Radio Analysis
Radio Analysis
1. Introduction
Every day, many people tune in to radio news. In Britain alone, every week over 12 million listen to news bulletins from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on five radio networks.
The language of the news media, especially of radio news, offers a number of areas which are worth researching and investigating. An investigation of the linguistic features of the language in radio news - similar to any other investigation - needs a definition of what is to be studied.
I will start by providing some background information to the topic radio', namely by summing up the most important events in the history of radio. After illustrating the most interesting turning points of the development of radio in the past, I will talk about radio news in general, before I will explain specific details about how to write and read a news text for a radio station. The last chapter includes full transcriptions of two radio texts and normal' newspaper texts as well as their analyses and comparisons. I will have a look at similarities and differences on radio writing and newspaper language.
2. The History of Radio
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.
Do you understand this?
And radio operates in the same way: You send signals here; they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat"
- Einstein.
2.1 Samuel Morse
The first visible evidence of the history was the invention of an electromagnetic telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1836.
Morse, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, was educated at Yale College and later became interested in chemical and electrical experiments. He also invented a code, now known as the Morse code, for use with his telegraph instrument. Samuel Morse tried without success to obtain European patents for his telegraph. (cf. Microsoft Encarta, 1994) (Source: Microsoft Encarta, 1994)
2.2 The following
1. Introduction
Every day, many people tune in to radio news. In Britain alone, every week over 12 million listen to news bulletins from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on five radio networks.
The language of the news media, especially of radio news, offers a number of areas which are worth researching and investigating. An investigation of the linguistic features of the language in radio news - similar to any other investigation - needs a definition of what is to be studied.
I will start by providing some background information to the topic radio', namely by summing up the most important events in the history of radio. After illustrating the most interesting turning points of the development of radio in the past, I will talk about radio news in general, before I will explain specific details about how to write and read a news text for a radio station. The last chapter includes full transcriptions of two radio texts and normal' newspaper texts as well as their analyses and comparisons. I will have a look at similarities and differences on radio writing and newspaper language.
2. The History of Radio
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.
Do you understand this?
And radio operates in the same way: You send signals here; they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat"
- Einstein.
2.1 Samuel Morse
The first visible evidence of the history was the invention of an electromagnetic telegraph by Samuel Morse in 1836.
Morse, born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, was educated at Yale College and later became interested in chemical and electrical experiments. He also invented a code, now known as the Morse code, for use with his telegraph instrument. Samuel Morse tried without success to obtain European patents for his telegraph. (cf. Microsoft Encarta, 1994) (Source: Microsoft Encarta, 1994)
2.2 The following
Bibliography: Barnard, Stephen, ed. (2000). Studying Radio. London: Arnold Boyd Bell, Susan (2004). "Basic Rules for Radio Writing". Communication Studies Department. [Online]. http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/radio/rules. html [2004, Nov. 17]. "Radio History" (1994). Encarta [CD-ROM]. Funk & Wagnall 's Corporation: Microsoft. „A World of Wireless". Radio History. [Online]. http://home.luna.nl/~arjan-muil/radio/history/history-frame.html [2004, Nov. 16] Sources for the analysis: "Live at Five". BBC Five Live. [Online]. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/ [2004, Nov. 18]. Kurtzberg, Brad (2004). "Antibiotic Helps Children With HIV". Elites TV. [Online]. http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Nov/EEN419e0e809cafb.html [2004, Nov.19]. "Sven 's 22 for Spain". TheFA.com. The Official Site of the England Team. [Online]. http://www.thefa.com/England/SeniorTeam/NewsAndFeatures/Postings/2004/10/EnglandvSpain_SquadAnnouncement.htm [2004, Nov. 16] "UN Online Radio".The United Nations Radio. [Online]. http://www.un.org/radio/ [2004, Nov. 19)