Written Discourse Six

1. News as Narrative 

Finally, something with a bit of meat on it. And also a lovely excuse to share this with everyone again –

A couple of anecdotes to kick us off. A mate’s girlfriend used to work for one of the more downmarket women’s glossies, and ended up quitting because she felt like it was doing lasting damage to her immortal soul. Basically her job consisted of finding poorly timed photos of celebrities looking fleetingly less than perfect, then extrapolating wildly and without basis about what this might say about the current state of their relationships. I know the fact these magazines just make shit up should be as surprising as the revelation that professional wrestling might not be entirely a game of skill and chance, but it’s always nice getting confirmation from the horse’s mouth, as it were. I’ll also point you in the direction of someone who was unhappy with the way this section of the market got off scot free from all the Levinson/phone-hacking fallout.

The second anecdote is that there have been a couple of times in my life where I’ve been on the periphery of events which have become ‘news’, and both times the facts as reported were significantly different from those as I remembered them, and as other people involved remembered them too. I remember being interviewed and the number of obviously leading questions was relentless –

“Would you say it was ‘unfair’?”

“Well, no, because that would make me sound like a whining student who doesn’t understand the real world, however…” *Glazed look in reporters eyes*

So do I believe what I read in the media? No. I don’t believe it’s an entire fabrication (except in obvious cases like above), but you have to be very aware that people are selecting ‘facts’ and those selecting are not impartial and have their own agendas – ‘highly constructive mediators of social practice’ indeed.

2. Twitter

I don’t want to jump on the social media bandwagon, exactly, but I do wonder how much ‘The controllers of semiotic images’ are still able to ‘establish norms and values without being questioned’. Look at any numbers of blogs, or even the comments sections under online articles, and you’ll see people only too willing to question and abuse. That’s not to say those in the media aren’t highly privileged over those below the line, but perhaps it’s changing…

3. Telling it like it is

“Nearly all newspapers present some kind of news”

Glorious equivocation right there. Just beautiful.

4. Fifty Shades

The Caldas-Coulthard reading is easily the best part of this unit so far. My printout is absolutely plastered with notes and yellow highlighter. It’ll take a while to get them all in some sort of order, but in the meantime here are a few links which seemed relevant at the time. What I can say though is that this sentence – “While [magazines’] main purpose is to inform and entertain, they also function as a commercial vehicle” (p253) – seems to have the cart entirely in front of the horse.

Anyway, links –

How to write a news story about science

Misleading movie titles (read the comment thread)

Female writers and the 'Confessional'. One, and Two.

Scheherazade, the episodic narrative, and gendered discourses of deferred gratification*

The classic three act structure

And finally,

A pocketful of cum

*That’s not a real link, but you know it should be.