Articles
“I wrote newspaper articles professionally for seven years, and I love newspapers. I'm hopeful that new business models will emerge that will allow the newspaper culture to genuinely thrive in the digital age.” - Al Gore
Introduction
An article is a piece of non-fiction 1 writing, often included in newspapers, magazines or other types of publications 2. As Al Gore points out in the aforementioned quote, traditional medias such as the newspaper have been forced with the choice of either adapting 3, meaning digitalisation 4, or simply dying out. This adaptation has created new standards and traditions for journalism, however, there are still a lot of similarities between the traditional forms and the latest, digitalised versions.
Layout
Articles are often visually distinguishable 5 from other types of texts due to the layout. The layout typically consists of a large heading, a subheading, a byline and a body paragraph using one or more columns 6. Even though, the layout of articles has changed throughout time, and especially due to what Al Gore refers to as the digital age, most of the features from the physical editions have survived the transition 7 and made their way into the digital editions.
Sep. 12, 2001
It kept getting worse.
The horror arrived in episodic bursts of chilling disbelieve, signified first by trembling floors, sharp eruptions, cracked windows.
There was the actual unfathomable realization of a gaping, flaming hole in first one of the tall towers, and then the same thing all over again in its twin.
There was the sight of bodies helplessly tumbling out, some of them in flames. Finally, the mighty towers themselves were reduced to nothing. Dense plumes of smoke raced through the downtown avenues, coursing between the buildings, shaped like tornadoes on their sides.
Every sound was cause for alarm. A plane appeared overhead. Was another one coming? No, it was a fighter jet. But was it friend or enemy? People scrambled for their lives, but they didn’t know where to go. Should they go north, south, east, west? Stay outside, go indoors? People hid beneath cars and each other. Some contemplated jumping into the river.
For those trying to flee the very epicenter of the collapsing World Trade Center towers, the most horrid thought of all finally dawn on them: nowhere was safe.
For several panic-stricken hours yesterday morning, people in Lower Manhattan witnessed the inexpessible, the incompre- hensible, the unthinkable. "I don't know what the gates of hell look like, but it's got to be like this," said John Mahoney, a security director for an Internet firm in the trade center. "I'm a combat veteran, Vietnam, and I never saw anything like this."
Continued on page 47
Types of articles
As previously mentioned, the digitalisation of newspapers and articles, as well as prominence 8 of new formats and platforms, have created hybrid genres, however, most sources agree on three main types of articles; news reports, feature articles and editorials 9, columns or opinion pieces.
News reports
These articles are typically placed in the front sections of the physical newspaper or on top of the main page digitally. The general intention of news reports is to inform the readers of events. Depending on the profile of the newspaper, this can include both local, national and international news. News reports are typically filled with facts such as names, dates, locations and so on. They are generally formal and objective in terms of language, but there can be examples of framing and subjectivity, however, often in a quite subtle 10 manner. News reports are often structured using the inverted pyramid.
Feature articles
Feature articles tend to explore issues raised in the news more thoroughly. Entertaining the idea of a feature article on the September 11 attacks, it could for instance be on terrorism in general or other American, national traumas such as The attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination 11 of John F. Kennedy. Feature articles are usually more opinionated 12, less formal and often feature a more personal and subjective point of view.
Editorials, columns and opinion pieces
Editorials, columns and opinon pieces are usually articles written by experts, journalists, columnists and newspaper editors, however, they can also be written by celebrities or other well-known entities 13. There are different intentions with these pieces, but the most common purposes include entertaining, informing or persuading. As these articles can be written by a number of different authors, including writers who are not necessarily professionals, they often differ dramatically in language, style and formality 14.
Source The BBC
ANALYTICAL TOOLS
Lasswell's Model of Communication
Most analysis models regarding articles and communication in general, revolve around the sender-receiver relationship as well as the message or intention of the text. Who says what to whom with what effect? was the original question posed 15 by Harold D. Lasswell, thus leading to Lasswell's Model of Communication being conceived.
Toulmin's Model of Argument
In 1958, the English professor and philosopher Stephen Toulmin released his book The Uses of Argument in which he proposed Toulmin's Model of Argument as a way of perceiving argumentation. Toulmin's thesis 16 was that for a good argument to succeed, it would need to provide justification for its claim.
TOULMIN'S MODEL OF ARGUMENT
What claim is the receiver exposed to? Basically, there are three different types of claims; values, facts or policies. Values obviously refers to the values of the sender, but also other concepts such as morale and ethics are considered. Facts is related to facts and finally, policies revolves around rules, laws and political decisions.
Example: Barack Obama is an American citizen. (fact)
What ground or data does the sender have to support the claim? As implied by the name, data is also about information, facts and empirical evidence.
Example: Barack Obama's birth certificate states that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. (data/empirical evidence)
Warrant defines the rule, premise or general point of view, that accepts or validates the claim.
Example: Since Hawaii is a state within the United States and the Constitution declares that everybody born within U.S. borders is a citizen, then we can safely infer that a person born in Hawaii is a U.S. citizen. (warrant)
Claim, grounds and warrant are the basic pillars of Toulmin's model of argument, however, another expanded edition also exists. This edition also includes other terms such as backing, qualifier and rebuttal.
Source: Purdue University and Westmont College.
The Rhetorical Pentagram
The rhetorical pentagram was invented by the Roman statesman Cicero, who designed the model to explain the communication between human beings. An important detail of the pentagram is the connection between each point. The points are connected to suggest correlation 17, meaning that if one of the points is changed the other points will also be affected.
