specialize in scandalous gossip overemphasis, flagrant distortion and fabrication of news, provide a lot of information about the private life of film stars, famous sportsmen, politicians etc., playing on people’s emotions and appealing to the lowest level of public tastes.

Serious news is given in a compressed form, in small type or suppressed altogether. Popular newspapers use gigantic headlines and give much space to full-page arresting pictures etc. The swaggering style and the shouted phrase are characteristic features of their language, especially of their leaders and headlines.

Note 1. The word ‘tabloid’ was originally and still is used as a trademark in the drug business, and was first applied to news presented in concentrated or compressed form. Later the word came into common use, and now generally refers to newspapers smaller than the usual size.

Note 2. ‘Yellow press’ are sensational publications which cater for the most depraved and vulgar tastes. The yellow press first appeared in the USA late in the 19th century. It was founded by big newspaper proprietors Pulitzer and Hearst. The term ‘yellow press’ had its origin in the yellow ink with which the rival papers of Pulitzer and Hearst decorated their comic series (comic strips). In Britain the first yellow papers were started by Northcliff Rotermere and some other newspaper tycoons.

The quality papers, also called qualities or broadsheets, are more serious publications of a large, broad sheet format which are successful on much smaller circulations than popular papers. Unlike popular papers quality newspapers provide more serious reading matter, concerning themselves with national and international news, informative journalism and editorial commentary upon political, social and economic problems, literature, art, education. They represent the interests of the Government and of major political parties of Britain, being their official or unofficial organs. In contrast to popular papers quality newspapers are more restrained both in their news presentation manner and in their typographical design. Their make-up is also more restrained and sober, their headlines are informative statements, and not editorial yells as in popular papers.

However, it should be borne in mind that basically the popular and the quality press are very closely related to each other.

The most famous British quality national dailies are:

The Times (1785),

The Guardian (1821),

The Daily Telegraph (1855),

The Financial Times (1888),

The Independent (1986).

The most well-known British quality national Sundays are:

The Observer (1791),

The Sunday Times (1882),

The Sunday Telegraph (1961).

The most famous British popular notional dailies are:

The Daily Mail (1896),

The Daily Mirror (1903),

The Daily Express (1900),

The Sun (1964),

The Morning Star (1966),

The Daily Star (1978),

The Today (1986).

The most widely known popular National Sundays are:

The News of the World (1843),

The Sunday Express (1918),

The Sunday Mirror (1963),

The Mail of Sunday (1982).

Different quality and popular newspapers appeal to different categories of readership. Read the following passage expressing a jocular opinion of the categories of some British newspapers’ readers:

The Times is read by the people who run the country.

The Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country.

The Guardian is read by the people who think about running the country.

The Morning Star is read by the people who think they ought to run the country.

The Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country.

The Telegraph is read by the people who think the country ought to be run as it used to be.

The Express is read by the people who think it still is run as it used to be.

The Sun is read by the people who don’t care who runs the country as long as the girl on page three is attractive.