Learning to work with broadcast news media texts

Task 1. Listen to Audio Track 13.1. Make use of the word box below.

a motion of no confidence to dissolve parliament Fianna Fáil

What genre is the material?

What aspect of politics does it reflect?

Task 2. Listen to the track again and transcribe it.

Task 3. Analyse some grammatical features of the lead.

a) Find a grammatical means to express a planned action.

b) What is its function of the infinitive in the brief?

c) What is the function of the -ing form in the last sentence?

Task 4. What are the Irish political parties, according to the brief?

What caused the political crisis in Éire?

Task 5. Watch Video 13.1. What new developments in Ireland’s political life it reflects compared with Audio Track 13.1?

What does the Irish word Taoiseach [‘ti:Sək] mean?

Task 6. What are the English equivalents of the following Russian terms?

Watch Video 13.1 to find answers.

уйти в отставку (two terms) премьер-министр (ирл.)

партнеры по коалиции правящая партия

руководство страной протестное голосование

(Ирландия) голосует… всеобщие выборы

принять отставку министра вотум доверия

финансовая помощь

второстепенная партия

перестановка в кабинете министров

выставление кандидатуры на должность

выносить на обсуждение (вотум недоверия)

Task 7. Close the gaps in the sentences below and identify idioms and clichés in them. Translate the sentences into Russian.

What lexical and grammatical expressive means are used in the clip?.

1. Facing the cameras, and …

2. Brian Cowen went … fighting.

3. He surrendered the …1… of his …2… party but he …3… …4… to the leadership of the country.

4. ­­“I am concerned that …1… …2… criticism of my leadership of …3-4… …5-6… attention from these important debates.”

5. …1…, …2… everything …3…, and …4… discussed the matter with my family, I have decided …5…, to step …6… as leader of Fianna Fáil.

6. Ireland …1-2… to …3-4… on March 11.

7. “We want …1… to this government, …2… to this Taoiseach and …3… to allow the people decide on what formulation of new government.”

8. Opposition parties …1… now …2… he …3… as PM.

9. “If you want to step …1…, you might …2-4… down, …5… the election …6-7… ”

10. “I think it’s probably a…1-2…. Because somebody …3-4… that finance bill. I think it’s …5… he would stay on as …6… But he would be …7-8…., anyway.“

11. “…1-4… in how they do things. They have put the …5… into mires of disgrace, just the …6-8….”

12. …1… need of a multibillion euro …2… left its citizens …3… with politics.

13. Independent candidates and …1… parties like Sinn Fein …2… …3… on the protest vote.

14. …1… the election looming, the ruling Fianna Fáil party moved swiftly to …2… its leader…

15. This political sidestep marks the …1… of the …2… for the Taoiseach.

16. Critics say history will record him as the …1… man in the …2-3… at the …4-5…

Task 8. Watch Video 13.2. What is the idea of the clip?

What is wrong with the party under scrutiny?

Task 9. Watch the clip again. What expressive grammatical and lexical means are used by the member of the panel (Simon Hughes, President of the Liberal Democratic Party, MP).

Identify grammatical constructions typical of news television discourse in the sentences below, close the gaps.

1. He …1-2… …3-4… till the autumn conference – …5-6… going to be the Labour Party …7…

2. I …1… think, there’s bigger question than G. Brown, …2…

3. Labour for … the second time in their history came behind us in share of the vote.

4. I think the Labour Party …1… beginning to realize …2-8…

5. They were founded for …1-3… a hundred years ago, …4…, to be …5-8….

6. We are in …1-4… …5-8…

7. I thought …1-3… for the poor and …4-6… between …7-11…

8. For 11 years they haven’t done that …1-2…

9. I thought they were going to help …1-3… and not give advantages to the …4-6…

10. It’s the …1… well off who have …2-6…, and the low paid …7… …8… by the 10p.

11. …1… I think the Labour Party are …2… at risk of losing their …3… – Soleford, Hazels – areas used to be …4… Labour, no longer now.

12. I think, in the next 20 years we …1-4… – no longer as the …5-10…

Task 10. Watch Video 13.1 in class. Make consecutive translation into Russian of the sentences you hear in pauses.

Task 11. Watch the clip again and answer the questions.

1. What is the Labour Party origin?

2. What does the party stand for today?

3. What does the future hold for the party?

Task 12. Read the newspaper article below. Why are some words italicised in the article?

Sun turns its back on Labour after 12 years of support

Stephen Brook and Patrick Wintour

The Sun has turned its back on New Labour after more than a decade of support and thrown its weight behind the Conservatives with a front page editorial today with the headline: “Labour’s Lost It.”

The switch to the Conservatives was timed to inflict maximum damage on Labour at its annual conference in Brighton and came hours after Gordon Brown told conference delegates to “never give up” and “fight to win”. The paper said: “After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way. Now it’s lost “The Sun’s support too.”

As Britain’s top-selling daily newspaper, with a circulation of about 3m a day and a readership double that, the paper prides itself on being politically influential. Its famous 1992 headline: “It’s the Sun wot won it,” boasted that the surprise Conservative general election victory was down to its campaign against then Labour leader Neil Kinnock.

“We warned back in 2005 in that election that Labour was on its last chance,” The Sun’s political editor, George Pascoe-Watson, told Sky News last night. “We feel now after four further years that they have failed the country.”

Downing Street, reluctant to become involved in a slanging match, offered no response to the announcement last night. But Brown was understood to be meeting advisers last night to discuss how best to deal with the news. The move by The Sun will be seen as a blow, overshadowing Brown’s attempt to breathe fresh life into Labour’s flagging poll fortunes.

The endorsementThe Sun gave Tony Blair was seen as a key moment in the 1997 general election. Whether The Sun was leading or following public opinion on the eve of a Labour landslide remains a moot point. Nonetheless in 1997 it illustrated starkly the change in Labour’s perceived electability, 15 years after the paper declared that if Neil Kinnock became prime minister, the last person to leave Britain should turn out the lights. The Labour party will wait to see if The Sun’s switch will be followed by other News International papers. The Times has always been a strong supporter of New Labour, while The Sunday Times has more frequently backed the Conservatives.

The Guardian, September 30, 2009

Task 13. Answer the following questions.

1. What is The Sun? What is its circulation?

2. What does the headline It’s the Sun wot won it mean?

3. Why did the paper turn on the Labour Party?

4. What was Downing Street’s reaction to the news – official and behind the scenes?

5. What is the Sun’s history of supporting a would be winner of the coming general elections?

Task 14. Watch Video 13.3. How does it correlate with the article above?

Task 15. Watch the clip again, unravel its 5W and H pattern. Use the tips given below.

1. WHAT is the idea of the report?

2. WHEN it all happened?

3. WHERE no one be found reading the unfortunate paper?

4. WHY? (Trevor Cavanagh’s opinion)

5. WHO? (G.Brown’s reaction → Tony Woodley’s behaviour → Peter Mandelson’s comment)

6. HOW serious is the blow for Labour?

Task 16. What piece is more informative – broadcast or print? Why?

Task 17. Play Video 13.3 again. Freeze the frame when it reflects The Sunfront pages on the Polling Day of 1997, 2001 and 2005. Play the file backward, still the picture at the Sun’s front page on the eve of 2010 elections.

Put down all four captions you see in the video, analyse the headlines’ syntactical and lexical structure, translate them into Russian.

Task 18. Close the gaps in the script below. Make its linguistic (morphological) andstylistic analysis. Group the grammatical and lexical means you have identified into expressive and neutral ones, write them down.

1. …1-2… only one paper you won’t find anyone …3… at the Labour Party conference…

2. In fact, you couldn’t …1… the Sun …2… in Brighton today.

3. The decision of the …1-3… newspaper to …4… G. Brown a …5-6… after his big speech is a cruel blow there.

4. The PM …1-4… on it.

5. In …1…, it’s …2… suggested Peter Mandelson was …3… angry, he used a very …4-5… talking to …6-7…

6. …1…, …2…? …3…, they don’t seem …4… bothered about …5… criticism.

7. …1… are 25 % in the …2…. They are …3…, they are …4…, they can’t …5… around their leader for more than 10 minutes.

8. The paper felt it …1-2… and celebrated by …3… it was the Sun …4-6…

9. The thing is this …1-3… from the paper comes several months before the …4… election day but does mean they’ll be able …5-7… the pro Tory message with what one imagines will be the usual Sun... 8…

10. The …1… election campaign already looked like a bit of a …2… for this party and without the Sun to …3… the Labour …4… it will be …5… much …6….

Task 19. Watch Video 13.4 and transcribe it. What are the two issues Mr Cameron is going to deal with in the wake of his victory.

Task 20. Watch Video 13.5. What genre is it? There are five pieces of information in the clip. What are they?

Use may find useful the following words word and combinations.

to be on the brink of something soul searching

to take responsibility for something to make the case for something

to keep one’s word calamity

to step down tsunami

Task 21. Watch Video 13.6 and outline election campaign 2015 in the UK in numbers. Why were the Liberal Democrats decimated?

Task 22. Watch Video 13.6 again to restore the mising words in word combinationsbelow.

1. a dramatic finish to the … (a sentence fragment)

2. PM D. Cameron confounded … (a word)

3. this time without … (3 words)

4. to deliver on … (3 words)

5. which resigned … (6 words)

6. three party leaders fell … (2 words)

7. So, let’s go … (3 words)

Task 22. Find phrasal verbs in the clip, put them down.

Task 23. Read the newspaper article below, determine its genre and get its idea.

Miliband made 'terrible mistake' in ditching New Labour, says Mandelson

Nicholas Watt, Rowena Mason and Toby Helm

A battle for the soul of the Labour party was in full swing on Sunday as Peter Mandelson tore into what he called the “terrible” mistakes of Ed Miliband’s leadership, which produced the party’s worst election result since 1987.

Tony Blair had warned that Labour could recover only if it reoccupied the centre ground of British politics and his close ally Lord Mandelson said that Labour needed once again to champion the aspirational classes. Blair had praised Miliband for showing “courage under savage attack” and campaigning brilliantly. But in an Observer article the former prime minister wrote: “The route to the summit lies through the centre ground.”

The interventions by two of the key architects of New Labour came as three leading members of the modernising wing of the shadow cabinet – Chuka Umunna, Liz Kendall and Tristram Hunt – signalled an interest in contesting for the Labour leadership. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, and Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary, who are both expected to stand, kept their powder dry.

Mandelson, a veteran from the Labour battles of the 1980s, praised Miliband for showing passion but said that the party lost the election after making a “terrible mistake” in discarding New Labour and failing to revitalise it. The former business secretary, who said that Labour faced a challenge on the scale that Neil Kinnock faced in the late 1980s as he moved on after the challenge from the Militant Tendency, warned that the party could not ignore middle income earners.

Mandelson also said Labour must make sure that trade union leaders were not able to abuse the leadership contest as they did in 2010 when they placed large photos of Ed Miliband on ballot papers sent to their members. The current leadership contest will be fought under a new “one member one vote” system in which each party member will have one vote.

The Conservatives won with a 15-seat parliamentary majority. Labour gained 30.4% of the popular vote, far below polling expectations and the party’s worst defeat since 1987. Ed Miliband resigned on Friday morning, plunging the party into a leadership contest1.

The Guardian, May 10, 2015

Task 24. Answer thequestions.

1. Why is the Labour Party facing a leadership contest?

2. Why is the party ‘soul searching’?

3. Why did Labour lose, according to Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson?

4. What has changed in Labour leadership contest since 2010?

5. Is the main idea of Article B (Unit 1, Task 4) Labour’s leader is not the problem. The party’s missing soul is similar to the article above? Put forward your arguments.

Task 25. What is the meaning of the italicised words in the article above? What group of lexical units do they relate to?

Task 26. Watch Video 13.7. What genre is it? What is being discussed in the clip?

Close the gaps in the following sentences to have a better understanding the clip’s message.

1. – I think this is my 10^th British election, I can’t remember … 1-4…. It’s …5-6… so many extraordinary stories. Basically, … 7-10…, I think – …11-13… leaders are gone, a whole …14-17…, big name heads, a …18-20… and a …22-24… which nobody expected. What …25-27… of it?

2. – You … 1-3…, essential, perceived …4…:

a) You had the …1-4… and …5… and even joining...7-9…. And it turned up …10-12… and they …13-14….

b) Labour, you had …1…, perceived …2… over joining the “…3-4…” campaign with the …5… and …6…it. From a …7-8… of the Scottish public (that …9-10… to be …11… of the Scottish public) they were …12-13… for that either. And we saw what …14-16… in Scotland.

c) [ ] And then we had the …1-4… that led to …5-6…. And we had thought a year ago that this would be very difficult for the Conservative Party. And it …7-8… polling …9-11…. [ ].

And that might be, the …1… should be duped to the Conservative campaign in …2… those people, …3… them with this …4-6… or it might just be that they just couldn’t …7…, farther the idea of …8-10….

So, can you now say why Labour lost the elections?

Task 31. Watch Video 13.8. What is its idea?

Watch the video again list the posts mentioned in it. Translate the posts into Russian. Browse the Internet to see the difference between a Secretary and Minister in the UK top echelons of power. The clip is in two formats, both .mpeg and .avi.

Task 32. Read the newspaper article below. What is it’s idea?

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