English and the Media - 12.11.

2015

Visual journalism
 What is the interrelation between visual & words?
>> Magazine covers: design & language
>> The double spread page
 captions
 pull quotes
1. Purposes of a cover page:
 sell the brand
 be visually appealing
 be different from other issues
 present the character, tone, style, etc. of the magazine and readership
2. Elements:
 Masthead (title & logo of the magazine)
 Selling line (motto of the magazine)
 Dateline
 Cover lines
 Main image
 (Model credit)
 Main cover line
 Bar code
 Left third (Very important: either the left third or the first top half, depending on
how magazines are arranged in every country)

3. Types of cover pages:

 Image-based: one or more persons (or: a house picture, a landscape, an animal,
food, etc.), usually looking at the camera, preferably smiling. The person featured on the
cover sell the magazine (esp. fashion, men’s magazines).
 Illustration: drawings (ex., The New Yorker). Normally used to present something
funny, witty. The more independent magazines tend to use these covers.
 Type-based: the type forms a coherent message (in different fonts). There’s
something powerful in this type. Used to be popular.
 Concept-based: combination of type & illustration to transmit a message. Usual in
business magazines, supplements to newspapers (Ex., Time magazine).
4. Mastheads - recognizable from one issue to the next; the logo has to be coherent with the
character of the magazine (elegant, stylish, casual, etc.)
 Top left corner - favourite position
 Logo & picture: letters in the same colour as the clothes of the model or the cover
features
 Titles: transparent (Knitting, House Beautiful, Cooking Light); opaque (ESPN,
PSM3, T3...); not transparent, but identifiable (Vogue, Esquire, Prestige)

5. Colours - red is a favourite, green, orange - not so much.

6. How magazine are stacked - U.S: waterfall (1st third important), Europe
7. Stock libraries - which stock libraries are available?
8. Cover lines
 one is always the biggest, but is doesn’t necessarily refer to the main article. It’s
actually the one that sells.
 language: stating the solution to problems; a powerful statement; wordplay;
9. Typography on covers:
 Underlining, bolding, capitalization, changes in font size, style and colour -
allowed in cover lines?
 What element of punctuation is omitted?
 What elements of punctuation are used? For what reason?
 Are numbers used?
 Are imperatives used? Who are they aimed at?
 Direct quotations? (appeal to emotion)
 Missing words?
 Questions (direct / indirect)?
 Rhyming and alliteration.
 Word play?
 Lists?
 Descriptive words or neutral, common words?
 Sex sells? In which way?

ii. Page structure

1. Running head - title of section
2. Credits
3. Headline
 4. Intro / kicker
5. Image caption
6. Folio - page no. and name of magazine
7. Pull quote - taken from the text or a summary of the text.
8. Body copy
9. Subheads - divide text
10. Byline (vertically)

iii. Articles
1. Intro - link between the text and the headline
2. Credits (writer, photographer)
3. Change between Serif / Sans Serif
4. The text cannot be a solid block

iv. Captions
1. Give information that is outside the main text
2. Design - can have a mini-headline in bold / capitals
3. Break lines of sense and meaning
4. Avoid justification (left / right aligned is fine, as long as it touches the edge of the
photo)

v. Pull quotes
1. Divide the text
2. Have to be recognizable (different font, colour)
3. Rather longish
4. Different designs.

English and the Media - 17.11.2015

Visual grammar: How the different visuals interrelate to give a meaning

The challenge of the white page
The meaning of composition: text and image
 Composite visuals: text and image
  The parts should be looked upon as interacting with and affecting each other:
integrated text.
 Integration code
Composition relates the representational and interactive meanings of the picture or layout to
each other through three interrelated systems:
1. information value: left and right; top and bottom; centre & margin
2. salience: foreground / background; relative size; contrasts in tone; sharpness
3. framing: connections / disconnections through lines or frames.

1. Information value
The placement of elements (images & text) endows them with specific information values
attached to the various ‘zones’ of the image.
Visual axis: left-right facilitates the flow of information.
 ‘given before new’
 Left: given (common ground, point of departure; common sense, self-evident)
 Right: new (key information, the message, not yet known; problematic,
contestable, at issue).
Vertical axis: top and bottom - sense of contrast and opposition between the two; less
connection.
 Top: the ideal world, the glamour, the promise of the product, emotional appeal,
‘what it might be’; it represents the consumer’s supposed aspirations and desires.
 Bottom: real (dream come true): the product itself, factual information, where to
obtain it, request for info. Informative and practical, ‘what it is’. The solid foundation of the
edifice of promise.
Center and margin
 Center: nucleus of information, all other elements are subservient
 Margin: periphery
Circular structure: not all margins are equally marginal; polarized: Given and New, Ideal and
Real
Triptych:
 Symmetrical / neutral: margin-center-margin
 Polarized: Horizontal (Given-left, new-Right, center- mediator, Vertical: Top-
ideal, Bottom-Real, center- mediator)
 This layout applies to magazine covers as well.
2. Salience
 Perspective
 Contrast
  Sharpness
 Relative size
3. Framing
 The stronger the framing, the more an element is presented as a separate unit of
information.
 Can help integrate text and image.

Structure of an advertisement
 Headline
 Illustration
 Body copy
 Slogan
 Picture of package
 Signature line
Tasks for the advertiser:
 Attract attention
 Arouse interest
 Stimulate desire
 Create conviction - to create conviction in a product’s superiority to competitors,
an advertiser needs a ‘Unique selling proposition (USP)’
 Get action: Imperative, Future Tense

English and the Media - 18.11.2015

Leech - Advertising Language
The language of advertisements
“The cosmetic manufacturers are not selling lanolin.
They are selling hope.
We no longer buy oranges, we buy vitality.
We do not just buy a car, we buy prestige”.
Linguistic matter
Syntax
 Sentence type & sentence structure
 The verb gruop
 The nominal group
Lexicon
 Adjectives
 Verbs
 Weasel words
 Glamorisation
Morphology
Spelling
Leech (1966)
 What linguistic choices are made
 The relative infrequency of certain choices, for example the use of ‘perhaps’ and
probably
 Cases of absolute exclusion
 [..]
Sentence type
1. Imperative clauses: acquisition, consumption, appeals for notice, admonish to learn a
lesson for the future
2. Interrogative clauses: yes/no questions, wh-questions, negated-interrogative
questions, rhetorical questions (Hungry? - somehow more likely to have an
affirmative answer than Are you hungry?)
3. Exclamation - suggests personal contact and an attempt to recreate direct language.
4. Incomplete sentences: by leaving something out (makes the reader focus); innovative
use of punctuation (The future. Delivered)
Sentence structure
1. When, If, Because subordinate clauses
1.1 When - presupposition (‘you are going to buy this’)
1.2 If - assuming you belong in a certain group
1.3 Because - reason
2. Parallelism of structure (morphological level, phonological - alliteration, similar type
phrases)
The verb group
- Unmarked forms: no subject when referencing the product (Reduces the appearance
of line lines.)
- imperative: direct address
- Present tense, Future
- Aspect: Non-perfective (gives vs. has given), Non-durative (gives vs. is giving)
- Voice: Active
- Extremely simple *vs. the Nominal group which is very complex.
 - Modals: will (promise), can
Nominal groups
- very complex, a mixture of designative and attributive tones
- designative: Germ-cleaning action.
- attributive: Cool attraction.
- Product names: brand name only; manufacturer’s trade mark; adding a word or
phrase; the three combined.
- Genitives: manufacturer’s name; brand name; nouns of time...
Lexicon
Adjectives
Most common adjectives (Leech 1966)
1. new
2. good/better/fast
3. free
4. fresh
5. delicious
6. full/sure
7. clean/wonderful
8. special
9. crisp
10. fine
11. big
12. great
13. real
14. easy/bright
15. extra/safe
16. rich
- Is the adjective designating anything? (designative or attributive adjectives).
Verbs (Leech 1966)
1. make
2. get
3. gie
4. have
5. see
6. buy
 7. come
8. go
9. know
10. keep/look
11. need
12. love
13. use
14. feel/like
15. choose
16. take
17. start/taste
Weasel words - elements of language that downtone the claim
Morphology
- Adjectival pre-modifiers
- Compound pre-modifiers (high-fashion knitwear, wonderful fresh-milk taste; all-
round protection)
- Compound heads
- Prefixes and suffixes (super-)
- Blends (Be COINTREAUversial)
- Other processes
- Spelling (Heinz Baked Beanz; Kellogs Rice Krispies) & Typography
Linguistic processes