This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets,

posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs - to every kind of literature or

documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and

almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party

could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment,

ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as

often as was necessary.G. Orwell, 1984

Online NewsGlobal Information on the web

Online NewsGlobal Information on the web

M. Cristina CaimottoUniversity of Torino

News from cyberspaceNews from cyberspace

• Which websites do you usually visit?

• Where do you get your news from?

News providers onlineNews providers online

• 3 typologies:

Mainstream providers

newspapers, magazines and TV channels that publish a website as well

News agencies

Grassroots news: blogs, personal websites, forums, mailing lists, video sharing

News providers onlineNews providers online

Mainstream providersAvailable both online and printed

Newspapers: The Guardian The Independent The Times Financial Times

Tabloids: The Sun

Magazines: The Economist The New Statesman

The Spectator

News providers onlineNews providers onlineMainstream providersAvailable both online and printed

• Newspaper companies feared that their business related to printed versions might be negatively affected → several solutions

• first online newspapers were often defined as ‘shovelware’

• new functionalities, such as linking to new or similar content and customizing the selection of articles, defined as 'recombining'

• availability of the archive

News providers onlineNews providers online

Mainstream providers

• 24/7 information flow

TV channels:

BBC

CNN

News providers onlineNews providers online

News Agencies

Available online

Reuters

Associated Press

Inter Press

BBC Monitoring

BBC MonitoringBBC Monitoring

The essence of BBC Monitoring is open information, in the languages of origin, expertly selected, accurately translated and skilfully supplied in English to meet the requirements of subscribers and customers. By the exercise of our professional skills, and working to the highest standards, we will be an irreplaceable source for the understanding of world events.

(BBC Monitoring, Editorial Policy)

News providers onlineNews providers online

Grassroots newsAvailable online, published afterwards in a few cases

Blogs: Baghdad Burning

Websites: Iraq body count

Forums: Brainstorming

Mailing lists: Mona Baker’s

BLOGSBLOGS

• “blog” short for “weblog” (log = diary)• Blogs are diaries people publish online

for others to read freely. Some have gradually turned into forums of political debate.

• They are not filtered, they are free from market constraints.

• They partly constrast news from mainstream media

Much of this electronic discourse gave voice to dissidents that would have previously gone unheard. And for increasing numbers of people the diversity of information on the internet highlighted the narrow priorities of the mainstream news agenda. […] So while the invasion of Iraq seemed precision-made to suit the voracious demands of global TV news networks - Hollywood media centres, embedded reporters and night-vision footage of POW rescues - the war also saw millions of people go online to see a very different war unfold.

Alexander, Alistair (2004) “Disruptive Technology: Iraq and

the Internet” in Miller, David (ed.) Tell Me Lies

InfotainmentInfotainment

• Journalism has always entertained as well as informed. Had it not done so it would not have reached a mass audience. But today, say journalism critics, the instinct to amuse is driving out the will, and depleting the resource, to report and analyse in any depth. Obsessed with a world of celebrity and trivia, the news media are rotting our brains and undermining our civic life.

• Hargreaves, Ian. Journalism Truth or Dare? Oxford: OUP, 2003.

What happens to language?What happens to language?

News is a representation of the world in language; because language is a semiotic code, it imposes a structure of values, social and economic in origin, on whatever is represented; and so inevitably news, like every discourse, constructively patterns that of which it speaks. News is a representation in this sense of construction; it is not a value-free reflection of ‘facts’. (Roger Fowler,  Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press )

What happens to language? What happens to language?

• TRANSLATION OR INTERPRETING?

• Issues related to time-space compression.

• Quickness vs. Quality

• The role of English as a lingua franca.

• Al-Jazeera and BBC Arabic

News linksNews links

World Newspapers

Google News

Internazionale

Interesting websitesInteresting websites

Reuters on Second Life

Students for Orwell

Reporters Without Borders

Thank you!Thank you!mariacristina.caimotto@unito.it