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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:'Treating officials with kid gloves? ': an appraisal of government in two South African television programmes
Author:Hubbard, HiltonISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa
Volume:39
Issue:2
Pages:242-261
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:television
language usage
evaluation
Abstract:In response to widely reported perceptions of pro-government bias on the part of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), this study applied Appraisal analysis to television news recorded from SABC3 on the one hand, and e-tv, a commercial channel and its main competitor, on the other, in order to explore at least the notion of relative bias. Bias was construed in terms of partiality (evaluative language used) and lack of balance (the range of voices given access to the newscast and the amount of time they are afforded) and three types of discourse were extracted for analysis: lead and closing sentences of news items; instances where voices other than the broadcaster's were attributed (in effect, reported speech); and instances where other voices were given direct access to the newscast. The data used comprised transcriptions of recordings of newscasts made between 24 October and 17 November 2006. The results of the analysis revealed a pro-government bias by SABC3 relative to e-tv, more in terms of partiality than balance. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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