What devices might a journalist use in an article?
Typically, a newspaper article will attempt to convey information. A journalist will research a topic and then try and write in an engaging and informative way. The motive behind writing the article is to make readers stay engaged throughout the article. Some devices journalists use include; direct address, emotive language, and rhetoric. Direct address is a method of synthetic personalisation which forms a tenor between the journalist and the reader. Synthetic personalisation is when a writer addresses an audience en masse as though they’re addressing an individual. Direct address is using the second person pronoun “you” in order to create a consultative register, and develop the tenor between the reader and journalist. This is a method of engaging readers that journalists use. Another method is emotive language, which uses lexis to elicit an emotional response from a reader. This often involves the use adjectives or metaphors. The article linked at the end uses the phrase: “Oprah Winfrey is an extraordinary force of nature and a very powerful, generous woman”, using strings of adjectives and the idiom “force of nature” to convey Winfrey’s strength. By linking Winfrey to nature, she is presented as authentic and enduring. Rhetoric is when writers are particularly persuasive or effective in their work. The most common device used in rhetoric is the rhetorical question. This is when a question is posed that doesn’t require an answer, as it’s usually generally accepted. In the same article, the journalist follows a statement about violence in “black films” with the interrogative: “how would women, domesticated and gentle, fit into that?”. The embedded clause: “domesticated and gentle” is in contrast with the views of the wider article, demonstrating that these adjectives are used sarcastically. This emphasises the main clause interrogative: “how would women… fit into that?”, as it highlights how ridiculous the journalist thinks the lack of female representation in black films is – as men are presented as “violent” and women presented as “domesticated”. The journalist opposes men and women to prove the opposite – that men and women aren’t two extremes. Article referenced'If diversity means giving white men more work writing about black women, we've failed' by Kristie Brewer, 16th June 2016:https://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2016/jun/16/diversity-black-women-screenwriters-film-misan-sagay-guerrilla
