Language and Journalism Task 1
- Anthea Cachia
- Apr 28, 2022
- 4 min read
Fer (2020) states that whether the journalistic purpose is for writing newspapers, magazines or new media, “all categories of publicist have the fundamental mission to learn and practise their language as specialists with all linguistic nuances required in their profession.”
Lovinmalta, Newsbook, Times of Malta and MaltaToday all have synonymous style and personality on the internet despite the fact that ideologically they all align differently on the political spectrum.
Wetdreams, quirky pictures and an audience grabber… LovinMalta’s guide to satisfying your cravings
Lovinmalta is known for the eye-catching and exaggerated pictures complimented by clickbait like headlines for their articles. This attitude towards the click culture is however quite strategic as -even though it is always the case for pictures- headlines and article structure always shift with the agenda of said article. For instance, an article about food and restaurants is far more fluid and informal than a breaking news piece about Malta’s political landscape.
John Hartley (2009) argues that popular culture nowadays is associated with emotion, irrationalism, affect, sensation and embodied experience. In Lovinmalta’s case, this article is a tabloid piece.
In the midst of a global pandemic lovinmalta published an article titled, “the unofficial Michelin guide for broke people in Malta. Benjamin Abela, the journalist that wrote this article, appealed to the general audience by compiling a list of affordable eateries. The article, published in 2020, hits two vital categories of Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs physiological needs (food) as well as safety and security needs (health and stability). In addition to that the article, written in English, does not only refer to Maltese cuisine but also to other cuisines from around the world, appealing to Maslow once again this time referring to love and belongingness.
What was quite peculiar on this article is that usually such articles on this portal are sponsored content. When compared with other articles [Fort Fitness Is Opening Its Doors At A Brand New Location - Lovin Malta] this does not remotely indicate that it is paid content, as usually lovinmalta indicates so by the byline. Despite it not being a sponsored, supposedly, this does raise some question whether it is ethical or not.
Common ground for such articles with this news is the syle and language used. Given how informal the content is, the journalist uses the same language one might use when speaking with friends, family and/or colleagues. “Ġugar is an hipster’s wet dream”, is just one example of this.
Structure wise, the article is mostly composed of large images and categorized with the type of food one normally craves or eats in their day to day life, accompanied by the name of the restaurant, the dish and the price of the dish. However, it can be noted that the journalist uses bold and italic, to attract the reader to important keywords such as “Bargain dish” “just a few taps away…”
As always, the leftist portal ends the article with a leading question (in bold), used to engage the audience, as it often does even if it may be for harsh/constructive criticism.
The 12 –year-old, the 14-year-old and the 47 year old … Times of Malta’s court reports
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his report is much more different than the previous one. The agenda, style and tone are complete opposites and this does not apply only to the article but the portals as a whole. TOM is known to be much more traditionalist, structured and posh as it is catered more to people with higher education and who follow some issues more than others. For instance more business than entertainment.
I have chosen to tackle a court report for TOM as this style of writing reflects its style completely. The court reported in this case was Edwina Brincat, a warranted lawyer in a private practice which has been writing for the TOM for six years.
This article does not delve in much detail, as it is not investigative but reporting, as mentioned previously and is heavily reliant of court proceedings rather than facts that are sought out by the journalists. The fact that this was written by a lawyers means that the article includes legal jargon such as, “request for bail”, “prosecuting inspector” and “remand the man in custody”.
“If it bleeds, it leads.” Most media consumers look for big scandals, exclusives and shocking news, as a means to gossip amongst others. With this insight in hand, most portals would use this case of a man showing porn to minors, for clicks. However, given the sensitivity of this case, the Brincat seems not interested in doing so.
Although the headline (Man charged with showing porn to minors denied bail) is quite shocking as is, it has not been sensationalised simply to get more views for their own benefit.
When it comes to the visuals of this article, the picture chosen was perfect for the case especially when taking into consideration that it is a stock photo. It should be noted that the photo is captioned.
References:
Fer, S. (2018). The Language of Journalism: Particularities and Interpretation of Its Coexistence with Other Languages. [online] papers.ssrn.com. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3128134&msclkid=e17f942dca4611ec83c6fcf593027867 [Accessed 28 Apr. 2022].
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